These pistols, made in are linked to Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Hamilton and Burr were highly accomplished men who contributed much to the early growth of the United States. Hamilton was a Founding Father and Secretary of the Treasury.
They were both lawyers, traveled in the same circles and were both instrumental in founding JPMorgan Chase's earliest predecessor, the Manhattan Company in But working together was the exception. Hamilton and Burr's personal and political differences fueled an animosity that played out in public as early as the s.
Aaron Burr ran for president in He tied with Thomas Jefferson but lost the re-vote, thanks in part to Hamilton, who had been campaigning heavily against him. Hamilton: "As for Burr, there was nothing in his favor. He is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement.
Four years later, he ran for New York governor, but lost. He learned afterward that Hamilton had again been slandering him. A scorned Burr did what men of distinction often did back then; he challenged Hamilton to a duel. Burr: "You have invited the course I am about to pursue and now by your silence impose it upon me. Elizabeth: Hard to imagine now, but in early America, the practice of a duel, or prearranged fight, was a respected means of settling a score.
There were even rules and guidelines about what could and could not transpire. The goal was to defend what the law would not defend, a man's honor. Hamilton carried with him a set of pistols owned by his brother-in-law John Church.
As the challenged man, it was his right to select the guns. Hamilton fired his shot in the air. Burr aimed directly at Hamilton and mortally wounded him.
The two men returned by boat to New York City where Hamilton died the following morning. Burr, the Vice President was indicted for murder in both states. The charges were dropped, but his political career was destroyed. Years later, in the s, long hidden details were revealed.
Both pistols were equipped with a hidden mechanism called a hair trigger, which, if engaged, would allow its user to fire faster than normal. Hamilton, who procured the pistols, would have likely known about this feature and it could have given him an advantage.
So, how did he lose? We'll never know for sure, but we're proud to preserve these two pieces of American history and explore their role in a pivotal moment in time.
Famed American banker, J. Pierpont Morgan, is the namesake and one of the founders of our firm. But it was his father, Junius's, move to London that first put the Morgan name on the international map and created a special relationship between the firm and the city of London that continues today. The story begins in the 's. Junius Morgan was a successful New England merchant, but he was ready for something bigger. London was calling. London, at the time, was the capital of the vastly wealthy British empire and the epicenter of international finance.
Junius eventually took over Peabody's firm which he renamed J. It oversaw several landmark transactions and became the most prominent American-owned merchant bank in London. The firm raised capital for the first transatlantic cable project in , revolutionizing communications between Europe and the United States.
Sending a message could take 10 days -- the time it took to physically post a letter by ship. With cable, it was a matter of minutes. This and later communication advancements would allow people on both sides of the Atlantic to share accurate information about the availability and pricing of goods. In time, trade flourished, money flowed, and banks gained ever greater importance. In , J. Few other banks were willing to take the financial risk, but France repaid ahead of schedule.
This propelled J. Morgan further up the ranks of international finance and greatly enhanced its reputation in London and beyond. Around the same time, London-based Junius introduced his son, J. Pierpont Morgan, to Philadelphia banker, Anthony Drexel. Though they operated separate firms, Junius and Pierpont worked in tandem between New York and London building a special transatlantic relationship between the two cities.
Raising money in both the United States and Europe, their combined efforts helped finance a number of international industries.
Most notably, the American railroad. As track after track was laid and dollar after dollar made, the Morgan name gained even more prominence internationally.
After Pierpont's death in , his son, Jack, took over J. Morgan just before the start of World War I. Jack received personal letters of thanks from the prime minister and King of England for his efforts.
Prime Minister: I wish to express, on behalf of His Majesty's government, our warmest and most sincere thanks for the invaluable assistance you have rendered to this country during the war.
Virginia: The British connections were more than just business. Jack developed a warm relationship with the royal family, hosting them aboard his yacht and at his lodge in Scotland every summer. Throughout the 20th century, the firm's ties to London deepened as it became more physically present in the city. This expanded the bank's presence throughout the city.
In , the firm acquired the successful British investment bank, Cazenove. Soon after, it chose London as its European headquarters opening in England's financial center, Canary Wharf. For over years, London has, and will continue to be, a city at the core of the JPMorgan Chase identity. Rachel: From colonial America to the pioneer West, paper currency fueled the growth of the nation. Everything from building cities and towns to facilitating the exchange of goods and services depended on an accepted means of payment.
But you might be surprised to learn that the US government didn't issue money in the early s. Instead banks printed their own bank notes.
Many banks worked with specialized firms, like the American Bank Note Company, to assist in the design and printing of these notes. The notes were exceptionally beautiful, with elaborate ornamentation depicting portraits of public figures, scenes from everyday life, and allegorical images. With little government regulation and no standard template, the size, shape, and color of bank notes varied widely. Every note was a work of five or more artists, each a specialist in portraiture, landscapes, lettering, or borders.
Such division of labor was a form of security to hinder counterfeiting. The designs were engraved on metal plates, a process which could take an artist several months to complete. Notes were printed on hand-operated presses, creating four notes from a single printing plate.
Sometimes, single note plates were made, like those for our predecessor, the Waterbury Bank. As America's market economy extended nationwide, bank notes began drifting farther from their issuing institutions. With more than 1, banks in operation by , and more than 7, different notes in circulation, counterfeiting had become a serious problem. The resulting chaos was a paradise for counterfeiters, like Jim the Penman, who became one of the most notorious forgers in the country.
To combat this, counterfeit detectors were published which included signatures from authentic bank notes to help bankers identify fraudulent bills. They were hugely popular and boasted a circulation of more than , by As the ability to judge the veracity of bank notes deteriorated, the US government recognized the need for a more stable form of currency.
In , the federal government began printing its own paper money, marking an historic shift in the young nation's monetary system. Nancy: Did you know that the US dollar didn't always look the way it does today? American banks used to print their own paper money. And because there was no standard template, the look of these notes varied widely from bank to bank. With 1, banks, including many JPMorgan Chase predecessors issuing their own money, the system was chaotic and in need of change.
In , to address this situation and also to finance the Civil War, Salmon P. This gave the US government the ability to establish a uniform national currency. Unlike the notes still printed by banks, the government printed their bills on both sides using green ink on the back to prevent counterfeits. These notes were nicknamed greenbacks and became the primary currency of the Union. And JPMorgan Chase owns the very first bill of that series.
Unfortunately, these greenbacks didn't solve the country's currency problem because they were backed only by government credit and banks continued to issue their own notes, backed by gold and silver. To improve the system and standardize the look and feel of bank notes, a uniform template was adopted and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington DC took over the job of printing all notes issued by banks. Proofreaders, generally women, were hired to examine the notes for inconsistencies.
It took until the s to fully replace bank notes with Federal Reserve notes, the national currency in use today. Nancy: Did you know that the core values and business principles of JPMorgan Chase today were established over years ago by three generations of Morgan men? The story begins with Junius Morgan, a New England businessman who established the Morgan name in the world's financial markets while working as a merchant banker in London in the s.
With Junius' guidance, his son, J. Pierpont Morgan, entered the banking business. In , Pierpont joined forces with Anthony Drexel, a prominent Philadelphia-based banker, and established a new merchant bank in New York City. It didn't take long, though, for it to become the preeminent private bank in the US.
Under Pierpont's leadership the firm, later renamed J. Morgan and Company, was largely responsible for financing and organizing the railroads, steel, and utility companies that established the United States as a modern industrial power.
Pierpont also played a critical role in times of financial crises, stemming international panics in both and He became known for his integrity and judgment, the same standards by which he measured his colleagues and clients. In a statement to the Senate Banking Committee in , Pierpont noted that, 'the first thing is character,' before money or anything else'.
After Pierpont's death in , his son, J. Morgan Jr, better known as Jack, took over as senior partner of the firm. Jack left his own mark on J. Morgan through a series of landmark deals, leading the firm for three decades. Like his father, Jack embodied the same values of honesty and integrity, stating that, 'the idea of doing only first class business, and that in a first class way, has been before our minds.
Morgan reorganized from a private partnership to a public company, with Jack as its first chairman. Over the next 60 years, the firm remained an innovative leader in the financial industry, and in , merged with Chase Manhattan to form JPMorgan Chase. Nancy: What was J. Pierpont Morgan's role in stopping the Panic of and how did it shape the US economy? In the fall of , the world is on the verge of economic collapse. US and international markets had been wildly unsettled for months.
Six months earlier, the American stock market had crashed despite record corporate earnings. And stocks also plummeted on several foreign exchanges. Surprising as it may seem, the US had no central bank to deal with the financial crisis and no money in reserve. As panic increased, customers rushed to their banks to withdraw whatever money remained. People sat overnight in camp chairs, bringing food and waiting for the banks to open in the morning.
Banks took unconventional measures to deal with the crisis. Tellers slowly counted out money to limit withdrawals, and some banks prominently displayed piles of cash in order to reassure worried customers. To stem the panic, it was critical that someone with influence and insight come to the rescue. And the person who stepped in, was J. Pierpont Morgan. More importantly, Morgan had experience with similar financial crises, having rescued the US Treasury during the Panic of He'd become the lender of last resort.
For two weeks, he led a team raising capital for the failing markets, contributing large sums of his own money, and functioning as the country's de facto central bank. Although the actual panic lasted only a few weeks, its aftermath brought on an economic decline that destroyed banks and other businesses and created mass unemployment. Financial experts consider Morgan's impressive handling of the panic as the work of a bold financier who clearly understood the big picture and took decisive action.
In , Congress passed a currency act allowing banks to form reserve associations that could issue money temporarily, in economic emergencies. And in , shortly after Morgan's death, the US established its much-needed central bank, the Federal Reserve. Elizabeth : saw the start of a war like no one had ever seen before.
It was unprecedented in scale. It demanded vast numbers of people and resources and was incredibly expensive. It was known as a total war because it affected every facet of society, including banking. How did a series of bold moves by banks and their employees help the Allied cause?
In , U. At the time, it was the largest foreign loan in Wall Street history. As fighting waged across continents, tensions in the Unites States were mounting. This was followed by the launch of its first mutual fund, the J. Morgan India Equity Fund. Since , J. As the first bank to execute long-tenure foreign exchange rupee options, and the first foreign primary dealer with the Reserve Bank of India, we continue to be leaders in financial innovation in India.
Please review its terms, privacy and security policies to see how they apply to you. Morgan name. Argentina Argentina. Brazil Brasil. Chile Chile. Colombia Colombia. United States. New Zealand. Sri Lanka. Taiwan, China. Channel Islands. German y. United Kingdom. Saudi Arabia. South Africa. United Arab Emirates. We no longer support this browser. The bank had always concentrated on corporate and foreign business and ignored innovations such as branch banking, leaving it in a weak position to capitalize on the prosperity of middle-income Americans during the postwar boom.
In , Aldrich arranged a merger between Chase and the Bank of Manhattan, at the time the nation's 15th largest bank, but more importantly one with an extensive branch network throughout New York City.
From the time of the merger between Chase and the Bank of Manhattan, there was a new driving force behind the bank's activities: David Rockefeller. Rockefeller had joined Chase as the assistant manager of its foreign department after the war, becoming vice-president by In the early s, he was head of the bank's metropolitan department; it was actually Rockefeller who advised Aldrich on the benefits of the merger with the Bank of Manhattan.
With the merger complete, he was named executive vice-president and given the task of developing the largest bank in New York City. At the same time he was also appointed vice-chairman of the executive committee. In , he became chairman of the board of directors, the same year the Chase Manhattan Corporation was incorporated and the Chase Manhattan Bank N. As the head of Chase Manhattan, David Rockefeller soon became a major international power broker. Never really interested in the day-to-day operations of the bank, he began to travel extensively, meeting with political and business leaders around the world.
This high international profile led Rockefeller to use the bank in the service of what he regarded as desirable American foreign policy; by becoming one of the pillars of the U. This close association between Chase and the prevailing U. In , Chase's decision to purchase a major share in the second largest bank in South Africa provoked an intense campaign by civil rights groups to persuade institutions and individuals to withdraw their money from a firm that clearly supported the apartheid regime.
In , widespread protests were directed against the bank following Rockefeller's decision to open a Chase branch in Saigon.
A strong supporter of U. David Rockefeller and Chase's foreign controversies continued into the s. During this time, the shah of Iran had been the bank's best customer in the Middle East. When the shah fell from power in , it was Rockefeller who, along with Henry Kissinger--at that time the chairman of the firm's international advisory committee--persuaded the Carter administration to allow the shah into the United States.
When Iran tried to retaliate by withdrawing its funds from Chase, Rockefeller succeeded in convincing the government to freeze all Iranian assets in U. The s were a difficult time for the bank. Chase lost significant domestic business as regional banks lessened their dependence on Chase Manhattan for their own growth and expansion; their burgeoning resources made it less important that they go to the 'banker's banker' for loans.
In addition, Chase lost millions of dollars in bad loans to Latin American countries, which resulted in its being placed on the Federal Reserve's list of 'problem banks'--ones that needed constant supervision. Nevertheless, Chase remained the country's third largest bank, with branches in New York City and branches and 34 subsidiaries around the globe. The s ushered in a period of significant acquisitions for Chase.
In the bank purchased Nederlandse Credietbank N. In , the bank bought six Ohio savings and loan institutions. In , Chase acquired Continental Bancor. In , David Rockefeller retired from his position at Chase. Willard C. Butcher, his hand-picked replacement, had been president and CEO of Chase, and succeeded him as chairman of the board. Butcher took up where his predecessor left off; Chase maintained a very high profile in international finance, continuing to view itself as a worldwide power broker.
But the most important problem for Chase Manhattan in the s was a series of bad loans that had no equal in quantity or magnitude in the bank's history. Only a few months later, Penn Square Bank, N.
Chase had also been one of the most heavily exposed banks lending money to Third World countries. On February 20, Brazil announced that it would suspend payment on its foreign debt and threw the money-center banks into a panic. Battered by the Third World debt crisis and faced with strong competition from insurgent regional banks, Chase Manhattan faltered in the late s.
Between and , it reduced its workforce by ten percent, or about 6, employees. In the New York Times speculated that the venerable banking giant might be a takeover candidate because of its depressed stock price and prestigious name. Then, in and Chase suffered huge losses from commercial real estate loans, sinking the bank's finances to new lows.
Reflecting the seriousness of the situation, the bank's board asked Butcher to retire a year early so that a new team could deal with the crisis. Butcher's heir apparent during the turbulent late s was his president and chief operating officer, Thomas G.
Following a stint in the Navy, Labrecque had joined Chase in as a trainee, moving up the ranks until when he started working directly for Rockefeller on various troubleshooting assignments. He made his mark at Chase in with his work on the Municipal Assistance Corp. Labrecque was also credited with convincing Chase's board in that the bank should expand its retail business--which by the s would generate nearly half of the bank's revenues.
In he was named president. Industry observers noted that Labrecque's more well-known predecessors had emphasized Chase's worldwide position at the expense of a domestic operation which, with its various problems and scandals of the s, seemed out of control. Like other banks struggling through those industry-wide difficult years, Chase cut costs, trimmed staff another 6, by the end of , and reduced operations.
Labrecque also scaled back the bank's international presence by beginning to jettison its foreign retail banking subsidiaries; no longer would Chase aim to be a full-service world bank, such as its longtime rival Citicorp. Overall, Chase intended to concentrate on three areas: regional banking in the New York tristate region; national consumer operations in credit cards, mortgages, and automobile loans; and international investment banking.
Chase also began at this time to focus more on technology, a particular strength of the man Labrecque chose as his president, Arthur F. Ryan, who had been in charge of the firm's consumer bank. It also entered into the online home banking arena through alliances with Microsoft Corporation, Intuit Inc. Perhaps most importantly, Labrecque and Ryan embarked in on a program to transform Chase's corporate culture.
In addition to efforts to bolster quality control and customer service, perhaps the most important addition to Chase's operations was that of teamwork; the bank had historically suffered from turf wars.
As a result of these efforts, by cost-containment efforts had translated into an improvement in the bank's overhead efficiency ratio noninterest expenses divided by revenues from 75 percent to 60 percent. The question for Chase in the mids was whether all of Labrecque and Ryan's efforts had come soon enough to save the bank's independence. In the fiercely competitive environment of the times, Chase had actually lost ground; increasing consolidation engendered through a mind-boggling series of bank mergers from through had caused Chase's ranking among U.
Weakness in the price of its stock, reflecting ongoing investor skepticism, not only prevented Chase from strengthening itself through further acquisitions but also made the bank itself vulnerable to takeover. Moreover, the company's June announcement to lay off an additional 3, to 6, workers or 8.
Finally, on August 28, , the wait was over. Chemical Banking Corporation announced a merger with Chase Manhattan. Although it was termed a merger of equals, it was technically an acquisition of Chase by Chemical even though the combined corporation adopted the more prestigious Chase name.
In September , the first round of executive positions was announced with more than half the positions going to Chemical executives. Chemical's takeover of Chase was consummated on March 31, Chemical, like the Bank of Manhattan, was formed as an offshoot of a nonbanking entity. In the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company was established, then one year later it created a banking division called Chemical Bank.
Following the passage of more liberal banking laws in as well as the expiration of the original charter of New York Chemical Manufacturing, Chemical Bank was reincorporated in as a bank only.
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