ALS signed “H. Clay,” one page, 8 x 10, October 24, 1842. Letter to John D. Wright. In part: “I could hardly have supposed any one could entertain any doubt of my being in favor of the establishment of a Bank of the US under proper restrictions, to supply a convertible currency of uniform value throughout the union. I brought forward a Charter for such a bank at the Late Session of Congress, in the Senate, and voted both for that, and the one which was subsequently introduced, altho’ neither of them was exactly such as I prepared. While I am firmly impressed with the belief that a properly organized Bank of the US is the best instrument to supply such a currency as the Country needs, I would not oppose any other safe mode of accomplishing that object, if, contrary to my impressions, any other can be devised. And hence the general impressions in my letter to Mr. Shatten, to which you allude. I regret the issue of your election in Ohio & in Belmont. I am afraid that the Society of Friends are not fully suitable of the importance of the present Crisis in respect to the welfare of our Country.”
Second integral page bears a hand-addressed free franked panel by Clay, to “Mr. John D. Wright, Belmont, Belmont County, Ohio,” and franked in the upper right, “Free, H. Clay,” and bearing an October 24, Lexington, Kentucky, postmark. Page also bears a mostly intact black wax seal. In very good condition, with intersecting folds, scattered light soiling and creases, and some paper loss to second integral page from wax seal.
Clay was a strong proponent of a central banking system and opposed President Andrew Jackson’s ultimately successful rechartering of the Bank of the United States. Though Clay’s 1852 death preceded implementation of his fiscal reforms, President Abraham Lincoln would later implement Clay’s ideas via the National Currency Act of 1862, which established central banking and fiat currency, offered subsidies for railroads, and the steamship industry, created an internal revenue bureaucracy, and centralized the federal government. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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