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John Quincy Adams Invests in America, Stock in Public Funds of the United States, Co-signed By Gallatin. Unique!
John Quincy Adams Invests in America, Stock in Public Funds of the United States, Co-signed By Gallatin. Unique!
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Description:

John Quincy Adams
Washington, DC, October 26, 1801
John Quincy Adams Invests in America, Stock in Public Funds of the United States, Co-signed By Gallatin. Unique!
DS

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Manuscript Endorsement Signed, on Albert Gallatin, Partially Printed Document Signed, Stock Certificate for $1,000, October 26, 1801, Washington, D.C. Also signed by Comptroller John Steele and Register Joseph Nourse. 1 p., 8" x 13.25". General toning; canceled with round holes, one through a portion of Gallatin's signature; irregular edges.

Future President John Quincy Adams purchased $1,000 of stock to help fund the U.S. Government in October 1801. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin signed this stock certificate, and Adams signed an endorsement on the verso when he exchanged this certificate for another one.

Excerpts
"To Thomas Perkins / Commr of loans / Massachusetts
"Pass to the Credit of John Quincy Adams Esq of Boston the sum of One thousand Dollars Stock in the Public Funds of the United states, bearing Interest at EIGHT per Centum per Annum, from the first Day of October One Thousand Eight Hundred and one inclusively; being Stock to be transferred from the books of Stephen Hoylan Commr of loans Pennsa. agreeably to his Certificate to me Directed, and hereunto annexed."

[endorsement on verso:]
"Received Certificate No 161—in full for the within warrant. / John Quincy Adams"

Historical Background
On February 28, 1800, the Committee of Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives reported that expenditures for the coming year were likely to exceed revenue by approximately $3.5 million. The deficit was caused by extensive preparations for war with France in 1798 and 1799. Both houses of Congress passed a bill to authorize President John Adams to borrow up to $3.5 million, and President Adams approved the bill on May 7, 1800. The loan was reimbursable after fifteen years, and the legislation did not fix an interest rate. Under this act, the federal government issued $1,481,700 in stock bearing 8 percent interest.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was born in Massachusetts, the son of future President John Adams. He accompanied his father on several diplomatic missions in the 1770s and 1780s and graduated from Harvard College in 1787. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791. Adams served successively as minister to the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain, from 1794 to 1801 and from 1809 to 1817. He met Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852), the daughter of a poor American merchant, while in Europe, and they married in 1797 in London. He began his career as a moderate Federalist but switched to the Jeffersonian Republican Party around the year 1807. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, and was a brilliant Secretary of State (1817-1825), taking the lead role in formulating the Monroe Doctrine. He won the election of 1824, which was decided in the House of Representatives because no candidate won a majority in the Electoral College. Adams's "deal" with House Speaker Henry Clay, whom he named Secretary of State, helped spark the formation of an opposition party around Andrew Jackson. John Quincy Adams served one largely frustrating term as president and lost in the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. In the early 1830s, Adams joined the Anti-Masonic Party before becoming a member of the Whig Party. Surprising most observers, Adams stood for election to the House of Representatives in 1831 and served seventeen memorable years, becoming a bulwark for civil liberties and a voice in the emerging anti-slavery movement. He defended the Amistad slaves before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841 and died of a stroke on the floor of the House in 1848.

Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States in 1780. By 1782, he was teaching French at Harvard College. He purchased land in western Pennsylvania and moved there in 1784. In 1789, he was a member of the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention and served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly from 1790 to 1793, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. However, the Federalist majority of the Senate refused him a seat because he had not been a citizen for the minimum nine years required. After he counseled moderation during the Whiskey Rebellion, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1795 to 1801. He opposed the entire program of Alexander Hamilton in the 1790s, but when he served as Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison from 1801 to 1814, he kept all the main parts of Hamilton's program and even supported the Bank of the United States, which other Jeffersonians opposed. Gallatin helped plan the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the new Louisiana Purchase and later resigned his position to head the United States delegation in negotiations that ended the War of 1812 through the Treaty of Ghent. From 1816 to 1823, he served as U.S. Minister to France. In 1825, John Quincy Adams offered him the position of Secretary of the Treasury, but he declined. After serving as U.S. Minister to Great Britain from 1826 to 1827, he settled in New York City, where he helped found New York University in 1831.

Thomas Perkins (1758-1830) served as commissioner of loans for Massachusetts from 1798 to 1804.

Joseph Nourse (1754-1841) was born in London, England, and served in the American Revolutionary War as military secretary to General Charles Lee. He settled in Philadelphia in 1779 and served as assistant auditor general for the Board of Treasury. He was elected the first United States Register of the Treasury in 1781 and was finally forced from office when Andrew Jackson became president in 1829. He kept the financial records and accounts of the new government and authenticated each piece of Continental currency by personally signing it. A Congressional investigation claimed that Nourse owed the government nearly $12,000 because of misappropriation of funds, while Nourse claimed the government owed him for uncompensated services. A federal court awarded Nourse approximately $23,500, but his heirs did not collect the funds until seven years after his death.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 13.25"
  • Medium: DS

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000