![]() ![]() Between February and July 1865, he disposed of three series of the notes, reaching a total of $830,000,000. ![]() He sent agents into remote villages and hamlets, and even into isolated mining camps in the west, and persuaded rural newspapers to praise the loan. After the national banks saw disappointing sales of "seven-thirty" notes, the government again turned to Cooke. In the early months of 1865, the government faced pressing financial needs. Congress immediately sanctioned the excess.Ĭooke influenced the establishment of national banks, and organized a national bank at Washington and another at Philadelphia almost as quickly as Congress could authorize the institutions. Cooke quickly sold the $500 million in bonds, and $11 million more. His editorials, articles, handbills, circulars, and signs most often appealed to Americans' desire to turn a profit, while simultaneously aiding the war effort. These efforts heralded a particular type of patriotism based on classical liberalist notions of self-interest. Meanwhile, Cooke secured the support of most Northern newspapers, purchasing ads through advertising agencies, and often working directly with editors on lengthy articles about the virtues of buying government bonds. Promised a sales commission of 0.5 percent of the revenue from the first $10 million, and 0.375 percent of subsequent bonds, Cooke financed a nationwide sales campaign, appointing about 2,500 sub-agents who traveled through every northern and western state and territory, as well as the Southern states as they came under control of the Union Army. The Treasury had previously tried and failed to sell these bonds. (Cooke and his brother, a newspaper editor, had helped Chase get his job by lobbying for him, even though all were former Democrats.)Ĭooke's own firm was so successful in distributing Treasury notes that Chase engaged him as special agent to sell the $500 million in "five-twenty" bonds – callable in five years and matured in 20 years – authorized by Congress on February 25, 1862. Chase to secure loans from the leading bankers in the Northern cities. In the early months of the war, Cooke worked with Treasury Secretary Salmon P. ![]() ($90,480,000 today ) to fund its war efforts. Soon after the war began, the state of Pennsylvania borrowed $3 million On January 1, 1861, just months before the start of the American Civil War, Cooke opened the private banking house of Jay Cooke & Company in Philadelphia. as a clerk, and became a partner in 1842. In 1838, Cooke went to Philadelphia, where he entered the banking house of E. ![]()
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