James McHenry, of Maryland, received a classical education in Ireland, the country of his birth, and came to Baltimore in 1771. He studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Rush at Philadelphia and became an army surgeon during the War. He was for a time secretary to Washington and later to Lafayette, and from 1783 to 1786 he was a member of Congress from Maryland.[[311]]
McHenry was the son of Daniel McHenry, a Baltimore merchant, who achieved “considerable financial success”[[312]] and was in business with his son, John, a brother of James, until his death in 1782. John and James began buying town property, and when the former died in 1790, the latter inherited the entire estate, as John had never married. The death of James’ father, says Steiner, left him financially independent.
McHenry’s personal property must have been considerable. A casual letter of August 4, 1792, shows that one Dickinson owed him an amount secured by a bond for £5000.[[313]] He was one of the original stockholders of the Insurance Company of North America organized in 1792.[[314]] It is not apparent that he was among the original holders of federal securities, but an entry in 1797 records an old account to the amount of $6970.90, brought forward.[[315]]
McHenry’s early mercantile interests left a deep impression on him, and he sympathized with the efforts made in his state to secure an adequate protective tariff. Indeed, he was among the signers of the memorial from Baltimore laid before Congress on April 11, 1789, praying for the protection and encouragement of American manufactures.[[316]]
John Francis Mercer, of Maryland, was born in Virginia and graduated at William and Mary College in 1775. He served in the army and after the war studied law with Jefferson. He moved to Maryland in 1786. He seems to have been a man of some fortune, for he held six slaves,[[317]] and a moderate amount of public securities.[[318]] His sympathies, however, were with the popular party in Maryland. He joined with Luther Martin in violent opposition to the adoption of the Constitution. In 1801 he was elected governor of the state, and as governor he attacked the property qualifications on voters under the constitution of the commonwealth, at length securing the repeal of the provisions.
Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia in 1744 and graduated at the College of Philadelphia, where he distinguished himself as a student of the classics. His father introduced him to a mercantile life by placing him in the counting house of William Coleman, one of the most eminent merchants of his native city. “When he was twenty-one years of age he visited Europe to improve his knowledge of commercial affairs, and after his return home he entered into business with his brother, the connection continuing until after the Revolution.”[[319]]
Mifflin was deeply interested in the protection of American manufactures. He was prominently identified with the Philadelphia Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Arts, organized in the summer of 1787. In fact, he presided at the meeting at which it was established in August of that year, during the sessions of the Convention.[[320]]
General Mifflin was a holder of public securities, but it does not appear that his paper aggregated more than a petty sum. He and Jonathan Mifflin are down for a few hundred dollars’ worth of continental paper in 1788;[[321]] and he held in his own name another small account in 1791.[[322]] It is, therefore, apparent that General Mifflin appreciated the position of the powerful class of security holders who looked to the Convention for relief, and had a more than abstract interest in the establishment of public credit.
Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, was born in 1752 at the family manor house at Morrisania. He “belonged by birth to that powerful landed aristocracy whose rule was known by New York alone among all the northern colonies.” He graduated at King’s College, entered the practice of law, and very soon began to take a hand in colonial politics, attacking with great vehemence the propositions of the paper money party. “He criticised unsparingly the attitude of a majority of his fellow-citizens in wishing such a measure of relief, not only for their short-sighted folly, but also for their criminal and selfish dishonesty in trying to procure a temporary benefit for themselves at the lasting expense of the community.”[[323]]
He was a member of the Continental Congress and was regarded as a considerable expert in financial affairs. He assisted Robert Morris in the establishment of the Bank of North America, and seems to have been able, in the midst of his public engagements, to augment his private fortunes and to engage in divers economic enterprises. At the time of the formation of the Constitution, he had accumulated enough to purchase the family estate from his elder brother, and “he had for some time been engaged in various successful commercial ventures with his friend Robert Morris, including an East India voyage on a large scale, shipments of tobacco to France, and a share in iron works on the Delaware river, and had become quite a rich man.”[[324]] He declared in the Convention that he did not hold any public securities, and the records seem to bear out his assertion, although his name does appear on an index to a volume of Treasury Records not found.