He was very frugal in private life, but generous in public affairs. During the yellow fever epidemic in 1793, Girard personally devoted several hours each day serving in the hospital. Of all his benefactions for the poor of his adopted country, this was really his noblest work.
His mercantile business had grown so profitable and his fortune had increased so rapidly that in June, 1812, he determined to devote his attention to banking. To this end he purchased the bank-house of the Bank of the United States and opened “The Bank of Stephen Girard,” with a capital of $1,200,000, which was increased afterward to $4,000,000.
Just as Robert Morris was the financier of the Revolution, so Stephen Girard was the financier of the War of 1812. In 1814 it looked as though the American cause must fail for lack of funds, and the heads of the national Government were in despair. A loan was offered in the money market, but so low was the credit of the Nation that only $200,000 was subscribed. Thereupon Stephen Girard took the whole issue of bonds, amounting to $5,000,000, and saved us from defeat and a disgraceful peace with England.
Girard contributed liberally to public improvements, and adorned Philadelphia with many handsome buildings.
At the age of eighty Girard was the richest man in America. The same year he was knocked down by a carriage and badly injured. “Go on, doctor, I am an old sailor; I can bear a great deal,” he said to his physician. He lived two years afterward.
When he died, December 26, 1831, his estate was valued at $9,000,000. Besides large bequests to public institutions, he gave $500,000 to improve the water front of Philadelphia. He gave $2,000,000 and a plot of ground for the erection and support of a college for orphans, which was opened January 1, 1848.
At his death he was buried in the vault of the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, but on the completion of Girard College his remains were reinterred in a sarcophagus beneath the statue of the donor in the vestibule of the main building of the college.
Girard College is the most richly endowed educational institution in the world, and its founder was one of the most remarkable men who ever lived, and his accidental residence in Philadelphia was one of the most fortunate incidents in the history of Pennsylvania.