The first steamboat launched on the Red River of the North, establishing a most important communication for the business interests of Minnesota, was transported in the dead of winter across country on runners, from Sauk Rapids to Breckenridge, and Mr. Knox was one of the few who paid the expenses of the enterprise.
In the financial discussions which preceded the establishment of the National banks, Mr. Knox took a prominent part, and made many valuable suggestions on the currency question. He advocated a safe and convertible currency, the issue of a uniform series of circulating notes to all the banks, and the guarantee by the Government of circulation secured by its own bonds.
In 1862 he was introduced to Secretary Chase and the Hon. Hugh McCulloch, then Comptroller of the currency. The attention of the Secretary had previously been attracted to the financial articles of Mr. Knox, published in Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine.
He was shortly afterward appointed to a clerkship under Treasurer Spinner, and was subsequently transferred to the office of Mr. Chase, as disbursing clerk, at a salary of $2,000 a year. After three years in this position he became cashier of the Exchange National Bank at Norfolk, Va., but finding the southern climate uncongenial, after a year he returned to Washington. He was commissioned by Secretary McCulloch to examine the mint at San Francisco, and to select a site there for a new one. His report upon the Mint service of the Pacific Coast was printed in the Finance Report of 1866, with a complimentary notice by the Secretary. The site selected was purchased from Eugene Kelly of New York for $100,000.
He subsequently visited New Orleans and discovered a deficiency of $1,100,000 in the office of the Assistant Treasurer. He took possession of that office, and for some weeks acted as Assistant Treasurer of the United States.
The promotion of Mr. Knox to the office in which he was able to do himself the most credit, and perform those services to the country which are part and parcel of its financial progress, occurred in 1867. At this time a vacancy was brought about in the Deputy-Comptrollership of the Currency, and Secretary McCulloch appointed him to fill it. Until May 1, 1884, he remained as Deputy or head of the Bureau, his terms of office being as follows: Five years as Deputy-Comptroller, from 1867 to 1872; five years as Comptroller, from 1872 to 1877, appointed by General Grant; five years, second term as Comptroller, from 1877 to 1882, by President Hayes, on the recommendation of Secretary Sherman—the reappointment being made without his knowledge, before the expiration of the preceding term, and confirmed by the Senate without reference to any committee. He was again reappointed, by President Arthur, April 12, 1882.
In 1870 he made an elaborate report to Congress (Senate Mis. Doc., No. 132, XLI. Cong., 2d Sess.), including a codification of the Mint and Coinage laws, with important amendments, which was highly commended. The bill which accompanied the report comprised, within the compass of twelve pages of the Revised Statutes, every important provision contained in more than sixty different enactments upon the Mint and Coinage of the United States—the result of eighty years of legislation. This bill, with slight amendments, was subsequently passed, and is known as “The Coinage Act of 1873;” and the Senate Finance Committee, in recognition of his services, by an amendment, made the Comptroller of the Currency an ex-officio member of the Assay Commission, which meets annually at the Mint in Philadelphia for the purpose of testing the weight and fineness of the coinage of the year.
Through his official reports, twelve in number, and his addresses on the currency question, Mr. Knox has indirectly exercised great influence in financial legislation, and he took an active, though quiet and unassuming part, in the great financial coup d’etat of the resumption of specie payment.
In April, 1878, he accompanied Secretary Sherman and Attorney-General Devens to New York, and arranged a meeting between these two members of the Cabinet and the officers of ten of the principal banks of the city at the National Bank of Commerce, with the view of negotiating the sale of $50,000,000 of 4½ per cent. bonds, the avails of which were to be used for resumption purposes. The Presidents of the banks, who were present, gave Secretary Sherman no encouragement as to the purchase of the bonds at the rates proposed by him. Upon the return of the Secretary and Comptroller to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in the evening, they were met by August Belmont, who had a cable dispatch from the Rothschilds, authorizing a purchase of the whole amount at a premium of one and one-half per cent. for the account of the syndicate. Upon the following day the Secretary and the Comptroller returned to Washington, after an absence of three days, and the success of the negotiation was announced, much to the chagrin of some members of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, who were then bitterly opposing the scheme proposed by the Secretary for the resumption of specie payments. This negotiation was the first of a series of brilliant financial transactions preceding and following resumption on January 1, 1879.
Subsequently he arranged a conference, which was held in the Treasury at Washington, in the evening, between leading bank officials of New York and Secretaries Sherman and Evarts, which resulted in the admission of the Assistant Treasurer as a member of the clearing house, and the receipt by the banks of legal tender notes on a par with gold; and in 1881, by request of President Garfield, he attended a conference in New York between the leading financial men of the city and Secretary Windom and Attorney-General McVeagh, which resulted in the issue and successful negotiation of three and one-half per cent. bonds.