holders we find also such names as Gilbert Aspinwall, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Daniel D. Tompkins, Richard Harrison, Cornelius C Roosevelt, John Peter de Lancey, and John F. Suydam. The next bank in order of years, and the fourth in New York, was the Mechanics' National Bank, incorporated in 1810. It was an outgrowth of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a historical body of philanthropic and enterprising mechanics and tradesmen, dating back as far as 1785. Of the original stock of the new bank, two million dollars in twenty-five dollar shares, the society had the right to take six thousand shares, and each member of the society was entitled to subscribe individually. Presently the privilege of subscribing to the stock was considered so valuable that the society was offered one thousand shares as a gratuity if it would relinquish the right to take the six thousand. By the terms of the charter, seven members of the board of direction were required to be members of the society, and of that number four must actually follow a mechanical profession—a regulation which is still observed. The first President was John Slidell. In 1812, on the outbreak of the war, this bank, which then had the largest capital of any banking institution in New York, came to the rescue of the Government nobly. When President Jackson, many years later, ordered the withdrawal of the Government funds from the United States Bank, they were deposited in the Mechanics', in the Manhattan, and in the Bank of America. The total amount on deposit without interest aggregated upward of twelve millions of dollars: this was the only serious ill-luck the Mechanics' Bank has ever had to record. From 1838 to 1873 Sheppard Knapp was its President, and upon his resignation the eminent financier, Benjamin B. Sherman, was elected to the office, who is also vice-president of the Central Trust Company of New York, and treasurer of the New York Historical Society.
The Bank of America dates from 1812—as does also the City Bank, of which Moses Taylor was President. When the charter of the Bank of America was in agitation, such was the temper of the opposition that the Legislature was prorogued to prevent the passage of the bill. The history of the extraordinary contest of this bank for a place in the world is mixed with all the events and politics of the war of 1812, and is an instructive lesson. Its capital was far greater than that of any other bank of the time. It was expected to take the place of the United States Bank, hence its comprehensive name—Bank of America. Its first President was Oliver Wolcott; in 1814 William Bayard became President, and George Newbold cashier; Jonathan Burrall was President in 1815; Thomas Buckley in 1816; George Newbold from 1832 to 1858, through both of the
