The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baird, Henry Carey

BAIRD, Henry Carey, economist, was born at the United States arsenal, Bridesburg, Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 10, 1825; son of Thomas J. Baird, an officer in the U. S. army. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers came to America as political refugees from Ireland. His mother's father, Matthew Carey, was a pioneer publisher of Philadelphia, and friend of Benjamin Franklin. He attended school until his sixteenth year, when he entered the publishing house of Carey & Hart of Philadelphia, of which his uncle, Edward L. Carey, was the head, and after a four years' apprenticeship, he, in 1845, became a member of the firm, inheriting his uncle's interest upon his death. In 1849 he withdrew from the firm and established that of Henry Carey Baird & Co., and engaged in the publication of books on technical, industrial and economic subjects. During the financial crisis of 1857 he studied the writings of his uncle, Henry Charles Carey, on the tariff and currency questions, with the result that he adopted his views and devoted both time and money to their promulgation. He wrote and distributed, at his own expense, thousands of tracts and pamphlets, contributed numerous articles on economic subjects to various cyclopædias, and in 1876 discussed the currency question in the Atlantic Monthly with James A. Garfield. He was one of the founders and a leader of the Greenback party, leaving the Republican party on account of its financial policy. In 1876 his arguments before the ways and means committee of the house of representatives were largely instrumental in defeating a bill for the issue of five hundred million dollars, thirty-year four and a half per cent bonds, which had passed the senate by a vote of fifty-five ayes to five nays, a measure which would have been an enormous expense to the government. He died in Philadelphia. Pa., in 1901.