George Bliss was an American businessman. He was engaged in the banking business under the firm name of Morton, Bliss & Company.
Background
George Bliss was born on April 21, 1816, at Northampton, Massachussets, United States, the son of William and Martha (Parsons) Bliss. He was a descendant of Thomas Bliss, who was driven from England by religious persecution and settled at Braintree, Massachussets, in 1635.
Education
The straitened means of his parents compelled George in his eighth year to leave school in order to aid in the farm work. His education thereafter was sporadic and broken.
Career
At sixteen, George Bliss took a clerkship in the dry-goods store of Harvey Sanford, in New Haven, and soon became a trusted agent of the owner. At eighteen years, he was the purchasing representative of the shop and was admitted into partnership in 1837, when only twenty-one years old. In 1844, having accumulated some small savings, he removed to New York and there joined John J. Phelps and S. B. Chittenden, forming the firm of Phelps, Chittenden & Bliss, at No. 12 Wall St. , and engaging in the wholesale dry-goods trade. In 1853, upon the retirement of Chittenden, Bliss himself became the head of the firm, being joined by James H. Dunham and others, as George Bliss & Company, with headquarters at No. 340 Broadway. In spite of difficulties in the panic of 1857 and later, the firm was able to maintain itself. At the opening of the Civil War, Bliss recognized that the issue of irredeemable paper would result in advance of prices. He greatly extended his purchases, taking on long lines of goods which became immensely enhanced in selling value. He was also able to foresee the close of the war and sold heavily. Thus he laid a substantial foundation for his large fortune of later years.
The second phase of his career opened in 1869, when Bliss retired from the dry-goods trade and joined Levi P. Morton in the banking business under the firm name of Morton, Bliss & Company. The new enterprise did a large and profitable business up to the panic of 1873, then suffered some moderate reverses but recovered its prosperity during the extensive government refunding operations between 1875 and 1879 in which it had an important part. Bliss was one of the comparatively few business men who believed that specie payments should and could be inaugurated at an early date. In April 1878, he personally advised the House Banking and Currency Committee to that effect. He correctly foresaw the great improvement in business conditions which would follow resumption and was able to take advantage of it in his regular routine of banking transactions.
Achievements
Politics
George Bliss was a Republican but by no means a mere partisan. He regarded the tariff bill of 1890 as a blunder and severely criticized the attitude of the Republican politicians on the silver question.
Connections
In 1840, George Bliss married Catherine Sanford. His first wife having died on March 13, 1862, he married Augusta H. Smith of New Haven on July 22, 1868.