(Robert Morris, Jr. (January 20, 1734-May 8, 1806), a Foun...)
Robert Morris, Jr. (January 20, 1734-May 8, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a Liverpool-born American merchant who financed the American Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. Along with Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, he is widely regarded as one of the founders of the financial system of the United States.
A History of American Currency: With Chapters on the English Bank Restriction and Austrian Paper Money
(A fascinating but often overlooked topic is the establish...)
A fascinating but often overlooked topic is the establishment of currency in a new nation. The process involves not only a host of unknown and complicated political factors, but also economics and the culture of the new nation. In A History of American Currency, Yale Professor William G. Sumner examines the development of the monetary system in the United States, from the colonial era through the Civil War. He noted that the earliest British settlers brought with them virtually no money; the English government wouldn't allow it, and the Puritans had little or no use for it. Gradually, the settlers traded wampumpeag with their Native American neighbors, and eventually currency was developed to pay soldiers, finance expeditions, and trade with other nations. Sumner also covers the English Bank Restriction of 1797, the Bullion Report of 1810, and the development of Austrian paper money.
William Graham Sumner was an American economist, educator, social scientist, and conservative theorist. He was one of the most prestigious and widely read libertarian intellectuals in the United States.
Background
William Graham Sumner was born on October 30, 1840, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Thomas and Sarah (Graham) Sumner. His father was born at Walton-le-Dale, Lancashire, England, on May 6, 1808. He came to the United States in 1836. His mother was born in Oldham, England, in 1819, and was brought to the United States by her parents in 1825. When Sumner was eight his mother died, leaving him and his two siblings in the care of an affection-less stepmother. He spent most of his childhood in Hartford, Connecticut.
Education
In 1863 William Graham Sumner graduated from Yale College (now Yale University). Following graduation, he studied abroad at the universities of Goettingen and Oxford.
William Graham Sumner returned to Yale College (now Yale University), where he was a tutor from 1866 to 1869. It was during this time he became an ordained priest and was made assistant to the rector of Calvary Church in New York. In 1870 he became rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Morristown, New Jersey. Sumner was called back to Yale in 1872 to fill the newly created chair of political and social science. He readily accepted this post and became increasingly active in his new life in New Haven. Within a year he was elected alderman for the city, a position he held for four years. He also became an honorary member of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
He also became involved in politics and even testified before a Congressional Committee investigating labor unrest in 1878. Extracurricular activities did not interfere with Sumner’s job at Yale. Teaching was his first business, and he commanded great respect. His students benefited from his teaching style, which was straight to the point, honest, and unsentimental. Deemed one of the most effective teachers of his generation, it was not uncommon for Sumner’s lecture hall to contain instructors from other colleges, eager to experience first-hand what all the fuss was about. Sumner continually tried to broaden the curriculum to include not only the classics but also more modern texts. He found himself in the spotlight when the president of Yale forbade him to use Herbert Spencer’s The Study of Sociology in the classroom. Sumner valiantly fought against this decree and won. His victory brought him much attention in the newspapers.
Sumner’s first book, A History of American Currency, advocates a sound monetary system. Though he initially promoted only a sound currency, by 1878 he was publicly thrashing bimetallism. His next book, Lectures on the History of Protection, addresses free trade. In it, Sumner argues that the protective tariff is, in reality, a tax benefit given to some Americans over others. Sumner’s experience in politics left him disillusioned. Sumner turned his back on politics completely, refusing even to vote in the 1880 election.
With politics behind him, Sumner’s attention and interest shifted to labor and big business, and his writing reflects this change. He wrote numerous essays about the bloody railway strikes of 1877 for the Independent and the Forum. He denounced plutocracy as a political form that heralds an "increasing thirst for luxury." As was his style, Sumner did not mince words when he wanted to make his point, and as he turned from public policy to social theory his fearlessness brought him national attention.
His career as a social scientist and theorist began in the 1870s with his attack on Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. It was also with this attack that Sumner became known, mistakenly, as a social Darwinist. It was around this time that Sumner was also in the spotlight for insisting on using Herbert Spencer's The Study of Sociology to teach his class, an act that only deepened the identity of Sumner as a social Darwinist. The New York Times first accused Sumner of misusing Darwinism to justify a dog-eat-dog social order in 1883, and Sumner’s critics quickly jumped on the bandwagon. He printed several apologies on the subject, insisting that he ascribed to Darwinism as accused.
After years under a grueling work schedule, Sumner experienced a nervous breakdown and took a two-year sabbatical overseas. He returned to his duties at Yale in 1892, but the collapse had taken a permanent toll on his energy. Between 1876 and 1890 Sumner published 108 articles and seven books - during the five years immediately following his breakdown he published four articles and two books. Then, in 1896 he wrote another twelve articles and a book, Folkways.
In the 1890s American imperialism was on the rise, much to Sumner's dismay, and he focused his energy on the anti-imperialist cause for much of the decade. During this time, he contemplated not only the future of the United States but also the past. The result of this shift in focus was Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals, published in 1906. Although the text is considered a classic today, Folkways did not receive the warm welcome one might expect. Contemporary reviewers faulted its methodology and resulting political implications. With the passing of time, however, and the advantage of hindsight. Folkways rose considerably in prestige.
Sumner’s final years were spent building the American Sociological Society, now the American Sociological Association. He was elected first vice president, then president. After making his way to New York during a snowstorm to deliver the presidential address at the annual meeting in December 1909, Sumner suffered a stroke.
William Graham Sumner thought that America in the late 19th century was controlled by a class of wealthy plutocrats who used their money and political influence to gain benefits at the expense of the ordinary consumer and taxpayer, whom he called "the forgotten man" and "the forgotten woman." He wrote two important essays on them in which he describes their patience and their financial suffering. At the high end of this system of "plundering" the public purse for private gain were the protectionists and the large contractors who got contracts from the government for public works. At the lower end, there was what he called "jobbery", by which he meant the widespread practice of trying to get taxpayer-funded jobs in the government administration (through nepotism or through the political party machine) or lobbying the government to get special favors such as people demanding government pensions, farmers demanding the government pay for losses from floods or gold miners who want the government to pay to clean up the rivers they foul. Sumner saw all of this activity producing waste on a large scale. Some gained, of course, such as "the clamorous interests, the importunate petitioners, the plausible schemers", but this was at the expense of the long-suffering "Forgotten Man" who was an "honest, sober, industrious citizen, unknown outside his little circle, paying his debts and his taxes, supporting the church and the school, reading his party newspaper, and cheering for his pet politician."
Views
Sumner forged ahead in an attempt to demolish those economic and political concepts he deemed evil and unnatural. He waged his war through public speaking appearances, but even more so through his writings. His essays garnered great attention throughout the country for their flawless analysis and deep commitment. No social question was safe from Sumner’s pen; he addressed topics such as equality, protectionism, rights, and civil-service reform. A formidable opponent of socialism, Sumner constructed arguments that are still considered most difficult to refute.
As a classical economist, William Graham Sumner supported an extreme laissez-faire policy, opposing any governmental actions that obstructed natural economic affairs. His book, A History of American Currency, supported the preservation of a sound currency against the use of silver.
Sumner was an early opponent of the welfare state. He viewed individual competition for property and social status as a tool for eliminating the weak and immoral of the population.
Quotations:
"Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare."
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Herbert Spencer
Connections
In 1871 William Graham Sumner married Jeannie (Whittemore) Elliott. They had three children: Henry, Eliot, and Graham. Sumner first met Jeannie at a party in the early 1860s, but his interests were spumed as she developed a relationship with a fellow classmate at Yale College (now Yale University). By his senior year, Sumner was seriously involved with another woman who died shortly before graduation. He and Jeannie met again in 1869, and this time the relationship took. Although he kept his personal life private, his published writings reveal his true beliefs about marriage: monogamy and family were the cornerstones of morality and civilized values.