Valuable Record of Early National Financial Crisis Given to Business School by J. P. Morgan

An invaluable record of the national financial crisis faced by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton during the first George Washington administration, said to be the only item of its kind not contained in the archives of the United States Government, has been donated by J. Pierpont Morgan '89, as the latest addition to the Business School Library, which already contains the world's most extensive collection of manuscripts relating to the economic and business development of the United States.

The gift consists of a receipt book containing stubs retained by the United States Loan Office at New York following the issuance of national Treasury certificates, which were given to private individuals in exchange for obligations of the several states assumed by the new federal government under the Funding Act of August 4, 1790.

The stubs of the Morgan volume contain the names of a score of prominent Revolutionary figures, among whom are Andrew Craigie, apothecary-general of the Revolutionary Army; Edward Livingston, the distinguished jurist; Brockholst, Livingston, a prominent figure in American legal life and later Justice of the Supreme Court; Joseph Barrell and James Watson, noted New York merchants; Comfort Sands, founder of the Atlantic Magazine and co-editor with William Cullon Bryant; and John Pintard, a book collector who founded the Massachusetts and New York Historical Societies.

"This gift from Mr. Morgan draws attention to the early difficulties of federal finance," explained Professor Arthur H. Colo, librarian of the Business School.