JOHN JACOB ASTOR GREAT LAKES BOOKS PHILIP P. M ASON, EDITOR Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University DR. CHARLES K. HYDE, ASSOCIATE EDITOR Department of History, Wayne State University Advisory Editors DR. RUTH ROEBKE-BERENS DR. WILLIAm H. MULLIGAN, JR. Department of History Mt. Pleasant, Michigan Northern Michigan University MR. JOSEPH F. OLDENBURG MARTHA M. BIGELOW Assistant Director, Main Library Director, Bureau of History Detroit Public Library Michigan Department of State MR. TImOTHY J. RUNYAN DR. FRANCIS X. BLOUIN Department of History Director, Bentley Historical Library Cleveland State University University of Michigan MR. THOmAS SCHLIENTZ MS. SANDRA SAGESER CLARK John K. King Books Deputy Director, Michigan Travel Bureau Detroit, Michigan Michigan Department of Commerce DR. STANLEY D. SOLVICK DR. JOHN C. DANN Department of History Director, William L. Clements Library Wayne State University University of Michigan DR. JOELLEN VINYARD MR. DE WITT DYKES Department of History Department of History and Philosophy Oakland University Eastern Michigan University DR. DAVID HALKOLA MR. ARTHUR WOODfORD Department of Sociology St. Clair Shores Public Library Michigan Technological University St. Clair Shores, Michigan DR. JUSTIN KESTENBAUm DR. BARBARA WOODWARD Department of History Grosse Ile, Michigan Michigan State University MS. PATIENCE YOUNG MR. LARRY B. MASSIE Curator of Education Allegan, Michigan Detroit Institute of Arts JOHN JACOB ASTOR Business and Finance in the Early Republic John Denis Haeger WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS DETROIT Great Lakes Books edition copyright © 1991 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48202. All material in this work, except as identified below, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/us/. All material not licensed under a Creative Commons license is all rights reserved. Permission must be obtained from the copyright owner to use this material. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Haeger, John D. John Jacob Astor, business and finance in the early re- public / John Denis Haeger. p cm. — (Great Lakes books) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8143-4344-9 (alk. paper); 978-0-8143-4343-2 (ebook) 1. Astor, John Jacob, 1763-1848. 2. Businessmen— United States—Biography. 3. United States—Economic conditions—To 1865. I. Title. II. Series. HC102.5.A76H34 1991 380.1’092—dc20 [B] 90–28518 CIP Designer: Joanne Elkin Kinney The publication of this volume in a freely accessible digital format has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation through their Humanities Open Book Program. http://wsupress.wayne.edu/ To Cecily and Meg Contents Illustrations and Tables / Preface / 11 1. Searching for the “Real” John Jacob Astor / 14 2. The Early Years, 1763–1794 / 42 3. Furs and Tea: Astor Builds a Fortune, 1794–1807 / 65 4. Astoria: Initial Plans, 1807–1809 / 94 5. Exploration and Incorporation: Astoria, 1809–1812 / 115 6. The War Years, 1812–1814 / 138 7. Change in Postwar America, 1815–1819 / 170 8. The Corporate Manager: The American Fur Company, 1819–1834 / 205 9. Financier, Speculator, and Developer, 1815—1848 / 244 Epilogue / 280 Abbreviations / 288 Notes / 290 Selected Bibliography / 344 Index / 355 Illustrations and Tables Illustrations John Jacob Astor, 1805 76 Astoria in 1813 125 Mackinac Island under British Rule, 1813 150 John Astor, ca. 1815 168 Robert Stuart, ca. 1820 178 Detroit Waterfront, 1820 189 American Fur Company Warehouse, ca. 1903 190 Lewis Cass, ca. 1830s 193 Ramsay Crooks 211 American Fur Company Post, Fond du Lac 218 Pierre Chouteau, Jr. 225 Astor’s Home, Hell Gate, ca. 1860 266 The Astor House on Broadway, ca. 1850 267 Inside the Astor Library, ca. 1864 270 Plat of Astor, 1835 273 Tables 1. Total Foreign Trade of the United States, 1790–1808 68 2. American Imports into Canton 83 9 10 Illustrations and Tables 3. American Furs Imported at Canton 83 4. American Exports from Canton 89 5. John Astor’s Exports from Canton, 1805–1807 89 Preface THERE ARE several reasons for embarking on a study of John Jacob Astor and the economic growth of the early Republic. First, Astor’s business career encompassed America’s formative economic years from the precarious days following the American Revolution to the emergence of an urban-centered manufacturing economy in the late 1840s. Change was the dominating motif of the period, and Astor either exemplified the varied economic, social, and polit- ical changes in his business career or he directly affected the course of events. Astor is also a convenient vehicle for understanding the Amer- ican economy because he participated in many phases of its devel­ opment. He is best known as a merchant and fur trader. Astor participated in America’s intrusion into foreign markets in Eu- rope, the West Indies, and China, and he personified the intimate connections between westward expansion and national economic development. As he came to exercise a powerful influence over the American fur trade, for example, the New Yorker exported furs to Europe and China and imported goods for use in the urban mar- kets on the East Coast and in western frontier communities. Few businessmen possessed Astor’s extensive connections with the country’s dominant political figures such as Thomas Jefferson, 11 12 Preface James Madison, James Monroe, and Albert Gallatin; thus the New York financier was a central figure in important political issues such as the financing of the War of 1812, the chartering of the Second Bank of the United States (BUS), and the setting of gov- ernment policies in relation to territorial expansion. Astor’s career paralleled the economic, political, and territorial expansion of America’s first half-century. The New Yorker was also a barometer of the more mundane but nonetheless important changes in the business world. Al- though his contact with the fur trade and land speculation would seem to categorize him as a preindustrial entrepreneur, his meth- ods and goals reflected a “modern” business mentality. The Amer- ican Fur Company was among the most effective uses of the joint- stock company for a private business venture. Early on, Astor grasped the importance of cities and was among the first of the big-city developers. He purchased New York City lots, constructed and leased buildings, built theaters and hotels, and participated in innovative financial institutions like the New York Life Insur- ance and Trust Company. This brief summary would suggest that Astor was an impor- tant figure in the life of the early Republic; yet he has been the subject of only one scholarly biography—published nearly sixty years ago by Kenneth Wiggins Porter—and virtually ignored by recent historians in studies of the American fur trade and the rise of New York City. Surely another look at Astor’s career is appro- priate if only to explain why historians have so neglected a figure that antebellum Americans respected as the richest and most pow- erful businessman of his day. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the many people who contributed to the completion of this work. Most important were library staffs in this country and abroad who helped in my efforts to review both business and personal records connected with Astor’s career. Although I visited most libraries, my visits were often quite brief and dependent on the willingness of others to oversee photocopy and microfilm orders. A partial list of insti- tutions that provided me with valuable resources either at the library or by mail includes: Albany Institute of History and Art; American Philosophical Society; Baker Library, Harvard Universi- ty; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Chicago Historical Society; Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University; George Arents Research Center, Syracuse Preface 13 University, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; India Office Library and Records, London; Library Company of Philadelphia; Library of Congress; Minnesota Historical Society; Missouri Historical So- ciety; McGill University Library, Montreal, Canada; National Li- brary of Scotland, Edinburgh; New York Historical Society; New York Public Library; New York State Library; Public Archives of Canada; Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, England; University of Aberdeen Library, Scotland; William L. Clements Library. A number of individuals and institutions were also very help- ful in the development of my ideas on Astor and the business revolution. Central Michigan University’s Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors Committee provided funds for several trips to the East Coast and for visits to foreign libraries. The Research Professorship award from Central Michigan University provided a semester’s leave to finish the first draft. My colleagues in the Department of History at Central Michigan University have been helpful and kind critics during several faculty seminars. Members of the Department of History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, provided many useful suggestions for setting Astor’s career in a comparative perspective. A special thanks is due to Charles Ebel who identified valuable primary sources in Aberdeen, Scotland, and to James Ronda who has generously shared his insights into Astor’s personality and the settlement at Astoria. Finally, Cecily Dickinson Haeger has provided extraordi- nary assistance with the formation of my ideas and the transfor- mation of those ideas into readable prose. CHAPTER ONE Searching for the “Real” John Jacob Astor A REASSESSMENT of John Jacob Astor must first confront the image of the New York financier that has persisted in popular and professional historical literature for more than a century. Despite the meticulous scholarship of Kenneth Wiggins Porter, Astor’s bi- ographer, the New Yorker remains an enigmatic and contradictory figure who rarely elicits dispassionate evaluation. Historians and social commentators alike have characterized the financier as ei- ther the epitome of the rags-to-riches fable or as the embodiment of an American Scrooge.