James Monroe, 26 December 1817

MONROE, James (1758-1831). Autograph letter signed ("James Monroe") as President [to the Treasurer of the Bank of the United States], Washington, 26 December 1817. [With:] SWARTWOUT, Robert (1779-18748). Autograph letter signed to James Monroe, Washington, 26 December 1817.

Monroe: three pages, bifolium, 245 x 197mm (offsetting from ink transfer on third page). Swartwout: Three pages, bifolium, 250 x 194mm (light chipping at lower margin).

Writing "in my character as a citizen," James Monroe recommends that the Bank of the United States offer a loan to Robert Swartwout to make improvements in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Responding to a lengthy request from Swartwout who offers details on the improvements he had already made to his extensive holdings in New Jersey, totaling nearly 2,000 acres, including "1440 acres of unsullied mash in its natural state … [and] 327 acres reclaimed meadow at Hoboken under high cultivation," while adding that the loan he was seeking was but "a trifling" of his overall net worth. Monroe, who came to know Swartwout in his capacity as Quartermaster General during the War of 1812, forwarded the letter together with a hearty endorsement to the Bank of the United States praising Swartwout's honesty and integrity, and adding that he believed that the project would have "considerable success; but so vast was the undertaking, & great the sum necessary to accomplish it, that they are now at a point, when, according, to their good or ill fortune, in obtaining the aid which they stand in need of, they may realize their hopes, by securing… this rich reward for their labours; or see it wrested from them, for a trifling sum, and themselves ruined. We have often seen bold and useful enterprises, fail, in this manner…." Whether Monroe's assistance managed to secure Swartwout a loan is unknown, but in 1820 he chartered the New Jersey Salt Marsh Company with his brothers John and Samuel. The charter also called for the formation of a bank, which Swartwout established in 1822 as the Hoboken Banking and Gazing Company.