To Thomas Jefferson from John Langdon, 19 June 1802
From John Langdon
Portsmo. June 19th. 1802
Dear President
I wrote you the 14th. Ult. in answer to your’s of the 5th. of the same month in which, Agreably to your Request, I named John Goddard Esqr. and John McClintock merchants, Henry S. Langdon, and Charles Cutts, Esqrs. Lawyers, all of this Town, for Commissioners of Bankruptcy, as there has no appointment yet taken place, I am fearful my letter, miscarried; have therefore taken the liberty to mention the names of those gentlemen again—we have some expectation of a failure or two, will soon take place, of course Commissioners will be Necessy. I have this moment return’d from our Legislature, have not time to copy my former letter—we have Obtaind an Incorporation for our Republican Bank this Session, of course we are not looseing ground.—
Beleive me, ever, most sencerly yours
John Langdon
RC (DLC): at foot of text: “President Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 June and so recorded in SJL.
OUR REPUBLICAN BANK: Langdon had been the primary organizer of the New Hampshire Union Bank in 1799. Only the second bank organized in the state, it was a direct challenge to the economic and political influence wielded by Federalists through their control of the rival New Hampshire Bank. Federalist legislators denied the Union Bank a charter, then passed an act prohibiting unincorporated banks and authorized the state to purchase additional stock in the New Hampshire Bank. Such actions proved highly unpopular with voters, however, and Republicans used the issue to their advantage. Efforts to incorporate the Union Bank in 1800 and 1801 were again defeated, but Republican gains in 1802 enabled them to secure incorporation during the June legislative session (Lynn Warren Turner, The Ninth State: New Hampshire’s Formative Years [Chapel Hill, 1983], 178–88; Vol. 35:652–3).