Cartoon designed by radical labor activist Seth Luther to promote the dissolution of the United States banking system. Depicts the U.S Bank as operated by the industrial turbine "Currency Reservoir." The "Bank of England Tube," "State Bank Tube," and "Expansion and Contraction Tube" extend from the reservoir and power meters labeled "Paperometer," "Stockometer," Flourometer," and "Wageometer," which flank the bank and measure the system. Meters measure the benefits to industry and the disadvantages to the artisan of the banking system from 1816 to 1840, including: the expansion and contraction of paper money; the prices and amounts of import and export commodities; the economic effects from the monetary fluctuations on manufacturers and mechanics; the price of stocks and flour; and the wages (lower in 1840 than 1816) and cost of living of New York carpenters. Also contains seventeen boxed quotations from prominent political figures criticizing paper money and banks, including statements by Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Samuel Young, John Tyler, and Bank of the United States supporter Henry Clay; a chart containing figures indicating an increase in the number of banks from 1774 to 1840, the amount of hard and paper currency in circulation, and the "aggregate receipts" from public land sales; as well as references to Jackson's 1832 veto of the Bank of the United States and Van Buren's 1840 Independent Treasury Bill. Dedicated to Andrew Jackson for his "righteous" veto of the Bank of the United States on July 4, 1840., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress July 22, 1840 Seth Luther Author and Proprietor in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the So. District of N.Y., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Library Company Annual Report, 2001, p. 30., Advertised in Public Ledger, October 8, 1840. Price listed as 25 cents.
Creator
Lawton, Stephen, lithographer
Date
designed Nov. 1833, drawn 1840, cJuly 22, 1840
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *political cartoons - 1840-Ban [5760.F.84]
