Scope and Content Note
The records of the Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the Bank of the United States and its successor, the Merchants Bank of Baltimore, span the years 1795-1855, with the bulk of the items dating from 1816 to 1846. These records, consisting of correspondence and banking and legal records, chronicle loans and other business of the Baltimore branch as a Congressionally-chartered institution and the branch’s continuation as a corporate, state-chartered bank in 1836.
Congress chartered the first Bank of the United States in 1791 as a privileged commercial bank possessing many of the powers and functions of a central bank. Domestic discontent with the bank’s position in the affairs of the republic influenced Congress to decline to renew the bank’s charter when it expired in 1811. The War of 1812 reopened debate over the need for a central bank, however, and in 1816 Congress again chartered a Bank of the United States, popularly called the Second Bank of the United States. The Second Bank also incurred the wrath of those opposed to the growth of the federal government and when Congress renewed the bank’s charter in 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill. The bank ceased to function as the nation’s central bank shortly thereafter. In 1835 the newly-organized Merchants Bank of Baltimore assumed the accounts and business of the Baltimore branch.
The first Bank of the United States established eight branch banks in other cities, including Baltimore. The Second Bank established twenty-five branch banks. The records of the Baltimore branch reflect its extensive share of national banking transactions, which at times rivaled that of the headquarters in Philadelphia, the bank’s change of business and status in 1832 and again in 1835, and its continuation under different incorporation after that date.