A Counterfeiter's Paradise

by Ben Tarnoff

  67, Sanford’s cronies shared

  Joseph Nichols: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, pp. 117–118, and Counterfeiting in Colonial America, pp. 198–199.

  67–68, Sanford’s victims, knowing

  The young men of Ridgefield secured the cooperation of the constable of Salem, and together they caught Sanford; see Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, pp. 118–119. “arming themselves…”: Charles J. Hoadly, ed., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, from May, 1751, to February, 1757, Inclusive (Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1877), p. 284. The resolution and “Disclosing the wicked Design…”: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, p. 119.

  68–69, Sanford was a different

  Damages inflicted by Sanford: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, p. 118.

  69, In the four years

  £400 reward for Sullivan: John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, vol. 5 (Providence: Knowles, Anthony, 1860), pp. 376–377. “famous Villain Sullivan …”: Boston Evening-Post, September 8, 1755. Sullivan’s counterfeits in the lottery: Kenneth Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Rhode Island (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1960), p. 40. The situation in Rhode Island became so bad that the legislature banned the use of New Hampshire currency because it was too heavily counterfeited; see Bartlett, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, pp. 508–509. The New York treasury decided to withdraw all notes bearing the date May 10, 1746; see Kenneth Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1953), pp. 86–87.

  69–70, Colonial governments could

  Beecher’s testimony and the legislature’s resolution: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, pp. 88–89, and Hoadly, The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, p. 455. Beecher’s speech wasn’t transcribed, but a later memorial to the assembly, dated May 7, 1756, reports that he first encountered the Dover counterfeiters while traveling on “private business”; the memorial is excerpted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 88. Description of the Green: Charles Hebert Levermore, The Republic of New Haven: A History of Municipal Evolution (Baltimore: N. Murray, 1886), p. 235.

  70, From New Haven

  Limestone deposits in the Housatonic River valley: William North Rice and Herbert Ernest Gregory, Manual of the Geology of Connecticut (Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1906), pp. 87–91. Beecher’s difficulties in New York and his complaint to the Connecticut legislature: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, pp. 89–90. “many difficulties…”: Hoadly, The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, p. 462.

  70–71, If he wanted

  Beecher’s hiring of deputies: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 90; although he enlisted eleven assistants, they worked for different periods of time, ranging from twenty-seven days at the most (Beecher’s son) to six days at the least. Beecher ensnaring the tavern keeper: Connecticut Gazette, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, p. 138.

  71–72, Boggy ground squished

  Beecher’s final pursuit and Sullivan’s capture: Connecticut Gazette, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, pp. 138–139, and Owen Sullivan, A Short Account of the Life, of John——Alias Owen Syllavan…(Boston: Green & Russell, 1756), p. 11. The detail of the Gazette’s report suggests a member of Beecher’s group, possibly even Beecher himself, spoke directly with the journalist. Kenneth Scott speculates that Beecher gave the Gazette an eyewitness account of Sullivan’s arrest; this seems likely, as the newspaper was published in New Haven, where Beecher lived.

  72–73, Sullivan was tired

  Date of Sullivan’s imprisonment: Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, March 29, 1756. Location of the New Haven jail: Levermore, The Republic of New Haven, p. 235.

  73, It was March 17, 1756

  For more on historical St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, see Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair, The Wearing of the Green: A History of St. Patrick’s Day (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 1–4, 21–22. “famous Money Maker…”: Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, March 29, 1756.

  73–74, Beecher never revealed

  “in the course of his…”: from Beecher’s statement to the Connecticut General Assembly, dated May 7, 1756, quoted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 88. Beecher’s payment: ibid., pp. 90, 93. The businessman couldn’t collect the official bounty, since Sullivan was tried and convicted in New York, so the Connecticut legislators paid Beecher a bonus taken from the forfeited bonds of counterfeiters caught in Fairfield. In addition to the Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, March 29, 1756, the New-York Mercury, March 29, 1756, praised Beecher’s “extraordinary Address and Resolution.”

  74, At the end

  Sullivan’s transfer to New York: Boston Evening-Post, March 29, 1756. New York’s counterfeiting laws: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, pp. 202–203. Connecticut’s counterfeiting laws: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, pp. 219–220.

  74, The men charged

  As late as 1783, the road from New Haven to New York was very rugged and even impassable at points; most people traveling to New York from the east rode overland to New Haven and boarded sloops for Manhattan. Country estates of colonial New York: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 178–179. Construction of palisades: ibid., p. 168. A 1755 map of New York, known as the Maerschalck or Duyckink Plan, shows the palisades along the northern border of town; the map is available in Allon Schoener, New York: An Illustrated History of the People (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998), p. 21.

  75, The outbreak of war

  Effect of war on the city’s economy: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, pp. 168–170. “New York is growing…”: from a letter by Benjamin Franklin to his friend William Parsons, dated June 28, 1756, quoted ibid., p. 168. New York’s 1760 population: Michael G. Kammen, Colonial New York: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 [1975]), p. 279.

  75–76, Despite a booming

  The City Hall jail: Philip Klein, Prison Methods in New York State: A Contribution to the Study of the Theory and Practice of Correctional Institutions in New York State, Ph.D. thesis (New York: Columbia University, 1920), p. 32. City Hall housed a range of official bodies, including the Common Council, the Assembly, the Mayor’s Court, and the Supreme Court of Judicature. Sullivan’s near escape: New-York Mercury, April 26, 1756. Sullivan’s trial, conviction, and sentencing: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 91. The court records are available in the New York Supreme Court of Judicature Minute Book: April 1, 1754–January 22, 1757 (Engrossed), pp. 255, 261, and the New York Supreme Court of Judicature Minute Book: April 20, 1756–October 23, 1761 (Rough), pp. 10–12, 18–19; both items are held by the New York County Clerk’s office in Manhattan. “That the prisoner…”: the New York Supreme Court of Judicature Minute Book: April 1, 1754–January 22, 1757 (Engrossed), p. 261.

  76, The place of execution

  The place of execution: William Nelson, “The Administration of William Burnet, 1720–1728,” The Memorial History of the City of New-York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, vol. 2, ed. James Grant Wilson, p. 165. Postponing of Sullivan’s execution: New York Gazette: or, the Weekly Post-Boy, May 10, 1756, and Boston Evening-Post, May 17, 1756. “He is certainly…”: New York Gazette: or, the Weekly Post-Boy, May 10, 1756, quoted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, pp. 91–92.

  76, The best route

  The Bowling Green neighborhood and the artisanal wards on the west side: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, pp. 175, 187–188. Trees along Broadway and Trinity Church: Andrew Burnaby, Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North America in the Years 1759 and 1760 (New York: A. Wessels, 1904 [1775]), pp. 111–113.

  77, First Sullivan boasted

  The scene at the gallows: Sullivan, A
Short Account, pp. 11–12, and New-York Gazette: or, the Weekly Post-Boy, May 17, 1756, reprinted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, p. 141. Prices in New York: New-York Mercury, May 3, 1756.

  77–78, A century later

  Physiological effects associated with hanging: Charles Meymott Tidy, Legal Medicine, vol. 3 (New York: William Wood, 1884), pp. 241, 243–244.

  78, Killing the moneymaker

  “[I]t appears by…”: from the text of “An Act more effectually to Suppress and prevent the Counterfeiting of the Paper Currency of this Colony,” quoted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 93. Beecher’s efforts at capturing the remainder of the gang: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial America, pp. 208–209. Sullivan’s products had a long shelf life: “It is not improbable that much of the counterfeit money circulating in the province in 1758 originated with the Dutchess County Gang,” writes Scott in Counterfeiting in Colonial New York, p. 95.

  78–79, Sullivan’s posthumous paper

  Sale of gallows speech: New-York Mercury, May 17, 1756. “[t]aken from his own mouth”: Boston Evening-Post, April 30, 1756. Sullivan’s meager possessions when he stood trial are recorded in the New York Supreme Court of Judicature Minute Book: April 1, 1754–January 22, 1757 (Engrossed), p. 255.

  79, Sullivan’s career lasted

  Printing large amounts of paper money to fund the war effort: Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York: Vintage, 2001), p. 582.

  79–80, Americans couldn’t reform

  British monetary policy toward the colonies: Joseph Albert Ernst, Money and Politics in America, 1755–1775: A Study in the Currency Act of 1764 and the Political Economy of Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973), pp. 24–37, 39–40, and Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991 [1957]), pp. 25–26.

  80, The legal tender

  British creditors’ concerns: Ernst, Money and Politics in America, 1755–1775, pp. 40–41. The peace treaty: Anderson, Crucible of War, pp. 505–506. Louisbourg’s destruction: James D. Kornwolf with Georgiana W. Kornwolf, Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America, vol. 1 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 307–308.

  80–81, After the joy

  The war’s impact on the economy and the postwar depression: Anderson, Cru-cible of War, pp. 583, 588–591. The collapse of the Amsterdam firm Gebroe-ders Neufville in the summer of 1763 led to a panic throughout northern Europe.

  81, In a case

  “any bargains, contracts…”: Anderson, Crucible of War, p. 584. Currency Act of 1764: Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, p. 26, and Ernst, Money and Politics in America, 1755–1775, pp. 43–88, 90–133.

  81–82, On a summer night

  The scene of the attack: Malcolm Freiberg, “Thomas Hutchinson and the Province Currency,” New England Quarterly 30.2 (June 1957), pp. 207–208, and Edmund S. Morgan, “Thomas Hutchinson and the Stamp Act,” New England Quarterly 21.4 (December 1948), pp. 459–460. “threatened me with destruction…”: from Hutchinson’s letter to Henry Seymour Conway, dated October 1, 1765, quoted in Freiberg, “Thomas Hutchinson and the Province Currency,” pp. 207–208. Hutchinson’s refutation of the Declaration of Independence was entitled “Strictures Upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia: In a Letter to a Noble Lord,” published in London in 1776.

  82–83, The revolutionaries’ first

  Charles W. Calomiris, “Institutional Failure, Monetary Scarcity, and the Depreciation of the Continental,” Journal of Economic History 48.1 (March 1988), pp. 55–57, and Ralph Volney Harlow, “Aspects of Revolutionary Finance, 1775–1783,” American Historical Review 35.1 (October 1929), pp. 46–68. On June 22, 1775, the Continental Congress resolved to print bills of credit “for the defence of America”; see Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1905), p. 103. For the July 29 resolution concerning the retirement and redemption of continentals, see Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, pp. 221–223. Franklin’s designs: Jennifer J. Baker, Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), pp. 74–75, and Benjamin H. Irvin, “Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Enriching Virtues,’” Common-place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life 6.3 (April 2006), http://www.common-place.org.

  83–84, Despite Franklin’s graceful

  Legal tender policies: S. P. Breckinridge, Legal Tender: A Study in English and American Monetary History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1903), pp. 66–67. “treated as an enemy…”: from a resolution passed on January 11, 1776, in Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 4 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1906), p. 49. Continental losing half its value in three weeks and the March 1780 issue: Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), p. 137.

  84, Although Congress made

  States’ paper money issues during the war: Breckinridge, Legal Tender, pp. 68–71. British counterfeiting: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial America, pp. 253–263. “counterfeit Congress-Notes…”: from a newspaper advertisement dated April 14, 1777, quoted in Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial America, p. 254. “too illiberal…”: from a letter by the British commander, General Sir William Howe, to Washington, dated February 5, 1788, and quoted in Lynn Glaser, Counterfeiting in America: The History of an American Way to Wealth (Philadelphia: Clarkson N. Potter, 1968), p. 43. Capture of British warships with counterfeits aboard: Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial America, p. 255; and Glaser, Counterfeiting in America, pp. 41–42.

  84–85, The currency crisis

  “I am so angry…”: from a letter by an unidentified Pennsylvanian, reproduced in Henry Phillips Jr., Continental Paper Money: Historical Sketches of American Paper Currency, Second Series (Roxbury, MA: W. Elliot Woodward, 1866), pp. 104–105.

  85, Antigovernment feeling spilled

  Shays’s Rebellion: John R. Alden, A History of the American Revolution (New York: Da Capo, 1989 [1969]), pp. 508–511; Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, pp. 224–225; and Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, pp. 96–97. After 1779, the Congress stopped large-scale printing of continentals.

  85–86, The United States faced

  Impact of continentals crisis and states’ paper money on financial thinking: Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, pp. 91–99. “to ruin commerce…”: from a letter by Washington to Jabez Bowen of Rhode Island, dated January 9, 1787, quoted in George Bancroft, A Plea for the Constitution of the U.S. of America: Wounded in the House of Its Guardians (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886), p. 88.

  86, Thomas Paine took

  “is like putting…”: from Thomas Paine, Dissertations on Government, the Affairs of the Bank, and Paper Money (1786), in Thomas Paine, Thomas Paine Reader, ed. Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick (London: Penguin Books, 1987), p. 193.

  86, At the Constitutional Convention

  Debate at the Constitutional Convention: Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, pp. 91–95. “a friend to paper money”: Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911), p. 309.

  86–87, Opposition was predictably

  “if not struck out…” and “reject the whole…”: Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention, p. 310.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  91, On New Year’s Eve

  St. George’s United Methodist Church in Philadelphia was founded in 1769 and remains the oldest continuously used Methodist church in America. The Methodist vigil was called a “watch night”; see Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 65–67. Postwar growth in foreign trade and surge in patriotism: C. Edward Skeen, 1816: America Rising (Lexington,
KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2003), pp. 18–19, 27. War’s effect on westward expansion: Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), pp. 303–304. “Come, let us…”: from a hymn written by Charles Wesley, included in Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church With Tunes (New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1882), p. 354.

  91–92, About two hundred

  The story of New Year’s Eve at Bloody Run: Hill Wilson’s testimony at Lewis’s 1816 trial, Commonwealth v. David Lewis, Court of Oyer and Terminer, Bedford County (January and February Terms, 1816). The testimony appears in the -fifty-eight pages of trial transcript recorded by someone working for Charles Huston, Lewis’s defense lawyer, and currently held by the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. The pages are difficult to read, but portions of them are transcribed in a pair of articles written for a special edition of Centre County Heritage devoted entirely to Lewis: Douglas Macneal, “Uttering, Publishing and Passing—Counterfeiting in 1816” and “A Suspicious Camp, an Arrest in Bedford, and Showdown on the Sinnemahoning,” both in Centre County Heritage 24.2 (Fall 1987). All dialogue is taken from Wilson’s statements.

  92, Lewis was a man

  Physical description of Lewis: American Volunteer, May 9, 1816, and the record of Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Jail, where Lewis arrived as a prisoner in June 1816, both quoted in Mark Dugan, The Making of Legends: More Stories of Frontier America (Athens, OH: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1997), pp. 34–35.

  92, Wilson the tavern keeper

  Wilson was anxious because he feared how Lewis might react. “I felt uneasy,” he explains in his testimony, “because [Lewis] was suspected.”

  93, The sheriff later

  “Lewis said he…”: from the testimony of Thomas Moore, the sheriff, included in the fifty-eight-page trial transcript.