10692. Bank of St Louis (St Louis, MO)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type
state
Start Date
December 1, 1840*
Location
St Louis, Missouri (38.627, -90.198)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
10c680bb

Response Measures

None

Description

The provided articles discuss a Bank of Missouri in St. Louis that was compelled to suspend specie payments. The materials do not explicitly mention the 'Bank of St Louis' named in the prompt, so I mark bank_name_unsure=true. The articles describe a suspension of specie payments (a suspension rather than a depositor run); no permanent closure or receivership is mentioned and no run is described. I therefore classify as a suspension with an implied temporary suspension (suspension_reopening). OCR-corrected quotation: 'the Bank was compelled to suspend specie payments.' Dates of the newspapers are Dec 7, 1840 and Jan 23, 1841; the suspension is described in that timeframe.

Events (1)
1. December 1, 1840* Suspension
Cause Details
Political/legal and business policy conflict: bank refused to receive the currency in which the city traded and was 'compelled to suspend specie payments' amid disputes over bank powers and competition with insurance offices accepting notes instead of the bank; not described as a rumor, correspondent failure, or run-driven suspension in the articles.
Newspaper Excerpt
the Bank was compelled to suspend specie payments
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)
1. December 7, 1840 The Pilot and Transcript Baltimore, MD
Article from The Pilot and Transcript, December 7, 1840

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Article Text

COL. BENTON. This gentleman and his party professes to be opposed to bank monopolies, and are now illustrating the difference between profession and practice. They incorporated the present Bank of Missouri, elected a partizan Directory, and, chiefly by his agency, borrowed from the General Government funds toput it in motion. To foster this Bank, this anti-Bank party passed a law driving the agencies of the banks of other States, out of the State of Missouri.The Merchants of St. Louis opened accounts with the Bank, and by their deposites enabled that Institution to raise its discounts to more than two millions on a capital of $300,000 paid in. In the attempt to maintain the dogmas of Mr. Benton, the Bank was compelled to suspend specie payments, or to refuse to receive on deposite the currency in which the business of the city was carried on. In this emergency the merchants opened accounts with the Insurance offices, who received the current bank notes on deposite and discounted business paper on them. This has given of fence to Col. Benton, and he and his party are now pressing the Legislature to deprive the Insurance companies of this right, and thus force the merchants back into Mr. Benton's Bank.The following are the closing remarks of the Missouri Republican on this subject: "But admit, for the present, that this power

2. January 23, 1841 Southern Pioneer, and Carroll, Choctaw and Tallahatchie Counties Advertiser Carrollton, MS
Article from Southern Pioneer, and Carroll, Choctaw and Tallahatchie Counties Advertiser, January 23, 1841

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Article Text

COL. BENTON This gentleman and his party profess to be opposed to bank monopolies, and are now illustrating the difference between profession and practice. They incorporated the present Bank of Missouri, elected a partizan Directory, and chiefly by his agency, borrowed from the General Government funds to put it in motion. To foster this Bank, this anti-Bank party passed a law driving the agencies of the banks of other States, out of the State of Missouri.The Merchants of St. Louis opened accounts with the Bank, and by their deposites enabled that Institution to raise its discounts to more than two millions on a capital of $800,000 paid in. In the attempt to maintain the dogmas of Mr. Benton, the Bank was compelled to suspend specie payments; or to refuse to receive on deposite the currency in which the business of the city was carried on. In this emergency the merchants opened accounts with the Insuarnce offices, who received the current bank notes on deposite and discounted business paper on them. This has given of fence to Col. Benton, and he and his party are now pressing the Legislature to deprive the Insurance companies of this right, and thus force the merchants back into Mr. Benton's Bank. The following are the closing remarks of the Missouri Republican on this subject:--Pilot. "But admit, for the present, that this power does exist, and the Legislature may curtail the within insurance Companies what the result? Wil the community be forced back into the Bank? No: So long as the Bank's resolutions stand unrepealed, and she refuses to receive at her counter that currency which the whole community are compelled to receive as money, they cannot and will not go back to her. Break down these Insurance Companies and the trading community are driven, whether they will or not, into the hands of the Brokers and private capitalists. Brokers and capitalists will profit largely by the destruction, whilst every other portion of the community must suffer. This is the inevitable result of all the hurrah about the Insurance Companies. It is a new experiment, got up for the double purpose of forcing business into the Bank, and for carrying out the abstract theories of a few political demagogues."