Chestnut Street National Bank

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 3723
Charter Number: 3723
Start Date: May 13, 1898
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (39.952, -75.164)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 762acf02

Response Measures

None

Receivership Details

Depositor recovery rate: 100.0%
Date receivership started: 1898-01-29
Date receivership terminated: 1916-09-30
OCC cause of failure: Fraud
Share of assets assessed as good: 43.2%
Share of assets assessed as doubtful: 12.1%
Share of assets assessed as worthless: 44.7%

Description

Article accuses Comptroller of failing to place the Chestnut Street National Bank in receivership earlier and states the bank finally caved in and should have been wound up. No explicit mention of a depositor run or temporary suspension/reopening — describes receiver/wind up (permanent closure). Date of article is 1898-05-13; failure timing is not precisely given in the text, so event date uses the article date as the latest known reference.

Events (4)

1. June 14, 1887 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

2. January 29, 1898 Receivership

Source: historical_nic

3. May 13, 1898 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: Developments of the Chestnut Street National Bank are revealing the character and sort of men Cleveland had in his Cabinet.
Source: newspapers

4. May 13, 1898 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: He knew two years before the bank finally caved in that its condition required that he should place it in the hands of a receiver and wind it up.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. May 13, 1898 The Midland Journal Rising Sun, MD

Article from The Midland Journal, May 13, 1898

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Article Text

# A Criminal Comptroller. Developments of the Chestnut Street National Bank are revealing the character and sort of men Cleveland had in his Cabinet. Conspicuous among them was little Eckels, Comptroller of the Treasury. He knew two years before the bank finally caved in that its condition required that he should place it in the hands of a receiver and wind it up. In place of performing his duty as he was bound to do if he did not violate the law, which act should place him in the penitentiary, he perambulated about the country making speeches at every bank association he could secure an invitation to attend. These speeches were little short of treason - if such a thing as treason to the United States were possible. The entire substance of his silly harangues was impugning and disparaging the lawful money of the country, casting doubt on the credit and integrity of the nation and its money, calculated to excite panic if perchance he had been possessed of sufficient ability and knowledge of financial affairs to have had any influence among the banking and money class. One reason for Eckels' favor to the Chesnut street bank was that its president owned the *Record* newspaper, and the paper could be compelled to support the gold conspiracy and gold swindle by holding a club over the editor and proprietor, who in turn brought all his persuasive and other influence to bear on the numerous employes in his extensive business. This species of bulldozing influence can be traced from government officials down through every avenue of business, regardless of nominal party lines, in the interest of the election of McKinley. The banks reward all their government tools when their official term expires, and Eckels could not be neglected lest the precedent might have a future bad influence, although every banker knew his utter unfitness for the position of a bank president. He was consequently, when his term of government office expired, given the presidency of a concern in Chicago. The scandalous course Eckels pursued while acting as Comptroller in Cleveland's corrupt administration, depicts the political corruption which the present monopoly national banking system is assisting to foster in the national government and spread through the entire business of the country. It is becoming the common remark among the petty business class, that so and so is a sharp fellow, and his dirty tricks in business are admired, when he demonstrates a faculty to over-reach and cheat honest people without getting outside the forms of law. Such men as Eckels in high places serve to lead the common herd away from the paths of rectitude and honesty, breeding immorality in business and rearing up a crop of rascals, a number of whom are so unskillful in their methods that they are not able to escape the penitentiary. The rottenness of Philadelphia in its municipal as well as its banking, and it may be inferred its other business, makes the Quaker city a fair companion piece for old Sodom. The Jew pawnbroker system of finance which is sapping the morals of business and robbing the masses, and which is called the gold standard, is filling the country in high life with thieves and in low life with poverty, and ex-Comptroller of the National Treasury with a penitentiary crime fastened upon him, unwhipped of justice and exalted to a high place in society by the class he served, is an object lesson of the corruption which is the creed of the church of modern Mammon. Low prices and hard times, with the example of the very rich are driving the people to resort to rascality as the chief method of success in business.