Evening star., 1938-02-27

OHe o. WQSntngIOnS earliest
and most successful bankers.
be judged, matters of considerable
diplomatic Importance were handled by
the Secretaries holding Office for nearly
half a century, one of the most i'm
portant of these being the Treaty OF
Washington, or as it has also been
called the Ashburton Webster Treaty
because the negotiations were con-
Quoted by Lord Ashburton on benalt
OF Great Britain and by Daniel Web
ster for the United States Govern
ment.
The controversy was one of many
years standing and involved the
boundary line between the State OF
Maine and Canada. Like the deter
mining of the conditions of so many
documents. the solution depends en-
tire,y upon the Interpretation put upon
the phraseofogy. And so it was with
this dispute. Great Britain drew one
conclusion and our country quite an
other.
While the treaty was in the making,
both Lord Ashburton and Mr.. Webster
gave frequent dinner parties, to which
distinguished members of Congress
were invited as guests. Here, it is said,
Lord Ashburton offered his guests
the cream Of culinary perfection and
the gaStronomic art, with the rarest
wines, while at Mr.. Websters table
American delicacies were served in
American style. Maine salmon, Mas
sachusetts mackerel, New Jersey oys-
tiers, Florida shad Kentucky beef, West
Virginia mutton, Illinois prairie chick
ems, Virginia terrapin, Maryland crabs,
Delaware canvasback ducks and South
Carolina ricebirds were cooked by
Monica and served in a style that
made the banker diplomat admit their
superiority to the potages, sauces. en-
tremets, ragouts and desserts of mis-
Partisan white-capped manipulation OF
casSeroles'
Another one of the more important
treaties signed in the old State De-
partment was the one concluded there
on June is, 1886, whereby Oregon was
given to the United States. OF course
1t was again case of give and take,
and America wisely made concessions
along with Great Britain. However,
war was averted, and incidentally
Uncle Sam secured a clean title to an
area nearly equal to six States the size
OF New York. Oregon was made Ter
ritory in 1848, but later it was divided
into the States of Oregon and Wash
ington and portion was given to
Idaho.
MANY Of those who lived in Wash
ington during the horse-drawn
street car days also will recall the
corner at Fifteenth street, where is
the north front of the Treasury, for
its having been during this time the
transfer place for persons changing
cars to Georgetown or to the Four
teenth street line. And it is quite
certain that no one will ever forget
the man who handed out the little
tickets that permitted you to continue
on your trip and the little two-by-
four box he was permitted to stand
in during cold and inclement weather.
There are probably good and sanity
people in Washington today who as
children got transfers at this corner
to which they were not entitled, for
on dark nights especially, it was quite
easy to mingle with the transferring
crowd and bluff the agent into giving
you one of the little pasteboards.
This is an old bank neighborhood,
one of the pioneer banks being the
Bank of the Metropolis, organized in
1914, and having its first quarters on
the second floor of the building at
the northeast corner of F and Fiji
teenth street. Soon afterward it
moved to the first floor and subse-
quently to GLIB Fifteenth street, its
name being later changed to the
National Bank. This
bank was the outgrowth of the branch
bank of the United States, with its
office at the northeast corner of Thir-
teenth and F. streets, and which was
locally known as the Bank of Deposit
and Discount. It went out of existence
in 1911.
However, the Bank OF Columbia of
Georgetown had a branch office in
the Treasury building as early as 1912.
The Riggs National Bank occupies
the site of what is generally known
as the Second Bank of the United
States which was chartered in 1916
Tor 20 years, and when its charter ex-
pred 1t went out of existence. For
ABOUT year it occupied two rooms in
tne Treasury Building, when it re-
moved to the bank then at Thirteenth
and F streets, and afterward to its
present location.
JUST as the famous PHILADELPHIA
banking house of Girard had its
inception in 1912, In the Gripping of
OF the first Bank of the United States.
so did the Washington banking house
OF Riggs have its beginning in the
destruction, in 1886, of the second
Bank of the United States. Stephen
Girard, in 1872, acquired nearly all
the assets, and much of the business.
the first Bank of the United States.
and Corcoran and Riggs, "a years
later, did likewise in Washington.
after efforts to revive the second Bank
of the United States had failed.
When. in 1886, it became apparent
that the political enemies of the Bank
of the United States could not be
moved from their determination to
destroy it, Mr.. Corcoran resigned his
bank appointment and opened as q
private banker, or at least to do an
exchange and brokerage business. His
banking house was only dingy little
room, 8 or 10 feet by 16, on Pennsyl-
vania avenue near Fifteenth street,
and he had little capital; but he was
well and favorably known. and his
service was needed
The Cihsens' National Bank,
4