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HUGH MACULLOCH (1808-1895)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 208 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUGH See also:MACULLOCH (1808-1895)  , See also:American financier,. was See also:born at Kennebunk, See also:Maine, on the 7th of See also:December 18o8 . He was educated at See also:Bowdoin See also:College, studied See also:law in See also:Boston, and in 1833 began practice at Fort See also:Wayne, See also:Indiana . He was See also:cashier and manager of the Fort Wayne See also:branch of the old See also:state See also:bank of Indiana from 1835 to 1857, and See also:president of the new state bank from 1857 to 1863 . Notwithstanding his opposition to the See also:National Banking See also:Act of 1862, he was selected by Secretary See also:Chase as See also:comptroller of the currency in 1863 to put the new See also:system into operation . His See also:work was so successful that he wasappointed secretary of the See also:treasury by President See also:Lincoln in 1865, and was continued in See also:office by President See also:Johnson until the See also:close of his See also:administration in 1869 . In his first See also:annual See also:report, issued on the 4th of December 1865, he strongly urged the retirement of the legal tenders or See also:greenbacks as a preliminary to the resumption of specie payments . In accordance with this See also:suggestion an act was passed, on the 12th of See also:March 1866, authorizing the retirement of not more than $1o,000,000 in six months and not more than $4,000,000 per See also:month thereafter, but it met with strong opposition and was repealed on the 4th of See also:February 1868, after only $48,000,000 had been retired . He was much disappointed by the decision of the See also:United States Supreme See also:Court upholding the constitutionality of the legal tenders (12 See also:Wallace 457) . Soon after the close of his See also:term of office McCulloch went to See also:England, and spent six years (187o-1876) as a member of the banking See also:firm of See also:Jay See also:Cooke, McCulloch & Co . From See also:October 1884 until the close of President See also:Arthur's term of office in March 1885 he was again secretary of the treasury . He died at his See also:home near See also:Washington, D.C., on the 24th of May 1895 . The See also:chief authority for the See also:life of McCulloch is his own See also:book, Men and See also:Measures of See also:Half a See also:Century (New See also:York, 1888) .

M'CULLOCH, See also:

SIR See also:JAMES (1819-1893), Australian statesman, was born in See also:Glasgow . He entered the See also:house of Dennistoun See also:Brothers, became a partner, and went to See also:Melbourne to open a branch . In 1854, shortly after his arrival in See also:Victoria, he was appointed a nominee member of the Legislative See also:Council, and in the first Legislative See also:Assembly under the new constitution was returned for the electorate of the Wimmera . In 1857 he was appointed See also:minister of See also:trade and customs in the second See also:ministry of Haines, which lasted till 1858, and subsequently he became treasurer in the See also:Nicholson administration, which held office from October 1859 to See also:November 186o . In See also:June 1862 the third O'Shanassy ministry was defeated by a See also:combination between a See also:section of its supporters led by M'Culloch and the opposition proper under Heales, and M'Culloch became premier and chief secretary . Hitherto he had been regarded as a supporter of the landed, squatting and importing interests, but the See also:coalition ministry introduced a number of measures which at the See also:time were regarded by the propertied classes in the See also:colony as revolutionary . In addition to passing a See also:Land See also:Bill, which extended the principle of See also:free selection and deferred payments, the ministry announced their intention of reducing the duties on the export of See also:gold and the import duties upon See also:tea and See also:sugar, and of supplying the deficiency by the See also:imposition of duties ranging from 5 to 1o% upon a number of articles which entered into competition with the See also:local See also:industries, thus introducing See also:protection . The See also:mercantile community took alarm at the proposal, and at the See also:general See also:election of 1864 the ministerial policy was warmly opposed . But a See also:majority was returned in its favour, and a new See also:tariff was carried through the popular branch of the legislature . There was no See also:probability of its being assented to by the Council, which, under the constitution, had the See also:power of rejecting, although it could not amend, any See also:money Bill . The See also:government therefore decided upon tacking the tariff to the See also:Appropriation Bill, and compelling the Council either to agree to the new fiscal proposals or to refuse to pay the public creditors and the See also:civil servants . The Council accepted the See also:challenge, and rejected the Appropriation Bill .

But M'Culloch and his colleagues would not give way . They continued to collect the new duties under the authority of the Assembly, and took See also:

advantage of a clause in the See also:Audit Act which directed the See also:governor to sign the necessary warrants for the See also:payment of any sum awarded by verdicts in the supreme court in favour of persons who had sued the government . M'Culloch borrowed £40,000 from the See also:London Chartered Bank, of which he was a director, to meet pressing payments, and the bank at his instigation sued the government for the amount of the advance . The See also:attorney-general at once accepted See also:judgment, and the governor, who had placed himself unreservedly in the hands of his ministers, signed the necessary See also:warrant, and the Treasury repaid to the bank the amount of its advance, plus See also:interest and See also:costs . In the next session the tariff was again sent up to the Council, which promptly rejected it, whereupon the ministry dissolved the assembly and appealed to the See also:country . The result of the general election was to increase M`Culloch's majority, and the tariff was again sent to the Council, only to be again rejected . M'Culloch resigned, but no member of the opposition was willing to See also:form a ministry, and he resumed office . Eventually a See also:conference between the two houses was held, and the Council passed the tariff, after a few modifications in it had been agreed to by the Assembly . Just at the moment that See also:peace was restored, the governor, Sir See also:Charles See also:Darling, was recalled by the home government, on the ground that he had displayed partisanship by assisting M'Culloch's government and their majority in the Assembly to coerce the Council . In See also:order to show their gratitude to the dismissed governor, the Assembly decided to See also:grant a sum of £20,000 to See also:Lady Darling . The home government intimated that Sir Charles Darling must retire from the Colonial service if this See also:gift were accepted by his wife, but M'Culloch included the money in the annual Appropriation Bill, with the result that it was rejected by the Council . The new governor, See also:Viscount See also:Canterbury, was less complaisant than his predecessor, but after an unsuccessful See also:attempt to obtain other advisers, he agreed to recommend the Council to pass the Appropriation Bill with the £20,000 grant included .

The Upper House declined to adopt this course, and again rejected the Bill . A See also:

long and See also:bitter struggle between the two See also:Chambers ended in another general election in 1868, which still further increased the ministerial majority; but See also:Lord Canterbury, in obedience to instructions from the colonial office, declined to do anything to facilitate the passage of the Darling grant . M'Culloch resigned, and after protracted negotiations Sir Charles Sladen formed from the minority in the Assembly a ministry which only lasted two months . The deadlock seemed likely to become more stringent than ever, when a communication was received from Sir Charles Darling, that neither he nor his wife could receive anything like a donation from the See also:people of Victoria . The attempt to pass the grant was therefore abandoned, and in See also:July 1868 M'Culloch resumed office with different colleagues, but resigned in the following See also:year, when he was knighted . He formed a third ministry in 1870 . During this third administration he passed a measure through both Houses which secured a life See also:annuity of £1000 per annum to Lady Darling . Additional See also:taxation being necessary, Sir James M'Culloch was urged by his protectionist supporters to increase the import duties, but he refused, and proposed to provide for the deficit by levying a tax upon See also:town, suburban and country See also:property . This proposal was defeated in the Assembly; Sir James resigned in June 1871, and was appointed See also:agent-general for Victoria in London . He held that See also:appointment till 1873, was created K.C.M.G. in 1874, returned to the colony the same year, and in 1875 formed his See also:fourth and last ministry, which kept power till May 1877, when his party was defeated at the general election . During his eighteen months of office he had to encounter a persistent opposition from See also:Berry and his followers, who systematically obstructed the business of the Assembly, on the ground that the acfing-governor, Sir See also:William See also:Stawell, had improperly refused a See also:dissolution . Sir .

James M'Culloch, to counteract this obstruction, invented the See also:

closure, which was afterwards introduced with some modifications into the house of See also:commons . After' his defeat in 1877 Sir James retired from public life and returned to England, where he died on the 3oth of See also:January 1893 at See also:Ewell, See also:Surrey . He was twice married—first, in 1841, to Susan, daughter of the Rev . James See also:Renwick, of Muirton, See also:Scotland; secondly, in 1867, to See also:Margaret, daughter of William See also:Inglis, of Walflat, See also:Dumbartonshire . He See also:left the house of Dennistoun Brothers in 1862, and founded a new firm at Melbourne in See also:conjunction with Leishman, Inglis & Co. of London, under the See also:title of M'Culloch, Sellars & Co . He held several important commercial positions, and was president of the Melbourne Chamber of See also:Commerce . (G . C .

End of Article: HUGH MACULLOCH (1808-1895)
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