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HUGH See also: American financier,. was See also: born at Kennebunk, 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 branch of the old See also: state See also: bank of Indiana from 1835 to 1857, and 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 Lincoln in 1865, and was continued in office by President See also: Johnson until the close of his administration in 1869
.
In his first
See also: annual 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See also: month thereafter, but it met with strong opposition and was repealed on the 4th of See also: February 1868, after only $48,000,000 had been retired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 Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co
.
From See also: October 1884 until the close of President Arthur's term of office in March 1885 he was again secretary of the treasury
.
He died at his home near See also: Washington, D.C., on the 24th of May 1895
.
The 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 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 Melbourne to open a branch
.
In 1854, shortly after his arrival in See also: Victoria, he was appointed a nominee member of the Legislative 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 combination between a 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 coalition ministry introduced a number of measures which at the See also: time were regarded by the propertied classes in the 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 gold and the import duties upon See also: tea and See also: sugar, and of supplying the deficiency by the 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 general election of 1864 the ministerial policy was warmly opposed
.
But a majority was returned in its favour, and a new tariff was carried through the popular branch of the legislature
.
There was no probability of its being assented to by the Council, which, under the constitution, had the 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 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 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 governor to sign the necessary warrants for the 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 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 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 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 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 Lady Darling
.
The home government intimated that Sir Charles Darling must retire from the Colonial service if this 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, Viscount
See also: Canterbury, was less complaisant than his predecessor, but after an unsuccessful 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 long and bitter struggle between the twoSee 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 Stawell, had improperly refused a 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, Surrey
.
He was twice married—first, in 1841, to Susan, daughter of the Rev
.
James See also: Renwick, of Muirton, Scotland; secondly, in 1867, to See also: Margaret, daughter of William 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 conjunction with Leishman, Inglis & Co. of London, under the title of M'Culloch, Sellars & Co
.
He held several important commercial positions, and was president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce
.
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