J. P. Morgan

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913)<ref name=brit>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

Over the course of his career on Wall Street, Morgan spearheaded the formation of several prominent multinational corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and General Electric. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses including Aetna, Western Union, the Pullman Car Company, and 21 railroads.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His grandfather Joseph Morgan was one of the co-founders of Aetna. Through his holdings, Morgan exercised enormous influence over capital markets in the United States. During the Panic of 1907, he organized a coalition of financiers that saved the American monetary system from collapse.

As the Progressive Era's leading financier, Morgan's dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform the shape of the American economy.<ref name=brit/> Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America's "greatest banker."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, J. P. Morgan Jr. Biographer Ron Chernow estimated his fortune at $80Template:Spacesmillion (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year).<ref name="bioofamerica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Childhood and education

File:Junius Spencer Morgan - Project Gutenberg eText 17976.jpg

His father Junius Spencer Morgan guided his son's early career and established the Morgan banking house with offices in London, New York, Philadelphia, and Paris.

John Pierpont Morgan was born on April 17, 1837, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Junius Spencer Morgan (1813–1890), of the influential Morgan family.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>, and Juliet Pierpont (1816–1884). His father, Junius, was then a partner at Howe Mather & Co., the largest dry goods wholesaler in Hartford. His mother Juliet was the daughter of the poet John Pierpont.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> His uncle James Lord Pierpont composed the famous Christmas song "Jingle Bells".

Morgan preferred to be called "Pierpont", as opposed to "John".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1847, when Morgan was ten years old, his grandfather Joseph Morgan died and left the family a large fortune. He was educated in public and private schools in New England, where he attended West Middle School and Cheshire Academy.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Junius soon became a senior partner at the rechristened Mather Morgan & Co.Template:Sfn

In September 1851, he passed the entrance exam for The English High School of Boston, which specialized in mathematics for careers in commerce. In April 1852, he suffered from rheumatic fever, an illness whose symptoms became more severe as his life progressed and ultimately left him in such pain that he could not walk.<ref name=":0"/> Junius sent him to the Azores to recover. He convalesced there for almost a year, then returned to Boston to resume his studies.Template:Sfn

In 1856, his father sent him to Bellerive, a school in the Swiss village of La Tour-de-Peilz, where he gained fluency in French.<ref name=":0"/> His father then sent him to the University of Göttingen to improve his German.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He attained passable fluency and a degree in art history within six months, completing his studies in 1857.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

J.S. Morgan & Co.: 1858–1871

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Early view (c. 1855) of 229, 225 and 219 Madison Avenue before the street was paved

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} After completing his education, Morgan went to London in August 1857 to join his father, now a partner in the merchant banking firm George Peabody & Co.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn For the next fourteen years, he worked as his father's American representative in a series of affiliated New York City banking houses, learning the trade and lifestyle of a bank partner: Duncan, Sherman & Company (1858–1861), his own firm J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. (1861–1864), and finally Dabney Morgan (1864–1872).Template:Citation needed Dabney, Morgan & Company was co-founded by Charles H. Dabney and Jim Goodwin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Duncan, Sherman & Company: 1858–1861

Morgan soon moved on to New York City to begin work at Duncan Sherman as a junior clerk.Template:Sfn Through his father's reputation and his position as the obvious successor to the Peabody house, he was among the most sought-after young men on Wall Street and enjoyed the company of many of New York's leading citizens.Template:Sfn Morgan held a great deal of independence in both his investment decisions and lifestyle, owing partly to his father's faith in Morgan's austere religious discipline. "Remember," J.S. Morgan wrote his son, "that there is an Eye above that is ever upon you and that for every act, word, and deed you will one day be called to give account."Template:Sfn He adopted a serious, energetic approach to his work and was praised by his father's friends for his work ethic and capacity for business.Template:Sfn

At the time Morgan entered the firm, Peabody & Co. was struggling in the wake of the Panic of 1857, a rash of business failures which dramatically damaged investor confidence in American securities. Peabody & Co., whose business was focused on the United States, was particularly threatened when a few of its American correspondent banks were forced to suspend operations.Template:Sfn The house's creditors, including Baring Brothers, demanded payment; Peabody defied them, daring his rivals to put him out of business, and turned to the Bank of England for a loan in November 1857. Morgan himself expressed surprise that the famed Barings house was not more accommodating.Template:Sfn The loan secured the house's survival and the London office was stabilized, but Duncan Sherman came under criticism on Wall Street, and the Mercantile Agency recommended its dissolution. J. P. Morgan urged his father to stand by Duncan Sherman in the face of "outrageous" reports "of Browns & Barings getting the credit for what they never did."Template:Sfn

While at Duncan Sherman, Morgan acquired experience in the financing and reorganization of railroads, including the major Ohio & Mississippi and Illinois Central lines, for which he personally negotiated the loans. Most of his work involved collecting and transmitting interest and dividend payments, executing orders on the New York Stock Exchange, and conducting credit checks on mercantile houses doing business with Peabody & Co.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Starting in early January 1859, Morgan spent several months in the South to visit the firm's correspondents in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana and to improve his knowledge of the cotton trade.Template:Sfn He briefly visited Cuba, where he developed a lifelong taste for Cuban cigars.Template:Sfn Most of his time in the South was spent in New Orleans, a leading cotton export hub. He received a stern warning from Duncan Sherman when he conducted an unauthorized trade of coffee at a profit, which he considered his first totally independent transaction.Template:Sfn Later that summer, he visited his father in London. They discussed the prospects of Morgan's going into business for himself, and Morgan courted Amelia Sturges, whom he later married.Template:Sfn

J. Pierpont Morgan & Co.: 1861–1864

As the American Civil War began, business slowed, delaying Morgan's efforts to open his own office.Template:Sfn He opened J. Pierpont Morgan & Company some time between April and July 1861,Template:Sfn conducting operations out of a one-room office at 53 Exchange Place. As he anticipated, most of his business was for his father and consistent with the work he had managed at Duncan Sherman.Template:Sfn Morgan avoided serving during the war by paying a substitute $300 to take his place.Template:Sfn

The Civil War radically altered Morgan's focus by virtually eliminating his cotton business and drastically reducing iron imports for American railroads in favor of securities and foreign exchange operations.Template:Sfn The Morgans, trading through J. P.'s New York office, made a large profit in the purchase and sale of Union bonds once the Battle of Antietam turned the war in the Union's favor.Template:Sfn The Morgans also expanded their trade in European securities during a period of industrial expansion, financed by a large deposit from W. W. Corcoran after he liquidated his American holdings out of sympathy for the Confederate cause.Template:Sfn

Morgan also profited in gold after specie payments were suspended in 1862; its price was largely pegged to the possibility of a Union victory. In October 1863, he and Edward B. Ketchum transferred $1.15 million (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) in gold to England, forcing a price spike and allowing both men to sell their holdings at a large profit. Critics have long considered the deal a speculative effort to corner the American gold market and evidence of Morgan's insensitivity to the nation's financial situation, although the economic consequences were ultimately minor.Template:Sfn

In 1862, Morgan made his cousin, James Goodwin, a partner. The firm received a serious boost when Morgan's father succeeded George Peabody as head of the London office. J.S. Morgan transferred all of the firm's remaining commercial credit and securities accounts from Duncan Sherman, and by the end of 1862, J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. was considered one of the stronger private banking houses on Wall Street.Template:Sfn

Hall Carbine Affair

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In August 1861, Morgan lent $20,000 (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) to Simon Stevens, a well-connected New York City attorney and former secretary to Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens used the money to purchase five thousand carbines for resale to General John C. Frémont, commander of the Department of the West.Template:Sfn The carbines in question were developed by John H. Hall and manufactured by Simeon North, purchased by the U.S. government, and resold to arms dealer Arthur M. Eastman for $3.50 apiece in June 1861 (Template:Inflation). After the Union defeat at Bull Run placed a premium on arms, Stevens used the Morgan loan to purchase the rifles from Eastman at $11.50 apiece and immediately resold them to Frémont, a longtime acquaintance, at $22 each.Template:Sfn

During the loan's thirty-eight day duration, Morgan held title to the carbines and assumed responsibility for having their barrels replaced with rifled ones before shipment to Frémont. Stevens approached Morgan for another loan, which Morgan refused, instead asking Stevens for the $20,000 on the original loan and attempting to remove himself from the transaction. On September 14, Morgan received $55,000 from the Army for the carbines, deducted the face value of the loan plus expenses and interest, and passed the remainder to Stevens.Template:Sfn

By September, when Morgan received payment, the deal was already controversial. Military officials felt Frémont had overpaid, and an 1863 House of Representatives report indicted the profiteers as "worse than traitors in arms." Though Morgan was neither criticized nor censured during contemporary investigations, his name remained connected with the Hall Carbine Affair for many years.Template:Citation needed

Debate over Morgan's knowledge and involvement became a cause célèbre within his lifetime, attracting a wide range of commentary, and the debate has persisted long after his death.<ref name=Wasson>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Interest in Morgan's role in the affair was rekindled in 1910 with the publication of Gustavus Myers' History of the Great American Fortunes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Myers claimed the rifles were more likely to blow the rifleman's thumb off than they were to cause any damage to the enemy. An earlier version of the carbine rifle was known to be subject to this problem.<ref name=":2"/> R. Gordon Wasson, later the head of public relations for J.P. Morgan & Co., argued that there was no evidence Morgan knew that he was participating in a scheme to profit.<ref name=Wasson/> Vincent Carosso, author of an academic history of the Morgan house, concurs that Stevens "used Morgan's name" to cover his greed and that "none of the evidence suggested that Morgan himself had been a party to the shabby contract or had participated in its profits," though he "failed to exercise the care and caution that he had demonstrated two years earlier in the New Orleans coffee deal."Template:Sfn Matthew Josephson, who popularized the term "robber baron", asserted that Morgan certainly did know of the scheme, because he had presented the government with a bill for $58,175 before he delivered the remaining rifles that were being held as collateral.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Reviewing the evidence, Charles Morris also concluded that it was "implausible" that Morgan did not know about the source of his profits.Template:Sfn

Dabney, Morgan & Co.: 1864–1872

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Morgan photographed Template:Circa

On October 1, 1864, George Peabody retired completely from the rechristened J. S. Morgan & Co. and agreed to reinvest his share of the partnership with the firm. In an effort to expand the business internationally, Junius Morgan hired Dabney on November 15 as a senior partner. Dabney, a fifty-seven-year-old partner at Duncan Sherman, was widely respected in the business community for his accounting skill and integrity. In the reconfigured firm, J. P. Morgan took on primary responsibility for recruiting new business.Template:Sfn

Both Dabney Morgan and J.S. Morgan & Co. remained focused on merchant banking and commodities into the 1870s. Between 1863 and 1873, the firm's profits from its securities business only exceeded its commissions on trade in 1865.Template:Sfn Dabney Morgan traded globally in a variety of commodities, including iron rails, American cotton, Philippine tobacco, Brazilian coffee, and Peruvian guano. Beginning on the advice of Levi P. Morton in 1865, J. P. Morgan secured an exclusive four-year contract with the Peruvian government to export guano, used in the production of fertilizer and gunpowder, at a two-and-a-half percent commission.Template:Citation needed

To the extent the firm engaged in securities trading, the focus was railroad stock and government bonds. However, railroad construction had halted during the Civil War. Construction did not recover until after 1867, when the firm of Jay Cooke & Company in Philadelphia dominated in getting American government financing.Template:Sfn In 1866, J. S. Morgan & Co. did make a "considerable sum" selling shares of the Atlantic Telegraph Company after the trans-Atlantic telegraph wire was laid. Despite this success, the firm's creditor, Brown Shipley, declined to expand Morgan's line of credit, stating the company was no better than a speculative trader in securities.Template:Citation needed

Drexel Morgan & Co.: 1871–1895

In 1871, at the behest of J.S. Morgan, the Philadelphia financier Anthony Joseph Drexel became J. P.'s mentor. They formed Drexel Morgan & Co.Template:Sfn This new merchant banking partnership, based in New York, served as an agent for European investment in the United States and assumed the leading role in financing America's railroads and stabilizing and revitalizing American securities markets. The firm created a national capital market for industrial companies, which had previously existed only for railroads and canals. Drexel Morgan also played an important role in government finance. To restore investor confidence, Drexel Morgan underwrote the pay of the entire U.S. Army in 1877 and bailed out the U.S. government during the Panic of 1895.Template:Sfnp

Railroad investments and management

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Bond of the New Jersey Junction Railroad Company, issued 30. June 1886, reverse side with signatures of John Pierpont Morgan and Harris C. Fahnestock as trustees

In his ascent to power, Morgan focused on America's largest business enterprises: railroads.Template:Sfn He led the syndicate that broke the government-financing privileges of Jay CookeTemplate:When and developed and financed a national railroad empire by reorganization and consolidation. He raised large sums in Europe, and especially through the American rails section of the London Stock Exchange.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Rather than participating solely as a financier, he actively managed and reorganized the railroad corporations, increasing efficiency<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and acting as an early pioneer in the practice of private equity investing, a process that became known as "Morganization."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 1883, Morgan successfully marketed a large part of William H. Vanderbilt's New York Central holdings. In 1885, he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad and leased it to the New York Central.<ref>Albro Martin, Albro. "Crisis of Rugged Individualism: The West Shore-South Pennsylvania Railroad Affair, 1880-1885." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 93.2 (1969): 218-243. online Template:Webarchive</ref> In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act. Morgan set up industry conferences in 1889 and 1890 which paved the way for a wave of consolidations in the early 20th century. In an unprecedented move, he brought together railroad presidents to follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates." The first of their kind, the conferences created a community of interest among competing lines, paving the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

J.P. Morgan & Company: 1895–1913

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} After the death of Anthony Drexel, the firm was renamed J. P. Morgan & Company in 1895, retaining close ties with Drexel & Company of Philadelphia; Morgan, Harjes & Company of Paris; and J.S. Morgan & Company (after 1910 Morgan, Grenfell & Company) of London. By 1900, it was one of the world's most powerful banking houses, focused primarily on reorganizations and consolidations.Template:Citation needed

Morgan had many partners over the years, such as George Walbridge Perkins, but always remained firmly in charge.Template:Sfn His international reputation as a financier began to draw investors to the businesses that he took over.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Panic of 1893 and election of 1896

At the depths of the Panic of 1893, around 1895, the U.S. Treasury nearly depleted its gold reserves. Morgan put forward a plan for the federal government to buy gold from his and European banks, but it was declined in favor of a plan to sell government bonds directly to the general public. Morgan demanded a meeting with President Grover Cleveland, where he claimed the United States government could default that day if action was not taken.Template:Citation needed

Morgan came up with a plan to use an old Civil War statuteTemplate:Which that allowed Morgan and the Rothschilds to sell 3.5 million ounces<ref>The value of the gold would have been approximately $72 million at the official price of $20.67 per ounce (equal to $Template:Inflation today) at the time. "Historical Gold Prices – 1833 to Present"; National Mining Association; retrieved December 22, 2011.</ref> of gold directly to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for a 30-year bond issue.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The episode saved the Treasury but hurt Cleveland's standing with the populist agrarian wing of the Democratic Party, ensuring his political career was over. In the 1896 United States presidential election, bankers came under a withering attack from William Jennings Bryan, and Morgan was among many who donated heavily to Republican William McKinley.<ref name="test">Gordon, John Steele (Winter 2010). Template:Webarchive, American Heritage.com; retrieved December 22, 2011; archived from the original on July 10, 2010.</ref>

Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe station: 1900

In 1900, the inventor Nikola Tesla convinced Morgan he could build a trans-Atlantic wireless communication system based on his theories of Earth and atmospheric electrical conduction (eventually sited at Wardenclyffe) that would outperform the short-range radio wave-based wireless telegraph system then being demonstrated by Guglielmo Marconi. In what may have been a philanthropic investment,<ref>Carlson, W. Bernard (2013). Tesla, Inventor of the Electrical Age. Princeton University Press, page 317</ref> Morgan gave Tesla $150,000 (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) to build the system and Tesla offered him a 51% control of the patents. Almost as soon as the letter of agreement was signed, Tesla decided to scale up the facility to include his ideas of terrestrial wireless power transmission to make what he thought was a more competitive system.<ref name="teslatech.info">Template:Cite journal</ref> Morgan refused to give Tesla any further money towards the project and, with Tesla unable to secure further investment capital, Wardenclyffe's development stalled and the site was abandoned by 1906.<ref name="teslatech.info"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Northern Securities: 1901–1904

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Portrait of J. P. Morgan; Cutthroat Capitalist –Oil on canvas by Fedor Encke, 1903

The Northern Pacific Railway went bankrupt in the Panic of 1893. The bankruptcy wiped out the railroad's bondholders, leaving it free of debt, and a complex financial battle for its control ensued. In 1901, a compromise was reached between Morgan, New York financier E. H. Harriman and Minnesota railroad builder James J. Hill. To reduce competition in the Midwest, they created the Northern Securities Company to merge three of the region's most important railways: the Northern Pacific Railway, the Great Northern Railway, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The parties ran into unexpected opposition from President Theodore Roosevelt, who considered the merger bad for consumers and a violation of the seldom enforced Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1902, Roosevelt ordered Attorney General Philander Knox to sue to break it up. In 1904, the Supreme Court dissolved the Northern Security company; though Morgan did not lose money, his all-powerful political reputation suffered.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

U.S. Steel: 1901–1913

In 1900, Morgan began talks to purchase Andrew Carnegie's steel business and merge it with several other steel, coal, mining and shipping firms. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company, Morgan merged it with the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses (including William Edenbirn's Consolidated Steel and Wire Company) in 1901, forming the United States Steel Corporation. U.S. Steel was the world's first billion-dollar company, with an authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion, much larger than any other industrial firm and comparable in size to the largest railroads.Template:Citation needed

U.S. Steel's goals were to achieve greater economies of scale, reduce transportation and resource costs, expand product lines, and improve distribution to allow the United States to compete globally with the United Kingdom and Germany.<ref name="steel">Template:Cite news</ref> U.S. Steel president Charles M. Schwab and others claimed the company's size would enable it to be more aggressive and effective in pursuing distant international markets.<ref name="steel"/> Critics regarded U.S. Steel as a monopoly, as it sought to dominate not only steel, but also the construction of bridges, ships, railroad cars, rails, wire, nails, and many other products. With U.S. Steel, Morgan captured two-thirds of the steel market, and Schwab was confident that the company would soon hold a 75% market share.<ref name="steel"/>

U.S. Steel also faced criticism for its labor policies. U.S. Steel was non-union and used aggressive tactics to identify and root out pro-union "troublemakers." The lawyers and bankers who had organized the merger, including Morgan, were more concerned with long-range profits, stability, good public relations, and avoiding trouble. His views generally prevailed, and the result was a "paternalistic" labor policy.Template:Sfn

Failed London Underground line: 1902

Morgan suffered a rare business defeat in 1902 when he attempted to build and operate a line on the London Underground. Transit magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes thwarted Morgan's effort to obtain parliamentary authority to build the Piccadilly, City and North East London Railway, a subway line that would have competed with "tube" lines controlled by Yerkes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Morgan called Yerkes' coup "the greatest rascality and conspiracy I ever heard of".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

International Mercantile Marine and RMS Titanic: 1902–1913

In 1902, J.P. Morgan & Co. financed the formation of International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMMC), an Atlantic shipping company which absorbed several major American and British lines, in an attempt to monopolize the shipping trade. Morgan hoped to dominate transatlantic shipping through interlocking directorates and contractual arrangements with the railroads, but that proved impossible because of the unscheduled nature of sea transport, American antitrust legislation, and an agreement with the British government.Template:Citation needed

Morgan had booked a luxury suite with a private promenade deck on the Template:RMS and scheduled to sail on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the ship, which was owned by an IMMC subsidiary, White Star Line, but those plans were later changed.Template:Sfn<ref>Steven H. Gittelman, J.P. Morgan and the Transportation Kings: The Titanic and Other Disasters, University Press of America, 2012, pages 286-287</ref> The ship's famous sinking was a financial disaster for IMMC. Analysis of financial records shows that IMMC was over-leveraged and suffered from inadequate cash flow causing it to default on bond interest payments.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>Steven H. Gittelman, J. P. Morgan and the Transportation Kings: The Titanic and Other Disasters (Lanham: University Press of America, 2012).</ref>

In response to the sinking, Morgan purportedly said:

Monetary losses amount to nothing in life. It is the loss of life that counts. It is that frightful death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

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Panic of 1907

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Morgan's overpowering role in the American economy was demonstrated in this political cartoon

The Panic of 1907 was a financial crisis that almost crippled the American economy. Major New York banks were on the verge of bankruptcy and there was no mechanism to rescue them, until Morgan stepped in to help resolve the crisis.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn To ease the crisis, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou earmarked $35 million of federal money to deposit in New York banks.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Morgan then met with the nation's leading financiers in his New York mansion, where he forced them to devise a plan to meet the crisis. James Stillman, president of the National City Bank, also played a central role. Morgan organized a team of bank and trust executives which redirected money between banks, secured further international lines of credit, and bought up the plummeting stocks of healthy corporations.Template:Sfn

A delicate issue arose regarding the brokerage firm of Moore and Schley, which was deeply invested in the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI). Moore and Schley had used over $6 million of TCI stock as collateral for loans to Wall Street banks, which the firm now could not pay. If Moore and Schley failed, it could precipitate a larger crisis. Thus, Morgan proposed merging the TCI with U.S. Steel, one of its chief competitors.Template:Citation needed

U.S. Steel president Elbert Gary agreed, but was concerned that antitrust implications could obstruct the merger. Morgan sent Gary to see President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised legal immunity for the deal. U.S. Steel thereupon paid $30 million for the TCI stock and Moore and Schley was saved. The announcement had an immediate effect; by November 7, 1907, the panic was over.Template:Sfn

Criticisms and investigations

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"I Like a Little Competition"—J. P. Morgan, pen and ink by Art Young, relating to the answer Morgan gave to the Pujo Committee in 1912, when asked whether he disliked competition.Template:Sfn

While conservatives hailed Morgan for civic responsibility, strengthening the national economy, and devotion to the arts and religion, critics of banking and consolidation viewed him as one of the leading figures in the system they rejected.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They attacked Morgan for the terms of his 1895 loan of gold to the U.S. Treasury. Many,Template:Who including writer Upton Sinclair, attacked him for his handling of the Panic of 1907.Template:How

In December 1912, Morgan testified before the Pujo Committee, a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency committee. The committee ultimately concluded that a small number of financial leaders was exercising considerable control over many industries. The partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. and directors of First National and National City Bank controlled aggregate resources of $22.245 billion, which Louis Brandeis compared to the value of all the property in the twenty-two states west of the Mississippi River.Template:Sfn

In the early 2000s, an investigation by historian James Lide discovered that through parts of its business, JPMorgan Chase accepted thousands of slaves as collateral on loans made to plantation owners in the early 19th century, and that it ended up owning several hundred slaves.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The banks in question, Citizens' Bank and Canal Bank, both now part of JPMorgan, served plantations from the 1830s until the American Civil War, and sometimes took ownership of slaves when the plantation owners defaulted on loans. JPMorgan estimated that between 1831 and 1865, the two banks accepted approximately 13,000 slaves as collateral and ended up owning about 1,250 slaves. An apology was made in compliance with a rule requiring companies to detail past dealings with the slave trade when doing business with the city of Chicago.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

List of Morgan corporations

From 1890 to 1913, 42 major corporations were organized or their securities were underwritten, in whole or part, by J.P. Morgan and Company.<ref>Meyer Weinberg, ed. America's Economic Heritage (1983) 2: 350.Template:ISBN needed</ref>

Manufacturing and construction industry

• Aetna Inc.
• American Bridge Company
• American Can Company
• American Telephone & Telegraph
• Atlas Portland Cement Company
• Boomer Coal & Coke
• Consolidated Edison
• DuPont
• Federal Steel Company
• General Electric
• General Motors
• Hartford Carpet Corporation
• Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company
• International Harvester
• International Mercantile Marine
• International Telephone & Telegraph
• J. I. Case Threshing Machine
• Kennecott Copper
• National Tube
• Montgomery Ward
• Pullman Car Company
• United Dry Goods
• United States Steel Corporation
• Western Union

Railroads

• Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
• Atlantic Coast Line
• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
• Central of Georgia Railway
• Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
• Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
• Chicago Great Western Railway
• Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad
• Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway
• Erie Railroad
• Florida East Coast Railway
• Great Northern Railway
• Hocking Valley Railway
• Jersey Central Railroad
• Lehigh Valley Railroad
• Louisville and Nashville Railroad
• New York Central System
• New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
• New York, Ontario and Western Railway
• New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway
• Nickel Plate Road
• Northern Pacific Railway
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• Pere Marquette Railroad
• Reading Railroad
• St. Louis–San Francisco Railway
• Southern Railway
• Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis

Personal life

Marriages and children

File:J.P. Morgan and J.P. Morgan Jr.png

J. P. Morgan walking alongside his son in the last known photograph of the two together (ca. 1913)

In October 1861, Morgan married Amelia "Memi" Sturges (1835–1862) at her home on 5 East Fourteenth Street. He had courted her for two years, and when they married, Memi was already seriously ill with tuberculosis. Morgan had to carry her to the drawing room for a small private ceremony and afterwards to the carriage which took them to the pier. They travelled to Algiers, where he hoped the warm climate would restore their health, but it did not, and she died in Nice in February 1862, four months and ten days after their marriage.Template:Sfn

On May 31, 1865, Morgan married Frances Louisa "Fanny" Tracy (1842–1924), whom he met at St. George's Church. They had four children:

• Louisa Pierpont Morgan (1866–1946), who married Herbert L. Satterlee (1863–1947)Template:Sfn
• J. P. Morgan Jr. (1867–1943), who succeeded his father and married Jane Norton Grew
• Juliet Pierpont Morgan (1870–1952), who married William Pierson Hamilton (1869–1950), a grandson of John Church Hamilton
• Anne Tracy Morgan (1873–1952), philanthropist

Appearance

File:J. P. Morgan beating a photographer with his stick.jpg

Morgan was self-conscious about his rosacea and hated being photographed without permission.

Morgan often had a tremendous physical effect on people; one man said that a visit from Morgan left him feeling "as if a gale had blown through the house."<ref name="bioofamerica"/> He was physically large with massive shoulders, piercing eyes, and a purple nose.Template:Sfn He was known to dislike publicity and hated being photographed without his permission; as a result of his self-consciousness of his rosacea, all of his professional portraits were retouched.Template:Sfn His deformed nose was due to a disease called rhinophyma, which can result from rosacea. As the deformity worsens, pits, nodules, fissures, lobulations, and pedunculation contort the nose. This condition inspired the crude taunt "Johnny Morgan's nasal organ has a purple hue."<ref>Kennedy, David M., and Lizabeth Cohen; The American Pageant; Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 2006. p. 541.</ref> Surgeons could have shaved away the rhinophymous growth of sebaceous tissue during Morgan's lifetime, but as a child he suffered from infantile seizures, and Morgan's son-in-law, Herbert L. Satterlee, has speculated that he did not seek surgery for his nose because he feared the seizures would return.Template:Sfn

His social and professional self-confidence were too well established to be undermined by this affliction. It appeared as if he dared people to meet him squarely and not shrink from the sight, asserting the force of his character over the ugliness of his face.Template:Sfn

Morgan smoked dozens of cigars per day and favored large Havana cigars dubbed Hercules' Clubs by observers.Template:Sfn

Religion

Morgan was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, and by 1890 was one of its most influential leaders.Template:Sfn He was a founding member of the Church Club of New York, an Episcopal private member's club in Manhattan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Morgan was appointed as one of the first laymen on the committee that created the 1892 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, where he petitioned for the creation of a special limited collectible printing that he later financed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1910, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church established a commission, proposed by Bishop Charles Brent, to implement a world conference of churches to address their differences in their "faith and order". Morgan was so impressed by the proposal for such a conference that he contributed $100,000 (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) to finance the commission's work.<ref>Heather A. Warren, Religion in America: Theologians of a New World Order: Rheinhold Niebuhr and the Christian Realists, 1920-1948 (Oxford University Press, 1997), pg. 16.</ref>

Residences

File:JPMorganLibrary.jpg

The Morgan Library & Museum

His house at 219 Madison Avenue was originally built in 1853 by John Jay Phelps and purchased by Morgan in 1882.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On June 6, 1882, it became the first electrically lit private residence in America. A coal-fueled steam engine provided power for two generators that produced the required electricity.<ref>A Bold New Dimension to Business: Introducing electrical service and maintenance version 2.0</ref><ref>Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World</ref> His interest in the new technology was a result of his financing Thomas Alva Edison's Edison Electric Illuminating Company in 1878.Template:Sfn It was there that a reception of 1,000 people was held for the marriage of Juliet Morgan and William Pierson Hamilton on April 12, 1894, where they were given a favorite clock of Morgan's. Morgan also owned the "Cragston" estate, located in Highland Falls, New York. His son, of the same name, was the owner of East Island in Glen Cove, New York.Template:Citation needed

J. P. Morgan spent three months of every year in London and owned two houses there. His 'town' house, 13 Prince's Gate, was inherited from his father and was later expanded by the acquisition of the neighbouring Number 14 to house his growing art collection. After his death the merged houses were offered to the US government for use as the residence of the US Ambassador, from 1929 to 1955. His other property was Dover House, Putney, which was later demolished and developed into the Dover House Estate.Template:Citation needed

Social organizations and philanthropy

Morgan was a member of the Union Club in New York City. When a friend, Erie Railroad president John King, was blackballed, Morgan resigned and organized the Metropolitan Club of New York.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He donated the land on 5th Avenue and 60th Street at a cost of $125,000, and commanded Stanford White to "...build me a club fit for gentlemen, forget the expense..."Template:Sfn He invited King in as a charter member and served as club president from 1891 to 1900.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Morgan was a benefactor of the Morgan Library and Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, Groton School, Harvard University (especially its medical school), Trinity College, the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York, and the New York trade schools.Template:Citation needed

Yachting

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J. P. Morgan's yacht Corsair II, later bought by the U.S. Government and renamed the Template:USS to serve in the Spanish–American War. Photograph by J. S. Johnston

Morgan was the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) and was present at a board meeting on October 27, 1898, to discuss the construction of a new clubhouse. Morgan offered to acquire a Template:Convert plot on 44th Street in midtown Manhattan <ref name="p574511646">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="nyt-1898-10-28">Template:Cite news</ref> if the NYYC raised its annual membership dues from $25 to $50 and the new clubhouse occupied the entire site.<ref name="nyt-1898-10-28"/> The NYYC's board accepted his offer, and Morgan bought the lots the next day for $148,000 and donated to the club.<ref name="nyt-1898-10-29">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="p498954045">Template:Cite news</ref>

NYYC members hosted an informal housewarming party on January 29, 1901, giving Morgan a trophy in gratitude of his purchase of the site.<ref name="p1013633831">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="p173095798">Template:Cite news</ref>

An avid yachtsman, Morgan owned several large yachts, the first being the Corsair, built by William Cramp & Sons for Charles J. Osborn (1837–1885) and launched on May 26, 1880. Osborn was Jay Gould's private banker. Morgan bought the yacht in 1882.<ref name="Spirit of the Times 29 May 1880">Template:Cite news</ref> The well-known quote, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" is commonly attributed to Morgan in response to a question about the cost of maintaining a yacht, although the story is unconfirmed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Collections

Morgan was a collector of books, pictures, paintings, clocks and other art objects, many loaned or given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (of which he was president and a major force in its establishment), and many housed in his London house and in his private library on 36th Street, near Madison Avenue in New York City.Template:Citation needed

For a number of years the British artist and art critic Roger Fry worked for the museum, and in effect for Morgan, as a collector.<ref>Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry: A Biography, London, the Hogarth Press, 1940</ref>

His son, J. P. Morgan Jr., made the Pierpont Morgan Library a public institution in 1924 as a memorial to his father, and appointed Belle da Costa Greene, his father's private librarian, as its first director.Template:Sfn

Gems

By the turn of the century, Morgan had become one of America's most important collectors of gems and had assembled the most important gem collection in the U.S. Tiffany & Co. assembled his first collection, which comprised over 1,000 American gemstones, under Tiffany's chief gemologist, George Frederick Kunz. The collection was exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889. The exhibit won two golden awards and drew the attention of important scholars, lapidaries, and the general public.<ref>Morgan and His Gem Collection; George Frederick Kunz: Gems and Precious Stones of North America, New York, 1890, accessed online February 20, 2007.</ref>

George Frederick Kunz continued to build a second, even finer, collection which was exhibited in Paris in 1900. These collections have been donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where they were known as the Morgan-Tiffany and the Morgan-Bement collections.<ref>Morgan and His Gem Collections; donations to AMNH; in George Frederick Kunz: History of Gems Found in North Carolina, Raleigh, 1907, accessed online February 20, 2007.</ref>

Photography

File:Morgan collection US gems.jpg

U.S. gemstones from the Morgan collection

Morgan was a patron to photographer Edward S. Curtis, offering Curtis $75,000 in 1906 (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) to create a series on the American Indians.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Curtis eventually published a 20-volume work entitled The North American Indian.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Curtis also produced a motion picture, In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), which was restored in 1974 and re-released as In the Land of the War Canoes. Curtis was also famous for a 1911 magic lantern slide show The Indian Picture Opera which used his photos and original musical compositions by composer Henry F. Gilbert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Death

It is said in the newspaper on March 31, 1913, that Morgan fell ill to "a long sinking spell" which included symptoms of extreme weakness, nervousness after his realization of the inability to take in food due to a paralysis of the muscles in his throat; no other organic trouble was present. When he tried to speak, contraction of his throat followed. As his condition worsened, he was in and out of consciousness, while they gave him food through "injection".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Morgan had been traveling abroad and died on March 31, 1913, in his sleep at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome, Italy. His body was brought back to America aboard the Template:SS, a French Line passenger ship.<ref>The Only Way to Cross by John Maxtone-Graham</ref> Flags on Wall Street flew at half-staff, and in an honor usually reserved for heads of state, the stock market closed for two hours when his body passed through New York City.<ref>Modern Marvels episode "The Stock Exchange" originally aired on October 12, 1997.</ref> His body was brought to lie in his home and adjacent library the first night of arrival in New York City. His remains were interred in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in his birthplace of Hartford, Connecticut. His son, John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan Jr., inherited the banking business.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His estate was worth $68.3 million ($Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year dollars), of which about $30 million represented his share in the New York and Philadelphia banks. The value of his art collection was estimated at $50 million.Template:Sfn

Legacy

His son, J. P. Morgan Jr., took over the business at his father's death, but he was never as influential. The 1933 Glass–Steagall Act forced the dissolution of the House of Morgan into three entities:

• J.P. Morgan & Co., which later became Morgan Guaranty Trust and ended up merging with Chase Bank
• Morgan Stanley, an investment house formed by his grandson Henry Sturgis Morgan
• Morgan Grenfell in London, an overseas securities houseTemplate:Citation needed

The gemstone morganite was named in his honor.<ref>Morganite, International Colored Gemstone Association, accessed online January 22, 2007.</ref>

The Cragston Dependencies, associated with his estate, Cragston (at Highlands, New York), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.<ref name="nris">Template:NRISref</ref>

Popular culture

File:John Pierpont Morgan memorial.jpg

John Pierpont Morgan memorial in Cedar Hill Cemetery

• A contemporary literary biography of Morgan is used as an allegory for the financial environment in America after World War I in the second volume, Nineteen Nineteen, of John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy.
• Morgan appears as a character in Caleb Carr's novel The Alienist,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in Steven S. Drachman's novel The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in Graham Moore's novel The Last Days of Night,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and in Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray's novel The Personal Librarian.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Morgan is believed to have been the model for Walter Parks Thatcher (played by George Coulouris), guardian of the young Citizen Kane (film directed by Orson Welles) with whom he has a tense relationship—Kane blaming Thatcher for destroying his childhood.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• According to Phil Orbanes, former vice president of Parker Brothers, the Rich Uncle Pennybags of the American version of the board game Monopoly is modeled after J. P. Morgan.<ref>Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors Quarterly www.AGPC.ORG summer 2013 Vol.15 No. 2. Page 18. Meet Daniel Gidahlia Fox - The Artist Who Created "Mr. Monopoly" by Emily F.Clements.</ref> The family of the illustrator Daniel Fox, who in 1936 created the mascot for the game, have credited J. P. Morgan as being the inspiration for the character.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Morgan's career is highlighted in episodes three and four of the History Channel's The Men Who Built America.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "My Name Is Morgan (But It Ain't J.P.)" – 1906 popular song released as an Edison cylinder recording, with words by Will A. Mahoney, music by Halsey K. Mohr, and sung by Bob Roberts. Originally released as a "coon song" but revised over the years, a poor man named Morgan tells his girlfriend not to mistake him for a rich man.<ref>Cass Canfield, The Incredible Pierpont Morgan: financier and art collector; Harper & Row (1974), p. 125</ref><ref>David A. Jasen, A Century of American Popular Music, Routledge, October 15, 2013, page 142</ref>
• 1950s popular singer, later game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan, born Mary Margaret Morgan, acquired the nickname reflecting J.P. Morgan while serving as her high school class treasurer.
• The villain of Street Fighter 6 is an elderly upper-class banker that uses a variety of aliases, all of which have the initials "JP." He claims to have lived for over one hundred years, empowered by his business association with M. Bison

See also

• Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum
• Template:SS, a lake freighter named after Morgan

Sources

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• Template:Cite book, written by Morgan's son-in-law
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

Biographies

• Bryman, Jeremy. J. P. Morgan: Banker to a Growing Nation. Morgan Reynolds Publishing (2001) Template:ISBN, for middle schools
• Wheeler, George, Pierpont Morgan and Friends: the Anatomy of a Myth, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1973. Template:ISBN

Specialized studies

• Carosso, Vincent P. Investment Banking in America: A History Harvard University Press (1970)
• De Long, Bradford. "Did JP Morgan's Men Add Value?: An Economist's Perspective on Financial Capitalism," in Peter Temin, ed., Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information (1991) pp. 205–36; shows firms with a Morgan partner on their board had higher stock prices (relative to book value) than their competitors
• Forbes, John Douglas. J. P. Morgan Jr. 1867–1943 (1981). 262 pp. biography of his son
• Fraser, Steve. Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life HarperCollins (2005)
• Garraty, John A. Right-Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins. (1960) Template:ISBN; Perkins was a top aide 1900–1910
• Geisst; Charles R. Wall Street: A History from Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron Template:Webarchive. Oxford University Press. 2004.
• Giedeman, Daniel C. "J. P. Morgan, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and Industrial Finance-Constraints in the Early Twentieth Century", Essays in Economic and Business History, 2004 22: 111–126
• Hannah, Leslie. "J. P. Morgan in London and New York before 1914," Business History Review 85 (Spring 2011) 113–50
• Template:Cite magazine
• Moody, John. The Masters of Capital: A Chronicle of Wall Street (1921)

Other

• Template:Cite magazine, a biographical magazine article
• Template:Cite book, including a short biography of Morgan

External links

• The Morgan Library and Museum, 225 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
• The American Experience—J.P. Morgan
• Template:Wikisource-inline