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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
< BACK
Philip F. Thomas
(1860 - 1861)
When Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb resigned in
1860, President Buchanan appointed Philip F. Thomas (1810-1890), former
Governor of Maryland, in his place. Thomas reluctantly accepted the position
and immediately upon entering office had to market a bond to pay the interest
on the public debt.
There was little faith in the stability of the country
due to the threat of secession by the Southern states, and war appeared
inevitable. Northern bankers refused to invest in Thomas's loan, wary
that the money would go to the South. Thomas resigned after only a month
in response to his failure to obtain the loan, stating: "This loan was
the direct cause of my leaving the Cabinet before the expiration of Mr.
Buchanan's term. It was reported to me that some New York capitalists
had gone to Mr. Buchanan and said that they would not subscribe for the
loan as long as a Southern man remained at the head of the Treasury....
my service in the Cabinet was anything but an agreeable part of my public
life."
About the Artist
Robert Hinkley was born in Northampton, Massachusetts
in 1853. As a young man he went to Paris to study art with Carolus Duran,
staying in France seventeen years and continuing his art studies at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. When he returned to the United States he moved to
Washington, D.C. and established himself as a portrait painter, executing
many commissions for the federal government and teaching classes at the
Corcoran School of Art. Hinkley's portrait of Philip F. Thomas is a copy
and bears strong resemblance to an earlier portrait by N. Cox in the Annapolis
State House.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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