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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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Thomas Ewing
(1841)
President William Henry Harrison appointed Thomas Ewing
(1789-1871) Secretary of the Treasury in 1841 and he was retained by John
Tyler after Harrison's death. As a Senator from Ohio (1831-1837), Ewing
had advocated rechartering the Second Bank of the United States and had
denounced President Jackson's removal of government deposits. After Congress
repealed in 1841 former Secretary Levi Woodbury's law creating an Independent  Treasury System, Ewing was called upon to
devise a new depository for the government's funds. He introduced several
options, including bills for a new national bank. None of his suggestions
were adopted and Tyler thwarted his plan for organizing a central bank to
replace the Independent Treasury System, maintaining that it was unconstitutional
for the Treasury Department to authorize bank branches in the states without
their consent. After only six months, along with most of Tyler's cabinet,
Ewing resigned in protest against Tyler's opposition to his proposals. Eight
years later, in 1849, President Zachary Taylor appointed Ewing the first
Secretary of the newly created Department of the Interior.
About the Artist
William Garl Browne was born in Liverpool, England
in 1823 to a landscape painter father of the same name, who moved to the
United States with his family around 1840. The younger Browne settled
in Richmond in 1846 to establish himself as a portrait painter. In 1847,
during the Mexican-American War, he traveled to Mexico to paint portraits
of Zachary Taylor and other war heroes. Before and after the Civil War,
Browne traveled extensively in the southern United States painting portraits
of eminent members of society. His posthumous portrait of Thomas Ewing,
painted in 1879, was probably based on a photograph.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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