Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,754

This is the grave of Lyman Gage (can’t believe I forgot to include this, sorry!)

Born in DeRuyter, New York in 1836, he grew up in central New York, and graduated from a high school in Rome, New York in 1853. He then went into banking. He eventually moved to Chicago, where he worked up his way from bank clerk to one of the most powerful financial men of the Gilded Age. He eventually became president of the First National Bank of Chicago, one of the leading banks in the Midwest. He became a big Chicago player. One of his volunteer functions was becoming president of the Board of Directors for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, by far the most famous World Fair in history, at least if you measure it by the amount of words historians have written about them. He was also a central figure in the creation of the Civic Federation of Chicago, founded in 1893 as a way to bring different interest groups in the city together for the promotion of dialogue and “reasonable” reform. Jane Addams was also involved in this and their meetings might be a place to discuss the role of unions in society. For Gage of course, the answer was functionally none, but at least we can talk about it civilly I guess.

Although originally a Republican, Gage became a supporter of Grover Cleveland’s election in 1884, making him one of only a minority of big financial figures to support the Democrat. I don’t know why they wouldn’t; if there were really elections where Both Parties Were the Same in American history, it’s the 1884-1892 trifecta. Party loyalty I guess.

In any case, Cleveland offered Gage the job of Secretary of the Treasury in 1893, during his second term. This reminds me of one of the things are we now going to have to deal with when talking about Trump–Cleveland is no longer the only non-consecutive president with two terms. Gage turned down the job. When the 1896 election came around though, Gage was very scared of William Jennings Bryan’s free silver platform. For the first time, the Gilded Age elites faced what they felt was a real threat from a major party nominee. So however comfortable Gage might have become as a Democrat, he did everything he could to get the Republican William McKinley elected.

McKinley paid Gage off too. He named Gage to what was probably the most important position in his administration, given what the election was fought over–Secretary of Treasury. None of that silver heresy for Gage! He was a gold man by God! So his major goal there was to ensure that the American monetary supply was based on gold. This led to the Gold Standard Act of 1900, which defined the dollar by gold weight and forced the nation’s treasury to redeem paper money based on gold coin. Part of the reason they were able to do this was that the world was all of a sudden flooded with gold thanks to the South African discoveries, which helped solve the money supply and took the wind out of the silverite sails. This did, by definition, limit the amount of currency in circulation. That wasn’t so good. It meant the government was limited it solving problems around economic crises, which in 1907 led Theodore Roosevelt to have to go to J.P. Morgan and other super rich people for a government bailout. That then led to the development of the political energy to create the Federal Reserve in 1913. But by that time, Gage was back in private life and no doubt grousing about it all. Not surprisingly, reformers of all stripes loathed Gage. It’s not that he was that out in public, but that was the point–he was the ultimate insider doing all the quiet work to ensure this nation stayed as unequal as possible. Mark Hanna took a lot of the public heat here, but Gage was right there with him. It should go without saying that Gage was a very big tariff guy too.

McKinley happily kept Gage around for his second term and Roosevelt didn’t push him out either after he took over. But Gage resigned in 1902 to go make money. He became president of the United States Trust Company, which was a hugely powerful bank serving much of the nation’s elite and would provide a lot of the funding for the Panama Canal, beginning under Gage’s leadership. That lasted until 1906, when he mostly went into retirement.

Gage, like a lot of people of that time, had weird interests that came out of pre-Civil War spirituality. He was very big into theosophy, among other things, including astrology. He once claimed that a psychic flash told him his brother was going to die. Well, theosophy was the big one though, at least later in his life. In 1900, Theosophical Society leader Katherine Tingley started was a basically a commune for her followers outside of San Diego. Gage joined her, buying property in what was called Lomaland. He was hardly the only rich guy involved in this–Albert Spalding, founder of the sporting goods empire, moved out there too. It all fell apart in the 1930s, but all these people were dead by this time. I am sure the Theosophical theology maintains the gold standard comes from every deity in the world.

Being out in San Diego by this time, he was part of the team to announce that city’s entrance in the big time with the Panama–California Exposition, a world’s fair that started there in 1915 to celebrate the connection of the Atlantic with the Pacific (which of course Gage had personally profited from) and it ran for two full years. Gage didn’t run this–it was mostly the baby of Ulysses S. Grant Jr. and John Spreckels, but he was an insider on it. After it was over, he headed the commission to keep and preserve the key buildings of the Expo, in Balboa Park. His other big post-retirement activity was working with Andrew Carnegie on the Simplified Spelling Board. This was Carnegie’s baby to simplify the complexities of English. No one really asked for English to be simplified, but Gage thought it was a good idea and went along. It collapsed when Carnegie died.

Gage died in 1927 in San Diego, of pneumonia. He was 90 years old.

Lyman Gage is buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois.

If you would like this series to visit other Secretaries of the Treasury, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. John Carlisle is in Covington, Kentucky and Charles Foster is in Fostoria, Ohio. Previous posts are archived here and here.