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Autographed Letter Signed, JAY COOKE, 1903

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Autographs

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JAY COOKE, American Banker.
October 6, 1903, Autographed Letter Signed "Jay Cooke", Black Ink, on personal stationery measuring 8" x 5.25", Gibraltar Island, Ottawa County Ohio, Fine. This letter, to Essie Ruth Varney of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is in response to her request for Cooke's autograph, which he provides. The wording of the letter is light and personal, and it reveals his sense of humor. The letter has typical folds and a .5" burn hole at the right center edge which does not affect its readability.

Jay Cooke (August 10, 1821-February 8, 1905), American financier, was born at Sandusky, Ohio, the son of Eleutheros Cooke (1787-1864), a pioneer Ohio lawyer and Whig member of Congress from that state in 1831-1833 and member of the Ohio General Assembly.
In the early months of the American Civil War, Cooke collaborated with the secretary of the treasury Salmon P. Chase in securing loans from the leading bankers in the Northern cities; his own firm was so successful in distributing treasury notes that Chase engaged him as special agent for the sale of the $500,000,000 of so-called "five-twenty" bonds, which were callable in 5 years and matured in 20 years,authorized by Congress on February 25, 1862. The treasury department had previously failed in selling these bonds.
Cooke secured the influence of the American press, appointed 2,500 sub-agents, and quickly sold $11,000,000 more in bonds than had been authorized. Congress immediately sanctioned the excess. At the same time, Cooke influenced the establishment of national banks, and organized a national bank at Washington and another at Philadelphia almost as quickly as Congress could authorize the institutions.
In the early months of 1865, with the government facing pressing financial needs in the wake of disappointing sales of the new "seven-thirty" notes by the national banks, Cooke's services were again secured. He sent agents into remote villages and hamlets, and even into isolated mining camps in the west, and persuaded rural newspapers to praise the loan. Between February and July 1865 he disposed of three series of the notes, reaching a total of $830,000,000. This allowed the Union soldiers to be supplied and paid during the final months of the war.
It was in this effort that he pioneered the use of price stabilization. This practice, whereby bankers stabilize the price of a new issue, is still in use by investment bankers in IPOs and other security issuance's. (Source: Wall Street by Charles Geisst)



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