Francis Elias Spinner

Francis Elias Spinner (January 21, 1802 – December 31, 1890) was an American politician and public official from New York who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and later as Treasurer of the United States from 1861 to 1875. Widely recognized for his distinctive signature on United States paper currency and for his pioneering role in employing women in federal clerical positions, he played a notable part in the financial administration of the Union during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Spinner was born in Herkimer County, New York, the eldest of nine children—six sons and three daughters—of John Peter Spinner and Mary Magdalene Fidelis Brument. His father, born January 18, 1768, in Werbach, Baden, had been a Catholic priest in Europe before becoming a Protestant, marrying, and emigrating to the United States in 1801. In New York he served as pastor of two German-speaking Dutch Reformed churches at Herkimer and German Flatts until his death on May 27, 1848. Under his father’s guidance, Francis received early instruction in languages, and in the common schools of Herkimer County he studied English grammar, reading, writing, and arithmetic. His father insisted that he learn a trade, a requirement that shaped Spinner’s early working life and exposed him to a variety of occupations.

As a young man, Spinner initially chose to become a merchant and spent about a year employed as a clerk in a store, which subsequently failed. He was then apprenticed to a confectioner in Albany, New York. While in Albany he came into contact with several educated men who took an interest in his advancement; among them, Peter Gansevoort granted him the use of his private library, which Spinner used extensively. Two years after his arrival in Albany, his father, discovering that he was being used as a salesman and bookkeeper rather than being trained in a skilled trade, removed him from that position and apprenticed him to a saddle and harness maker in Amsterdam, New York. There Spinner became a shareholder in a circulating library and devoted his spare time to reading and self-education. In 1824 he returned to Herkimer County, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Two years later, in 1826, he married Caroline Caswell of Herkimer; the couple would have three daughters, one of whom survived him.

Spinner’s public career began at the local and state level. He entered the New York state militia and, through steady advancement, rose by 1834 to the rank of major general. In 1829 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Herkimer County, and he served as sheriff from 1834 to 1837. His administrative abilities led to further responsibilities: in 1838 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the construction of the state lunatic asylum at Utica, New York. Removed from this post on political grounds, he turned to banking, becoming first cashier and later president of the Mohawk Bank. Over the course of these years he also served as state inspector of turnpikes and as commissioner and supervisor of schools, reflecting his growing prominence in local affairs. In 1845 he was appointed auditor and deputy naval officer in charge of the Port of New York, a federal customs position he held for four years, gaining experience in public finance and administration that would later prove important in his national service.

Spinner entered national politics in the 1850s, a period of intensifying sectional conflict. Initially aligned with the Democratic Party, he was elected as an anti-slavery Democrat to the 34th Congress. With the formation of the Republican Party, he became an active Republican and was re-elected as a Republican to the 35th and 36th Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1861, as a member from New York. During his three terms he served on the Committee on Privileges and Elections and was appointed to a special committee to investigate the 1856 assault by Representative Preston Brooks on Senator Charles Sumner, an incident that symbolized the breakdown of civil discourse over slavery. He also served on a conference committee of both houses on the Army appropriation bill, which the Senate had rejected because it contained a clause forbidding the use of the military against Kansas settlers during the struggle over “Bleeding Kansas.” In the 36th Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Accounts, overseeing the financial administration of the House.

On the recommendation of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Spinner Treasurer of the United States, an office he assumed on March 16, 1861. Within sixty days of his taking office, the expenditures of the federal government increased dramatically as the Civil War began, and Spinner was deeply involved in managing the vast flows of funds required to finance the Union war effort. He became widely known to the public through his signature, which appeared on the various series of United States paper currency, including the “greenbacks” issued during the war. Spinner deliberately cultivated a singular, elaborate handwriting style as a safeguard against counterfeiting. He later recounted that he first practiced this signature while in the sheriff’s office around 1835, used it during his service as commissioner for building the asylum at Utica and as cashier and president of the Mohawk Valley Bank, and employed it for franking while in Congress, bringing it “to its highest perfection” during his tenure as Treasurer.

Spinner’s most enduring administrative innovation was his introduction of women into federal clerical employment. During the Civil War, many male clerks in the Treasury Department left to join the Union Army, creating acute staffing shortages. Spinner proposed to Secretary Chase that women be employed to fill these positions, and to demonstrate the feasibility of the idea he personally hired a woman, Jennie Douglas—a physically robust former teacher of his daughter—to trim sheets of currency. Her success, which Spinner later said “settled the matter forever in her and in the women’s favor,” led him to employ seven more women. Despite considerable opposition, he expanded the practice, initially assigning women to count money and later to a broader range of clerical duties. Over time he hired more than one hundred women, paid them comparatively well, and retained them even after the war ended. Spinner later stated that his role in introducing women to government office work gave him “more real satisfaction than all the other deeds” of his life, a sentiment later inscribed on a monument in his honor.

Spinner resigned as Treasurer on July 1, 1875, after more than fourteen years in office, following a dispute with a new Secretary of the Treasury over control of staffing appointments. As a bonded officer personally responsible for the funds under his charge, Spinner insisted that he should have final authority over the appointment of clerks whose conduct could affect his accountability. When this authority was denied, he tendered his resignation. Upon his departure, the money in the Treasury was counted, and a small discrepancy was discovered. Many days were spent in recounting and examining the books of account until the error was finally located and corrected, underscoring the general accuracy of the accounts maintained during his long tenure. Later in 1875 he was the Republican nominee for New York State Comptroller but was defeated by Democrat Lucius Robinson, effectively ending his pursuit of elective office.

In his later years, Spinner moved south and spent considerable time in Florida, living for some years in camp at Pablo Beach. There he led a vigorous outdoor life and took up the study of Greek, continuing the habits of self-improvement that had characterized his youth. He was widowed before his death and was survived by one of his three daughters. Spinner died on December 31, 1890, and was buried in Mohawk Cemetery in Mohawk, New York, near the region where he had begun his career in public service.

Spinner’s legacy was commemorated in a bronze statue commissioned after his death. Sculptor Henry Jackson Ellicott was engaged to create the monument, and a group of women who had worked in the Treasury Department—many of whom owed their employment opportunities to Spinner’s policies—contributed $10,000 toward the $20,000 cost. Completed in 1894, the statue was never installed in front of the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., as originally contemplated, and it remained in storage for years. The Herkimer chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution eventually petitioned for its transfer to his hometown. On June 29, 1909, the 7.5-foot bronze statue was unveiled with “impressive ceremonies” in Myers Park in Herkimer, facing Spinner’s birthplace. The base bears a likeness of his famous signature, once familiar to Americans from its appearance on U.S. Treasury notes, and an inscription quoting his own words: “The fact that I was instrumental in introducing women to employment in the offices of the government gives me more real satisfaction than all the other deeds of my life.”