James Greenleaf
James Greenleaf was a late 18th and early 19th century American land speculator responsible for the development of Washington, D.C., after the city was designated as the nation's capital following passage of the Residence Act in 1790. A member of a prominent and wealthy Boston family, he married a Dutch noblewoman, who he later abandoned and then divorced, and served briefly as consul at the United States embassy in Amsterdam.
After his return to the United States, Greenleaf engaged in land speculation in Washington, D.C., New York state, and other areas. His land business collapsed in 1797, and he spent a year in debtor's prison. He married a wealthy Pennsylvania heiress after his release, and spent the remainder of his life in genteel poverty, fending off lawsuits.
Early life and education
Greenleaf was born on June 9, 1765, in Boston, Massachusetts to William and Mary Greenleaf. He was the 12th of 15 children. His father William Greenleaf was a merchant who was appointed Sheriff of Suffolk County, Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War.Greenleaf was a member of the committee of correspondence, which communicated secretly with other cities regarding British policy and military actions and was a core base of support for the American Revolution. In July 1776, following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Greenleaf announced American independence from the balcony of the Old State House in Boston. Among the crowd assembled for the announcement in Boston were John Quincy Adams and William Cranch. Adams was later elected President of the United States; Cranch was appointed as Chief Justice of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia and the second Reporter of Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Greenleafs were Huguenots who fled France for England, seeking to escape religious persecution. They anglicized their family name of Feuillevert to Greenleaf. Greenleaf's great-grandfather Edmund was born in 1574, in Ipswich in Suffolk, England. His great-grandfather Stephen was born there in 1628. The entire family emigrated to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1635.
The Greenleaf family was among the best connected in early American history. Greenleaf's sister Rebecca married Noah Webster, who compiled the first American dictionary. Another of his sisters married Nathaniel Appleton, the minister and trustee of Harvard University. His sister Margaret married Thomas Dawes, a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council, and his sister Abigail married William Cranch. The family's descendants also played a large role in American literature. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier was descended from James' great-grandfather Stephen. The 20th century poet T. S. Eliot was a descendant of Abigail Greenleaf Cranch. However, little is known about Greenleaf's early life or education. In 1781, when he was 16, his father retired from business and the Greenleaf family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Career
In 1788, Greenleaf left Massachusetts and moved to Philadelphia, where Noah Webster introduced him to businessman James Watson. The two men established an import business, Watson & Greenleaf, with offices in Philadelphia and New York City.After his business was incorporated, Greenleaf traveled to the Netherlands in the mid to late 1780s, where he tried to sell American bonds. According to John Quincy Adams, who was in Amsterdam at the same time, Greenleaf rented a magnificent mansion and immediately began circulating in high society in the city. Greenleaf was in Amsterdam from January 31, 1789, through August 1793, where he conducted business with Daniel Crommelin & Sons, a major Dutch investment banking house marketing American bonds. He sold nearly two million bonds during this time and $160,000 worth of stock in the Bank of the United States, a central bank established by the U.S. federal government. He amassed a fortune worth $1 million, a very large sum at the time.
Washington, D.C. land speculation
Greenleaf arrived in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 1793 and was present at the laying of the cornerstone of the United States Capitol the following day, on September 18, 1793 at which time Greenleaf met President George Washington.Greenleaf quickly ingratiated himself with several of Washington's closest friends, including Tobias Lear, who served as Washington's secretary from 1785 to June 1793. Greenleaf provided seed money for Lear's mercantile venture, Tobias Lear & Co., in 1793. Greenleaf also associated with Thomas Johnson, who Washington had appointed as one of three commissioners of the District of Columbia. Greenleaf purchased of Johnson's land in Frederick County, Maryland for $14,000 in September 1793.
The Residence Act of 1790, which established the site for the nation's capital, provided for the appointment of three commissioners by the President without the need for Senate confirmation to govern the Washington, D.C., survey its land, purchase property from private landowners, and construct federal buildings. On September 23, 1793, Greenleaf purchased 3,000 city lots from the commissioners. The city offered him the lots at $66.50 each, a significant discount from the going price of $200 to $300 per lot. To secure this below market price, Greenleaf was required to construct 70 homes on the lots before 1800, not sell any of the land before 1796, and lend the commissioners $2,200 a month until certain public buildings were constructed. To raise money to improve the lots, Greenleaf executed a power of attorney on November 2, 1793, with Sylvanus Bourne, the American vice consul in Amsterdam. Bourne, who served as vice consul in Amsterdam under Greenleaf, was empowered to sell lots or obtain mortgages on them.
On November 19, 1793, Greenleaf moved into the Pearl Street home of Noah Webster in New York City.
The September 23 agreement with the commissioners was superseded by a subsequent agreement on December 24, 1793, with Greenleaf and his new business partner, Robert Morris. Morris was a Philadelphia merchant and one of 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence and also to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He was Chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and was appointed Superintendent of Finance for the U.S. Next to General George Washington, Morris was considered "the most powerful man in America." At the time he became Greenleaf's business partner, Morris also was one of Pennsylvania's original U.S. senators.
Morris and Nicholson partnership
Greenleaf first approached his existing business partner, James Watson, with an offer to finance the purchase of the lots and the construction on them. Watson declined, and Greenleaf dissolved their partnership. Greenleaf then turned to Morris, then the richest man in America and a speculator in millions of acres of land.Morris was already one of the most important land speculators in the Northeast. He purchased the western portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. an area of western New York consisting of about —in March 1791 for $366,333.33. This area became known as Morris Reserve. Morris quickly sold of the reserve to The Pulteney Association in March 1791 for £75,000 for a profit of $216,128. This tract became known as the "Pulteney Tract".
Morris' association with Greenleaf started in February 1792, when Morris sold of the Morris Reserve to Greenleaf, Watson, and Andrew Craigie for £15,000. Morris sold another to the Holland Land Company between December 1792 and July 1793 for £112,500, and his son sold to the Holland Land Company for $500,000. Morris sold another to an investor group in January 1793. By 1794, Morris was also an investor in the Virginia Yazoo Company, which was leveraging its political influence to purchase vast tracts of land from the state of Georgia at low prices for land speculation.
Greenleaf and Morris purchased 6,000 lots under the same conditions as the September agreement. At least 1,500 of these lots were required to be in the northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., but Greenleaf could take his pick of lots anywhere else in the city for the remainder. The monthly loan to the commissioners also increased to $2,660 per commissioner per month. An additional clause required that the 6,000 lots include 428.5 lots on Buzzard Point owned by Notley Young, a plantation owner in Prince George's County, Maryland, and 220 lots on Buzzard Point owned by Daniel Carroll, a Founding Father and Maryland landowner whose plantation became part of the District of Columbia. The contract also included provisions identical to those in the September 23 contract, which required no down payment, did not require the first payment until May 1, 1794, required only annual payments of one-sixth of the total amount of the purchase price annually thereafter, and did not impose any interest. With these transactions, Greenleaf and his co-investors controlled about half the federal government's sellable land in Washington, D.C.
The December 24 contract with the city provided that Greenleaf and Morris could bring in a third partner, although the requirement to construct buildings was not binding on this partner. The partner they brought in was John Nicholson, who had served as comptroller general of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1794. In 1792, Nicholson negotiated the purchase from the federal government of the tract known as the Erie Triangle. Along with an agent of the Holland Land Company, Aaron Burr, Robert Morris, and other individual and institutional investors, he formed the Pennsylvania Population Company. This organization, in turn, purchased all 390 parcels of land in the Erie Triangle. Nicholson was impeached in 1794 for his role in the company.
Financial strains and New York land speculation
Greenleaf continued to expand his land holdings, purchasing of Anacostia River waterfront from various owners in December 1793, and near Alexandria, Virginia, in 1794. He also purchased 239.25 lots east of Georgetown from local landowners Uriah Forrest and Benjamin Stoddert. Another 1,000 lots of Notley Young's land were transferred to Greenleaf on April 24, 1794. Greenleaf relied on his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Appleton, for assistance with his land purchases. But when Appleton fell ill in September 1794, Greenleaf summoned his brother-in-law and friend William Cranch to Washington, D.C., to act as his sales agent. Greenleaf bought out Watson's 25% interest in the Morris Reserve tract but was forced to sell his shares in the land to Oliver Phelps before the end of 1794.Greenleaf's construction activities meant that, by 1794, he owned one third of the buildings for sale in Washington, D.C. Among the buildings he began constructing in that year were the four townhouses that became known as Wheat Row.
To finance these land acquisitions and construction activities, Greenleaf turned to Dutch financiers. Sources differ on whether Greenleaf traveled to the Netherlands in 1794 or stayed in Philadelphia and New York City during the year. Whichever is the case, he was able to convince the Dutch government to pass legislation appointing agents and advocates for his business affairs. They began offering mortgages on the 6,000 Washington, D.C., lots. The guardians were authorized to accept mortgages not exceeding two million guilders. But by July 1795, only 20,000 guilders had been raised. Greenleaf's friend Sylvanus Bourne attempted to find mortgages in Rotterdam, but was unsuccessful. Seeking a million guilders in loans, he secured just 150,000 guilders.