Tench Coxe (May 22, 1755July 17, 1824) was an American
political economist
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources.
The branch of social science that studies poli ...
and a delegate for
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
to the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
in 1788–1789. He wrote under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian," and was known to his political enemies as "Mr. Facing Bothways."
Biography
Coxe was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, on May 22, 1755. His mother was a daughter of
Tench Francis Sr. His father came of a family well known in American affairs. His great-grandfather was the governor of
West Jersey
West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often ...
,
Daniel Coxe.
Tench received his education in the Philadelphia schools and intended to study law, but his father determined to make him a merchant, and he was placed in the counting-house of Coxe & Furman, becoming a partner at the age of twenty-one.
After Patriots took power, Coxe left Philadelphia for a few months, only to return when British General Howe occupied the city in September 1777. Coxe remained in Philadelphia after the British departed in 1778, and some Patriots accused him of having Royalist sympathies and of having served (briefly) in the British army. Coxe's trading successes during the period of British occupation lent considerable support to the charges, and he was arrested; although nothing came of the allegations and he was pardoned. The Pennsylvania militia records of 1780, 1787, and 1788 listed Coxe as a militia private. Of the militia, Coxe wrote,
Coxe became a
Whig and began a long political career. In 1786 he was sent to the
Annapolis Convention and in 1788 to the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
.
In September of 1787, Coxe wrote three articles published in the Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia) with the name “An American Citizen” examining the newly minted U.S. Constitution with a focus on the Presidency and the two houses of Congress and contrasting it – favorably – to the British Constitution.
Coxe next became a
Federalist
The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters call themselves ''Federalists''.
History Europe federation
In Europe, proponents of deep ...
.
A proponent of industrialization during the early years of the United States, Coxe co-authored the famous ''
Report on Manufactures
In United States history, the Report on the Subject of Manufactures, generally referred to by its shortened title Report on Manufactures, is the third of four major reports, and '' magnum opus'', of American Founding Father and first U.S. T ...
'' (1791) with
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
, providing much of the statistical data. He had been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on September 11, 1789, under
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
when Hamilton was
Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
. Coxe also headed a group called the Manufacturing Society of Philadelphia. He was appointed revenue commissioner by President
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
on June 30, 1792, and served until removed by President
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
. In 1796, he was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
Coxe then turned
Democratic-Republican
The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...
, and in the canvass of 1800 published Adams' famous letter to him regarding
Pinckney. For this he was reviled by the federalists as a renegade, a
tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
, and a British guide, and President
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
rewarded him by an appointment as
Purveyor of Public Supplies; he served from 1803 to 1812.
In 1804 Coxe organized and led a group at Philadelphia opposed to the election to congress of
Michael Leib, and this brought him again into public notice. Though a Democratic-Republican, he was for three months daily abused by the ''Aurora''. He was called a tory, a Federal rat, a British guide who had entered Philadelphia in 1777 with laurel in his hat, and his group was nicknamed the "quids." The term is commonly supposed to have been first applied to the little band led by
John Randolph in 1806, but this is a mistake.
Coxe was a writer on political and economic subjects and a champion of tariffs to protect the new nation's growing industries. He wrote also on naval power, on encouragement of arts and manufactures, on the cost, trade, and manufacture of cotton, on the navigation act, and on arts and manufactures in the United States. He deserves, indeed, to be called the father of the American cotton industry. He was the first to attempt to bring an
Arkwright machine to the United States, the first to urge Southerners to raise cotton.
Coxe also acquired vast acreage of Pennsylvania timber and coal lands. This investment in lands though not much developed in Tench Coxe lifetime was the basis of wealth for his descendants.
Coxe died July 17, 1824, in Philadelphia, where he is interred in
Christ Church Burial Ground
Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia is an important early-American cemetery. It is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin and his wife, Deborah. Four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here, Benjamin Rush ...
.
His grandson
Colonel Frank Coxe built
Battery Park Hotel in
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...
and bought
Green River Plantation in
Polk County, North Carolina
Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,328. Its county seat is Columbus.
History
The county was formed in 1855 from parts of Henderson and Rutherford counties. It w ...
.
His grandson, Eckley Coxe, founded
MMI Preparatory School in
Freeland, Pennsylvania.
Works
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
Further reading
* Jacob Cooke, ''Tench Coxe and the Early Republic''; 1978, Univ. of North Carolina Press,
* Jacob E. Cooke, "Tench Coxe, Alexander Hamilton, and the Encouragement of American Manufactures," ''The William and Mary Quarterly'', 3rd Ser., Vol. 32, No. 3 (July 1975), pp. 369–92
* The Coxe Papers, edited by Lucy Fisher West, are held by the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...
; they are available in West's Guide to the Microfilm of the Papers of Tench Coxe in the Coxe Family Papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1977)
*Mathew A. Frith,
American Protectionist Thought: The Economic Philosophy and Theory of the 19th Century American Protectionists (2024)
* Stephen P. Halbrook & David B. Kopel, "Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 1787–1823," Volume 7, Issue 2, ''William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal'', pp. 347–99 (Feb. 1999)
* Hutcheson, Harold, ''Tench Coxe : a study in American economic development''
. New York : AMS Press, 982, c1938 ISBN: 0404613950
* See David Kopel's site https://davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/hk-coxe.htm for more.
External links
Tench CoxePage on
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
* Th
Coxe Family Papers 1638-1970 highlighting the life of Tench Coxe, and th
documenting one of the largest independent anthracite coal mining interests in the nation, are available for research use at the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coxe, Tench
1755 births
1824 deaths
Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania
Scientists from Philadelphia
Writers from Philadelphia
Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia
People from colonial Pennsylvania
Economists from Pennsylvania
United States Purveyor of Public Supplies
Members of the American Philosophical Society