Ingham, 1849
The cutter Ingham was named for Samuel D. Ingham, born in 1779, who became a well-known manufacturer and a long time member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1829 by President Andrew Jackson and he served until 1831.
The Second Bank of the United States, viewed by President Jackson and much of the nation as an unconstitutional and dangerous monopoly, became Ingham's primary concern. Jackson not only mistrusted the Second Bank, but all banks. The president thought that there should be no paper currency in circulation, but only coins, and that the Constitution was designed to expel paper currency as part of the monetary system. Ingham believed in the Bank and labored to resolve conflicts between Jackson, who wanted it destroyed, and the Bank's president, Nicholas Biddle. Ingham was unable to reach any resolution between Jackson and Biddle but he left office over an incident unrelated to the Bank. Unwilling to comply with Jackson's demand that the "socially unacceptable" wife of Secretary of War John Eaton, Margaret O'Neal Eaton, be invited to Washington social functions, Ingham and the other members of Jackson's cabinet resigned. Samuel D. Ingham died in 1869.
Builder: John Carrick, Erie, PA
Cost: $12,300
Rig: Topsail Schooner
Length: Unknown
Beam: Unknown
Draft: Unknown
Displacement: 115 tons
Keel Laid: Unknown
Launched: Unknown
Completed: Unknown
Decommissioned: Unknown
Disposition: Sold 24 September 1856
Complement: Unknown
Armament: Unknown
Design History:
Contracts for seven new cutters were let in 1848. At 115 tons, the two cutters of this Harrison-class, were somewhat smaller and of a lighter draft for work on the Great Lakes. Their total cost was
$12,300.
Cutter History:
On 16 October 1848 the proposal of John Carrick to build two new Revenue cutters , the Harrison and the Ingham, was accepted. Lieutenant C. W. Bennett was assigned to superintend their construction. Ingham was assigned to Erie, Pennsylvania in August 1849, and the cutter eventually transferred to Detroit in April 1851, where she was sold on 24 September 1856.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis: Naval Institute
Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).