His management of the bank perfectly illustrates his singular and apparently contradictory character.  Hamilton used to say of Burr, that he was great in little things, and little in great things.  Girard in little things frequently seemed little, but in great things he was often magnificently great.  For example:  the old bank had been accustomed to present an overcoat to its watchman every Christmas; Girard forbade the practice as extravagant;—­the old bank had supplied penknives gratis to its clerks; Girard made them buy their own;—­the old bank had paid salaries which were higher than those given in other banks; Girard cut them down to the average rate.  To the watchman and the clerks this conduct, doubtless, seemed little.  Without pausing to argue the question with them, let us contemplate the new banker in his great actions.  He was the very sheet-anchor of the government credit during the whole of that disastrous war.  If advances were required at a critical moment, it was Girard who was promptest to make them.  When all other banks and houses were contracting, it was Girard who stayed the panic by a timely and liberal expansion.  When all other paper was depreciated, Girard’s notes, and his alone, were as good as gold.  In 1814, when the credit of the government was at its lowest ebb, when a loan of five millions, at seven per cent interest and twenty dollars bonus, was up for weeks, and only procured twenty thousand dollars, it was “old Girard” who boldly subscribed for the whole amount; which at once gave it market value, and infused life into the paralyzed credit of the nation.  Again, in 1816, when the subscriptions lagged for the new United States Bank, Girard waited until the last day for receiving subscriptions, and then quietly subscribed for the whole amount not taken, which was three million one hundred thousand dollars.  And yet again, in 1829, when the enormous expenditures of Pennsylvania upon her canals had exhausted her treasury and impaired her credit, it was Girard who prevented the total suspension of the public works by a loan to the Governor, which the assembling Legislature might or might not reimburse.

Once, during the war, the control of the coin in the bank procured him a signal advantage.  In the spring of 1813, his fine ship, the Montesquieu, crammed with tea and fabrics from China, was captured by a British shallop when she was almost within Delaware Bay.  News of the disaster reaching Girard, he sent orders to his supercargo to treat for a ransom.  The British admiral gave up the vessel for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in coin; and, despite this costly ransom, the cargo yielded a larger profit than that of any ship of Girard’s during the whole of his mercantile career.  Tea was then selling at war prices.  Much of it brought, at auction, two dollars and fourteen cents a pound, more than four times its cost in China.  He appears to have gained about half a million of dollars.