Gillet lived in Lake Fork, Logan County, Illinois. (John Gillet, Lake Fork, IL, to Smith Tuttle, Fair Haven, CT, 10 June 1841, Gillett Family Papers, 1736–1904, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.)

Gillett Family Papers, 1736–1904. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.

In his History of Illinois, former governor Thomas Ford wrote, “In February, 1842, the State Bank, with a circulation of three millions of dollars, finally exploded with a great crash, carrying wide-spread ruin all over the State, and into the neighboring States and territories.” Ford attributed the failure of the bank to the federal government’s refusal to accept state bank specie for public lands, the bank’s excessive lending to the state legislature (to the amount of $294,000 by the time Ford came to office), and the bank’s printing of small denominations of paper money (one-, two-, and three-dollar notes). These factors combined to catastrophically devalue the banknotes in circulation. (Ford, History of Illinois, 223–227; see also “State Bank of Illinois,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:728–729.)

Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

In addition to containing friendly closing remarks, Hotchkiss’s 7 February letter included the following note: “I see by the public prints that you are progressing in population wealth and improvements beyond any precident and this state of things aside from any pecuniary consideration can give no person greater pleasure than myself.” (Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 7 Feb. 1842.)