a result of a meeting of New York merchants on February 23, 1784; it was the first bank created in the independent United States, and its prime organizer, and author of its constitution, was Alexander Hamilton. The board of directors was elected on March 15, and included McCormick, Hamilton, Samuel Franklin, Isaac Roosevelt, and John Vanderbilt. When the Bank of New York was incorporated in 1791, a total of 723 shares worth $500 each were issued. With 15 shares, McCormick was one of the five biggest shareholders. Aaron Burr owned three shares and Alexander Hamilton owned one and a half shares. In 1792, the bank's stock became the first corporate shares to be traded on the newly-founded New York Stock Exchange. The Macomb Purchase Alexander Macomb (1748–1831) was a Belfast-born merchant who had made money during the war as a fur trader in Michigan and then moved to New York to become a land speculator and shipping magnate. In 1788, he built a large mansion at 39 Broadway, which in 1790 was leased to become George Washington's presidential residence. In 1791, Macomb bought a tract of in upper New York state that became known as "Macomb's Purchase". He bought it for eight cents an acre with no down payment, and agreed to pay off the amount in six annual installments. Macomb was actually just the front man for the purchase, which was made by a group that included Daniel McCormick and William Constable, another merchant who had also made his money in the fur trade and was one of the first Americans to trade with China. The purchase covered about one-tenth of New York state, and included all of present-day Lewis County and large parts of Oswego County, St. Lawrence County, Franklin County, and Jefferson County. It contained only a few squatters, and consisted of good farmland. The land was put up for sale, with Constable even going to Europe to try to make sales there. During the gubernatorial election of 1792 there were charges that Governor George Clinton stood to benefit from the transaction because of his friendship with McCormick, who allegedly held a third of the tract and planned to transfer part of it to Clinton; McCormick denied this. Besides, he was a federalist when Clinton was an anti-federalist. Sales did not keep up with the due dates for payments on the loan, and during the Panic of