Return to Forgotten Founders Exhibit

 

Nathaniel Gorham Medallion
 SOLD OUT
Shipping is $7.00 Priority Mail for One to Twenty Medallions - Free for orders over Twenty

© Stanley L. Klos has a worldwide copyright on the artwork in these Medallions not legal tender.

    Medallion Obverse: Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts was elected President of the United States, in Congress Assembled June 6, 1786 serving until November 13, 1786.  Nathaniel Gorham was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on May 27th, 1738 and died there on June 11th, 1796.  Deficiency in the funding of the Federal government continued to plague the United States and the Gorham Presidency.  The unsettled economic conditions were manifested in the people's distrust of socially prominent politicians. The laws passed by the "Carriage Class" were perceived as being grossly unfair to farmers and working people throughout a nation paralyzed by war debt. Hundreds of letters poured into Congress complaining about excessive taxes on property, polling taxes that prevented less fortunate citizens from voting, unjust rulings by the common plea courts, the soaring costs of lawsuits, and the lack of a stable currency all landing on the new President's desk. Nowhere was this anger more conspicuous then in Gorham's home state of Massachusetts. The States were also in difficult debt positions attempting to raise capital by selling land. In the case of Gorham's home State of Massachusetts the population had only increased to 270,000 people but the debt had ballooned from .42 pounds in 1775 to 11.30 pounds per person in 1786, a 270% increase! Additionally, inflation on both federal and state paper currency was rampant. The time was ripe for rebellion and Daniel Shays launched one in August 1786 - for more information visit www.NathanielGorham.com.

Born in a Tavern and ending in a Tavern The United States Founding governments
occupied 11 different capitol buildings experienced 15 years of challenges that included war,
hyper-inflation, a failed constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and U.S. Army rebellion. 

Medallion Reverse:  The Lancaster Court House was the Capitol of the Continental Congress for one day on September 27, 1777. The 1730 brick structure, 30’ x 30’, also had a brick pavement floor.    The court house was crowned with a small spire that had a clock of two faces, one for the south and the other for the north.[i] The structure burnt down in 1781 and was replaced with a much larger structure in 1785 that is often depicted, incorrectly, as the Continental Congress Capitol building.  

The medallion's reverse also marks the flight of the delegates due to advancing British columns threatening Philadelphia. The delegates were unable to find ample rooms in the Lancaster for either lodging or convening the Continental Congress for more then one day.  On the 28th the Continental Congress packed up and moved the capitol across the Susquehanna River to a small village called York-Town (now York, Pennsylvania).  The River provided the Continental Congress with a natural barrier to advancing troops.   Although Gorham was neither a delegate nor President in 1777 he served in a time when the people of the United States, not the British, threatened federal unicameral government rule due to the dollar’s devaluation, a broken court system and insurmountable national debt exacted on the people of the United States.

Click Here to Purchase Buttons