Stephen Simpson (writer)

[7] As a young man Simpson was given a position through his father as a note clerk in the First Bank of the United States, from which he later voluntarily resigned in contempt when he learned of the questionable ways in which they conducted their affairs.

Many of his letters were lengthy and contained detailed information of the places he passed through, making numerous references to military life and its operations.

In his letter of January 30, 1815, Simpson describes the festivities which occurred after the evacuation of New Orleans by the British troops, and expresses praise for Andrew Jackson.

[4] On returning to civilian life, Simpson along with his brother-in-law Tobias Watkins,[a] founded The Portico ; a Repository of Science and Literature, (1816–1818), a monthly periodical based in Baltimore, where he functioned as the chief editor and proprietor.

[12] To avoid arrest Simpson's controversial articles were anonymously signed "Brutus", and subsequently attracted much attention and curiosity.

The columns were bold, candid and openly hostile attacks upon the management of the Bank, exposing its policy and various practices in intimate detail.

To conceal his identity Simpson's letters were secretly dropped at a designated place, where a boy was sent to receive and deliver them to the office of The Aurora where they would soon appear in print.

[16] Simpson then worked as a journalist on a local newspaper where he wrote a series of editorials publicly attacking the management of the U.S. bank along with its policy and transactions.

[2] In 1822, Simpson and associate John Conrad founded the Columbian Observer (1822–1825[17]), a newspaper whose publication and management was given to Jesper Harding.

Simpson and Owen embraced some of the radical social principles of Thomas Jefferson regarding banks, believing that labor created all wealth and that inequality was caused by excessive ownership of private property and other monopolies.

[19] In the Jacksonian period, Working Men's parties arose including associations of farmers, factory workers and city mechanics.

Trade unions consisted of skilled artisans organized in their respective craft societies, such as Philadelphia's cordwainers, hatters and carpenters.

He viewed it as "a singular infatuation prevailing among all modern writers on economy, that the scarcity of food among the laboring people is attributable to excess of population".

He maintained this notion to be a fallacy, easily refuted by simply observing the hoarding of resources by the very rich, a fact he believed was "staring them in the face".

[27] He believed that labor was the source of all wealth and that social inequality was the end result of private property,[19] generally considered a radical idea in a land greatly given to farming and other free enterprise.

In the introduction Simpson dismisses the contemporary conservative writers whom he refers to as "bewildered in the fogs of Gothic institutions", maintaining that social labor policies should be based on "the elucidation of obvious principles, of practical utility or equitable application".