Henry Clews was born in England in 1836 and emigrated to the United States in 1850. In 1859, he confounded the banking firm that later became Livermore, Clews, and Company, which was the second largest marketer of federal bonds during the Civil War. Later, Clews organized the Committee of Seventy, Which deposed the corrupt Tweed Ring in New York City. He also served as an economic consultant to President Ulysses Grant and wrote and lectured widely on diverse economic and political issues.