TREASURY NOTES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 69 in the midst of the war the honor of the country must be sustained. Finally, with some slight amendments, the bill passed on January 27, 1847, by a vote of 43 to 2, and became a law on the following day. Notes issued under this act were not to be of a less denomination than $50, and were receivable in payment of public dues, including duties on imports, and were redeemable at the expiration of one or two years, and the interest was to cease at the expiration of sixty days' notice. On page 67 is the form of a 6 per cent. $100 note issued under this act. (A photo-lithograph of this note is given at end of the volume.) The principal of the notes was fundable into 6 per cent. bonds, redeemable after December 30, 1867, and this privilege was extended to the holders of notes issued under previous acts. Reissues were authorized, but the amount of stock and notes, at any one time, was not to exceed twenty-three millions. The right to issue treasury notes, under the act of July 22, 1846, was extended by the fifteenth section to the period fixed by these acts, and on the same terms, but the issue, under this section, was not to exceed five millions. $12,371,150 of these notes were issued previous to July 1, 1847, and $11,956,950 additional notes were issued during the next fiscal year. The whole amount of issues and reissues under the act was $26,122,100, all of which were either sold or paid to public creditors at par. The rate of interest of the notes was 5 and 6 per cent., and United States 6 per cent. bonds, chiefly for the purpose of redeeming these notes, were issued under the same act, amounting to $28,230,350. CHAPTER VIII. TREASURY NOTES OF THE BUCHANAN ADMINISTRATION. THE treasury notes issued under the act of January 28, 1847, were all retired, with the exception of about $200,000, previous to July 1, 1850, and no additional treasury notes were authorized, until the passage of the act of December 23, 1857. Secretary Cobb, in his report for that year, estimated that the receipts would exceed the expenditures, but said that the financial revulsion which had caused the banks to suspend specie payment in October of that year, had also caused a large part of the dutiable merchandise to be stored without payment of duty, where it could remain under the law for three years, although it was probable that a considerable portion would be withdrawn and the duties paid previous to that date. Meanwhile, means should be provided for meeting the demands upon the treasury, and he recommended that authority should be given to issue treasury notes "for an amount not exceeding twenty millions of dollars, and payable within a limited time, and carry a specified rate of interest." A bill, in accordance with the suggestion of the Secretary, was introduced into both Houses of Congress on December 18, 1857. It passed the Senate on the following day, by a vote of 31 to 18, and the House on the 22d by a vote of 118 to 86, and was approved on the following day and became a law. The bill provided for the issue of notes payable in one year NOTES OF THE BUCHANAN ADMINISTRATION. 71 from date of issue, to an amount not exceeding twenty millions. $6,000,000 were to be issued at a rate of interest not exceeding 6 per cent. The remainder was to be sold after public advertisement of not less than thirty days, at their par value, for specie, to the bidders offering to take them at the lowest rate of interest, not exceeding 6 per cent. The interest upon the notes was to expire, after maturity of notes, upon sixty days' notice from the Secretary, of his readiness to redeem such notes; they were to be issued in denominations of not less than $100, and were to be signed by the Treasurer and Register; they were receivable in payment of all dues to the United States. The whole amount authorized was issued, and the amount of issues and reissues, in all, was $52,778,900. The interest upon these notes was as follows: $6,323,600 at 3 per cent.; $985,000 at from 3 to 4 per cent.; $688,000 at 41 per cent.; 10,055,700 at 4 per cent.; $4,532,500 at 4 per cent.; $7,533,900 at 5 per cent.; $8,204,500 at 5 per cent.; $3,514,100 at 5 per cent.; and $10,941,600 at 6 per cent. On page 73 is the form of a 3 per cent. $100 note issued under this act. The following table exhibits the different kinds of treasury notes outstanding which were issued from the organization of the Government to the date of the passage of the act of March 2, 1861, and which had not been presented for payment on October 1, 1887: NOTES. Act. Rate of Interest. Principal. Interest. Treasury Notes, 1846. Prior to 1846 1 mill to 6 per cent. 3 to 6 per cent. per cent. The total public debt on June 20, 1860, was $64,769,703.08. The outstanding treasury notes issued under act of June 23, 1857, were $19,690,500. The amount of treasury notes outstanding, issued under acts previous to that date, was $105,111.64. The act of June 22, 1860, authorized a loan of twenty-one millions, at a rate of interest not exceeding 6 per cent., to be reimbursed within a period not more than twenty years, and not less than ten years. The money was to be used in the redemption of treasury notes, and to replace any amount paid to the treasurer in such notes for public dues. Under this authority, proposals were invited by Secretary Cobb, on September 8, 1860, for ten millions of this loan, which amount was "ample to meet all the treasury notes that would fall due before January 1, 1861." In his report for December 4, 1860, he says: "The rate of interest was fixed at 5 per centum per annum, under the conviction that the loan could be readily negotiated at that rate, for, at that time, the 5 per cent. stock of the United States was selling in the market at the premium of 3 per cent. The result realized this just expectation, and the whole amount offered was taken, either at par or a small premium." Before, however, the time had arrived for payment on the part of the bidders, political complications arose, which affected the credit of the Government so unfavorably that the amount realized was but $7,022,000, the subscribers of $2,978,000 having failed to make good their subscriptions. The Secretary stated that, in the present condition of the country, capitalists were unwilling to invest in United States stock at par, and recommended a repeal of so much of the act of June 22, 1860, as authorized |