﻿THE PAST

ii

proved on June 30, 1812. It empowered the Pres-
ident to issue at par one-year, five and two-fifths
per cent, treasury notes to an amount not exceeding
$5,000,000 in payment for supplies, in settlement
of debts and to provide needed funds. Such notes
were to be receivable in discharge of duties and
taxes and in payment for public lands. The full
amount authorized was issued. Six months later,
February 25, 1813, a further issue of $5,000,000
was authorized for the purpose of covering the part
of the current war deficit not met by the $16,-
000,000 loan of 1813. In March, 1814, there was
a further issue of $10,000,000; in December, 1814,
an authorization of $10,500,000 of which $8,314,-
400 was issued, and in February, 1815, an author-
ization of $25,000,000 of which $4,969,400 was
issued in $100 denominations and $3,392,994 in
smaller denominations.9 There were thus in all
five series of treasury notes authorized in 1812-15,
aggregating $60,500,000, of which $36,680,794
was actually issued.

(B)	The second large occasion for the issue of
treasury notes was the succession of annual deficits
which followed the panic of 1837.10 The expend-
itures of the government had doubled in three years
and there had been actual shrinkage in revenue.
Between 1837 and 1843 there was only one year in
which the Treasury was not face to face with a
considerable deficit. The financial requirement
was aggravated by monetary stringency. The

9	Knox, pp. 38-9; Bayley. 349-50.

10	Knox, chap, vi; Dewey, chap. x.