THE  PAST

ii

proved  on  June  30,  1812.  It  empowered  the  President ­
  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  authorization ­
  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  expenditures ­
  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.