The second plan suggested remains for examination. Its principal features are, (1st) a circulation of notes bearing a common impression and authenticated by a common authority; (2d) the redemption of these notes by the associations and institutions to which they may be delivered for issue; and (3d) the security of that redemption by the pledge of United States stocks, and an adequate provision of specie. In this plan the people, in their ordinary business, would find the advantages of uniformity in currency; of uniformity in security; of effectual safeguard, if effectual safeguard is possible, against depreciation; and of protection from losses in discounts and exchanges; while in the operations of the government the people would find the further advantage of a large demand for government securities, of increased facilities for obtaining the loans required by the war, and of some alleviation of the burdens on industry through a diminution in the rate of interest, or a participation in the profit of circulation, without risking the perils of a great money monopoly.

A further and important advantage to the people may be reasonably expected in the increased security of the Union, springing from the common interest in its preservation, created by the distribution of its stocks to associations throughout the country, as the basis of their circulation.

The Secretary entertains the opinion that if a credit circulation in any form be desirable, it is most desirable in this. The notes thus issued and secured would, in his judgment, form the safest currency which this country has ever enjoyed; while their receivability for all government dues, except customs, would make them, wherever payable, of equal value, as a currency, in every part of the Union. The large amount of specie now in the United States, reaching a total of not less than two hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars, will easily support payments of duties in coin, while these payments and ordinary demands will aid in retaining this specie in the country as a solid basis both of circulation and loans.

The whole circulation of the country, except a limited amount of foreign coin, would, after the lapse of two or three years, bear the impress of the nation whether in coin or notes; while the amount of the latter, always easily ascertainable, and, of course, always generally known, would not be likely to be increased beyond the real wants of business.

He expresses an opinion in favor of this plan with the greater confidence, because it has the advantage of recommendation from experience. It is not an untried theory. In the State of New York and in one or more of the other States it has been subjected, in its most essential parts, to the test of experiment, and has been found practicable and useful. The probabilities of success will not be diminished but increased by its adoption under national sanction and for the whole country.

It only remains to add that the plan is recommended by one other consideration, which, in the judgment of the Secretary, is entitled to much influence. It avoids almost, if not altogether, the evils of a great and sudden change in the currency by offering inducements to solvent existing institutions to withdraw the circulation issued under State authority, and substitute that provided by the authority of the Union.

Thus, through the voluntary action of the existing institutions, aided by wise legislation, the great transition from a currency heterogeneous, unequal, and unsafe, to one uniform, equal, and safe, may be speedily and almost imperceptibly accomplished.

If the Secretary has omitted the discussion of the question of the constitutional power of Congress to put this plan into operation, it is because no argument is necessary to establish the proposition that the power to regulate commerce and the value of coin includes the power to regulate the currency of the country, or the collateral proposition that the power to effect the end includes the power to adopt the necessary and expedient means.

The Secretary entertains the hope that the plan now submitted, if adopted with the limitations and safeguards which the experience and wisdom of Senators and Representatives will, doubtless, suggest, may impart such value and stability to government securities that it will not be difficult to obtain the additional loans required for the service of the current and the succeeding year at fair and reasonable rates; especially if the public credit be supported by sufficient and certain provision for the payment of interest and ultimate redemption of the principal.

Annual Report, Secretary of Treasury (Salmon P. Chase)

[Thirty-Seventh Congress, 3d Session, December 4, 1862, Pages 12-26]

The Secretary does not concur in the opinion entertained by some, whose ability and experience command deserved respect, that the aggregate currency of the country, composed of United States notes and notes of corporations, is at this moment greatly in excess of legitimate demands for its employment. Much less does he concur in another opinion, not unfrequently expressed, but expressed in his judgment without due consideration, that any actual excess is due to the issues of United States notes already in circulation.

It is true that gold commands a premium in notes; in other words, that to purchase a given amount of gold a greater amount in notes is required. But it is also true that, on the suspension of specie payments and the substitution for coin of United States notes, convertible into six per cent specie bonds as the legal standard of value, gold became an article of merchandise, subject to the ordinary fluctuations of supply and demand, and to the extraordinary fluctuations of mere speculation. The ignorant fears of foreign investers in national and State bonds and other American securities, and the timid alarms of numerous nervous individuals in our own country, prompted large sacrifices upon evidences of public and corporate indebtedness in our markets, and large purchases of coin for remittance abroad or hoarding at home. Taking advantage of these and other circumstances tending to an advance of gold, speculators employed all the arts of the market to stimulate that tendency and carry it to the highest point. This point was reached on the 15th day of October. Gold sold in the market at a premium of 375% per cent.

That this remarkable rise is not due wholly, or even in greatest part, to the increase of the currency, is established beyond reasonable doubt by considerations now to be stated.

First: The whole quantity of circulation did not, at the time, greatly, if at all, exceed the legitimate demands of payments. On the 1st day of November, 1861, the circulation of United States notes, including credits to disbursing officers and to the Treasurer of the United States, was $15,140,000. On the 1st day of November, 1862, it was, with like inclusions, $210,104,000. Of corporate notes, on the 1st of November, 1861, the circulation in the loyal States was, according to the best estimates, $130,000,000; on the 1st of November, 1862, it was $167,000,000. The coin in circulation, including the coin in banks, was probably not less, on the 1st of November, 1861, than $210,000,000. On the 1st of November, 1862, the coin had been practically demonetized and withdrawn from use as currency or as a basis for currency, and is therefore not estimated. The aggregate circulation of the loyal States, therefore, was, at the first date, $355,140,000; and at the second, only $377,104,000.

Secondly: The whole, or nearly the whole, increase in the volume of the currency which has taken place was, it is believed, legitimately demanded by the changed condition of the country in the year between the two dates. The activity in business which, at the close of that year, had taken the place of the general stagnation which marked its beginning, and the military and naval preparations and movements which had vastly augmented the number and amounts of payments to be made in money, have, it is believed, legitimately demanded nearly or quite the whole of it.

That such is the case may be reasonably inferred from the fact that the prices of many of the most important articles of consumption have declined or not materially advanced during the year. Wheat, quoted at $1 38 to $1 45 per bushel on the 1st of November, 1861, was quoted at $1 45 to $1 50 on the 1st of November, 1862. Prime mess pork, on the 1st of November, 1861, was quoted at $15 to $15 50 per barrel, and on the 1st of November, 1862, at $12.50 to $13. Corn sold on the 1st of November, 1861, at 62 to 63 cents per bushel, and on the the 1st of November, 1862, at 71 to 73 cents. A comparison between the prices of hay, beef, and some other staples of domestic produce at the two dates, exhibits similar conditions of actual depression in price or moderate rise.

Thirdly: It is, perhaps, still more conclusive against the theory of great redundancy that, on the 15th day of October, when the aggregate actual circulation, national and corporate, was about $360,000,000, the premium on gold was 375%; whereas, on the 29th day of November, when the circulation had increased by more than twenty millions, the premium on gold was 29 to 30 per cent.

But if the fact of considerable redundancy in circulation be conceded, it by no means follows that it is the circulation of United States notes which is redundant.

It must be remembered that the law confines national payments and receipts to coin and notes of the United States. Officers of the treasury, officers of the army and navy, all officers of all departments, must observe and enforce this law. For all payments to be made in behalf

of the United States, in case of inability to obtain coin, United States notes must be issued. It is, indeed, the duty of the legislature to see that the purchasing power of these notes is kept as nearly as possible equal to the purchasing power which gold would have had if specie payments had been maintained; but the issue and use of the notes is unavoidable, and the government can resort to borrowing only when the issue has become sufficiently large to warrant a just expectation that loans of the notes can be had from those who hold or can obtain them at rates not less advantageous than those of coin loans before suspension. The difficulty which the takers of the recent loan of $13,613,450 found in obtaining United States notes with which to meet their engagements to the treasury is very instructive on this head. It points, indeed, directly to the conclusion that loans of United States notes, in sufficient amounts to meet the disbursements of the government, could not now be obtained at rates which a due regard to the interests of the tax-payers would permit the Secretary to accept. Whatever may be said of the aggregate circulation, it cannot, then, be successfully maintained that the circulation of United States notes is excessive. When extended to the limits authorized by existing laws, it will be no larger than the wants of the people and the government imperatively demand.

If there be a considerable redundancy then; if there be a considerable real depreciation of the circulation-which is by no means admitted-what has caused the redundancy and the depreciation?

The cause of all that exists is easily found in the statements of the banking corporations. The circulation of corporate notes increased during the year ending on the 1st of November, 1862, from $130,000,000 to $167,000,000. During the same time the volume of deposits, which answer very many of the purposes of circulation, had swelled from $264,000,000 to $344,000,000. The greater portion of this increase took place within the last seven months.

The augmentation of deposits always accompanies increase of circulation. Together they stimulate loans, and are, in turn, stimulated by the desire of the interest derived from loans. As might have been anticipated, loans increased, though not equally, with the circulation and deposits. From $607,000,000 on the 1st day of November, 1861, they had grown to $677,000,000 on the 1st day of November, 1862.

Here is an obvious and sufficient explanation of whatever undue expansion may have taken place. The Secretary has already expressed the opinion that the circulation is not greatly redundant, and that no considerable depreciation of currency has actually occurred. He thinks it sufficiently proved, however, that whatever there may of either is fairly attributable not to the increase of United States notes, but to the increase of bank circulation and deposits.

It is to be observed that no law compelled and no public necessity required any enlargement of the volume of currency by the banks. On the contrary, there are, in some of the States, positive enactments by which the increase of circulation during suspension is prohibited; and the principle embodied in them is so obviously just that wellmanaged institutions, when obliged to suspend, almost invariably, without the constraint of any law, reduce their circulation instead of augmenting it. In obedience to this principle, a reduction of bank circulation actually took place after the suspension in December. It

was only when United States notes, having been made a legal tender, were diverted from their legitimate use as currency and made the basis of bank circulation, that the great increase of the latter began. It was purely voluntary; prompted doubtless, by the desire of extending accommodations to business as well as by the expectation of profit. No practical limit upon this increase has as yet been proposed by the parties interested in it.

The Secretary has already shown that the case was far otherwise with the circulation of United States notes. A condition had been created by the suspension which made loans of coin impossible. Loans of corporate notes, objectionable in themselves, were positively prohibited by a law not likely to be repealed. The extension of the United States note circulation, until sufficient in amount to enable the Secretary to obtain it from holders by way of loans, was equally inevitable. A practical limit on its increase is imposed by the judicious legislation of Congress, which makes the notes receivable for loans, and requires that the interest on bonds for loans shall be paid in coin. Under these circumstances, the path of wisdom and duty seems very clear. It leads to the support of a United States note circulation, and to the reduction of the bank note circulation. A comparatively small reduction of the latter will allow ample room for the whole increase of the former, authorized by existing laws; and as the reduction proceeds the increase may be extended, never, however, passing the point which admits the negotiation of loans at reasonable rates. The Secretary has heretofore advised the imposing of a moderate tax on corporate circulation, and now renews the recommendation as the best. means of reduction and gradual substitution. Such a tax involves no hardships. Notes circulating as money cost nothing beyond the expense of production and supervision, and yet form a highly accumulative species of property. The necessities of the war have caused the taxation of almost all forms of value. Can there be a sound reason for exempting that which costs the proprietor least and brings him most?

It may be properly added that this desirable substitution of a circulation, uniform in description and value, for a circulation varying widely in both, may, perhaps, be more easily and beneficially effected now than at any other time. The circulation of United States notes may greatly facilitate the payments to the banks through which their own notes must be withdrawn; and thus, not only protect the community from the inconveniences, but the banks from the losses which might otherwise attend reduction.

It may also be added that when the substitution shall have been accomplished, and, perhaps, if circumstances favor, at an earlier period, payments in specie of United States notes may be resumed with less cost and less injury to business than would attend a like resumption in payment of corporate notes. With comparatively trivial sacrifice, the government can, whenever its expenditures are reduced to its revenue, provide. by loan or otherwise, all the coin needed to commence and maintain the resumption.

While the Secretary thus repeats the preference he has heretofore expressed for a United States note circulation, even when issued directly by the government, and dependent on the action of the government for regulation and final redemption, over the note circulation of