CHAPTER VII. ADMINISTRATION OF THE TREASURY. JULY, 1864 SEPTEMBER, 1865. MR. CHASE retired from the treasury department on the last day of the fiscal year 1864. His retirement was first known by the Senate when President Lincoln sent in the name of David Todd, of Ohio, for secretary of the treasury. Gov. Todd declined the appointment, and William P. Fessenden, United States senator from Maine, succeeded to the office.1 Mr. Chase had served his country at a trying time. That he was ignorant of finance when he accepted office was no fault; but his unwillingness to learn cannot be excused. It has been said that if he had listened to those who manifested even more than an apostolic readiness to exhort and rebuke, he would have been overrun with self-appointed teachers, yet he might have safely asked counsel of a few and turned a deaf ear to others. The bankers in New York and other places were not less deeply moved than Mr. Chase by the events around them, nor less desirous of aiding the cause of the Union. Among these he could have found some who would have kept him from making mistakes and saved his country from their consequences. Mr. Chase was too selfcontained, and lacked somewhat of that keen sense of the 'He was appointed July 1. highest kind of trusteeship, which leads the executor to regard his trust more highly than himself. Mr. Chase never lost his own personality in an absorbing zeal and disinterestedness for the public good. Events were turned to personal use; he could never regard himself simply as a piece of a great machine for accomplishing a public end. From the outset, if always sincerely desirous of promoting the public interests, his eye was fixed even more keenly on his own advancement. Mr. Chase did not have the openness of mind characteristic of a great man. He did not live by ideas like Edmund Burke. At one time a large amount of gold had accumulated in the custom-house at San Francisco, and the question was asked what should be done with it. An official in the treasury department replied, "Ship it to London and draw against it." Mr. Chase ridiculed the reply. Yet not long afterward the gold had disappeared from San Francisco, and when inquiry was made concerning its use, what was learned? The secretary had quietly given orders to send the gold to London and sell it, thus adopting the plan he had ridiculed, but without acknowledging his error to the person who proposed it.' Nor did he, except on very few occasions, acknowledge his mistakes. Those who walk in the paths of humility are not numerous. A great man does not hesitate to acknowledge his mistakes, for he is conscious of the security of his position. Unskilled in finance, unwilling to learn, and, when going astray, persisting in his course, Mr. Chase's failure was inevitable. We readily admit that his task was tremendous. He increased it, though, a thousand-fold, by repelling the confidence of those who were eager to support him, and by persisting in 1 See Ann. Treas. Report, 1864. a policy at the opening of the war which he was told in plainest language would be suicidal. The suspension of specie payments might have been necessary before the war ended. Had Mr. Chase, though, adopted the advice of the banks, they could and would have largely supplied him with the necessary funds, and the amount of paper money issued toward the close, if at all, would not have been enough to cause that wild revolution in prices which followed the early suspension of specie payments, with all the accompanying evils of enlarging the public debt and the burdens of subsequent debtors. These and other consequences we must largely ascribe to the unwisdom and perversity of Mr. Chase. The blunders of no administrator of the treasury department were ever so costly, or so patiently borne. That he had an ambition to succeed Mr. Lincoln was in no wise discreditable. In acting, he moved in the trying light of this ambition, and his conduct was not altogether blameless. All depended on the ideal within, and the kind of popularity and support he sought to gain. Pericles commended himself to the best citizens of Athens, and so far as Mr. Chase imitated the accomplished Athenian's example, no praise can be too great. That he truly meant to do right, and serve his country well, we have not the slightest doubt; that his consuming passion to become president led him to pursue a policy which was always consistent with the public good may be doubted, if our account of his official career be correct. To what extent his administration was unfavorably affected by the presidential fever; which raged within him to the end of his days, cannot be determined. It has been said that one reason why he so persistently advocated the establishing of the national banking system was because he believed the people would think more frequently and favorably of him as a presidential candidate. Statements and inferences of this nature can be more easily made than proved, and we would not condemn him too severely, for his faults are the inheritance of the race; we may mourn because saints and angels do not live amongst us, yet we must not censure all the less lovely spirits who are dwelling on the earth and occupying high places. Mr. Chase had no more ambition than millions of others, and if he was washed upon the rocks in trying to grasp the prize, his fate was like many before him, and perhaps a countless throng who are to follow. If the evil consequences to his country from his untoward course were tremendous, let us remember this was because of the time in which he happened to serve, and that others who have filled the treasury office in a less eventful time might, if serving when he did, have blundered far worse than himself. Mr. Chase would have been obliged to retire from the treasury department sooner had not the President feared worse consequences from a change. Napoleon's regard for scientific men led him to put Laplace at the head of the financial department of France; but as soon as the emperor learned that one might excel his contemporaries in mathematics and astronomy, and yet know nothing about finance, he displaced the astronomical financier with another who turned his eyes less frequently toward the heavens. Mr. Lincoln moved more slowly, delaying to make the change until long after the general confidence in Mr. Chase's ability to manage the finances successfully had given way. Fessenden, who succeeded Mr. Chase, was of a different type. He had served efficiently as a member of the Finance Committee of the Senate, was familiar with the subsequent financial operations of the government, and had the complete confidence of all. Of the purest private character, devoted to his country, not over-confident in his abilities, and desirous of knowing more, a better choice probably could not have been made. He accepted the office reluctantly, and, though serving as secretary only eight months, rescued the treasury department from the grave disorder into which his predecessor had plunged it. When he began his administration on the 1st of July, he found, so he said afterward, "his condition peculiarly embarrassing." The cash balance in the treasury was $18,842,558, and the unpaid requisitions were $71,814,000. The amount of certificates of indebtedness outstanding was $161,796,000. The daily expenditures exceeded two millions and a quarter. The larger portion of unpaid requisitions was for pay to the army, which would be increased over fifty millions on the 1st of September. How were these obligations, beside others accruing daily, to be met? From customs he could expect no substantial aid, for all the revenue coming from that source would be needed to pay interest on the bonds that had been, or soon would be, issued. The amount of internal revenue, however, had been steadily increasing from month to month, reaching nearly $15,000,000 for June. The secretary confidently hoped for a daily average of three-quarters of a million from this source during the succeeding months. "But this hope, if realized, would still leave him with a very large deficiency, to meet which, in part, he might issue certificates of indebtedness to public creditors. It was desirable, however, to avoid, could other means be found, increasing the amount of these securities." He could have recourse to the power conferred by an Act passed on the last day of the former fiscal |