1.
Banknote
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A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks, national banknotes are generally legal tender, meaning that medium of payment is allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Historically, banks sought to ensure that they could always pay customers in coins when they presented banknotes for payment and this practice of backing notes with something of substance is the basis for the history of central banks backing their currencies in gold or silver. Today, most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat, with the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. The idea of using a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, the first known banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, during the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by such as Marco Polo. Counterfeiting, the forgery of banknotes, is an inherent challenge in issuing currency and it is countered by anticounterfeiting measures in the printing of banknotes. Fighting the counterfeiting of banknotes and cheques has been a driver of security printing methods development in recent centuries. Paper currency first developed in the Tang Dynasty China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, the usage of paper currency later spread throughout the Mongol Empire. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century, napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s. Paper money originated in two forms, drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and bills, the perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals, Banknotes were seen as essentially an I. O. U. or promissory note, a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money. Notes or bills were referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months time. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle
2.
Greenback (1860s money)
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Greenbacks were paper currency issued by the United States during the American Civil War. They were in two forms, Demand Notes, issued in 1861–1862, and United States Notes issued in 1862–1865 and they were legal tender by law, but were not backed by gold or silver, only the credibility of the U. S. government. Before the Civil War, the money issued by the United States was gold and silver coins, and only such coins were legal tender. Paper currency in the form of banknotes was issued by privately owned banks, such notes had value only if the bank could be counted on to redeem them. If a bank failed, its notes became worthless, national governments had in the past issued paper money and made it legal tender, but usually with at least the pretense that the notes would be redeemable for specie at some time. Continental dollars issued by the Continental Congress during the American Revolution had no such backing, during the early 1800s, the U. S. issued interest-bearing Treasury Notes in various denominations. These were not legal tender, but could be used to pay customs duties, when President Abraham Lincoln assumed office, he understood the importance of money for the war effort. With this in mind, Lincoln appointed Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury, as Secretary, Chase alone was authorized to act on all matters pertaining to the country’s finances. Chase, like almost everyone at the time, underestimated the duration, within a few months it was clear that the costs of the war would run far beyond the governments limited income from tariffs and excises. The Lincoln Administration sought loans from banks, mostly in New York City. The banks demanded very high interest rates of 24 to 36 percent, Lincoln refused to borrow on such terms and called for other solutions. This was the first measure to finance the war, in July 1861, Congress authorized $50,000,000 in Demand Notes. They bore no interest, but could be redeemed for specie on demand and they were not legal tender, but like Treasury Notes could be used to pay customs duties. Unlike private and state banknotes, Demand Notes were printed on both sides, the reverse side was printed in green ink, and so the Demand Notes were dubbed greenbacks. Initially they were discounted relative to gold, but being fully redeemable in gold were soon at par, in December 1861, the government had to suspend redemption, and they declined. Chase authorized paying interest on Demand Notes, which sustained their value, the later United States Notes could not be used to pay customs duties, only gold and Demand Notes. Importers therefore continued to use Demand Notes in place of gold, in March 1862, Demand Notes were made legal tender. As Demand Notes were used to pay duties, they were out of circulation
3.
Demand Note
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A Demand Note is a type of United States paper money that was issued between August 1861 and April 1862 during the American Civil War in denominations of 5,10, and 20 US$. The U. S. government placed the Demand Notes into circulation by using them to pay expenses incurred during the Civil War including the salaries of its workers and military personnel. S. currency today. As a result, most Demand Notes were redeemed, though the few remaining Demand Notes are the oldest valid currency in the United States today, the Demand Notes were a transitional issue connecting these Treasury Notes to modern paper money. The Continental Congress had issued Continental dollars between 1775 and 1779 to help finance the American Revolution, while the constitution did not explicitly grant the power to issue paper currency, it did grant the power to borrow money. Treasury Notes, as a form of debt, were an innovation to help bridge federal financing gaps when the government encountered difficulty selling a sufficient amount of long term bonds, Treasury Notes were first employed during the War of 1812 and were issued irregularly up through the civil war. Characteristically the issues were not extensive and the fiction was always maintained that Treasury Notes did not serve as money when, in fact. These notes usually bore interest, their value varied with market conditions, however, only $3,392,994 were issued, and these were rapidly exchanged for bonds. In witness to the limited circulation achieved by these notes, only two issued uncancelled examples of the Small Treasury Notes are known today vs. almost 1000 examples of the Demand Notes. One response from Congress was the Act of July 17,1861, of this sum, up to $50,000,000 was authorized as non-interest bearing Treasury Notes, payable upon demand, in denominations less than fifty dollars and not less than ten dollars. These were called Demand Notes to distinguish them from the interest-bearing Treasury Notes in existence at the time, the notes were to be redeemable through the assistant treasurers offices at Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. These signature provisions would later be altered several times and this act also stipulated that prior to December 31,1862, an individual Demand Note could be re-issued into circulation after it was presented for redemption. Just before they were to be released, the Act of August 5,1861 and it allowed for Demand Notes to be issued in denominations of not less than $5 and be redeemable through the assistant treasurers office at St. Louis or the bullion depository in Cincinnati. This act also stated that the Treasurer of the United States, under this act, Demand Notes did not need to carry the seal of the U. S. Treasury. Because the Bureau of Engraving and Printing did not exist at the time, both companies were prominent printers of banknotes for private and state-chartered banks throughout the country. Most likely, the American Bank Note Company engraved the plates for $5. All of the Demand Notes were printed by the American Bank Note Company, as designed, they were of the same size, and in appearance closely resembled banknotes. Secretary of the Treasury Chase began distributing the notes to meet Union obligations in August 1861, initially, various merchants, banks and especially the railroad industry accepted the notes at a discounted rate or did not accept them at all. Louis, and at the Depository of Cincinnati and they must be always equivalent to gold, and often and for many purposes more convenient and valuable
4.
Fiat money
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Fiat money is a currency established as money by government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat used in the sense of an order or decree and it differs from commodity money and representative money. The first use of money was recorded in China around 1000 AD. Since then, it has been used by countries, concurrently with commodity currencies. Fiat money has been defined variously as, Any money declared by a government to be legal tender, state-issued money which is neither convertible by law to any other thing, nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard. Intrinsically valueless money used as money because of government decree, a coin is fiat currency to the extent that its face value, value defined in law, is greater than its market value as metal. In monetary economics, fiat money is an intrinsically valueless object or record that is accepted as a means of payment. Circulating silver coins in the 1960s ceased to be produced containing the metal when the face value of the coin was below the cost of the elemental metal. The Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver from the circulating dimes and quarter dollars of the United States, the Canadian penny was mostly copper until 1996 and was removed from circulation in the fall of 2012 due to the cost of production relative to face value. In 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint produced a million dollar gold bullion coin, in 2015, the gold in the coins was worth more than 3.5 times the face value. Fiat money originated in 11th century China, and its use became widespread during the Yuan, the Song Dynasty in China was the first to issue paper money, jiaozi, around the 10th century AD. Although the notes were valued at an exchange rate for gold, silver, or silk. The government made attempts to support the paper by demanding taxes partly in currency and making other laws, but the damage had been done. The successive Yuan Dynasty was the first dynasty in China to use currency as the predominant circulating medium. The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, issued paper money known as Chao in his reign, the original notes during the Yuan Dynasty were restricted in area and duration as in the Song Dynasty. During the 13th century, Marco Polo described the money of the Yuan Dynasty in his book The Travels of Marco Polo. All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of gold or silver. Tally sticks were employed as fiat currency in medieval England when, due to shortage, Henry I initiated their use by the Exchequer in or around 1100
5.
United States Department of the Treasury
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The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue, the Department is administered by the Secretary of the Treasury, who is a member of the Cabinet. On February 13,2017, the Senate confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury, the first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was sworn into office on September 11,1789. Hamilton was asked by President George Washington to serve after first having asked Robert Morris, Hamilton almost single-handedly worked out the nations early financial system, and for several years was a major presence in Washingtons administration as well. His portrait is on the obverse of the U. S. ten-dollar bill while the Treasury Department building is shown on the reverse. Besides the Secretary, one of the best-known Treasury officials is the Treasurer of the United States whose signature, along with the Treasury Secretarys, the Treasury prints and mints all paper currency and coins in circulation through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint. The Department also collects all federal taxes through the Internal Revenue Service, the Congress had no power to levy and collect taxes, nor was there a tangible basis for securing funds from foreign investors or governments. The delegates resolved to issue paper money in the form of bills of credit, the Congress stipulated that each of the colonies contribute to the Continental governments funds. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4,1776, despite the infusion of foreign and domestic loans to pay for a war of independence, the United Colonies were unable to establish a well-organized agency for financial administration. Michael Hillegas was first called Treasurer of the United States on May 14,1777, the Treasury Office was reorganized three times between 1778 and 1781. The $241.5 million of paper Continental Dollars devalued rapidly, by May 1781, the dollar collapsed at a rate of from 500 to 1000 to 1 against hard currency. Protests against the worthless money swept the colonies and angry Americans coined the expression not worth a Continental, Robert Morris was designated Superintendent of Finance in 1781 and restored stability to the nations finances. Morris, a colonial merchant, was nicknamed the Financier because of his reputation for procuring funds or goods on a moments notice. His staff included a Comptroller, a Treasurer, a Register, and auditors, who managed the finances through 1784. The Treasury Board of three Commissioners continued to oversee the finances of the confederation of former colonies until September 1789, the First Congress of the United States was called to convene in New York on March 4,1789, marking the beginning of government under the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton took the oath of office as the first Secretary of the Treasury on September 11,1789, Hamilton had served as George Washingtons aide-de-camp during the Revolution, and was of great importance in the ratification of the Constitution. Because of his financial and managerial acumen, Hamilton was a choice for solving the problem of the new nations heavy war debt. Hamiltons first official act was to submit a report to Congress in which he laid the foundation for the financial health
6.
Union (American Civil War)
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The Union was opposed by 11 southern slave states that formed the Confederate States, or the Confederacy. All of the Unions states provided soldiers for the U. S. Army, the Border states played a major role as a supply base for the Union invasion of the Confederacy. The Northeast provided the resources for a mechanized war producing large quantities of munitions and supplies. The Midwest provided soldiers, food, horses, financial support, Army hospitals were set up across the Union. Most states had Republican governors who energetically supported the war effort, the Democratic Party strongly supported the war in 1861 but in 1862 was split between the War Democrats and the anti-war element led by the Copperheads. The Democrats made major gains in 1862 in state elections. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio, in 1864 the Republicans campaigned under the National Union Party banner, which attracted many War Democrats and soldiers and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket. The war years were quite prosperous except where serious fighting and guerrilla warfare took place along the southern border, prosperity was stimulated by heavy government spending and the creation of an entirely new national banking system. The Union states invested a great deal of money and effort in organizing psychological and social support for soldiers wives, widows, orphans, and for the soldiers themselves. Most soldiers were volunteers, although after 1862 many volunteered to escape the draft, Draft resistance was notable in some larger cities, especially New York City with its massive anti-draft riots of 1863 and in some remote districts such as the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania. In the context of the American Civil War, the Union is sometimes referred to as the North, both then and now, as opposed to the Confederacy, which was the South. The Union never recognized the legitimacy of the Confederacys secession and maintained at all times that it remained entirely a part of the United States of America, in foreign affairs the Union was the only side recognized by all other nations, none of which officially recognized the Confederate government. The term Union occurs in the first governing document of the United States, the subsequent Constitution of 1787 was issued and ratified in the name not of the states, but of We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union. Union, for the United States of America, is repeated in such clauses as the Admission to the Union clause in Article IV. Even before the war started, the preserve the Union was commonplace. Using the term Union to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the political entity. In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union had a large industrialized and urbanized area, additionally, the Union states had a manpower advantage of 5 to 2 at the start of the war. Year by year, the Confederacy shrank and lost control of increasing quantities of resources, meanwhile, the Union turned its growing potential advantage into a much stronger military force
7.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
8.
Federal Reserve Note
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Federal Reserve Notes, also United States banknotes or U. S. banknotes, are the banknotes currently used in the United States of America. Denominated in United States dollars, Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Federal Reserve Notes are the only type of U. S. banknote currently produced. The notes are then put into circulation by the Federal Reserve Banks, at which point they become liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender, with the words this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private printed on each note. They have replaced United States Notes, which were issued by the Treasury Department. Federal Reserve Notes are backed by the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks and these assets are generally Treasury securities which have been purchased by the Federal Reserve through its Federal Open Market Committee in a process called debt monetizing. This monetized debt can increase the supply, either with the issuance of new Federal Reserve Notes or with the creation of debt money. This increase in the base leads to a larger increase in the money supply through fractional-reserve banking as deposits are lent. Prior to centralized banking, each bank issued its own notes. The first institution with responsibilities of a bank in the U. S. was the First Bank of the United States. Its charter was not renewed in 1811, in 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered, its charter was not renewed in 1836, after President Andrew Jackson campaigned heavily for its disestablishment. From 1837 to 1862, in the Free Banking Era there was no central bank. From 1862 to 1913, a system of banks was instituted by the 1863 National Banking Act. The first printed notes were Series 1914, in 1928, cost-cutting measures were taken to reduce the note to the size it is today. The authority of the Federal Reserve Banks to issue notes comes from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, legally, they are liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States government. Although not issued by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Notes carry the signature of the Treasurer of the United States, at the time of the Federal Reserves creation, the law provided for notes to be redeemed to the Treasury in gold or lawful money. The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 removed the gold obligation and authorized the Treasury to satisfy these redemption demands with current notes of equal face value, under the Bretton Woods system, although citizens could not possess gold, the federal government continued to maintain a stable international gold price. This system ended with the Nixon Shock of 1971, present-day Federal Reserve Notes are not backed by convertibility to any specific commodity, but only by the collateral assets that Federal Reserve Banks post in order to obtain them. Series 1914 FRN were the first of two large-size issues, denominations were $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 printed first with a red seal and then continued with a blue seal
9.
Serial code
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A serial code is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item. It is also called a number, although it may be a character string that includes letters and other typographical symbols. Serial numbers identify otherwise identical individual units with many, obvious uses, Serial numbers are a deterrent against theft and counterfeit products, as they can be recorded, and stolen or otherwise irregular goods can be identified. Banknotes and other documents of value bear serial numbers to assist in preventing counterfeiting and tracing stolen ones. They are valuable in quality control, as once a defect is found in the production of a batch of product. Serial numbers may be used to identify individual physical or intangible objects, the purpose and application is different. A software serial number, otherwise called product key, is not embedded in the software. The software will function if a potential user enters a valid product code. The vast majority of codes are rejected by the software. If an unauthorised user is found to be using the software, the term serial number is sometimes used for codes which do not identify a single instance of something. It takes its name from the library use of the word serial to mean a periodical. Certificates and certificate authorities are necessary for use of cryptography. These depend on applying mathematically rigorous serial numbers and serial number arithmetic, the term serial number is also used in military formations as an alternative to the expression service number. Because of this, the number is sometimes called a tail number. LZ548/G—the prototype de Havilland Vampire jet fighter, or ML926/G—a de Havilland Mosquito XVI experimentally fitted with H2S radar, the serial number follows the aircraft throughout its period of service. In 2009 the U. S. FDA published draft guidance for the industry to use serial numbers on prescription drug packages. This measure will enhance the traceability of drugs and help to prevent counterfeiting, Serial numbers are often used in network protocols. However, most sequence numbers in computer protocols are limited to a number of bits
10.
United States Secretary of the Treasury
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This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the Minister of Finance in many other countries. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the Presidents Cabinet, nominees for The Secretary of the Treasury undergo a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Finance before being confirmed by the United States Senate. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the U. S. National Security Council. The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender, the Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. Most of the Departments law enforcement agencies such as the U. S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary of the Treasury salary is $205,700 annually,2 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury M. Peter McPherson served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from August 17,1988, to September 15,1988. 4 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31,2002,5 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30,2006, to July 9,2006. 7 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 25,2013, as of April 2017, there are eleven living former Secretaries of the Treasury, the oldest being George P. Shultz. The most recent Secretary of the Treasury to die was Lloyd M. Bentsen, United States Department of the Treasury
11.
Salmon P. Chase
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Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States from 1864 to his death in 1873. Earlier in his career, Chase was the 23rd Governor of Ohio, senator from Ohio prior to service under Abraham Lincoln as the 25th Secretary of the Treasury. As Secretary of the Treasury, Chase strengthened the government, introducing its first paper currency as well as a national bank. He coined the slogan of the Free Soil Party, Free Soil, Free Labor, Chief Justice Chase presided over the Senate trial of Andrew Johnson during the Presidents impeachment proceedings in 1868. Chase was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, on January 13,1808, to Janet Ralston and Ithamar Chase, senator Dudley Chase of Vermont was another uncle. He studied in the schools of Windsor, Vermont, and Worthington, Ohio. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and Phi Beta Kappa, while at Dartmouth, he taught at the Royalton Academy in Royalton, Vermont. Chase then moved to the District of Columbia, where he opened a school while studying law under U. S. Attorney General William Wirt. He was admitted to the bar in 1829, Chase moved to a country home near Loveland, Ohio, and practiced law in Cincinnati from 1830. He rose to prominence for his compilation of the states statutes. From the beginning, despite the risk to his livelihood, he defended runaway slaves and he worked initially with the American Sunday School Union. Chase was also a member of the literary Semi-Colon Club, its members included Harriet Beecher Stowe, Chase became the leader of the political reformers, as opposed to the Garrisonian abolitionist movement. For his defense of escaped slaves seized in Ohio under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 and his argument in the case of Jones v. Van Zandt on the constitutionality of fugitive slave laws before the U. S. Supreme Court attracted particular attention. In this and similar cases, the court ruled against him, Chase contended that slavery was local, not national, and that it could exist only by virtue of positive state law. Elected as a Whig to the Cincinnati City Council in 1840, for seven years he was the leader of the Liberty Party in Ohio. He helped balance its idealism with his approach and political thought. He was skillful in drafting platforms and addresses, and he prepared the national Liberty platform of 1843, building the Liberty Party was slow going. By 1848 Chase was leader in the effort to combine the Liberty Party with the Barnburners or Van Buren Democrats of New York to form the Free Soil Party
12.
Treasury Note (19th century)
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A Treasury Note is a type of short term debt instrument issued by the United States prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. While the Treasury Notes, as issued, were legal tender nor representative money. However the motivation behind their issuance was always funding federal expenditures rather than the provision of a circulating medium. Often they were receivable at face value by the government in payment of taxes and for purchases of publicly owned land, and thus might to some extent be regarded as paper money. On many issues the interest rate was chosen to make interest calculations particularly easy, paying either 1, 1½, today the Treasurys short term debt needs are fulfilled by Treasury bills. The early finances of the government of the United States were precarious. To help finance the American Revolution the Continental Congress had issued Continental Dollars between 1775 and 1779, as part of the Compromise of 1790, the Continental Dollars were redeemed at a loss of over 99% vs. As a result, Americas early creditors had reason to be wary of a paper currency, the Founding Fathers were divided over whether the United States needed a central bank similar to the Bank of England to issue currency and facilitate the governments use of credit. Having thus set the precedent, the Treasury would go on to issue such notes up through the Civil War. Several issues of Treasury Notes were made during the War of 1812 from 1812 to 1815, most of these notes paid 5 2⁄5% interest, matured in one year, and were receivable in payment for public dues. While $37 million were issued, no more than $17 million were outstanding at any one time, only about $6 million of the loan was placed in the form of 6% interest bonds, and thus $5 million of Notes were issued. The Notes were made receivable for all public dues owed the federal government, a further $5 million of similar Notes were authorized on February 25,1813 to supplement additional loans which had not been fully subscribed. Only Notes of $100 denomination and greater were issued under these first two acts, and they sold at close to par. The next two acts, those of March 4,1814 and Dec 26,1814, called for Note issues both to raise revenue as well as to substitute for unsubscribed loans. A total of $18,318,400 were emitted under these acts which included Notes of $20, during 1814 federal finances deteriorated as the war dragged on, and banks outside New England suspended specie payment on August 31,1814. The value of the Treasury Notes fell below that of specie and these developments led to changes in the final Treasury Note act of the era signed on February 24,1815. These last notes were divided into large and small denominations, the large notes paid interest as before, at 5 2⁄5% per annum, but could also be used to purchase 6 percent interest bonds at par as a way of supporting their value. The Act had been drafted during the financial disarray late in the War of 1812, the issued denominations were as low as $3, their size was typical of banknotes and, unlike the previously issued Notes, they were payable to bearer rather than to order
13.
Buffalo, New York
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Buffalo is a city in western New York state and the county seat of Erie County, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is New York states 2nd-most populous city after New York City, the metropolitan area has a population of 1.13 million. After an economic downturn in the half of the 20th century, Buffalos economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, technology, biomedical engineering. Residents of Buffalo are called Buffalonians, the citys nicknames include The Queen City, The Nickel City and The City of Good Neighbors. The city of Buffalo received its name from a creek called Buffalo Creek. British military engineer Captain John Montresor made reference to Buffalo Creek in his journal of 1764, there are several theories regarding how Buffalo Creek received its name. In 1804, as principal agent opening the area for the Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, designed a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes similar to the street system he used in the nations capital. Although Ellicott named the settlement New Amsterdam, the name did not catch on, during the War of 1812, on December 30,1813, Buffalo was burned by British forces. The George Coit House 1818 and Samuel Schenck House 1823 are currently the oldest houses within the limits of the City of Buffalo, on October 26,1825, the Erie Canal was completed with Buffalo a port-of-call for settlers heading westward. At the time, the population was about 2,400, the Erie Canal brought about a surge in population and commerce, which led Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832. In 1845, construction began on the Macedonia Baptist Church, an important meeting place for the abolitionist movement, Buffalo was a terminus point of the Underground Railroad with many fugitive slaves crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario in search of freedom. During the 1840s, Buffalos port continued to develop, both passenger and commercial traffic expanded with some 93,000 passengers heading west from the port of Buffalo. Grain and commercial goods shipments led to repeated expansion of the harbor, in 1843, the worlds first steam-powered grain elevator was constructed by local merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar. Darts Elevator enabled faster unloading of lake freighters along with the transshipment of grain in bulk from barges, canal boats, by 1850, the citys population was 81,000. At the dawn of the 20th century, local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectric power generated by the Niagara River, the city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting. It was also part of the revolution, hosting the brass era car builders Pierce Arrow. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6,1901, McKinley died in the city eight days later and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the 26th President of the United States. The Great Depression of 1929–39 saw severe unemployment, especially working class men
14.
Elbridge G. Spaulding
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Elbridge Gerry Spaulding was an American lawyer, banker, and Republican Party politician. He opposed slavery and supported the idea for the first U. S. currency not backed by gold or silver, Spaulding was born on February 24,1809 in Summer Hill, New York, the first of nine children of Edward Spaulding and Mehitable Goodridge. In 1829, he began the study of law in the office of Fitch & Dibble at Batavia, during this time he served as recording clerk in the county clerks office to meet his expenses. In 1832, he completed his studies in Attica, New York with Harvey Putnam, later that year he was admitted to the bar in Genesee County, New York. In 1834, he moved to Buffalo, and became a clerk in the office of Potter & Babcock, in addition, the 3rd participated in or was present at the Siege of Boston, the Invasion of Canada, Valley Forge, and Sullivans Expedition. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Sewall Goodridge, the son of Capt. Benjamin Goodridge, in March 1836, he was appointed City Clerk of Buffalo. In 1841, Spaulding was elected Alderman of the Third Ward and he became the Mayor of Buffalo in 1847 and was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1848. While in the Assembly, he secured passage of a law authorizing the formation of gas light corporations in the State, the Buffalo Gas Light Company was the first such created, and he became a director and stockholder of it. Spaulding served for one term in the U. S. House of Representatives, in 1854, he became the New York State Treasurer, serving until 1855. He was elected again to the House of Representatives as a Republican, in 1860, Spaulding delivered a speech denouncing the Democratic Party and its pro-slavery views, and urging Republicans to support Abraham Lincoln for the U. S. presidency. It was said that Spaulding was the one who figured out that the American government needed to print money to pay for the Civil War, at the time, it was regarded as economic heresy, but today many believe that the country would not have survived without it. Such an idea was dismissed by some as “fiat money, ” money that is money not because it is backed by gold or silver. He was Chairman of a House Ways and Means Subcommittee when the government was in danger of running out of money to pay for the war and he wrote a law that allowed the government to print money and declare it had to be accepted as legal tender. Stiles continued, “If Wall Street had saints, then the college of financial cardinals would surely canonize Elbridge G. Spaulding. ”In 1862, he drafted the Legal Tender Act, at the time, the only circulating paper money was notes issued by banks. Those notes were supposed to be convertible into gold, although the banks had been forced to suspend such conversions at the end of 1861, the bill passed Congress not because it was thought to be good policy absent a crisis, but because it was necessary. On September 5,1837, he married Antoinette Rich, daughter of Gaius Basset Rich, Antoinette died in 1841 without bearing any children. On September 5,1842, he married Nancy Selden Strong, together with Nancy, he had three children before her death in 1852. Spauldings marriage with Delia lasted over 40 years until her death in 1895, however, Spaulding died on May 5,1897 in Buffalo, New York and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo
15.
National Bank Act
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The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were two United States federal banking acts that established a system of national banks for banks, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged development of a currency backed by bank holdings of U. S. The Act shaped todays national banking system and its support of a uniform U. S. banking policy, after the expiration of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836, the control of banking regimes devolved mostly to the states. Different states adopted policies including a ban on banking, a single state-chartered bank, limited chartering of banks. While the relative success of New Yorks free banking laws led a number of states to adopt a free-entry banking regime. Though all banknotes were denominated in dollars, notes would often circulate at a steep discount in states beyond their issue. In addition, there were well-publicized frauds arising in states like Michigan, the perception of dangerous wildcat banking, along with the poor integration of the U. S. banking system, led to increasing public support for a uniform national banking regime. The United States Government, on the hand, still had limited taxation capabilities. In 1846, the Polk Administration created a United States Treasury system that moved public funds from banks to Treasury branches in order to fund the Mexican–American War. However, without a currency, the revenue generated this way was limited. Many thought this promise backing the bills was about as good as the green ink printed on one side, hence the name greenbacks. The Second Legal Tender Act, enacted July 11,1862, a Joint Resolution of Congress, the largest amount of greenbacks outstanding at any one time was calculated as $447,300,203.10. The National Banking Act, originally known as the National Currency Act, was passed in the Senate by a 23–21 vote, the main goal of this act was to create a single national currency and to eradicate the problem of notes from multiple banks circulating simultaneously. The Act established national banks that could issue notes which were backed by the United States Treasury, the quantity of notes that a bank was allowed to issue was proportional to the banks level of capital deposited with the Comptroller of the Currency at the Treasury. To further control the currency, the Act taxed notes issued by state and local banks, the National Banking Act of 1863 was superseded by the National Banking Act of 1864 just one year later. The new act also established federally-issued bank charters, which took banking out of the hands of state governments, before the act, charters were granted by state legislatures. They were under pressure and could be influenced by bribes. The first bank to receive a charter was the First National Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
16.
Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
17.
United States five-dollar bill
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The United States five-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The current $5 bill features the 16th U. S. President, Abraham Lincolns portrait on the front, all $5 bills issued today are Federal Reserve Notes. The $5 bill is sometimes nicknamed a fin, the term has German/Yiddish roots and is remotely related to the English five, but it is far less common today than it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says the life of a $5 bill in circulation is 5.5 years before it is replaced due to wear. Approximately 6% of all paper currency produced by the U. S. Treasurys Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 2009 were $5 bills. The redesigned $5 bill was unveiled on September 20,2007, new and enhanced security features make it easier to check the new $5 bill and more difficult for potential counterfeiters to reproduce. The redesigned $5 bill has, Watermarks, There are now two watermarks, a large numeral 5 watermark is located in a blank space to the right of the portrait, replacing the watermark portrait of President Lincoln found on previous bills. A second watermark — a new column of three smaller 5s — has been added and is positioned to the left of the portrait, security thread, The embedded security thread runs vertically and is now located to the right of the portrait. The letters USA followed by the number 5 in an alternating pattern are visible along the thread from both sides of the bill, the thread glows blue when held under ultraviolet light. On the back of the bill the words USA FIVE appear along one edge of the large purple 5, because they are so small, these microprinted words are hard to replicate. Infrared Ink, The back of the bill features sections of the bill that are blanked out when viewed in the infrared spectrum. This is consistent with other high-value US bills, which all feature patterns of infrared-visible stripes unique to the given denomination, bills of other world currencies, such as the Euro, also feature unique patterns visible only when viewed in this spectrum. Anti-Photocopy Circle Pattern, Small yellow 05s are printed to the left of the portrait on the front of the bill, the zeros in the 05s form a EURion constellation to prevent photocopying of the bill. Photocopy machines detect the particular pattern of circles and refuse to make a copy. Some machines make a record of the illegal photocopy attempt, which a technician may report to law enforcement. The five dollar bill lacks the Optically variable ink of higher denomination US bills, the new $5 bills remain the same size and use the same—but enhanced—portraits and historical images. The most noticeable difference is the coloring of the center of the bill. When the Lincoln Memorial was constructed the names of 48 states were engraved on it, the picture of the Lincoln Memorial on the $5 bill only contains the names of 26 states
18.
United States ten-dollar bill
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The United States ten-dollar bill is a current denomination of U. S. currency. The obverse of the features the portrait of Alexander Hamilton. The reverse features the U. S. Treasury Building, all $10 bills issued today are Federal Reserve Notes. As of December 2013, the life of a $10 bill is 4.5 years, or about 54 months. Ten-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in yellow straps, the source of the portrait on the $10 bill is John Trumbull’s 1805 painting of Hamilton that belongs to the portrait collection of New York City Hall. The $10 bill is unique in that it is the denomination in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. It also features one of two non-presidents on currently issued U. S. bills, the other being Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill. Hamilton is one of four people featured on U. S. paper currency who were not born in the continental United States or British America. The others were Albert Gallatin, Switzerland, George Meade, Spain, in 2015, the Treasury Secretary announced that the obverse portrait of Hamilton would be replaced by the portrait of an as yet undecided woman, starting in 2020. However, due to the popularity of Hamilton, a hit Broadway musical based on Hamiltons life, in 2016 this decision was reversed. 1861, The first $10 bill was issued as a Demand Note with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the left side of the obverse. 1862, The first $10 United States Note was issued with a design similar to the 1861 Demand Note. The Roman numeral X may represent the origin of the slang term sawbuck to mean a $10 bill. 1863, Interest Bearing Notes, featuring a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, the notes could also be spent for exactly $10. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes, with a design similar to the 1863 Interest Bearing Note, were issued that grew in face value 6% compounded semi-annually. It is unknown if the note could actually be spent for $10 plus interest and this note is nicknamed a jackass note because the eagle on the front looks like a donkey when the note is turned upside down. The back of the featured a vignette of U. S. gold coins. 1875, The 1869 United States Note was revised, the blue and green tinting that was present on the obverse was removed and the design on the reverse was completely changed
19.
United States twenty-dollar bill
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The United States twenty-dollar bill is a denomination of U. S. currency. The seventh U. S. President, Andrew Jackson has been featured on the front side of the bill since 1928, while the White House is featured on the reverse side. On April 20,2016, it was announced that a new design, expected to be unveiled in 2020, as of December 2013, the average circulation life of a $20 bill is 7.9 years before it is replaced due to wear. Approximately 11% of all printed in 2009 were $20 bills. Twenty-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in violet straps,1861, A demand note with Lady Liberty holding a sword and shield on the front, and an abstract design on the back. 1862, A note that is similar, the first $20 United States note. The back is different, with small variations extant. 1863, A gold certificate $20 note with an Eagle vignette on the face, the reverse has a $20 gold coin and various abstract elements. 1865, A national bank note with The Battle of Lexington and of Pocahontas in black,1869, A new United States note design with Alexander Hamilton on the left side of the front and Victory holding a shield and sword. 1875, As above, except with a different reverse,1878, A silver certificate $20 note with a portrait of Stephen Decatur on the right side of the face. 1882, A new gold certificate with a portrait of James Garfield on the right of the face, the back is orange and features an eagle. 1882, A new national bank note, the front is similar, but the back is different and printed in brown. 1886, A new silver certificate $20 note with Daniel Manning on the center of the face,1890, A treasury note with John Marshall on the left of the face. Two different backs exist, both with abstract designs,1902, A new national bank note. The front design features Hugh McCulloch, and the back has a vignette of an allegorical America,1905, A new gold certificate $20 note with George Washington on the center of the face. Andrew Jackson first appeared on the $20 bill in 1928, although 1928 coincides with the 100th anniversary of Jacksons election as president, it is not clear why the portrait on the bill was switched from Grover Cleveland to Jackson. In his farewell address to the nation, he cautioned the public about paper money,1918, A federal reserve bank note with Grover Cleveland on the front, and a back design similar to the 1914 Federal Reserve Note. 1928, Switched to a note with a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the face
20.
United States fifty-dollar bill
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The United States fifty-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The 18th U. S. President, Ulysses S. Grant, is featured on the obverse, all current-issue $50 bills are Federal Reserve Notes. As of December 2013, the life of a $50 bill in circulation is 8.5 years, or approximately 102 months. Approximately 6% of all printed in 2009 were $50 bills. They are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in brown straps,1861, Three-year $50 Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid a cent of interest per day, and thus 7. 3% annually — the so-called seven-thirties. These notes were not primarily designed to circulate, and were payable to the purchaser of the dollar bill. The obverse of the featured a bald eagle. 1862, The first circulating $50 bill was issued,1863, Both one and two year Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 5% interest. The one-year Interest Bearing Notes featured a vignette of Alexander Hamilton to the left, the two-year notes featured allegorical figures of loyalty, and justice. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes were issued, intended to circulate for three years and paying 6% interest compounded semi-annually, the obverse is similar to the Series of 1863 one-year Interest Bearing Note. 1865, Three-year Interest Bearing Notes were issued again with a slightly different bald eagle,1869, A new $50 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Henry Clay on the right and an allegorical figure holding a laurel branch on the left of the obverse. 1870, $50 National Gold Bank Notes were issued specifically for payment in gold coin by 2 national gold banks, the obverse featured vignettes of George Washington crossing the Delaware River and at Valley Forge, the reverse featured a vignette of U. S. gold coins. 1874, Another new $50 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on the left,1878, The first $50 silver certificate was issued with a portrait of Edward Everett. The reverse was printed in black ink,1880, The Series of 1878 Silver Certificate was slightly revised. 1882, The first $50 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Silas Wright was issued, the reverse was printed in orange ink and featured a bald eagle perched atop an American flag. 1891, The obverse of the $50 Silver Certificate was slightly revised,1891, The $50 Treasury or Coin Note was issued and given for government purchases of silver bullion from the silver mining industry. The note featured a portrait of William H. Seward,1913, A new $50 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Ulysses Grant was issued. The style of the area below Grants portrait was used on small-sized notes
21.
United States one hundred-dollar bill
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The United States one hundred-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency featuring statesman, inventor, diplomat and American founding father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse of the bill. On the reverse of the banknote is an image of Independence Hall, the $100 bill is the largest denomination that has been printed since July 13,1969, when the denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 were retired. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says the life of a $100 bill in circulation is 90 months before it is replaced due to wear and tear. The bills are also referred to as Bens, Benjamins or Franklins, in reference to the use of Benjamin Franklins portrait on the denomination, or as C-Notes. The bill is one of two denominations printed today that does not feature a President of the United States, the other is the $10 bill, featuring Alexander Hamilton. It is also the denomination today to feature a building not located in Washington. One hundred hundred-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in mustard-colored straps, the Series 2009 $100 bill redesign was unveiled on April 21,2010, and was issued to the public on October 8,2013. The new bill costs 12.6 cents to produce and has a blue ribbon woven into the center of the currency with 100 and Liberty Bells, alternating,1861, Three-year 100 dollar Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 7. 3% interest per year. These notes were not primarily designed to circulate, and were payable to the purchaser of the dollar bill. The obverse of the featured a portrait of General Winfield Scott. 1862, The first $100 United States Note was issued, variations of this note were issued that resulted in slightly different wording on the reverse, the note was issued again in Series of 1863. 1863, Both one and two and one half year Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 5% interest, the one-year Interest Bearing Notes featured a vignette of George Washington in the center, and allegorical figures representing The Guardian to the right and Justice to the left. The two-year notes featured a vignette of the U. S. treasury building in the center, a farmer and mechanic to the left, and sailors firing a cannon to the right. 1863, The first $100 Gold Certificates were issued with an eagle to the left. The reverse was printed in orange instead of green like all other U. S. federal government issued notes of the time. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes were issued that were intended to circulate for three years and paid 6% interest compounded semi-annually, the obverse is similar to the 1863 one-year Interest Bearing Note. 1869, A new $100 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the left of the obverse, although this note is technically a United States Note, TREASURY NOTE appeared on it instead of UNITED STATES NOTE. 1870, A new $100 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Thomas Hart Benton on the side of the obverse was issued
22.
Large denominations of United States currency
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Large denominations of US currency greater than $100 were circulated by the US Treasury until 1969. Since then, the U. S. dollar has only issued in seven denominations, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50. Large-denomination currency had been used in the United States since the late 18th century, the first $500 note was issued by the Province of North Carolina, authorized by legislation dated May 10,1780. Virginia quickly followed suit and authorized the printing of $500 and $1,000 notes on October 16,1780, high-denomination treasury notes were issued, for example during the War of 1812. During the American Civil War Confederate currency included $500 and $1,000 notes, during the Federal banknote issuing period, the earliest high-denomination notes included three-year Interest-bearing notes of $500, $1,000, and $5,000, authorized by Congress on July 17,1861. In total,11 different types of U. S. currency were issued in high-denomination notes across nearly 20 different series dates, the obverse of United States banknotes generally depict either historical figures, allegorical figures symbolizing significant concepts, or a combination of both. The reverse designs range from abstract scroll-work with ornate denomination identifiers to reproductions of art works. Series 1934 Gold certificates were issued after the standard was repealed. Thus the Series 1934 notes were used only for intra-government transactions and were not issued to the public and this series was discontinued in 1940. The Series 1928 Gold certificate reverse was printed in black and green, see History of the United States dollar. The $5,000 and $10,000 effectively disappeared well before then, the Federal Reserve began taking high-denomination currency out of circulation in 1969. As of May 30,2009, only 336 $10,000 bills were known to exist,342 remaining $5,000 bills, due to their rarity, collectors often pay considerably more than the face value of the bills to acquire them. Some are in museums in parts of the world. For the most part, these bills were used by banks and this was especially true for gold certificates from 1865 to 1934. However, for the most part, the introduction of a money system has made large-scale cash transactions obsolete. According to the U. S. Department of Treasury website, The present denominations of our currency in production are $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. The purpose of the United States currency system is to serve the needs of the public, neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Federal Reserve System has any plans to change the denominations in use today. The National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution contains the Bureau of Engraving and Printing certified proofs, using a combination of proofs and issued notes, a nearly complete type set of high-denomination currency was compiled
23.
William P. Fessenden
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William Pitt Fessenden was an American politician from the U. S. state of Maine. Fessenden was a Whig and member of the Fessenden political family and he served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate before becoming Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. A lawyer, he was a leading antislavery Whig in Maine, in Congress and he built an antislavery coalition in the state legislature that elected him to the U. S. Senate, it became Maines Republican organization. In the Senate, Fessenden played a role in the debates on Kansas. He led Radical Republicans in attacking Democrats Stephen Douglas, Franklin Pierce, fessendens speeches were read widely, influencing Republicans such as Abraham Lincoln and building support for Lincolns 1860 Republican presidential nomination. During the war, Senator Fessenden helped shape the Unions taxation and he moderated his earlier radicalism, and supported Lincoln against the Radicals, becoming Lincolns Treasury Secretary. Later, Fessenden provided critical support that prevented Senate conviction of President Andrew Johnson and he was the first Republican Senator to ring out. not guilty followed by six other Republican Senators resulting in the acquittal of President Johnson. He is the person to have three streets in Portland named for him, William, Pitt and Fessenden streets in the citys Oakdale neighborhood. Fessenden was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, on October 16,1806 and his father was attorney and legislator Samuel Fessenden. William was separated from his mother at his birth, and he was raised by his grandmother for seven years. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1823 and then studied law and he was a founding member of the Maine Temperance Society in 1827. That year he was admitted to the bar. He practiced with his father, who was also a prominent anti-slavery activist and he practiced law first in Bridgton, Maine, a year in Bangor, and afterward in Portland. He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1832 and was its leading debater. He refused nominations to Congress in 1831 and in 1838, and served in the Maine legislature again in 1840 and he was elected for one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Whig in 1840. During this term, he moved to repeal the rule that excluded anti-slavery petitions, and spoke upon the loan and bankrupt bills, and the army. At the end of his term in Congress, he turned his attention wholly to his law business until he was again in the Maine legislature in 1845-46 and he was again in the Maine legislature in 1853 and 1854. Fessendens strong anti-slavery principles caused his election to the U. S. Senate in 1854, with the support of Whigs, upon taking office, he immediately began speaking against the Kansas-Nebraska Act
24.
Thaddeus Stevens
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Thaddeus Stevens was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a club foot, giving him a limp he kept his entire life. He moved to Pennsylvania as a man, and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He interested himself in municipal affairs, and then in politics and he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education. Financial setbacks in 1842 caused him to move his home and practice to the city of Lancaster. There, he joined the Whig Party, and was elected to Congress in 1848 and his activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes and he did not seek reelection in 1852. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party, there, with fellow radicals such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as war came. Stevens argued that slavery should not survive the war, he was frustrated by the slowness of President Abraham Lincoln to support his position and he guided the governments financial legislation through the House as Ways and Means chairman. His plans went too far for the Moderate Republicans and were not enacted, after Lincolns assassination in April 1865, Stevens came into conflict with the new president, Johnson, who sought rapid restoration of the seceded states without guarantees for freedmen. The difference in views caused a battle between Johnson and Congress, with Stevens leading the Radical Republicans. After gains in the 1866 election the radicals took control of Reconstruction away from Johnson, Stevenss last great battle was to secure articles of impeachment in the House against Johnson, though the Senate did not convict the President. Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4,1792 and he was the second of four children, all boys, and was named to honor the Polish general who served in the American Revolution, Thaddeus Kościuszko. His parents were Baptists who had emigrated from Massachusetts around 1786, Thaddeus was born with a club foot, at the time seen as a judgment from God for secret parental sin—and his older brother was born with the condition in both feet. The boys father, Joshua Stevens, was a farmer and cobbler who struggled to make a living in Vermont, after fathering two more sons Joshua abandoned the children and his wife Sarah. The circumstances of his departure and his subsequent fate are uncertain, Sarah Stevens struggled to make a living from the farm, with the increasing aid of her sons. She was determined that her sons improve themselves, and in 1807 moved the family to the town of Peacham. He suffered much from the taunts of his classmates for his disability, later accounts describe him there as wilful, headstrong with an overwhelming burning desire to secure an education. After graduation, he enrolled at Burlington College of the University of Vermont, Stevens then enrolled in the sophomore class at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire
25.
United States one-dollar bill
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The United States one-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The first U. S. President, George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart, is featured on the obverse. The one-dollar bill has the oldest design of all U. S. currency currently being produced, the design seen today debuted in 1963 when it was first issued as a Federal Reserve Note. The inclusion of the motto, In God We Trust, on all currency was required by law in 1955, an individual dollar bill is also less formally known as a one, a single, a buck, a bone, and a bill. The Federal Reserve says the life of a $1 bill in circulation is 5.8 years before it is replaced because of wear. Approximately 42% of all U. S. currency produced in 2009 were one-dollar bills,1862, The first one-dollar bill was issued as a Legal Tender Note with a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. 1869, The $1 United States Note was redesigned with a portrait of George Washington in the center, the obverse of the note also featured green and blue tinting. Although this note is technically a United States Note, TREASURY NOTE appeared on it instead of UNITED STATES NOTE,1874, The Series of 1869 United States Note was revised. Changes on the obverse included removing the green and blue tinting, adding a red floral design around the word WASHINGTON D. C. and this note was also issued as Series of 1875 and 1878. 1880, The red floral design around the words ONE DOLLAR, later versions also had blue serial numbers and a small seal moved to the left side of the note. 1886, The first woman to appear on U. S. currency, the reverse of the note featured an ornate design that occupied the entire note, excluding the borders. 1890, One-dollar Treasury or Coin Notes were issued for government purchases of silver bullion from the mining industry. The reverse featured the large word ONE in the center surrounded by a design that occupied almost the entire note. 1891, The reverse of the Series of 1890 Treasury Note was redesigned because the treasury felt that it was too busy, more open space was incorporated into the new design. 1896, The famous Educational Series Silver Certificate was issued, the entire obverse was covered with artwork of allegorical figures representing history instructing youth in front of Washington D. C. The reverse featured portraits of George and Martha Washington surrounded by a design that occupied almost the entire note. 1899, The $1 Silver Certificate was again redesigned, the obverse featured a vignette of the United States Capitol behind a bald eagle perched on an American flag. Below that were small portraits of Abraham Lincoln to the left,1917, The obverse of the $1 United States Note was changed slightly with the removal of ornamental frames that surrounded the serial numbers
26.
United States two-dollar bill
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The United States two-dollar bill is a current denomination of U. S. currency. The third U. S. President, Thomas Jefferson, is featured on the obverse of the note, the reverse features the painting The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. Throughout the $2 bills pre-1929 life as a note, it was issued as a United States Note, National Bank Note, silver certificate. When U. S. currency was changed to its current size, production went on until 1966, when the series was discontinued. Ten years went by before the $2 bill was reissued as a Federal Reserve Note with a new reverse design, $2 bills are seldom seen in circulation as a result of banking policies with businesses which has resulted in low production numbers due to lack of demand. The denomination of two dollars was authorized under an act, and first used in March 1862. The denomination was continuously used until the 1960s, by time the United States Note was the only remaining class of U. S. currency the two dollar bill was assigned to. In 1966 it was decided to discontinue all two dollar United States Notes from production and it has remained a current denomination since then. However, due to its use, two-dollar bills are not frequently reissued in a new series like other denominations which are printed according to demand. Though some cash registers accommodate it, its slot is used for things like checks. Some bill acceptors found in vending machines, self checkout lanes, although they usually are not handed out arbitrarily, two-dollar bills are usually available at banks. Many banks stocking $2 bills will not use them except upon specific request by the customer, the seeming rarity of a $2 bill can be attributed to its low printing numbers as a Federal Reserve Note. Hoarding of the due to lack of public knowledge of the $2 bill has resulted in very few bills seen in circulation. After its initial release, supplies of the Series 1976 $2 bill were allowed to dwindle until August 1996 when a new series dated 1995 began to be printed and this series was only printed for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Today, there is a misconception by the general public that the $2 bill is no longer in production. According to the Treasury, it receives many letters asking why the $2 bill is no longer in circulation, in response, the Treasury stated, The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations. As of April 30,2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide. Another popular misconception is that the average $2 bill is more than its face value
27.
Interest bearing note
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Interest bearing notes refers to a grouping of Civil War era paper money-related emissions of the US Treasury.3 percent—though both of these latter issues lacked legal tender status. Reference texts used by currency collectors will sometimes include compound interest treasury notes. Images are courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History, Friedberg, Arthur L. Friedberg, Ira S. Paper Money of the United States, A Complete Illustrated Guide With Valuations, the Engraver’s Line – An Encyclopedia of Paper Money & Postage Stamp Art. U. S. Essay, Proof and Specimen Notes
28.
Compound interest treasury note
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Compound interest treasury notes were emissions of the United States Treasury Department authorized in 1863 and 1864 with aspects of both paper money and debt. They were issued in denominations of $10, $20, $50, while they were legal tender at face value, they were redeemable after three years with six percent annual interest compounded semi-annually. Thus, in theory, the notes did not contribute to monetary inflation as did the greenbacks, at the time of their issue, investors were accustomed to receiving interest via semi-annual coupons. Each note presents a table on the reverse containing details of the interest calculation
29.
Henry Charles Carey
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Henry Charles Carey was a leading 19th-century economist of the American School of capitalism, and chief economic adviser to U. S. President Abraham Lincoln. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1793, Carey was the son of Mathew Carey, an influential economist, political reformer, editor, and publisher. Mathew Carey was born in Dublin, Ireland but emigrated to Philadelphia in 1784, where with the help of Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette he founded a publishing firm. Among his many writings was Essays on Political Economy, one of the earliest American treatises favoring Alexander Hamiltons idea of protection, in 1825, Carey succeeded his father in the publishing firm, which became Carey & Lea, attaining a leading position in America. In 1835, Carey co-founded the famous Franklin Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia. S. economic system until 1973. In 1863, Carey was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1868, principles is a comprehensive and mature exposition of his views. He bases its economy on Colbert system, system based on manufactures helping farms upon himself, population regulated itself in every well-governed society, but its pressure on subsistence characterized the lower stages of civilization. Carey denied as the truth, for all stages of cultivation. His position relates to the antithesis of wealth and value, Carey held that land in industrial life is an instrument of production formed by human labour. Its value was due to the labour expended on it in the past, the difficulties of adapting a primitive soil to the work of yielding organic products for human use can be lightly estimated only by an inhabitant of a country long under cultivation. Carey believed that the overcoming of these difficulties by arduous and continued effort entitles the first occupier of land to his property in the soil. Thus, property in land is only a form of invested capital, the owner of this capital is compensated, as any other capitalist, by a share of the produce. The owner is not rewarded for what is done by the powers of nature, the so-called Ricardian theory of rent is a speculative fancy, contradicted by all experience. Unlike what the theory supposes, cultivation does not begin with the best soils, the light and dry higher land is cultivated first, only when population becomes dense and capital accumulates is low-lying land attacked and brought into occupation. Low-lying land is fertile but also has morasses, inundations. Rent as a proportion of the sinks, like all interest on capital. The share of the increases both as a proportion and an absolute amount. Thus, the interests of different social classes are in harmony
30.
Hugh McCulloch
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Hugh McCulloch was an American statesman who served two non-consecutive terms as U. S. Treasury Secretary under three presidents. He was opposed to the National Banking Act of 1864, born in Kennebunk, Maine, he was educated at Bowdoin College, studied law in Boston, and in 1833 began practicing law at Fort Wayne, Indiana. Despite his early opposition to the National Banking Act of 1862, during McCullochs 22 months in office,868 national banks were chartered and no failures occurred. As the first Comptroller, McCulloch recommended major changes in the banking law, McCulloch began his banking career as the President of the Bank of Indiana. In 1833 the bank was established in response the closure of the Second Bank of the United States, Indiana was still a wilderness and no eastern bank was willing take charge of the fledgling state bank. He ran the bank with great efficiency making it one of the most stable in the nation and he remained president until the bank was closed in 1859 and the banks notes were exchanged for federal notes from the new national bank. He then went on to become president of the Second Bank of Indiana, on March 9,1865, McCulloch was appointed as the 27th Secretary of the Treasury by President Abraham Lincoln. His appointment was due to his influence with existing state banks. He continued to serve in the Presidential Cabinet of Andrew Johnson until the close of his administration in 1869, immediately confronted with inflation caused by the governments wartime issue of greenbacks, he recommended their retirement and a return to the gold standard. In McCullochs first annual report, issued on December 4,1865, however this would have reduced the supply of currency and was unpopular during the period of postwar reconstruction and westward expansion. In accordance with this suggestion an act was passed, on March 12,1866, authorizing the retirement of not more than $10,000,000 in six months and not more than $4,000,000 per month thereafter. This act met with opposition and was repealed on the February 4,1868. The battle over its revival raged for the fifty years. McCulloch was also disappointed by the decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the legal tenders, during his tenure, McCulloch maintained a policy of reducing the federal war debt and the careful reintroduction of federal taxation in the South. Soon after the close of his term of office McCulloch went to England, from October 1884 until the close of President Chester A. Arthurs term of office in March 1885, McCulloch again served as Secretary of the Treasury. During his six months in office at time, he continued his fight for currency backed by gold, warning that the coinage of silver, used by then as backing for currency. He died at his home, Holly Hill in Prince Georges County, Maryland, near Washington, McCulloch Hall, a residence hall at Harvard Business School, was named in his honor. Revenue Cutter Service and its successor, the U. S. Coast Guard, the Revenue Cutter USS McCulloch served under George Dewey in the Battle of Manila during the Spanish–American War, and Coast Guard Cutter McCulloch served in World War II and the Vietnam War
31.
Gold standard
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A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. Three types can be distinguished, specie, bullion, and exchange, the gold bullion standard is a system in which gold coins do not circulate, but the authorities agree to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price in exchange for the circulating currency. The gold exchange standard usually does not involve the circulation of gold coins. This creates a de facto standard, where the value of the means of exchange has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent value of the means of exchange itself. Most nations abandoned the standard as the basis of their monetary systems at some point in the 20th century. An estimated total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history and this is roughly equivalent to 5.6 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 9,261 cubic metres, or a cube 21 metres on a side. There are varying estimates of the volume of gold mined. One reason for the variance is that gold has been mined for thousands of years, another reason is that some nations are not particularly open about how much gold is being mined. In addition, it is difficult to account for the output in illegal mining activities. World production for 2011 was at 2,700 tonnes, since the 1950s, annual gold output growth has approximately kept pace with world population growth of around 2x, although far less than world economic growth of some 8x, or some 4x since 1980. The gold specie standard arose from the acceptance of gold as currency. Various commodities have been used as money, typically, the one that loses the least value over time becomes the accepted form, the use of gold as money began thousands of years ago in Asia Minor. During the early and high Middle Ages, the Byzantine gold solidus, commonly known as the bezant, was used widely throughout Europe, however, as the Byzantine Empires economic influence declined, so too did the use of the bezant. In its place, European territories chose silver as its currency over gold, Silver pennies based on the Roman denarius became the staple coin of Mercia in Great Britain around the time of King Offa, circa CE 757–796. Similar coins, including Italian denari, French deniers, and Spanish dineros circulated in Europe, Spanish explorers discovered silver deposits in Mexico in 1522 and at Potosí in Bolivia in 1545. International trade came to depend on such as the Spanish dollar, the Maria Theresa thaler, and later. In modern times, the British West Indies was one of the first regions to adopt a gold specie standard, following Queen Annes proclamation of 1704, the British West Indies gold standard was a de facto gold standard based on the Spanish gold doubloon. A formal gold specie standard was first established in 1821, when Britain adopted it following the introduction of the sovereign by the new Royal Mint at Tower Hill in 1816
32.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
33.
George S. Boutwell
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George Sewall Boutwell was an American politician, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. He was a leader in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, as U. S. Representative, he was instrumental in the construction and passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. As Secretary of Treasury, he made needed reforms in the Treasury Department after the chaos of the American Civil War and he controversially reduced the national debt by selling Treasury gold and using greenbacks to buy up Treasury bonds, a process that created a cash shortage. Boutwell and President Grant thwarted an attempt to corner the market in September 1869 by releasing $4,000,000 of gold into the economy. As U. S. Senator, Boutwell sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and he also practiced international law in other diplomatic fora. At the turn of the 20th century, he abandoned the Republican Party, opposed the acquisition of the Philippines, George S. Boutwell was born on January 28,1818 in Brookline, Massachusetts. According to his memoir, Boutwell was raised on his familys farm in Lunenburg. During the summer months he worked barefooted, tending oxen and picking chestnuts, Boutwell was educated in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and Latin grammar. From 1830 to 1835, Boutwell worked as an apprentice and clerk for Simeon Heywood, while completing his education, Boutwell worked briefly as a teacher in Pound Hill. Boutwell finished his school education in February 1835. From 1835 to 1838, Boutwell worked as a clerk and shopkeeper in Groton, in 1836, he began to study law under attorney Bradford Russell, whose office was above the store where he clerked. Boutwell did not take the bar exam or enter into practice until many years later. In 1838, the owner offered Boutwell a partnership in the shop. While Boutwell ran the store, he began a regimen of reading and writing in an effort to make up for having chosen not to attend college. Boutwell made his career debut in 1839, when he served as a pension agent for widows of the American Revolutionary War. He traveled to Washington D. C. and was impressed after seeing Daniel Webster, after talking with a black slave woman whose youngest child had been sold to Louisiana, Boutwell became dedicated to the anti-slavery cause. Boutwell married Sarah Adelia Thayer on July 8,1841, Sarah was the daughter of Nathan Hayler from Hollis, New Hampshire. Their marriage produced two children, Georgianna and Francis, entering politics as a Democrat and supporter of Martin Van Buren, Boutwell was appointed head of the Groton post office by his business partner, who had been appointed postmaster
34.
William Adams Richardson
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This article is about the United States Secretary of the Treasury. For the Illinois senator, see William Alexander Richardson, William Adams Richardson was the 29th U. S. Secretary of Treasury and federal jurist. Richardson, appointed Secretary of Treasury by President Ulysses S. Grant served from 1873 to 1874, during Richardsons tenure the Panic of 1873 swept the nation and caused a depression that lasted five years. Richardson responded by controversially releasing $26,000,000 in paper money reserves in an inflationist measure to alleviate the effects of the general panic. There was debate whether Richardson had the authority to do so, however, Richardson secured the $15,000,000 award from the Alabama Claims through the retirement of United States bonds held in Europe. This was to ensure that no gold had to be transferred overseas by ship, Richardsons tenure was marred by the Sanborn Incident, which involved favoritism and profiteering in the collection of unpaid taxes. Pressure mounted for Richardson to be removed, he tendered his resignation, as a face-saving gesture, Grant then appointed Richardson as a Judge on the United States Court of Claims, Richardson remained on the bench for the rest of his life. William Adams Richardson was born in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts on November 2,1821 and his father was Daniel Richardson who practiced law and was keeper of the post office. His mothers name was Mary Adams of Chelmsford, Richardson was the descendant of Ezekiel Richardson who settled in Massachusetts Bay in 1630. Richardsons mother died in 1825 and his sister became his step-mother the next year, Richardson studied at Pinkerton Academy and Lawrence Academy at Groton. Richardson then studied and graduated from Harvard University in 1843 and he earned his LL. B. from Harvard Law School and passed the bar in July 1846. Richardson entered partnership and practiced law with his older brother Daniel Samuel who had a practice in Lowell. As the junior law partner Richardson was considered to be a painstaking methodical office attorney and he served in the militia, first as a judge advocate with the rank of major and later as an aide to Governor George N. Briggs with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was president of the Common Council of Lowell 1853-1854, of the Wameset Bank and he became judge of probate in 1856, and was judge of probate and insolvency from 1858 until 1872. He was an overseer of Harvard 1863-1875 and he declined a superior court judgeship in 1869, and the same year became Assistant United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1873 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Ulysses S. Grant and he had been serving as an Assistant Treasury Secretary under his predecessor, George S. Boutwell. He served as Secretary one year, from 1873 until 1874, the post-war economy had expanded so quickly that commercial banks became nervous and began calling in their loans. As a result, in the summer of 1873 the money supply tightened drastically, Richardson responded by issuing $26 million in greenbacks to meet the demand
35.
John Sherman
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John Sherman was an American Republican representative and senator from Ohio during the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He also served as both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State, Sherman ran for the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but never won. His brothers included General William Tecumseh Sherman, Charles Taylor Sherman, a judge in Ohio, and Hoyt Sherman. Born in Lancaster, Ohio, Sherman later moved to Mansfield, Ohio, initially a Whig, Sherman was among those anti-slavery activists who formed what became the Republican Party. He served three terms in the House of Representatives, as a member of the House, Sherman traveled to Kansas to investigate the unrest between pro- and anti-slavery partisans there. He rose in party leadership and was nearly elected Speaker in 1859, Sherman was elevated to the Senate in 1861. As a senator, he was a leader in financial matters, after the war, he worked to produce legislation that would restore the nations credit abroad and produce a stable, gold-backed currency at home. Serving as Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of Rutherford B, Hayes, Sherman continued his efforts for financial stability and solvency, overseeing an end to wartime inflationary measures and a return to gold-backed money. He returned to the Senate after his term expired, serving there for a sixteen years. During that time he continued his work on legislation, as well as writing and debating laws on immigration, business competition law. Sherman was the author of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1897, President William McKinley appointed him Secretary of State, failing health and declining faculties made him unable to handle the burdens of the job, and he retired in 1898 at the start of the Spanish–American War. Sherman died at his home in Washington, D. C. in 1900, John Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, May 10,1823, to Charles Robert Sherman and his wife, Mary Hoyt Sherman, the eighth of their eleven children. After Taylors death in 1815, his son Charles, newly married to Mary Hoyt, several other Sherman relatives soon followed, and Charles became established as a lawyer in Lancaster. By the time of John Shermans birth, Charles had just been appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Shermans father died suddenly in 1829, leaving his mother to care for eleven children. Several of the oldest children, including Shermans older brother William, were fostered with nearby relatives, in that year, Shermans fathers cousin took Sherman into his home in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he enrolled in school. The other John Sherman intended for his namesake to study there until he was ready to enroll at nearby Kenyon College, but Sherman disliked school and was, in his own words, in 1835, he returned to his mothers home in Lancaster. Sherman continued his education there at an academy where, after being briefly expelled for punching a teacher
36.
Panic of 1873
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The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer in some countries. In Britain, for example, it started two decades of stagnation known as the Long Depression that weakened the economic leadership. The Panic was known as the Great Depression until the events in the early 1930s set a new standard, the Panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression had several underlying causes, of which economic historians debate the relative importance. The first symptoms of the crisis were financial failures in the Austro-Hungarian capital, Vienna, the American Civil War was followed by a boom in railroad construction. 33,000 miles of new track were laid across the country between 1868 and 1873, much of the craze in railroad investment was driven by government land grants and subsidies to the railroads. At that time, the industry was the nations largest employer outside of agriculture. A large infusion of cash from speculators caused abnormal growth in the industry as well as overbuilding of docks, factories, at the same time, too much capital was involved in projects offering no immediate or early returns. As a result, the United States Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873, before the Act, the United States had backed its currency with both gold and silver, and it minted both types of coins. The Act moved the United States to a de facto gold standard, the Act had the immediate effect of depressing silver prices. This hurt Western mining interests, who labeled the Act The Crime of 73, but the coinage law also reduced the domestic money supply, which raised interest rates, thereby hurting farmers and anyone else who normally carried heavy debt loads. The resulting outcry raised serious questions about how long the new policy would last and this perception of instability in United States monetary policy caused investors to shy away from long-term obligations, particularly long-term bonds. The problem was compounded by the boom, which was in its later stages at the time. In September 1873, the U. S. economy entered a crisis and this followed a period of post-Civil War economic over-expansion that arose from the Northern railroad boom. It came at the end of a series of setbacks, the Black Friday panic of 1869, the Chicago fire of 1871, the outbreak of equine influenza in 1872. In September 1873, Jay Cooke & Company, a component of the United States banking establishment. Cookes firm, like others, had invested heavily in the railroads. At a time when investment banks were anxious for more capital for their enterprises, while businesses were expanding, the money they needed to finance that growth was becoming scarcer. Cooke and other entrepreneurs had planned to build the second transcontinental railroad, cookes firm provided the financing, and ground was broken near Duluth, Minnesota, for the line on 15 February 1870
37.
Meriwether Lewis
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They also collected scientific data, and information on indigenous nations. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806 and he died of gunshot wounds in what was either a murder or suicide, in 1809. Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Colony of Virginia and he was the son of Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill, who was of Welsh ancestry, and Lucy Meriwether, daughter of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton, who were both of English ancestry. After his father died of pneumonia, he moved with his mother and stepfather Captain John Marks to Georgia in May 1780 and they settled along the Broad River in the Goosepond Community within the Broad River Valley in Wilkes County. Lewis had no formal education until he was 13 years of age and he would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog to go hunting. Even at an age, he was interested in natural history. His mother taught him how to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes, in the Broad River Valley, Lewis first dealt with American Indians. This was the territory of the Cherokee, who resented encroachment by the colonists. Lewis seems to have been a champion for them among his own people, while in Georgia, he met Eric Parker, who encouraged him to travel. At thirteen, Lewis was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors and his fathers older brother Nicholas Lewis became his guardian. One of his tutors was Parson Matthew Maury, an uncle of Matthew Fontaine Maury, in 1793, Lewis graduated from Liberty Hall. That year he joined the Virginia militia, and in 1794 he was sent as part of a detachment involved in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion, in 1795 Lewis joined the U. S. Army, commissioned as an Ensign. By 1800 he rose to Captain, and ended his service there in 1801, among his commanding officers was William Clark, who would later become his companion in the Corps of Discovery. On April 1,1801, Lewis was appointed as an aide by President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis resided in the presidential mansion, and frequently conversed with various prominent figures in politics, the arts and other circles. When Jefferson began to plan for an expedition across the continent, Meriwether Lewis recruited Clark, then age 33, to share command of the expedition. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Thomas Jefferson wanted to get a sense of the new land. The President also hoped to find a direct and practicable water communication across this continent, in addition, Jefferson placed special importance on declaring U. S. sovereignty over the Native Americans along the Missouri River. When they left Fort Mandan in April 1805 they were accompanied by the sixteen-year-old Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, the Corps of Discovery made contact with many Native Americans in the trans-Mississippi West and found them accustomed to dealing with European traders and already connected to global markets
38.
William Clark
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William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in prestatehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri, Clark was a planter and slaveholder. Before the expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army, afterward, he served in a militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark was born in Caroline County, Virginia, on August 1,1770, the ninth of ten children of John and Ann Rogers Clark. His parents were natives of King and Queen County, and were of English, the Clarks were common planters in Virginia, owners of modest estates and a few slaves, and members of the Anglican Church. Clark did not have any education, like many of his contemporaries. The spelling of American English was not standardized in Clarks youth, Clarks five older brothers fought in Virginia units during the American Revolutionary War, but William was too young. His oldest brother, Jonathan Clark, served as a colonel during the war and his second-oldest brother, George Rogers Clark, rose to the rank of general, spending most of the war in Kentucky fighting against British-allied American Indians. After the war, the two oldest Clark brothers made arrangements for their parents and family to relocate to Kentucky. William, his parents, his three sisters, and the Clark familys slaves arrived in Kentucky in March 1785, having first traveled overland to Redstone Landing in present-day Brownsville and they completed the journey down the Ohio River by flatboat. The Clark family settled at Mulberry Hill, a plantation along Beargrass Creek near Louisville and this was William Clarks primary home until 1803. In Kentucky, his older brother George Rogers Clark taught William wilderness survival skills, kentuckians fought the Northwest Indian War against American Indians, who were trying to preserve their territory north of the Ohio River. In 1789, 19-year-old William Clark joined a militia force under Major John Hardin. Clark kept a journal of the expedition, beginning a lifelong practice. Hardin was advancing against the Wea Indians, who had been raiding settlements in Kentucky, in error, the undisciplined Kentucky militia attacked a peaceful Shawnee hunting camp, where they killed a total of eight men, women, and children. In 1790, Clark was commissioned by General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, as a captain in the Clarksville, Indiana militia. One older source says he was sent on a mission to the Creek and Cherokee and he may have visited New Orleans at that time. His travels prevented him participating in General Josiah Harmars disastrous campaign into the Northwest Territory that year
39.
American bison
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The American bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. Bison were seen in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. Two subspecies or ecotypes have been described, the bison, smaller in size and with a more rounded hump. Furthermore, the bison has been suggested to consist of a northern. However, this is not supported. The wood bison is one of the largest wild species of bovid in the world, surpassed by only the Asian gaur and it is the largest extant land animal in the Americas. The American bison is the mammal of the United States. The term buffalo is considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with true buffalos, the Asian water buffalo. The name buffalo is listed in dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. In reference to animal, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North American usage when the term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a longer history than the term bison. The American bison is very related to the wisent or European bison. In Plains Indian languages in general, male and female buffaloes are distinguished, a bison has a shaggy, long, dark-brown winter coat, and a lighter-weight, lighter-brown summer coat. As is typical in ungulates, the bison is slightly larger than the female and, in some cases. Plains bison are often in the range of sizes. Head-and-body lengths range from 2 to 3.5 m long, shoulder heights in the species can range from 152 to 186 cm. Weights can range from 318 to 1,000 kg Mature bulls tend to be larger than cows. Cow weights have had reported medians of 450 to 495 kg, with one small sample averaging 479 kg, the heaviest wild bull ever recorded weighed 1,270 kg
40.
Panic of 1907
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Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on banks and trust companies. The 1907 panic eventually spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks, primary causes of the run included a retraction of market liquidity by a number of New York City banks and a loss of confidence among depositors, exacerbated by unregulated side bets at bucket shops. The panic was triggered by the attempt in October 1907 to corner the market on stock of the United Copper Company. The collapse of the Knickerbocker spread fear throughout the citys trusts as regional banks withdrew reserves from New York City banks, Panic extended across the nation as vast numbers of people withdrew deposits from their regional banks. This highlighted the impotence of the nations Independent Treasury system, which managed the money supply. By November, the contagion had largely ended, only to be replaced by a further crisis. This was due to the borrowing of a large brokerage firm that used the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron. Collapse of TC&Is stock price was averted by a takeover by Morgans U. S. Steel Corporation—a move approved by anti-monopolist president Theodore Roosevelt. Each autumn money flowed out of the city as harvests were purchased and—in an effort to attract money back—interest rates were raised, foreign investors then sent their money to New York to take advantage of the higher rates. From the January 1906 Dow Jones Industrial Average high of 103, the April 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco contributed to the market instability, prompting an even greater flood of money from New York to San Francisco to aid reconstruction. From their peak in January, stock prices declined 18% by July 1906, by late September, stocks had recovered about half of their losses. The Hepburn Act, which gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to set railroad rates. This depreciated the value of railroad securities, between September 1906 and March 1907, the stock market slid, losing 7. 7% of its capitalization. Between March 9 and 26, stocks fell a further 9. 8%, the economy remained volatile through the summer. In the first nine months of 1907, stocks were lower by 24. 4%, on July 27, The Commercial & Financial Chronicle noted that the market keeps unstable. No sooner are these signs of new life in evidence than something like a suggestion of a new outflow of gold to Paris sends a tremble all through the list, and the gain in values and hope is gone. Several bank runs occurred outside the US in 1907, in Egypt in April and May, in Japan in May and June, in Hamburg and Chile in early October. The fall season was always a time for the banking system—combined with the roiled stock market
