men were not mounted, and many others but indifferently so, but that on arriving at Macon, every man was well mounted, and the command supplied with all the surplus animals that could be desired; having, as he says elsewhere, twenty-two thousand horses and mules to be supplied with forage on reaching that city.

There now remained only the Trans-Mississippi Rebel army, under General E. Kirby Smith, yet in arms against the United States; all the others had surrendered. As Smith, in a proclamation dated April 21st, 1865, had defied the United States Government, and manifested a determination to continue hostilities, General Sheridan was sent at once with a sufficient force to Texas, to subdue this last remnant of a Rebel army; but before his arrival there, General Smith, finding his army deserting him, changed his views, and on the 26th of May, sent Generals Buckner, Brent and Carter to surrender his entire force to General Canby at New Orleans, and subsequently ratified the surrender with his own signature at Galveston. He was guilty of bad faith, however, in disbanding most of his army, and permitting an indiscriminate plunder of public property, pending his surrender; and he and General Magruder escaped into Mexico. Sheridan's force was retained on the Rio Grande in consequence of the disturbed condition of affairs there, and the escape of many of the late Rebel soldiers and officers into Mexico, carrying with them arms and other property rightfully belonging to the United States; but after some months the greater part of it was withdrawn.

Thus closed the struggle of four years, and the Government of the United States again held sway over its entire territory, and had repossessed itself of all the property, the forts and places belonging to the nation.

FINANCES OF THE WAR-BANKRUPTCY OF THE GOVERNMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR-UNPROMISING STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN MR. CHASE BECAME SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY-HIS MEASURES-THE CONFIDENCE OF CAPITALISTS AND THE PEOPLE SECUREDTHE FIRST SEVEN-THIRTIES-THE FIVE-TWENTY BONDS-LARGE AMOUNT ABSORBED-BONDS OF 1881-COMPOUND INTEREST NOTES-TEN-FORTIES-THE SEVEN-THIRTIES OF 1864 and 1865-THEIR IMMENSE SALE-THE EARLY GOLD DEMAND NOTES-THE LEGAL TENDER NOTES -FRACTIONAL CURRENCY-CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS-NO PORTION OF THE DEBT NEGOTIATED, OR ITS PRINCIPAL OR INTEREST MADE PAYABLE ABROAD, YET FIVE hundred MILLIONS HELD AS AN INVESTMENT IN EUROPE-STATISTICAL TABLE OF THE DEBTTAXATION-CUSTOMS-INTERNAL REVENUE-INCOME TAX-WILLINGNESS OF THE PEOPLE TO BE TAXED-AMOUNT OF REVENUE COLLECTED NECESSITY THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONTROL THE ISSUE OF PAPER MONEY-THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM-NUMBER OF NATIONAL BANKS AT DIFFERENT DATES-SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENT AND RISE OF GOLD -ITS FLUCTUATIONS IN THREE YEARS-COMPARISON OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT AND THAT OF GREAT BRITAIN IN 1815-PROBABLE TIME OF PAYMENT OF THE DEBT-THE REBEL DEBTREBEL LOSSES OF SLAVE PROPERTY-LOSSES BY CAVALRY EXPEDITIONS AND RAIDS- UNION LOSSES BY RAIDS AND BY REBEL PRIVATEERS-GRANTS MADE BY THE STATE LEGISLATURES, COUNTIES, TOWNS, CITIES, ANd wards, for bounties anD AID OF SOLDIERS' FAMILIES— INDIVIDUAL GIFTS FOR THESE AND KINDRED PURPOSES-THE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE SICK AND WOUNDED-THE UNITED STATES' SANITARY COMMISSION-THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION-THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION-THE FREEDMEN'S AID COMMISSION-THE UNION COMMISSION-OTHER DONATIONS-THE EFFECT OF THIS LIBERALITY ON THE NATION.

THE administration of Mr. Buchanan had been as complete a failure in its financial management, as in every other department of its policy. Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, during the greater part of his term, and subsequently, as we have seen, a Rebel general, had entered upon his position in a time of high financial prosperity in the country-a period of peace. The small debt of the nation was quoted at sixteen or seventeen per cent. above par, and at that price he bought up a portion of it before it was due; but so miserable was his management, either from utter incapacity to comprehend financial matters, or from a determination to cripple the government he intended to betray, that, at the end of three and a half years, he had increased the national debt by forty millions of dollars, and had succeeded in so depreciating the national credit, that when he resigned, in order to join the Rebels, his successor, General John A. Dix, one of the ablest financiers of the nation, could not obtain an offer of more than eighty-eight cents on the dollar for a loan of twelve millions, and could not dispose of the whole even at that price.

When Salmon P, Chase entered upon his duties as Secretary of the Treasury, in March 1861, the prospect before him was one from which most men would have shrunk in utter dismay. The treasury was bankrupt; the national credit sunk so low that any prominent merchant or

banker could borrow on far better terms than the government. A war was pending, which must consume vast amount of money. American bankers and capitalists were shy of government securities, and the English capitalists notified him in advance that it would be useless for him to apply to them for money, for they could not lend.

Money must be had, however, and in the interim of the session of Congress, which alone could levy taxes, he was compelled to resort to a loan on the best terms which he could obtain. On the 2d of April, 1861, he offered in the New York market a loan of ten millions of dollars, twenty year bonds, with six per cent. interest. Bids were received for only three millions ninety-nine thousand dollars, at an average discount of 5.98 per cent. On the 25th of May, forty days after the proclamation of war, he was compelled to dispose of the remainder of this loan at an average discount of 14.65 per cent. On the 17th of July, he disposed of a further twenty-year loan of fifty millions, also six per cent. bonds, at a discount of 10.67 per cent.

By this time, however, the capitalists and bankers had begun to respect the ability and resolute management of Mr. Chase, as a financier, and when, in the latter part of the summer, he came into the market with his first issue of three years' treasury notes, bearing 7 per cent. interest, and convertible at the end of that time into twenty years six per cent. bonds, he disposed of one hundred and forty millions of them, at an average discount of less than three per cent. From this time forward, there was no discount beyond a simple broker's commission, varying from one half to three fourths of one per cent., paid on the placing of government securities. A loan of five hundred and eleven millions, at six per cent. interest, in bonds redeemable after five, and payable in twenty years, known as five-twenty bonds, was disposed of in a little more than a year, at par, by Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, by an extensive system of agencies and advertising. The people of the country, not the capitalists, purchased these bonds, as they did, subsequently, other government loans of still larger amounts. Seventy-five millions of twenty years six per cent. bonds were next offered and taken, at a premium of about four per cent., and five per cent. loans, in the shape of compound interest treasury notes of one and two years, and simple interest bonds, redeemable in ten, and payable after forty years, were issued at par, to the extent of somewhat more than two hundred and fifty millions, and six per cent. compound interest notes at six per cent., due at the end of three years, to the extent of over seventeen millions. All these loans were gold-bearing, i. e., the interest was payable in gold. As gold had risen in price to one hundred, one hundred and fifty, and even, for a single day, one hundred and eighty-five per cent. premium, the interest became very large on the bonds, and they were regarded as a very desirable investment, and rose to a premium of from fourteen to seventeen per cent. The Secretary of

MR. CHASE'S MEASURES.

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the Treasury next put upon the market (the demands of the war being still very heavy, far beyond the amount which could be raised by taxation) a new description of three-year treasury notes, paying seven and three tenths interest in legal tender, and redeemable at the end of three

years in

five twenty six per cent. bonds. Of these three series, bearing date at different times, and amounting in all to eight hundred and thirty millions of dollars, have been issued, almost exclusively to citizens of the United States. Certificates of indebtedness issued for one year and bearing interest at six per cent., were also paid to the government creditors in considerable amounts. In 1864, about one hundred and sixty millions of those were outstanding, but they have been rapidly reduced from the avails of the treasury notes, and on the 31st of October, 1865, somewhat less than fifty-six millions of dollars, payable in 1866, were all that were yet unpaid.

At the beginning of the war, sixty millions of demand notes, redeemable in coin, without interest, were issued by the Government; but as these were receivable for custom duties, they were all called in and cancelled before the close of 1864. By the act of February, 1862, and subsequent acts, the issue of legal tender demand notes was authorized, and about four hundred and fifty millions were issued of all denominations. Of these, on the 31st of October, 1865, a little more than four hundred and twenty-eight millions were still outstanding. There have been in all nearly fifty millions of fractional currency issued, though never much more than half of that amount in circulation at one time. The amount of this in circulation now is somewhat larger than a year ago, being, October 31st, 1865, a trifle over twenty-six millions.

No portion of this immense debt, amounting, on the 31st of October, 1865, to twenty-eight hundred and eight millions five hundred and fortynine thousand four hundred and thirty-eight dollars has been issued as a foreign loan, or the principal or interest made payable abroad. The several Secretaries of the Treasury have been authorized to negotiate portions of it abroad; but they have always refrained, and wisely, from seeking foreign creditors, believing that it would tend far more to the permanence and stability of free institutions to have it distributed among the people of the United States. The twenty-year bonds, the five-twenties, and the later seven-thirties, have, however, been largely purchased by foreign capitalists for investment, and are regularly called at the stock boards of London, Paris, Frankfort, Hamburg, Berlin, and Vienna. It is believed that more than five hundred millions of these loans are held in Europe. The accompanying table shows the character of the debt, the interest it carries, and the amount at different periods. (See next page.)

The value of these loans and the facility with which they could be placed, depended very much upon the willingness of the people to bear severe taxation, by which the interest could be paid, and the ordinary