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notes, payable at the pleasure of the United States, or at such time or times not exceeding three years from date as may be found most beneficial to the public interest, and bearing interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum per annum, payable at periods expressed on the face of said treasury notes; and the interest on the said treasury notes and on certificates of indebtedness and deposit hereafter issued, shall be paid in lawful money. The treasury notes thus issued shall be of such denomination as the Secretary may direct, not less than ten dollars, and may be disposed of on the best terms that can be obtained, or may be paid to any creditor of the United States willing to receive the same at par. And said treasury notes may be made a legal tender to the same extent as United States notes, for their face value excluding interest; or they may be made exchangeable under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, by the holder thereof at the treasury in the city of Washington, or at the office of any assistant treasurer or depositary designated for that purpose, for United States notes equal in amount to the treasury notes offered for exchange, together with the interest accrued and due thereon at the date of interest payment next preceding such exchange. And in lieu of any amount of said treasury notes thus exchanged, or redeemed or paid at maturity, the Secretary may issue an equal amount of other treasury notes; and the treasury notes so exchanged, redeemed, or paid, shall be cancelled and destroyed as the Secretary may direct. In order to secure certain and prompt exchanges of United States notes for treasury notes when required as above provided, the Secretary shall have power to issue United States notes to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, which may be used if necessary for such exchanges; but no part of the United States notes authorized by this section shall be issued for or applied to any other purposes than said exchanges; and whenever any amount shall have been so issued and applied, the same shall be replaced as soon as practicable from the sales of treasury notes for United States notes.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the

Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized, if required by the exigencies of the public service, for the payment of the army and navy, and other creditors of the government, to issue on the credit of the United States the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of United States notes, including the amount of such notes heretofore authorized by the joint resolution approved January seventeen, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, in such form as he may deem expedient, not bearing interest, payable to bearer, and of such denominations, not less than one dollar, as he may prescribe, which notes so issued shall be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except for duties on imports and interest on the public debt; and any of the said notes, when returned to the treasury, may be reissued from time to time as the exigencies of the public service may require. And in lieu of any of said notes, or any other United States notes, returned to the treasury, and cancelled or destroyed, there may be issued equal amounts of United States notes, such as are authorized by this act. [So much of the acts of February 25 and July 11, 1862, as restricts the negotiation of bonds to market value, repealed.] ... And the holders of United States notes, issued under and by virtue of said acts, shall present the same for the purpose of exchanging the same for bonds, as therein provided, on or before the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and thereafter the right so to exchange the same shall cease and determine.

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SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That in lieu of postage and revenue stamps for fractional currency, and of fractional notes, commonly called postage currency, issued or to be issued, the Secretary of the Treasury may issue fractional notes of like amounts in such form as he may deem expedient. . . . And all such notes issued shall be exchangeable by the assistant-treasurers and designated depositaries for United States notes, in sums not less than three dollars, and shall be receivable for postage and revenue stamps, and also in payment of any dues

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to the United States less than five dollars, except duties on imports, and shall be redeemed on presentation at the treasury of the United States in such sums and under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe: Provided, That the whole amount of fractional currency issued, including postage and revenue stamps issued as currency, shall not exceed fifty millions of dollars.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to receive deposits of gold coin and bullion with the treasurer or any assistant-treasurer of the United States, in sums not less than twenty dollars, and to issue certificates therefor, in denominations of not less than twenty dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin and bullion deposited for or representing the certificates of deposit shall be retained in the treasury for the payment of the same on demand. And certificates representing coin in the treasury may be issued in payment of interest on the public debt, which certificates, together with those issued for coin and bullion deposited, shall not at any time exceed twenty per centum beyond the amount of coin and bullion in the treasury; and the certificates for coin or bullion in the treasury shall be received at par in payment for duties on imports.

SEC. 6. [Secretary to determine form of bonds and notes, &c.] SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all banks, associations, corporations, or individuals, issuing notes or bills for circulation as currency, shall be subject to and pay a duty of one per centum each half year from and after April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, upon the average amount of circulation of notes or bills as currency issued beyond the amount hereinafter named, that is to say banks, associations, corporations, or individuals, having a capital of not over one hundred thousand dollars, ninety per centum thereof; over one hundred thousand and not over two hundred thousand dollars, eighty per centum thereof; over two hundred thousand and not over three hundred thousand dollars, seventy per centum thereof; over three hundred thou

sand and not over five hundred thousand dollars, sixty per centum thereof; over five hundred thousand and not over one million of dollars, fifty per centum thereof; over one million and not over one million and a half of dollars, forty per centum thereof; over one million and a half, and not over two millions of dollars, thirty per centum thereof; over two millions of dollars, twenty-five per centum thereof. In the case of banks with branches, the duty herein provided for shall be imposed upon the circulation of the notes or bills of such branches severally, and not upon the aggregate circulation of all; and the amount of capital of each branch shall be considered to be the amount allotted to or used by such branch; and all such banks, associations, corporations, and individuals shall also be subject to and pay a duty of one half of one per centum each half year from and after April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, upon the average amount of notes or bills not otherwise herein taxed and outstanding as currency during the six months next preceding the return hereinafter provided for; and the rates of tax or duty imposed on the circulation of associations which may be organized under the act "to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States stocks, and to provide for the circulation and redemption thereof," approved February twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be the same as that hereby imposed on the circulation and deposits of all banks, associations, corporations, or individuals, but shall be assessed and collected as required by said act; all banks, associations, or corporations, and individuals issuing or reissuing notes or bills for circulation as currency after April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, in sums representing any fractional part of a dollar, shall be subject to and pay a duty of five per centum each half year thereafter upon the amount of such fractional notes or bills so issued. And all banks, associations, corporations, and individuals receiving deposits of money subject to payment on check or draft, except savings institutions, shall be subject to a duty of one eighth of one per centum each half year from and after April first, eighteen hundred and sixty

three, upon the average amount of such deposits beyond the average amount of their circulating notes or bills lawfully issued and outstanding as currency..

*

APPROVED, March 3, 1863.

No. 31.

Enrolment Act

March 3, 1863

AUGUST 4, 1862, Lincoln ordered a draft of 300,000 men. Four days later it was ordered that no citizen liable to be drafted should be allowed to go to a foreign country. The draft was completed early in September. A bill to provide for enrolling and calling out the national forces was reported in the Senate, February 9, 1863, by Wilson of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Military Affairs and Militia, to whom the subject had been referred, and on the 16th passed without a division. In the House a motion to limit the enrolment to white citizens was lost by a vote of 53 to 85; an attempt to strike out the $300 commutation clause also failed, the vote being 67 to 87. February 25 the bill passed the House. The Senate concurred in the House amendments, and March 3 the act was approved. A proclamation under section twenty-six of the act was issued March 10, followed May 8 by a proclamation relative to the status of aliens under the act.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 731-737. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 37th Cong., 3d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. A summary of the bill as reported in the Senate is in the Globe, February 16. The executive orders of August 4 and 8, 1862, are in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI, 120–121. On the enforcement of the act see the annual report of the Secretary of War, 1863. On the draft riots in New York see Rhodes, United States, IV, 320–328; see also Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, VII, chap. 1.

1 The Internal Revenue Act of March 3, 1865, section 6, imposed a tax of ten per cent on the amount of the notes of any State bank or State banking association paid out by them after July 1, 1866. By the internal revenue act of July 13, 1866, this section was amended so as to include the notes of "persons" as well as of banks, the notes were further described as "used for circulation," and the date for the imposition of the tax was changed to August 1, 1866. The purpose of the tax

was not, of course, to produce revenue, but to prevent the circulation of State bank notes. On the constitutionality of this prohibition see Veazie Bank v. Fenno, 8 Wallace, 533.

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