[House Biil No. 02.—Secret.]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, December 31st, 1S63.—
Read first and second times. January lb', 1861.—Engrossed, read
a third time and passed.
A. R. LAMAR, Clerk.
SENATE, January 18, 1864.—Read first and second times, re-
ferred to the Committee on Finance, arid ordered to be printed in con-
fidence for the use of the Senate. January 25, 1864 —Fifty addi.ionai
copies ordered to be printed. Biil considered, and postponed to, and
made special order for, Wednesday next, at I o'clock. January 27,
1864 —Pending at adjournment. January 28, 1864.—Pending at
adjournment. January 29, 1864.—Pending at adjournal rit Jan-
uary 3u, 1864 —Pending at adjournment. Feb. I, 1864.—Pending
at adjournment. Feb. 2, 1864.—Bill and amendment, proposed by
Mr. llaynes, recommitted to sehct committee of five members. Feb.
4, 1864 —Reported with amendments. Amendments agreed to,
and bill read third time and passed. Ordered to be printed as am tided.
J.'. MES II. NAcdl, Screlury.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. February 5, 1864.—Taken
up and amendments refered to special Committee on the Currency
and ordered to be printed.
A. BILL
To tax, fund, and limit the currency.
1 - Section 1. The Congress <f the Confederate States of Ame»ica do
2 enact, That all treasury notes above the denomination of five dol-
3 lars, not hearing interest, issued before the passage of this act,
4 shall, until the first day April, 1864, be fundable in six per cent.
5 bonds of the Confederate States.
1 Sec. 2. On and after the first day of April, 1864, all such
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2 treasury notes shall be fundable, only in four per cent, bonds of
3 the Confederate States ; and upon all such treasury notes out-;
4 standing on the first day of June, 1864, there shall be levied a
5 tax of twenty-five cents for every dollar promised upon the face
6 of said notes ; and, on the first day of each month thereafter, there
7 shall be levied upon all such notes then'outstanding, a tax of like
8 amount. These taxes shall attach to the notes, wherever circu-
9 lated, and shall be collected by a deduction at the treasury, its
10 depositories, and by the tax collectors, from all such notes, when-
11 ever presented for funding or in payment for Government dues ;
12 but from the passage of this act, until the first day of October,
13 in the year 1864, holders of any of the treasury notes, not bear-
14 ing interest, shall be entitled to purchase from the Government,
15 bonds of the issue hereinafter authorized with such note, without
16 abatement for such tax, at the rate of one dollar for the bonds
17 for ten dollars of the notes.
1 Sec. 3. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to
2 issue the bonds required for the funding, herein provided for, and
3 until the bonds can be prepared, he may issue certificates to an-
4 swer the purpose. He may also issue to any one who holds, in
5 all, less than one hundred dollars of treasury notes, a certificate
6 for the amount, transferable only by special assignment, but not
7 more than one such certificate shall be given to the same person.
8 Such bonds and certificates shall be receivable, without interest,
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9 in payment of all Government dues, payable in the year 1364,
10 except export duties.
1 Sec. 4. All treasury notes of the denomination of fire dollars
2 and under, issued before the passage of this act, shall be placed
3 upon the same footing with, and entitled to all the advantages of,
4 the new issue of treasury notes authorized to be made by the
5 fifth section of this act. All call loan certificates, and the treasury
6 notes in which they may be hereafter redeemed, shall be fund-
7 able, and receivable, and shall be taxed in all respects as has been
8 herein provided for treasury notes heretofore issued.
1 Sec. 5. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to
2 make a new issue of treasury notes, to an amount not exceeding
3 two hundred millions of dollars, payable two years after a defin-
4 itive treaty of peace with the United States, and in such form,
5 of such denominations, and with such authentication as the Sec-
6 retary of the Treasury shall prescribe. When these notes shall
7 be, in any manner, received into the treasury, they may be re-
8 issued, or be substituted by others of like amount, so as not, at
9 any time, to increase the whole amount in circulation, beyond the
10 said sum of two hundred millions of dollars.
1 Sec. 6. The treasury notes authorized by the preceding section
2 shall be receivable in payment of all public dues, except export
.3 duties heretofore laid, and any tax in kind in specie, and except
4 duties on imports and exports during the war, which Congress
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5 may, by law, require to be paid in specie. They shall be exempt
6 from all taxation, and the faith of the Government is hereby
7 pledged that the entire amount of such notes to be issued under
8 this or any future act, shall not exceed the sum of two hundred
9 and fifty millions of dollars at any time.
1 Sec. 7. Any person in the military or naval service, having in
2 his hands, at the time of the passage of this act, in treasury
3 notes, a balance of his pay, not exceeding one month's pay, shall
4 be entitled to exchange such balance for an equal amount in
5 notes of the new issue authorized by this act, and it shall be the
6 duty of the Secretary of War and of the Secretary of the Navy
7 respectively, to take prompt measures to secure to all such
8 parties the benefit of this provision.
1 Sec. 8. To defray the expenses of the Government, not other-
2 wise provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby
3 authorized to issue six per cent, bonds of the Confederate States
4 to an amount not exceeding five hundred millions of dollars, the
5 principal and interest whereof shall be free from all taxation
6" during the war, and for the payment whereof, principal and
7 interest, the entire nett receipts of any export duty hereafter
8 laid on the value of all cotton, tobacco, and naval stores, which
9 shall be exported from the Confederate States, and so much of
i ) the nett receipts of import duties as will be sufficient to pay
11 annually, the interest, and one per cent, of the principal of th<
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12 bonds are hereby specially pledged; and the coupons attached to
13 said bonds shall, as they become due, be receivable in payment
14 of said duties or any other duties required hereafter to be paid
15 in specie.
1 Sec. 9. The Secretary of the Treasury shall, from time to time,
2 sell, upon the best terms he may find practicable, for treasury
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3 notes of the issue herein authorized, specie or foreign exchange,
4 so many of these bonds as may be necessary to meet the wants of
5 the Treasury.
1 Sec. 10. The bonds authorized by this act may be either
2 registered or coupon bonds, as the parties taking them may elect,
3 and they may be exchanged for each other, under such regulations
4 as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe. They shall be
5 for one hundred dollars or for some multiple of one hundred, and
6 shall be in .such form, and with such authentication as the
7 Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe. The interest shall be
8 payable half yearly, on the first day of January and July in each
9 year; the principal shall be payable not less than thirty years
10 from their date, but the Government may, at any time after five
11 years from their date, pay at its pleasure the bonds issued under
12 the third section of this act.
1 Sec. 11. The times fixed in the first and second sections of thi s
% act for funding and for laying taxes, shall, in each case, be
S extended for three months, in addition, in those parts of the
4 Confederates States west of the Mississippi river.
1 Sec. 12. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to increase
2 the number of depositories so as to meet the requirements of this
3 act, and with that view, to employ such of the banks of the
4 several States as he may deem expedient.
1 Sec. 13. The Secretary of the Treasury shall forthwith adver-
2 tise this act in such newspapers, published in the several States*
3 and by such other moans as shall secure immediate and extended
4 publicity, and the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the
5 Navy will each cause it to be published in general orders for the
6 information of the army and navy.
Sec. 14. The issue of Treasury notes, except as herein
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provided for, is hereby prohibited; and the forty-second section
of the "act for the assessment and collection of taxes," approved
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May t, 1S64, is hereby repealed.
AMENDMENTS
Proposed by the Senate to the bill (H. R. 92) to tax, fund and limit
the currency.
I. After the enacting clause, strike out the first, second, third,
"ourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth sections of the bill, and
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nsert as follows:
1 That no treasury note, outstanding at the time of the passage
2 of this act, shall be receivable in payment of pub'ic dues or
3 fundable after the first day of May, in the year 1864, east of the
4 Mississippi river, or after the first day of August, 18^4, west of
5 the Mississippi river ; but until the privilege of funding is taken
6 away, as above prescribed, all treasury notes, outstanding as
7 aforesaid, shall be fundable in registered bonds, pajable twenty
8 years after their date, and bearing interest at the rate of four
9 per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, and the said' four
10 per cent, bonds shall never be taxed by the Confederate States,
11 in principal or interest, and all holders of bonds or stock of the
12 Confederate States, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent.
13 per annum, or more, shall be allowed to exchange the same at
14 par, for the said four per cent, bonds.
1 Sec. 2. That, after the passage of this act, the Secretary of
2 the Treasury shall proceed to issue notes to be denominated
S exchequer notes, to the amount of two hundred and fifty millions
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of dollars, which shall be payable two years after the ratification
of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the
United States, and receivable in payment of all public dues except
the export duty on cotton, and such other dues as may be
declared by law payable in specie only ; and the said notes may
be converted into call certificates, the said certificates to bear
interest at the rate of three per cent, per annum, and to be
reconvertible into exchequer notes at the pleasure of the holder.
And the faith of the Government is hereby pledged that the issue
of .said exchequer notes and call certificates shall not exceed the
amount of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars; but the Sec-
retary of the Treasury may, at his discretion, reissue said
exchequer notes, or replace them with new notes so long as the
■whole sum outstanding shall not be increased thereby beyond the
limits herein prescribed : Provided, That said exchequer notes
shall not be fundable at the pleasure of the holder.
Sec. 3. That all call certificates outstanding at the time of the
passage of this act shall cease to be reconvertible after the first day
of May, in the year 1864, east of the Mississippi river, and after the
first day of August, in the year 1864, west of the Mississippi river,
and all call certificates not reconverted within the periods and
at the places above prescribed, shall be deemed and considered
four per cent, bonds, payable twenty year3 after the date of tie
passage of this act, the interest payable semi-annually: Provided,
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That this section shall not be construed to apply to eight per
cent, convertible bonds.
Sec. 4. That any holder of treasury notes depositing said notes
for the purpose of funding them, in compliance with the provis-
sion of this act, shall be allowed to receive one-tenth of the
amount so deposited in the new issue of exchequer notes herein-
before provided for, and the residue, or nine-tenths, in said four
per cent, bonds, as aforesaid.
Sec. 5. That if any bank of deposit shall give its depositors
the said four per cent, bonds in exchange for their deposits, and
specify the same on the bonds by some distinctive mark or token,
to be agreed upon with the Secretary of the Treasury, then the
said depositors shall be entitled to receive the amount of said
bonds in treasury notes bearing no interest, and outstanding at
the passage of this act: Provided, That the said bonds are pre-
sented before the privilege of funding said notes shall cease, as
hereinbefore prescribed.
Sec. t>. That after the passage of this act all authority hereto-
fore given to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue treasury
notes shall be, and is hereby, revoked; and all acts and parts of
acts arc hereby repealed, so far as they may conflict with the
provisions of this act: Provided, however, That the Secretary of
the Treasury may reissue treasury notes until the first day of
May, 1864, but no longer. And provided, further, That nothing
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contained in this act shall be construed to apply to treasury notes
of a denomination less than five dollars, which have been or may
be issued according to law.
Sep. 7. That all treasury notes, heretofore issued, of the de-
nomination of five dollars, shall continue to be receivable in pay-
ment of the public dues, as now provided by law, and fundable
under the provisions of this act until the first day of July,
1864, east of the Mississippi river, and until the first day of Oc-
tober, 1864, west of the Mississippi river, but after that time
they shall not be receivable or fundable.
Sec. 8. That any State of the Confederacy which may hold
treasury notes, shall have the privilege of funding the same un-
der the provisions of this act, until the first day of July, 1864,
east of the Mississippi river, and until the first day of October,
1864, west of the Mississippi river, and shall, until the periods
aforesaid, be entitled to the one-tenth of exchequer notes, as
provided in the fourth section of this act.
Sec. 9. That treasury notes, heretofore issued, bearing inter-
est at the rate of seven dollars and thirty cents on the hundred
dollars per annum, shall no longer be receivable in payment o
the public dues, but shall be deemed and considered bonds of the
Confederate States, payable two years after the ratification of a
treaty of peace with the United States, bearing the rate of in-
teregt specified on their face, payable on the first day of January
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8 of each and every year: Provided, That the holder of said notes
9 shall be allowed at any time to exchange the same for the four
10 per cent, bonds mentioned in the first section of this act.
1 Sec. 10. That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is
2 hereby, authorized, in case the exigencies of the Government
3 should require it, to pay the demand of any public creditor whose
4 debt may be contracted after the passage of this act, willing to
5 receive the same in a certificate of indebtedness, to be issued by
6 said Secretary in such form as he may deem proper, payable two
7 years after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the United
8 States, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum,
9 payable semi-annually, and transferable only by special endorse-
10 ment, under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the
11 Treasury, and said certificate shall be exempt from taxation in
12 principal and interest.
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1 Sec. 11. That all payments, on account of contracts with the
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2 Government, made prior to the passage of this act, and to be ex-
3 ecuted in the Confederate States, and payable in money, shall be
•4 paid until the first day of May, 1864, east of the Mississippi
5 river, and until first day of August, 1864, west of the Missis-
6 sippi river, in treasury notes, or nine-tenths thereof, in the four
7 per cent, bonds mentioned in the first section of this act, and
S the remaining one-tenth in exchequer notes, at the option of the
9 creditor; but, after the periods and at the places above prescribed,
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10 such payments shall he made exclusively in said four per cent.
11 bonds and exchequer notes,in the proportions above described:
12 Provided, That instalments, on account of contracts for carrying
18 the mails, which may become due after the first day of May next,
14 shall be paid in exchequer notes only : And, provided further,
15 That the interest on all public securities, the pay of officers of
16 the army and navy, and of soldiers and seamen, and the salaries
17 and compensation of all officers and employees of the Govern-
18 ment, in all its departments, shall be paid in exchequer notes.
1 Sec. 12. To defray the expenses of the Government, not other-
2 wise provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby au-
3 thorized to issue six per cent, bonds to an amount not exceeding
4 fi ve hundred millions of dollars, the principal and interest whereof
5 shall be free from taxation during the war; and, for the payment
6 of the interst thereon, the entire nett receipts of any export'duty
7 hereafter laid on the value of all cotton, tobacco and naval stores,
8 which shall be exported from the Confederate States, and the nett
9 proceeds of the import duties now laid, or so much thereof as
10 may bo necessary to pay annually the interest, are hereby spe-
11 cially pledged: Provided, That the duties now laid upon imports
12 and hereby pledged, shall hereafter be paid in specie or sterling
18 exchange, or in thq coupons of said bonds: And provided, Said
14 duties may be paid in exchequer notes until the Secretary of the
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15 Treasury shall publish that fifteen millions of said bonds have
16 been sold.
1 Sr.c. 16. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized
2 to sell or hypothecate, from time to time, for exchequer notes,
3 so many of the bonds, specified in the twelfth section of this act,
1 as may be necessary to meet the wants of the Treasury.
II. Strike out all of the tenth section of the bill after the word
u date," in the thirteenth line.
III. Strike out the eleventh section.
IY. Strike out, in section fourteen, lines one and two, the words,
" the issue of the treasury notes, except as herein provided for, is
hereby prohibited, and."
V. Amend the title so as to read, " An Act to provide for the issue
of exchequer notes, and for funding all treasury notes now outstand-
ing."