Constitution. Moved by this sentiment among Republicans, by the wholesome criticism of the Democrats, and the verdict of the ballot-box in the autumn of 1862, Congress passed an act which, although belated one year, is worthy of approbation. It authorized the President "during the present rebellion, . . . whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it," to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States or any part thereof. It directed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War to furnish to the judges of the United States circuit and district courts lists of political prisoners now or hereafter confined within their jurisdiction, and made it the duty of the judge to discharge, after they had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States government, those prisoners against whom the grand jury in his jurisdiction at its regular session found no indictment. If the lists were not furnished within twenty days from the time of the arrest, and if no indictment were found, relief was provided for any citizen who suffered from the arbitrary action of the authorities.2 Had this statute been strictly observed, no lasting hardship, nothing but transient injustice, would henceforward have been done.

I have said that Congress gave the President the control of the sword and the purse of the nation. Owing to the discouragement at the defeats in the field, the feeling of weariness at the duration of the war, and the improved state of business, which opened many avenues of lucrative employment, volunteering had practically ceased. To fill the armies some measure of compulsion was necessary, for the efforts at drafting by the States had not proved satisfactory. The

1 This message of Feb. 12 is printed in the Phila. Inquirer, Feb. 13. The governor ended it thus: "I recommend the passage of a joint resolution earnestly requesting that Congress shall forthwith pass laws defining and punishing offences of the class above referred to, and providing for the fair and speedy trial, by an impartial jury, of persons charged with such offences in the loyal and undisturbed States, so that the guilty may justly suffer and the innocent be relieved." See N. Y. World, Feb. 14.

2 Approved March 3; ante, p. 231.

CH. XIX.] THE SWORD AND THE PURSE OF THE NATION 237 Conscription Act,1 now passed, operated directly on the people of the nation instead of through the medium of the States, which had previously been the machinery for raising troops. The country was divided into enrolment districts, corresponding in general to the congressional districts of the different States, each of which was in charge of a provost-marshal. At the head of these officers was a provost-marshal-general, whose office at Washington formed a separate bureau of the War Department. All persons subject to military duty 2 were to be enrolled, and provision was made for drafting men for the military service when necessary. Any person drafted could furnish a substitute or pay three hundred dollars to the government as an exemption.

The financial legislation was alike drastic. One year previously the country had started on the road of irredeemable legal-tender paper: there was now no turning back. The maw of our voracious treasury again needed filling. Spaulding,3 who spoke for the Committee of Ways and Means, said in the House: "Currency has been scarce all the time for the last eight months, and is now very difficult to be obtained in sufficient quantity to meet the business wants of the country. . . . Legal-tender notes are not plenty among the people, who are required to pay your taxes; they are continually asking for more. Why, then, should we be alarmed at a further issue of legal-tender notes? So long as they are wanted by the business of the country, demanded by the soldiers for their pay, begged for by all the needy creditors of the government, surely Congress ought not to hesitate in an exigency like the present. It is no time now to depress business operations, or hold back the pay due to honest creditors of the government. It is much better to stimulate, make

1 Approved March 3.

2 These were "all able-bodied male citizens of the United States" and foreigners intending to become citizens "between the ages of twenty and forty-five years." Sec. 2 of the act, which is chap. lxxv., provided for exemptions. Sec. 3 made a classification favorable to married men.

See vol. iii. p. 562.

money plenty, make it easy for people to pay their taxes, and easy for government to make loans."1

The difficulties were so great that there was confusion in the councils of the nation. The President, in approving, January 17, the joint resolution which authorized, or in fact under the existing circumstances directed, the Secretary of the Treasury to issue at once $100,000,000 United States legal-tender notes for the prompt discharge of the arrears of pay due the soldiers and sailors, said in words which sound as if they had come from Chase: "I think it my duty to express my sincere regret that it has been found necessary to authorize so large an additional issue of United States notes, when this circulation and that of the suspended banks together have become already so redundant as to increase prices beyond real values, thereby augmenting the cost of living, to the injury of labor, and the cost of supplies, to the injury of the whole country." 2

Spaulding explained to the House that in the next eighteen months there must be borrowed $1,000,000,000. The expenses of the government were $2,500,000 a day, Sundays included. The receipts from customs, taxes, and other sources would not exceed $600,000, leaving the balance, a daily outgo of $1,900,000, to be obtained by borrowing of some kind.3 Congress, in what is known as the nine hundred million dollar loan act, authorized more bonds, more Treasury notes, bearing interest, which might be made a legal tender for their face value, more non-interest bearing United States legal tender notes, and a large amount of fractional currency to take the place of the imperfect substitutes issued in lieu of silver change, as silver had long since disappeared from circulation. It gave large discretionary powers to the Secretary of the Treasury. Before the constitutional meeting of the next

gal-Tender Paper Money, Spaulding, pp. 175, 176. Works, vol. ii. p. 300.

see, also, letter of Chase to Fessenden, Jan. 7, Globe,

CH. XIX.]

NATIONAL BANK ACT

239

Congress, he might issue of the different forms of paper obligations authorized a total of $900,000,000.1

Congress, in pursuance of the recommendations of the President and Secretary of the Treasury, also passed at this session an act creating National Banks, which was the nucleus of our present system.2

1 Chap. lxxiii., An Act to provide Ways and Means for the support of the Government.

2 Approved Feb. 25. The course of the legislation constituting national banks is well seen in Dunbar's Laws of the U. S. on Currency, Finance, and Banking, pp. 171, 178. In the Theory and History of Banking (p. 134), Dunbar writes: "An act for the purpose was passed in Feb., 1863 (12 Statutes at Large, 665), but in many points of detail this proved to be so unsatisfactory and incomplete that only 134 banks were organized under it in the next nine months, and the number had risen to less than 450 in sixteen months. A revised act, making important changes, was therefore passed in June, 1864 (13 Statutes at Large, 99), and ample provision having been made under which banks chartered by the States could be reorganized as national banks, the extension of the new system went on rapidly. Its adoption was further stimulated by an act laying a tax of ten per cent. on all notes of State banks paid out by any bank after July 1, 1866 (13 ibid. 484). The certainty of the practical exclusion of all State banks from the field of circulation caused the speedy reorganization of the greater part of them as national banks; and thus the national system, numbering 1,634 banks on July 1, 1866, at once assumed the pre-eminence which it has easily maintained."

Spaulding (p. 187) writes: "No National Bank currency was issued until about the first of January, 1864. After that time it was gradually issued. On the first of July, 1864, the sum of $25,825,695 had been issued ; and on the 22d of April, 1865, shortly after the surrender of Gen. Lee, the whole amount of National Bank circulation issued to that time was only $146,927,975. It will therefore be seen that comparatively little direct aid was realized from this currency until after the close of the war. All the channels of circulation were well filled up with the greenback notes, compound interest notes, and certificates of indebtedness, to the amount of over $700,000,000, before the National Bank act got fairly into operation." I have not verified exactly these figures which Spaulding has used, but, from amounts given at other dates in the reports of the comptrollers of the currency, I have no doubt that they are correct. His deductions, which are the important matter, are undeniable.

Another act of importance at this session was the admittance of West Virginia into the Union "on an equal footing with the original States." This new State was carved out of Virginia, and was required to adopt a plan for the gradual abolishment of slavery. This condition being complied with, West Virginia became a State sixty days after April 20, by a proclamation

It is easier to criticise the legislative body of a democracy than to praise it. Especially is this true in a country as large as our own, with interests apparently so diverse; for even in 1863, although the West and the East were knit in devotion to the common purpose of the war, the variance between the sections at times cropped out. The policy of give and take in compromise, the essence of legislation, prevented Congress at this session from satisfying any ideal, yet as a whole the work of the Republican majority deserves the highest commendation. They realized that only by victories in the field could the clouds of trouble and gloom be dispersed, and that they must show the country an agreement among themselves upon such measures as was their due contribution to military success. Their distrust of the President's ministers did not cease with the termination of the so-called cabinet crisis of December.2 Thaddeus Stevens at one time thought of moving in a caucus of the Republicans of the House a resolution of want of confidence in the cabinet.3 The radicals were not reconciled to the retention of Seward, and continued their efforts to have him removed, although they did not allow the President's firm resolve to keep him to prevent them from voting the administration ample powers. All the Republicans in Congress were of the mind of John Sherman, who may be classed with those inclining to moderation. "I cannot respect some of the constituted authorities," he wrote his brother, the general, "yet I will cordially support and aid them while they are authorized to administer the government." Military success could be obtained only by

of the President in pursuance of the act of Congress. As to the constitutionality of this act, see the opinions of six members of his cabinet and Lincoln's own opinion, Nicolay and Hay, vol. vi. p. 300 et seq. This measure is discussed in an interesting way by Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 466.

1 The session expired March 4.

2 Ante, p. 203.

8 Diary of W. P. Cutler, entry Jan. 27. Jan. 27, The Sherman Letters, p. 187.