of $10,000 was made at twenty per cent. dis count. February 23, 1861-John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, opened the bids for $8,000,000 of six per cent. twenty years' stock of the United States. Over $14,000,000 were offered; the lowest accepted bid was $90 15 for $100; the highest bid over ninety-six dollars. The whole loan was taken at an average of about 90}. Over $4,000,000 were bid for at $90 15. Debt of the United States, from June 30, 1860, to May 14, 1864. Average rate of interest paid on the entire debt is 4 354.1000 per cent. per annum. RATE OF INTEREST. Statement of the Public Debt of the United States, June 30, 1864. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 18, 1864. SIR: Your letter of the 13th instant, making inquiries in regard to the kind of currency with which the five-twenty years six per cent, and the three years seven-thirty per cent. notes are to be redeemed, has been received. It has been the constant usage of the Department to redeem all coupon and registered bonas forming part of the funded or permanent debt of the United States in coin, and this usage has not been deviated fi, a during my adminis tration of its allairs All the treasury notes and other obligations forming part of the temporary loan are payable and will be redeemed in lawful money: that is to say, in United States notes until after the resumption of specie pay.aents, when they also will doubtless be redeemed in coin, or equivalent notes. The five-twenty sixes being payable twenty years from date, though redeemable after five years, are considered as belonging to the funded or permanent debt, and so also are the twenty years sixes into which the three years seventhirty notes are convertible. These bonds, therefore, according to the usage of the Government, are payable in coin. The three years seven-thirty treasury notes are part of the temporary loan, and will be paid a United States notes, unless holders prefer conversion to payment. Very respectfully, This item is thus composed: United States Notes, July 17, August 5, 1861, and February 12, 1862........................................... S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. $781.073 00 399,218,927 00 25,160,569 00 22,210,483 10 Unpaid requisitions.... Amount in Treasury. 448,371,052 10 38,495,013 60 $486,866,065 70 The increase of debt between periods has been ing information relative to the funded debt, as follows: Amount to call certificates, to non-interest and interestbearing Treasury notes, and other financial matters. From this it appears that, January $1,098.793.181 1864, the funded debt was as follows: 1,222.113,559 1,473.2 5,714 Act Feb. 28, 1861, 8 cent., $15,000,000 00 Act May 16, 1861, 8 1,513.702,837 Act Ang. 19, 1861, 8 1,596,9 9,4.9 1,726,248,411 Act April 12, 1862, 8 Act Feb. 20, 1863, 8 1,730,870,9-6 Act Feb. 20, 1863, 7 Act March 23, 1863, 6 8,774,900 00 3,612,300 00 cent., 95,785,000 00 cent., Act April 30, 1863 (cotton in- 8,252,000 00 Non-interest bearing Treasury notes out- Act May 16, 1861-payable 8,320,875 00 $13.920 00 Customs 668,566 00 currency. 189,719,251 00 Miscellaneous. 2,291,812 00 Act Oct. 13, 1861-All denom Repayments of disbursing officers..... 3,839,263 00 inations.. 131,028,366 50 Interest on loans 26,583 00 Act March 23-All denomi Call loan certificates. 391,829,702 50 One hundred million loan....... 41,398,286 00 720,898,095 00 102,465,450 00 215,554,885 00 Interest-bearing Treasury notes outstand- ing...... 16,664,513 00 Amount of Treasury notes 1,375,476 00 | 2,539,799 00 $457,855,704 00 Total debt up to December 31, 1862........... 556,105,100 00 Up to December 31, 1862, the issues of the Notes Redeemed..... Outstanding... $440,678,510 00 under $5, outstanding Jan. 1, 1864, viz: Act April 17, 1862, denomina- Total under $5...... Total debt, Jan. 1, 1864.... ITS CONDITION, MARCH 31, 1864. The Register of the Treasury, Robert Tyler, gave a statement, which appeared in the Richmond Sentinel after the passage of the funding law, which gives the amount of outstanding non-interest-bearing Treasury notes, March 31, 1864, as $796,264,403, as follows: Act May 16, 1861-Ten-year notes............. $601,522,893 12 EXPENDITURES DURING THAT TIME. Fives. $911,258 50 4,882,000 00 6,086,320 00 79,090,315 00 157,982,750 00 217,425,120 00 188,088,200 00 Public debt...... Notes canceled and redeemed Total expenditures............. Balance in treasury. 32,212,290 00 But from this amount is to be deducted the amount of all Treasury notes that have been funded, but which have not yet received a true estimation, $65,000,000; total remaining, $17,154,334. CONDITION OF THE TREASURY, JANUARY 1, 1864. Total.. ..$973,277,363 50 Rebel Financial Legislation. [From the Richmond Sentinel, Feb. 17, 1864.] SEC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the holders of all Treasury notes above the denomination of five dollars not bearing interest, shall be allowed until the first day of April, 1864, cast of the Mississippi River, and until the first day of July, 1861, west of the Mississippi River, to fund the same, and until the peri ods and at the places stated, the holders of all such Treas ury notes shall be allowed to fund the same in registered bonds payable twenty years after, they bearing interest at che rate of four per cent. per annum payable on the first day of January and July of each year. SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to issue the bonds required for the funding provided for in the preceding section; and until the bonds can be provided, he may issue certificates to answer the purpose. Such bonds and certificates shall be receivable without interest, in payment of all Government dues payable in the year 1861, except export and import duties. SEC. 3. That all Treasury notes of all denominations of one hundred dollars, not bearing interest, which shall not be presented for funding under the provisions of the first section of this act, shall, from and after the first day of -pril, 1864, east of the Mississippi River, and the first day of July, 1864, west of the Mississippi, cease to be receivable in payment of public dues, and said notes, if not so presented at the time, shall, in addition to the tax of thirtythree and one-third cents imposed in the fourth section of this act, be subject to a tax of ten per cent. per month until so presented; which taxes shall attach to said notes wherever circulated, and shall be deducted from the face of said notes wherever presented for payment or for funding, and such notes shall not be exchangeable for the new issue of Treasury notes provided for in this act. each State, and the certificate of the Governor thereof shall in each case be conclusive. SEC. 13. That Treasury notes heretofore issued, bearing interest at the rate of seven dollars and thirty cents on the hundred dollars per annum, shall no longer be received in payment of 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 interest specified on their face, payable the 1st of January in each and every year. SPECULATIONS ON THE FUNDING. The Richmond Examiner of the 11th of April, 1864, gives the following statistics of the rebel currency, from which it will be seen that a desperate attempt is making to retrieve the financial disasters of the South: The depletion of the Confederate currency under the recent legislation is much greater than is generally supposed; and in this connection it will be interesting to refer to well established figures. The entire issue of the old circulation we may take at $800,000,000. The number of one hundred dollar bills in circulation has been about $250,000,000. Of lesser denominations that will be funded, there are, at least, say 50,000,000. Deduct now the $300,000,000 funded, and we have $500,030,000. This, reduced by the discount of thirty-three and one-third per cent., will, in round numbers, leave us $530,000,000. SEC. 4. That on all the said Treasury notes not funded or used in payment of taxes at the dates and places prescribed in the first section of this act, there shall be levied at said dates and places a tax of 33 cents for every dollar funded on the face of said notes. Said tax shall attach to said notes wherever circulated, and shall be collected by deducting the same at the Treasury, its depositories and by the collectors, and by all Government officers receiving the same, wherever presented for payment, or for funding, or in pay-to $230,000,000. From the last named sum there must be ment of Government dues, or for postage or in exchange for new notes as hereinafter provided, and said Treasury notes shall be fundable in bonds as provided in the first section of this act, until the first day of January, 1865, at the rate of sixty-six cents and two thirds on the dollar, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury at any time between the first of April east and the first of July, 1864, west of the Mississippi river, and the first of January, 1865, to substitute and exchange new Treasury notes for same, at the rate of sixty-six and two thirds cents on the dollar: Provided, That notes of the denomination of $100 shall not be entitled to the privilege of said exchange: Provided, further, That on the right to fund all such Treasury notes which may remain outstanding on the first day of January, 1865, and which may not be exchanged for new Treasury notes, as herein provided, a tax of one hundred per cent is hereby imposed. SEC. 5. That after the 1st day of April next, all authority heretofore given to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue Treasury notes shall be, and is hereby, revoked, provided the Secretary of the Treasury may after that time issue new Treasury notes in such forms as he may prescribe, payable two years after the ratification of a tr. aty of peace with the United States, said new issue to be receivable in payment of all public dues except export and import duties, and to be issued in exchange for old notes at the rate of $2 of the new issue for $3 of the old issues, whether said old notes be surrendered for exchange by the holders thereof or be received into the Treasury under the provisions of this act; and the holders of the new notes or of the old notes, except those of the denomination of $100, after they are reduced to 6633 cents on the dollar by the tax aforesaid, may convert them into call certificates bearing interest at the rate of four per cent per annum, and payable two years after a ratification of a treaty of peace with the United States, un less sooner converted into new notes. SEC. 6. That to pay the expenses of the Government, not otherwise provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to issue six per cent bonds to an amount not exceeding $500,000,000, the principal and interest whereof shall be free from taxation, and for the payment of the interest thereon, the entire net receipts of any export duty hereinafter laid on the value of all cotton, tobacco, and naval stores, which shall be exported from the Confederate States, and the net proceeds of the import duties now laid, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the interest are hereby specially pledged: Provided, That the duties now laid upon imports, and hereby pleiged, shall hereafter be paid in specie or in sterling exchange, or in the coupons of said bonds. SEC. 12. That any State holding Treasury notes received before the times herein fixed for taxing said notes shall be allowed until the 1st day of January, 1865, to fund the same in six per cent, bonds of the Confederate States, payable twenty years after date, and the interest payable semi-annually. But all Treasury notes received by any State after the time fixed for taxing the same, as aforesaid, shall be held to have been received, diminished by the amount of said tax. The discrimination between the notes subject to the tax and those not so subject shall be left to the good faith of The tax levied for 1864 is estimated considerably above $400,000,000. There being only $330,000,000 funded in four per cents., it follows that $100,000,000 of currency must be used in addition to the above for the payment of taxes for 1864, which will still further reduce the circulating medium substracted the amount required to pay the additional taxes imposed by the late Congress on the income tax of 1863, as well as some portion of the old taxes that will not be paid on the first of April, 1864. The circulation would thus be reduced to $200,600,000, without reference to the manufacture and emission of more paper money. But here comes up the important question of the new issue, which involves the vitality of the whole scheme. The first interpretation of the currency act was that it denied power to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue one dollar notes except in exchange for the present currency at the rate of two dollars of the new for three dollars of the old, which may remain unfunded on the first of April. Others construe the act to empower the Secretary of the Treasury to issue two dollars of the new issue for three dollars of the old, whether funded or unfunded-whether exchanged or paid in for taxes. The latter construction is said to be favored by Mr. Mem. minger, namely, that he is authorized to issue new notes to the amount of two-thirds of the whole of the old issue. In other words, supposing the old notes in circulation amounted to $800,000,000 the first of April, the Secretary of the Treasury is empowered to issue two-thirds of this amount, that is, $533,333,333, affording a supply to the Treasury for about eight months, irrespective of the sum that may be raised by the sale of six per cent. bonds. [From the Richmond Sentinel.] The There is but little doubt that the funding, east and west of the Mississippi, will amount to $300,000,000. total issue outstanding March 31 is thereby reduced say to $100,000,000, is in $100 notes. Excluding these, we have $485,000,000. Of this, a considerable portion, probally $385,000,000 left, of which the issues of $5 and under amount to $90,969,898 50. Suppose $85,000,000 of these are now in circulation, and we have for all others $300,000,000, which the tax of one third has reduced to $200,000,000. The total circulation at the present time, irrespective of the new issue, is therefore, largely less than $300,000,000, and of this a considerable amount is always to be found in the hands of the disbursing officers and depositaries. amount of circulation lost or destroyed, and thereby gained We have not included in the above any estimates of the to the Government. It is doubtless considerable. destroyed (irrespective of the operations of the present curThe amount of currency which has been canceled and rency law) is nearly twenty per cent. of the whole issue. If this reduction be applied to the five dollar notes, the amount of these in circulation would appear to be $60,272,252. [From The Examiner of the 21st March, 1864.] Only ten days now intervene before the currency remaining in circulation is taxed one-third and, consequently, during the week commencing Monday, the holders of Treasury notes must decide whether they will keep them until the 1st of April and submit to the Government shave, fund the amount in four per cent. bonds, or exchange it for bonds or personal property. The necessity of coming to a conclusion is "sharpening the wits" of the people, though it is not improbable that some who esteem themselves 370 "wondrous wise" in financial matters will commit a blun- ! der in disposing of their surplus cash. The ability to penetrate the future is a power which few, if any, possess, and hence the views expressed in regard to the effect of the financial legislation of Congress, after the currency is reduced, are diverse and vaguely theoretical. 3 Everybody knows that a $10 note, after 1st April, will only represent a net value of $6 662%, and accordingly the universal desire is to dispose of the currency in hand at this time, so as to avoid this apparent loss, very few being willing to hold it with the expectation that $66 of the new currency will, in a few weeks, buy more of any article than $160 will purchase now. They must see the fact before they will believe it, but then it will be too late to profit by the development. In the meantime, all kinds of" cornering" processes are in vogue, and it must be admitted that some of them are plau-ible enough. For instance, it is argued that certain bonds and stocks may be bought now, and sold in the new currency at a decline not exceeding fifteen to twenty-five per cent.-thereby saving ten to fifteen in the transmutory tax. On the last day of the session, June 15, President Davis vetoed the bill allowing further time to persons within the enemy's lines to fund their Treasury notes. The consideration of the subject was postponed until the next session. RICHMOND, April 22, 1864. THE TAX ACT OF DECEMBER 19, 1861 tion. SEC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to pay over to the several banks, which have made advances to the Government, in anticipation of the issue of Treasury notes, a sufficient amount, not exceeding $10,000,000 for the principal and interest due upon the said advance, according to the engagements made with them. SEC. 2. The time fixed by the said act for making assignments is hereby extended to the 1st day of January next, and the time for the completion and delivery of the lists is extended to the 1st day of March next, and the time for the report of the said lists to the chief collector is extended to the 1st day of May next; and in cases where the time thus fixed shall be found insufficient, the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to make further extension, as circumstances may require. The outstanding amount of Treasury notes, of the denomination of five dollars and under, is about seventy-five mil-sion as agent, attorney, or consignee: Provided, That the lions. The funding returns sum up an aggregate of two hundred and thirty-seven million dollars. Twenty small depositories yet to hear from. The only State from which complete returns have been received is Georgia, where the amount funded is seventy-two millions one hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars. TAXATION. THE TAX ACT OF JULY, 1861. The Richmond Enquirer gives the following summary of the act authorizing the issue of Treasury notes and bonds, and providing a war tax for their redemption: Section one authorizes the issue of Treasury notes, payable to bearer at the expiration of six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States. The notes are not to be of a less denomination than five dollars, to be re-issued at pleasure, to be received in payment of all public dues, except the export duty on cotton, and the whole issue outstanding at one time, including the amount issued under former acts, are not to exceed one hundred millions of dollars. SEC. 3. The cash on hand, or on deposit in the bank, or elsewhere, mentioned in the fourth section of said act, is hereby declared to be subject to assessment and taxation, and the money at interest, or invested by individuals in the purchase of bills, notes, and other securities for money, shall be deemed to include securities for money belonging to non-residents, and such securities shall be returned, and the tax thereon paid by any agent or trustee having the same in possession or under his control. The term merchandise shall be construed to include merchandise belonging to any non-resident, and the property shall be returned, and the tax paid by any person having the same in posseswords "money at interest," as used in the act to which this act is an amendment, shall be so construed as to include all notes, or other evidences of debt, bearing interest, without reference to the consideration of the same. The exception allowed by the twentieth section for agricultural products shall be construed to embrace such products only when in the hands of the producers, or held for his account. no tax shall be assessed or levied on any money at interest when the notes, bond, bill, or other security taken for its payment, shall be worthless from the insolvency and total inability to pay of the payor or obligor, or person liable to make such payment; and all securities for money payable under this act shall be assessed according to their value, and the assessor shall have the same power to ascertain the value of such securities as the law confers upon him with respect to other property. But SEC. 4. That an amount of money, not exceeding $25,000, shall be and the same is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be disbursed under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, to the chief State tax collectors, for such expenses as shall be actually incurred for salaries of clerks, office hire, stationary, and incidental charges; but the books and printing required shall be at the expense of the department, and subject to its approval. SEC. 5. The lien for the tax shall attach from the date of the assessment, and shall follow the same into every State in the Confederacy; and in case any person shall attempt to remove any property which may be liable to tax, beyond the jurisdiction of the State in which the tax is payable, without payment of the tax, the collector of the district may distrain upon and sell the saine, in the same manner as is provided in cases where default is made in the payment of the tax. Section two provides that, for the purpose of funding the said notes, or for the purpose of purchasing specie or military stores, &c., bonds may be issued, payable not more than twenty years after date, to the amount of one hundred millions of dollars, and bearing an interest of eight per cent. per annum. This amount includes the thirty millions SEC. 6. On the report of any chief collector, that any already authorized to be issued. The bonds are not to be issued in less amounts than $100, except when the sub-county, town or district, or any part thereof, is occupied by the public enemy, or has been so occupied as to occasion scription is for a less amount, when they may be issued as destruction of crops or property, the Secretary of the low as $50. Treasury may suspend the collection of tax in such region until the same can be reported to Congress, and its action had thereon. Section three provides that holders of Treasury notes may at any time exchange them for bonds. Section four provides that, for the special purpose of paying the principal and interest of the public debt, and of supporting the Government, a war tax shall be assessed and levied of fifty cents upon each one hundred dollars in value of the following property in the Confederate States, namely: Real estate of all kinds; slaves; merchandise; bank stocks; railroad and other corporation stocks; money at interest or invested by individuals in the purchase of bills, notes, and other securities for money, except the bonds of the Confederate States of America, and cash on hand or on deposit in bank or elsewhere; cattle, horses, and mules; gold watches, gold and silver plate; pianos and pleasure carriages: Provided, however, That when the taxable property, herein above enumerated, of any head of a family is of value less than five hundred dollars, such taxable property shall be exempt from taxation under this act. It provides further that the property of colleges, schools, and religions associations shall be exempt. The remaining sections provide for the collection of the tax. SEC. 7. In case any of the Confederate States shall undertake to pay the tax to be collected within its limits before the time at which the district collectors shall enter upon the discharge of their duties, the Secretary of the Treasury may suspend the appointment of such collectors, and may direct the chief collector to appoint assessors, and to take proper measures for the making and perfecting the returns, assessments and lists required by law; and the returns. assessments and and lists so made, shall have the same legal validity, to all intents and purposes, as if made ac cording to the provisions of the act to which this act is supplementary. SEC. 8. That tax lists already given, varying from tha provisions of this act, shall be corrected so as to conform thereto. THE TAX ACT OF APRIL 24, 1863. We present below a synopsis of the bill to lay taxes for |