aside for them, 1864 (10 in. ); other applications, 1872-ca. 1899 (4 ft.), to redeem real estate sold for direct tax, to redeem and make final payments, and for refund of surplus proceeds of real estate sold for direct tax; papers relating to claims, 1891-92 (9 in.), filed in the U. S. Court of Claims by owners or their heirs under sec. 4 of an act of Mar. 2, 1891 (26 Stat. 823), for surplus proceeds of land sold for direct tax, and relating to Army, Navy, or Marine claims, 1899 (5 in.), under the same act; registers of claims for refunding interest, 1886-92, and of claims for surplus proceeds from direct tax sales in the Parishes of St. Helena and St. Luke, 1891-98; ledger of receipts and expenditures, 1862-70; cash book, 1862-72; memoranda of expenses, 1869-76 (1 vol. ); copies of reports of receipts and expenditures, 1863-70 (5 in. ); and manuscript and printed maps of the Parishes of St. Helena and St. Luke, with related documents including annotated plans of Beaufort and Port Royal. Tennessee (established ca. Nov. 7, 1863, with the appointment of Commissioners Delano Smith, Elisha P. Ferry, and John B. Rodgers; A. A. Kyle appointed later; dissolved Apr. 30, 1867). Record Group 217. --Registers of taxes paid within 60 days, 1865, of taxes paid within 120 days, 1865-66 (7 vols.), and of sales of land in Shelby County; also the assessment lists described above. Record Group 58. --Cash book, 1865-67. Texas (established in Oct. 1865 with the appointment of Commissioners Robert K. Smith, Andrew J. Coleman, and A. H. Latimer; dissolved Feb. 28, 1867). Record Group 217. --Register of taxes paid within 120 days, 1865-66; also the assessment lists and the direct tax receipt books described above. Record Group 58. --Journal, 1865-66. Virginia (established Mar. 7, 1863, with the appointment of Commissioners Gillet F. Watson, William J. Boreman, and John Hauxhurst; A. Lawrence Foster appointed. later; dissolved Apr. 30, 1867). Record Group 217.--Redemption books for Alexandria County, 1863-66 (2 vols.); also the assessment lists and the direct tax receipt books described above. National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 14] of the Records of the United States Direct Tax Commission for the District of South Carolina, comp. by Jane Greene (Washington, 1948), and unpublished Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States Direct Tax Commissions of the Southern States, 18621893, comp. by Donald R. Gruver. Commission for the Revision of the Revenue System An act of Mar. 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 487), authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint a commission of three to investigate the revenue system and recommend "the sources from which such revenue should be drawn, and the best and most efficient mode of raising the same. ་་ The Commis sion was organized in June 1865 by the appointment of David A. Wells of New York, Stephen Colwell of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Snowden Hayes of Illinois. It took up specifically for investigation sources of revenue "which our own experience and the experience of other countries have indicated as likely to be most productive under taxation, and most capable of sustaining its burdens. "' Neither the Commission's records nor its original report (printed as H. Ex. Doc. 34, 39 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1255) appears to be extant. The printed report is of special interest because of its findings on cotton production and marketing and the manufacture of cotton products--aspects of the subject "Cotton as a Source of National Revenue." The work of the Commission was continued by David A. Wells as Special Commissioner of Revenue in 1866. OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, known also as the National Currency Bureau, was created by an act of Feb. 25, 1863 (12 Stat. 665), to provide "a national currency secured by United States bonds." Hugh McCulloch, the first Comptroller of the Currency, had been president of the State Bank of Indiana. On June 30, 1863, the First National Bank of Philadelphia was chartered under the act, and by November 134 national banks had been organized. The Comptroller wrote in his 1863 report that the national currency system contemplated "the organization of national banks, which, by becoming its financial agents. . . [might] aid the government in the safekeeping and transmission of its revenues, and the transaction of its business," and that through the national banks "a safe and uniform circulation . . . [might] be furnished to the people." The war would not be "an unmixed evil financially" if it resulted in the establishment of a banking system that, "without an interference with the rights of the States, and without detriment to their solvent institutions," would provide a bank note circulation "as solvent as the nation itself, and uniform in value. The repealing and reestablishing act of June 3, 1864 (13 Stat. 99) --often called the 1864 National Bank Act--preserved the continuity of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency by confirming appointments already made. The Comptroller was to perform his duties under the general direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. The relationship of these duties to those of the "Engraving Unit," which came to be known as the First Division of the National Currency Bureau, is discussed below. McCulloch gave particular attention to the too-rapid increase of national banks, the suspension of specie payments, currency expansion, and price inflation. "It is of the greatest importance," he observed in his 1864 report, "that the national currency system should be independent of politics and freed from political influences. To effect this, and to facilitate the business of the banks with the Comptroller . . . the bureau should be made an independent department, and removed from Washington to Philadelphia or New York." Although the recommended removal did not materialize, the National Currency Bureau prospered, and by Mar. 8, 1865, when McCulloch resigned to become Secretary of the Treasury, most of the State banks had given way to the national banking associations. This shift facilitated financial settlements at the end of the war. Hugh McCulloch, Comptroller of the Currency from Mar. 9, 1863, was succeeded on Mar. 21, 1865, by Freeman Clarke. Annual reports of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-67, appended to those of the Secretary of the Treasury on The State of the Finances; John Gilbert Heinberg, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Its History, Activities, and Organization (Baltimore, 1926); A. M. Davis, Origin of National Banking System (S. Doc. 582, 61 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 5634; Washington, 1910). Record Group 101. --The records of the National Currency Bureau for the Civil War period were largely inherited and augmented by the various divisions of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency in its postwar reorganizations. The relatively few Civil War records expanded into series that continued, in some cases, into the present century. Those that became eventually records of the Division of Reports include the reports of national bank examiners, from 1863, with related correspondence, and some miscellaneous correspondence of the Comptroller of the Currency. These records are of value for research in economic reconstruction and the restoration of Treasury Department control over the national banking system in the South. The records that eventually went to the Organization Division of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency include copies of reports on the organization of national banks, from 1865; organization files (arranged by bank charter number) relating to national banks no longer in existence, from 1863; and opinions of the Solicitor of the Treasury (with some opinions of the Attorney General) relating to banks and banking, 1865-93. The records that went to the Division of Insolvent National Banks of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency include general correspondence of the Comptroller on the administration of receiverships, from 1865, consisting for the immediate postwar period almost exclusively of letters sent by receivers to the Comptroller; and receivership records sent to the Comptroller by receivers, from 1865. Also eventually a part of the records of the Division of Insolvent National Banks were the records of the Comptroller of the Currency pertaining to the liquidation of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Co. This company was chartered by an act of Mar. 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 510), for the benefit of freed slaves; and soon after its establishment the military savings banks at Beaufort, S. C., and Norfolk, Va., were transferred to it. By 1870 the company had 33 branch offices, including one in New York City. The company failed in 1874; and under sec. 7 of an act of June 20 of that year (18 Stat. 132), the trustees were authorized to select, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, three commissioners "to take charge of all the property and effects" of the bank and act as receivers, reporting to the Secretary. An act of Feb. 21, 1881 (21 Stat. 377), authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint the Comptroller of the Currency to administer the affairs of the company. The Comptroller then began to liquidate the affairs of the company, and reports on it were submitted to Congress until 1920. Among the resulting records are letters received by the commissioners and by the Comptroller of the Currency as an ex officio commissioner, 18701914 (27 ft.); press copies of letters sent by them, 1874-1913 (34 vols.); minutes and journals, 1865-74 (7 vols.); printed annual reports, 1881-1919; signature books, constituting registered signatures and personal identification data of depositors; a dividend payment record, 1882-89 (16 vols.); and an index to deposit ledgers (including index to depositors of the Norfolk, Va., Savings Bank). This record group includes also records of the issuance of national banknotes, which began under the acts of Feb. 25, 1863, and June 3, 1864, already cited. There are ledgers of circulation accounts of national banks, from 1863; ledgers of national banknotes received for issuance to national banks, from 1863; and registers of Treasury numbers on national bank currency, National Archives, unpublished Preliminary Checklist of Records of the Organization Division of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-1944, comp. by Lyle J. Holverstott; unpublished Preliminary Checklist of the Records of the Division of Reports of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-1935, comp. by Maxcy R. Dickson and J. Eric Maddox; Preliminary Checklist of Records of the Division of Insolvent National Banks of the Bureau of the Comptroller of the Currency, 18651945, comp. by Lyle J. Holverstott, Maxcy R. Dickson, and J. Eric Maddox (Washington, 1946). First Division (Engraving or Printing Bureau) This division of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "had its origin in an attempt to trim and separate treasury notes by machinery"-work done by hand until the summer of 1862. An act of Feb. 25, 1862 (12 Stat. 346), authorized the engraving of signatures on Treasury notes and the imprinting of the Treasury Department seal on the notes after they had been delivered by the engravers. Trimming and separation of the notes by machinery was commenced, and an act of July 11, 1862 (12 Stat. 532), authorizing an additional issue of national currency, empowered the Secretary of the Treasury to have the notes or any part of them engraved and printed at the Treasury, to purchase machinery and materials, and to employ necessary personnel. In August 1862 was begun the work of affixing the seal, trimming, and separating, and of procuring and keeping the plates and special dies for the printing. The newly created Office of the Comptroller of the Currency apparently directed the engraving functions that had already begun and the printing functions that began with the printing of fractional currency under an act of Mar. 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 711). The designation of the engraving or printing unit as First Division, National Currency Bureau, came into official use by 1864, although reports of House committees refer to the office also as the Printing Bureau. With the unit's rapid growth its direction by the Comptroller of the Currency seems to have become more and more nominal. Comptroller of the Currency McCulloch, testifying on May 11, 1864, before the House Select Committee to Investigate Charges Against the Treasury Department (H. Rept. 140, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1207), was asked to state his "views of the Printing Bureau, or the printing of the currency at the Treasury Department." He replied that he had "not given special attention" to this and that he had "never regarded that department as having any legal connection" with his. Evidence of the First Division's relative independence is seen also in the correspondence between the Division Chief and the Comptroller of the Currency. By Feb. 1, 1865, the First Division had 31 subdivisions employing 527 operatives engaged in "engraving, printing, and preparing for issue the various securities and currency authorized by Congress, and such checks, drafts, and other forms as are required by the Treasurer and assistant treasurers of the United States, and the designated depositaries; in printing the circulars, blank forms, envelopes, and other letter-press printing required by this department, as well as some incidental work for other departments; in ruling and preparing for binding such forms and tables as are directed; in stereotyping and electrotyping such work as is necessary, and in making and repairing the machinery used in the building. Spencer M. Clark was Chief of the First Division, National Currency Bureau, during the Civil War. Record Group 318. --The wartime records of the First Division, although small in quantity, show the details of both its printing and its engraving functions. Correspondence and orders received, 1864-65 (ca. 6 in.), include orders for notes, bonds, and coupons; orders for printing (usually of commissions and other "blanks" for Government agencies); and letters from the American Bank Note Co. Copies of letters sent, Apr. 26, 1862Dec. 9, 1863, and Apr. 28, 1864-Aug. 3, 1866 (vols. 1-2 and 4-7; vol. 3 missing), contain orders to place advertisements in newspapers, specifications for the design and printing of notes, and other correspondence with or concerning the several note companies of the period (American Bank Note Co. of New York, Continental Bank Note Co. of New York, and Union Bank Note Co. of Newark, N. J.). OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISING ARCHITECT The prewar Bureau of Construction of the Treasury Department was superseded in 1862 by the Office of the Supervising Architect. The new Office was known also during the war as the Construction Bureau or Branch, but these names eventually fell into disuse. Although it had the functions of a bureau, the Office was technically a unit in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury. Supervision of the Government's building activities outside the District of Columbia had been assigned to the Construction Branch in 1853, and as head of the new branch "a scientific and practical engineer" was detailed from the Army. General regulations affecting this work (published in the Secretary's 1853 report on The State of the Finances) stipulated that the duties would comprise: "the selection and purchase of sites for all buildings under the Treasury Department; the procuring of cession of jurisdiction to the United States by the States in which the sites may be situated; the making of plans and estimates for custom-houses, mints, and marine hospitals; the general superintendence of their construction; and the collection, arrangement, and preservation of all reports, memoirs, estimates, plans, and models relating to all buildings in charge of the Treasury Department. After 1861 the Engineer in Charge was replaced by a Supervising Architect. As the Secretary of the Treasury explained to the House Ways and Means Committee in 1864 (H. Misc. Doc. 37, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1200), he had abolished the office of the "engineer" because he had "found no authority of law" for it; and in point of fact the first law referring specifically to the "construction branch" was a deficiency appropriations act of Mar. 14, 1864 (13 Stat. 27). (The act authorized the employment of clerks in the branch "only during the rebellion and for one year after its close," but continuing annual appropriations extended the life of the branch. ) The immediate effect of secession was the stoppage of work on the public buildings in the seceded States and a ban on deliveries of materials for such work. Furthermore, no new buildings appear to have been begun during the war, although work on the Treasury Extension was resumed in February of 1862. Through 1865 the chief work of the Office was supervising repairs and alterations of existing public buildings. Officers in charge of this Office during the Civil War period: S. M. Clark, Acting Engineer in Charge, Bureau of Construction, 1860. A. B. Mullett, Supervising Architect, Sept. 30, 1865. |