PAPER CURRENCY legislation prior to 1789, from the Journals of Congress, is covered by the books mentioned below, and the data are compiled in the official Treasury publication: History of the Currency of the Country, etc., William F. The Funding System of the United States, Jonathan Elliot, Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, J. B. Felt, History of Bills of Credit of New York, John H. Hickox, Short History of Paper Money, etc., William M. Gouge, Phila- Historical Sketches of the Paper Currency, etc., Henry Phillips, Jr., 2 vols., Roxbury, 1865-1866. Currency and Banking in Massachusetts, A. McF. Davis, History of American Currency, William G. Sumner, New The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, Brief Account of Paper Money of the Revolution, J. W. Short accounts will be found in: United States Notes, John Jay Knox, New York, 1888 (3d Money and Banking, Horace White, Boston, 1895; revised 1902. Continental Currency, Byron W. Holt, Sound Currency, Vol. Statistics of the issue of Continental and State currency, during the Revolution, and of its fluctuation, are compiled from various sources in the DeKnight publication, in Phillips's and in Schuckers's mentioned above. BANKING during the earliest period is discussed in: History of Banking in the United States, William G. Sumner History of Banking in the United States, John Jay Knox, Also the volumes of W. M. Gouge and Horace White noted above, and the Sound Currency publications. The charter of the Bank of North America, the first incorporated bank, may be found in Clarke and Hall, Legislative and Documentary History of Bank of the United States, Washington, 1832. The period from the adoption of the Constitution (1789) to the opening of the Civil War (1861) is in many respects the most important, covering as it does the formative era of the nation; and respecting the monetary system, the experiments which the people tried and repeated, notwithstanding the many sad experiences, serve as instructive guides to the proper understanding of the subject. The constitutional provisions will be better understood by consulting: Elliot's Debates of the Constitutional Convention. A Plea for the Constitution, etc., George Bancroft, 1884. The laws will be found in the Statutes at Large, but the principal ones have been reprinted, especially in one volume, 1886, and in Senate Report No. 831, 53d Cong., 3d Sess. The general subject of money is covered in: FINANCE REPORTS, being the reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, including some special reports (many of the latter are, however, to be found elsewhere). These reports are, for the period 1789 to 1849, published in 6 volumes; thereafter in separate annual volumes, which also contain the reports of subordinate officers of the Treasury. MESSAGES AND Papers of the Presidents, Vols. I. to V., covering this period. In the earlier messages little material is found; Madison, Jackson, and later presidents devote considerable space to the subject. Congressional action is recorded officially in Annals of Congress (1789-1824), Register of Debates (1824-1837), and Congressional Globe (1838-1860); but for the period from 1789 to 1856 the material is digested in Abridgment of Debates, 6 vols., Thomas H. Benton. Furthermore, Public Documents of Congress, embracing Executive and Miscellaneous Papers, Committee Reports, etc. Executive action is also recorded in American State Papers, 5 vols. Unofficial publications on the general subject are: American Statesmen, Andrew W. Young, 1857. Niles's Register, a weekly publication, Baltimore, 1811-1848. Suggestions on Banks and Currency, Albert Gallatin, New York, COINAGE is especially considered in Hamilton's Report on the Establishment of a Mint, found in Finance Reports; Crawford's in 1820, Ingham's in 1830, and Gallatin's paper included in the latter. These and other important documents are reprinted in International Monetary Conference, 1878, already referred to. Secretary Corwin's Treasury Reports also contain valuable material. A concise review of the coinage history also appears in the Report of the Director of the Mint for 1895. Congressional action is recorded in the Annals and Debates and in reports by: Sanford, Nathan, Senate Report No. 3, 21st Cong., 2d Sess., White, Campbell P., House Reports, 1831, March 1832, June Benton's Abridgment of Debates. Statistics of the composition of the coins and the volume of coinage from 1792 to date are annually printed in the Reports of Directors of the Mint. Unofficial publications are: History of Bimetallism in the United States, J. Laurence Thirty Years' View, Thomas H. Benton, Boston, 2 vols., 1854- Watson's History of Coinage, and White's Money and Banking, already referred to. On CURRENCY AND BANKING generally the official data for the early portion of the period are exceedingly meagre. Gallatin's and Crawford's Treasury Reports and the latter's correspondence with State Banks, printed in American State Papers; Crawford's special report of 1820 and Elliot's Funding System, contain almost all the information prior to 1833, when Congress directed the Treasury to collect data in State Banks and their Currency. Knox in Report Comptroller of Currency, 1876, compiled the data from the earliest days to 1863, in fairly satisfactory form (statistics in the appendix). This was in large part reprinted in Senate Ex. Doc., No. 38, 52d Cong., 2d Sess. Hepburn in the same Bureau's Report for 1892 materially enlarged the scope of the information, adding much valuable statistical material in the appendix. After 1833 the Finance Reports contain much important material and the separate annual Treasury Report on Condition of Banks gives all the data obtainable at this time. Special mention should be made of the historical compendium on banking embraced in the appendix to Guthrie's Treasury Reports, 1855-1856, and of the reports of the condition of depositary banks, in appendices to the Finance Reports, 1835 and thereafter. Discussions of the operations of State Banks of later date will be found in the Messages of Presidents, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, and Buchanan, and in the Finance Reports of their Secretaries of the Treasury. The volume of money is discussed by Elliot, Gallatin, and Guthrie. Unofficial publications of the early period include Gallatin's Consideration of Currency and Banking System, wherein a very detailed account of banks is given; Gouge's Short History, which is equally interesting. The works above referred to of Sumner, Knox, Bolles, and White are valuable, the two former being quite comprehensive. See also Treatise on Currency and Banking, Condy Raguet, Philadelphia, 1839. In Sound Currency, monographs treating of the banks and noteissues of the several states are most instructive. See particularly the papers by Horace White, and L. Carroll Root. Special features are discussed in: The Suffolk Bank, D. R. Whitney, Cambridge, Mass., 1878. History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, E. G. Bourne, New History of the Bank of New York, H. W. Domett, 1886. TREASURY NOTES, aside from the several Finance Reports prior to 1861 are officially and comprehensively treated in DeKnight's volume already mentioned, and in History of National Loans of the United States, R. A. Bayley, Washington, 1881. (Also embraced in Vol. VII. of the 10th Census.) It is also of interest to examine what Madison, Van Buren, and Tyler in their messages, and Crawford in his special report of 1820, say of the use of these notes as currency. Unofficial publications include Knox's United States Notes; Sumner's several works, and Bolles's History. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. The most comprehensive publication of official data from 1790 to 1832 is: Clarke and Hall, Legislative and Documentary History, embrac- Finance Reports, contain papers by Hamilton, Gallatin, Dallas, Benton's Abridgment of Debates and his Thirty Years' View A concise review may also be found in Report Comptroller of Currency, 1876 (Knox), with statistics in the appendix. Unofficial publications embracing valuable material are the already named Sumner's History of Banking, Knox's work of the same name, White's Money and Banking, Bolles's Financial History, Schouler's History, and Gallatin's Consideration for a Currency System, Williams's Statesman's Manual, Niles's Register. Sound Currency, Vol. IV., Nos. 7, 17, 18. History of the United States of America, Henry Adams, N.Y., 1889-1891, 9 vols. Constitutional and Political History of the United States, H. E. Von Holst,Chicago, 1877–1892, 7 vols. G. T. Curtis's Constitutional History of the United States, 2 vols. Special features are treated in the works and writings of Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, Dallas, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Woodbury, and in the Essays of Matthew Carey. In Biographical Works, see Adams and Stevens on Gallatin; Schurz on Clay; Parton and Sumner on Jackson; Lodge, Morse, and Sumner on Hamilton; Shepard on Van Buren. See also Removal of Deposits from Bank of United States, |