7. This act necessarily threw upon the Treasury Department a great increase of labor, and in order to provide for it a separate bureau was created, which is denominated the bureau of currency, the chief officer of which is called the comptroller of currency. He acts under the general direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. This bureau is charged with the execution of this and all other laws that may be passed by Congress respecting the national currency. The comptroller of the currency is appointed by the President and Senate, has a deputy, receives a salary of $5,000 per year, holds his office five years, has an official seal, gives bonds to the amount of $100,000, and takes and subscribes the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution and the laws. His duties are numerous and very responsible, he having hundreds of millions under his care.
The term national banks, given to these institutions, and national currency to the bills they issue, were given from the fact that they were organized by an act of Congress, and that the security for the redemption of their bills consists exclusively of national bonds; no other securities will be taken.
CHAPTER XV.
FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES.
1. The United States government belongs to its people. Those people own property estimated at upwards of thirty billions of dollars. The public lands belonging to the government are between one and one and a half billions of acres. Besides, the public domains contain gold, silver, iron, coal, and a large number of other mineral deposits, chiefly in regions worthless for agricultural purposes, of unknown, but ascertained to be, at least, a very great quantity—enough to make all its present inhabitants millionaires if (besides paying the debt) their value could be divided among them. The capacity of the country for production is very far beyond what is drawn from it now. The future will probably increase it a thousand fold, for we are yet a new people, and in the act of settling ourselves to the work of development.
We are very rich, if all our resources are taken into account, yet we are in debt. In five years from the commencement of the civil war the public debt had run up from less than one hundred million dollars to over two billion seven hundred millions. This we began to reduce at once, for as a nation we do not like to be in debt; and it was, December 1st, 1873, a little over two billion one hundred and fifty millions. The debt is, indeed, a trifle compared with our vast national property; but we do not wish to sell our property at a loss, nor disturb the regular course of business; so it stands to be gradually paid in the regular course of things, as we find it to be convenient.
It is a vast sum, but gives more trouble by reason of the desire and determination of the people to pay it soon, and sacrifice no property, than from any inability to meet it.
We add a table of the Public Debt for every year since 1791, a Statement of the debt in detail Dec. 1st, 1873, and various Statistics relating to the finances, resources, and business of the country.