In a single month, the tax upon the income of the Treasury became stupendous. In one day, it paid out for quartermasters’ stores alone, forty-six millions of dollars—more than were needed to support the entire National Government during the first year of Washington’s administration. In four years, the public debt, from ninety millions, had grown to be two thousand six hundred millions—yet under this mighty demand, with two millions of its sons withdrawn from productive labor, the exports of the country were double what they had ever been before, and the credit of the Government of the United States day by day increased.
When Mr. Chase was appointed Chief Justice by Mr. Lincoln, his high seat in the Treasury was taken by Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, whose brief career as Secretary of the Treasury was marked by a single State paper of great ability. He was succeeded by Hugh McCulloch, of Indiana, who dispensed the duties of his office creditably till the close of Johnson’s administration.
President Grant, upon his accession to the Presidency, chose George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Boutwell had already served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and now on him devolved the huge task of reducing the high impost and revenue tax created by the war debt, and borne as a mighty burden by the people. He had to lighten the load on the people’s shoulders, and yet keep the national tax high enough to meet the interest, and reduce the amount of the national debt—in fine, he was expected to relieve the Nation, and to pay the national debt at the same time. A more conflicting demand never rested on a Financial Minister. How ably he met it, the “monthly statement” of the perpetual ebb of the war debt, with the constant legislation to reduce all revenue taxation to the luxuries of life, were ample proof.
Before the election of Mr. Boutwell, as United States Senator from Massachusetts, to succeed Vice-President[Vice-President] Henry Wilson, the President appointed Judge Richardson, Acting Assistant Secretary, to be Secretary of the Treasury. Judge Richardson stepped from comparative obscurity, and an opposite sphere of labor, to his present high official position. There are many who challenge his claim to it, and his fitness for it. Time may prove one, and disprove the other. As Secretary of the Treasury, his official record is yet to be made—until his administration has been marked by an act of national importance, it is too early to pronounce a verdict.
In the statistics of the Treasury Department, we read the marvellous financial history of our country. In them we trace the material progress of the Nation from its beginning. In the accounts current business of the country, we learn that in the years 1793, ’94, ’95, ’96, the Nation imported productions valued at one hundred and seventy-four millions of dollars. In the years 1866, ’67, ’68, ’69, the United States exported values to the amount of nineteen hundred millions. The value between these sums marks the growth of population, territory, and material resources in the space of seventy years—surely, a narrow span in the life of a nation!
CHAPTER XXX.
INSIDE THE TREASURY—THE HISTORY OF A DOLLAR.
A Washington Tradition—“Old Hickory” Erects his Cane—“Put the Building Right Here”—Treasury Corner-Stone Laid—Robert Mills’ Discolored Colonnade—Where “Privileged Mortals” Work—A Very Costly Building—Rapid Extension of Business—Splendid Situation of the Building—The Workers Within—The Government Takes a Holiday—The Business of Three Thousand People—The Mysteries of the Treasury—Inside the Rooms—Mary Harris’s Revenge—The “Drones” in the Hive—Making Love in Office Hours—Flirtations in Public—A Vast Refuge for the Unfortunate—Two Classes of Employés—A List of Miserable Sinners—A Pitiful Ancient Dame—A Protégé of President Lincoln—Women’s Work in the Treasury—The Bureau of Printing and Engraving—A very Hot Precinct—Rendering a Strict Account—Not a Cent Missing—The “Chief’s” Report—Dealing in Big Figures—The Story of a Paper Dollar—In the Upper Floor—The Busy Workers—Night Work—Where the Paper is Made—The “Localized Blue Fibre”—The Obstacle to the Counterfeiter—The Automatic Register—Keeping Watch—The Counters and Examiners—Supplying the Bank Note Companies—“The American” and “The National”—An Armed Escort—No Incomplete Notes Possible—Varieties of Printing—The Contract with Adams’ Express—Printing the Notes and Currency—Internal Revenue Stamps—Thirty Young Ladies Count the Money—Manufacturing the Plates—The Engraving Division—“The Finest Engravers in the Country”—The Likeness of Somebody—Transferring a Portrait—“Men of Many Minds”—The Division of Labor—Delicate Operations—A Pressure of Five or Six Tons—The Plate Complete—“Re-entering” a Plate—An “Impression”—How Old Plates are Used up—A Close Inspection—Defying Imitation—The Geometric Lathe—Tracing “Lines of Beauty” for More than Forty Years.
It is one of the traditions of Washington that Andrew Jackson decided the exact site of the present Treasury Building.
After the third destruction by fire, in 1833, of the early Treasury Buildings, a great strife came up concerning the location of the new Treasury. Worn out with the claims of “rival factions,” it is said that President Jackson walked out a few rods from the White House one morning, and thrusting his cane into the ground, exclaimed: “Put the building right here!” This ended all disputes, and the end of the “old hero’s” cane marked the north-east corner of the present site of the Treasury of the United States.
Though nearly approached by the Patent Office, the Treasury Building, in architectural splendor, ranks next to the Capitol. Its corner-stone was laid in 1834 by Levi Woodbury, then Secretary of the Treasury. The original building was designed by Robert C. Mills, whose long and discolored colonnade on Fifteenth street is still visible. It was built of the freestone brought from near Acquia Creek, Virginia, which has touched with premature dinginess too many of the Federal buildings of the Capital. But in the Treasury its long line of smut is lost in the marble splendor of the extensions. The extension of the building was authorized in 1835, and built from the designs of Thomas W. Walter. It embodies the most perfect Grecian architecture, adapted to modern uses. It surrounds a hollow square, on which its inner offices look out on green grass and cooling fountain through the summer heats. Instead of cooped-up cells, the lower stories of the Treasury are filled with airy apartments, in which privileged mortals serve their country and earn their bread and butter. The new Treasury is built of gleaming granite brought from Dix Island, on the coast of Maine.