Independent Treasury

Independent Treasury Act of 1846
Long title	An Act to provide for the better organization of the treasury, and for the collection, safekeeping, transfer, and disbursement of the public revenue. Whereas, by the fourth section of the act entitled "Act to establish the Treasury Department," approve.
Enacted by	the 29th United States Congress
Effective	August 6, 1846
Legislative history
	Introduced in the House; Passed the House on April 2, 1846 (123-67); Passed the Senate on August 1, 1846 (28–25); Signed into law by President James K. Polk on August 6, 1846;

Independent Treasury Act of 1840
Long title	An Act to provide for the collection, safekeeping, transfer, and disbursement, of the public revenue.
Enacted by	the 26th United States Congress
Effective	July 4, 1840
Legislative history
	Introduced in the Senate; Passed the Senate on January 23, 1840 (24–18); Passed the House on June 30, 1840 (124-107); Signed into law by President Martin Van Buren on July 4, 1840;
Major amendments
	Repealed by John Tyler on August 13, 1841, after passing the House on August 9, 1841 (134–87) and the Senate on June 9, 1841 (29–18).

Last updated March 17, 2024

The Independent Treasury was the system for managing the money supply of the United States federal government through the U.S. Treasury and its sub-treasuries, independently of the national banking and financial systems. It was created on August 6, 1846, by the 29th Congress, with the enactment of the Independent Treasury Act of 1846 (ch. 90, 9 Stat. 59). It was expanded with the creation of the national banking system in 1863.^[1]^[2] It functioned until the early 20th century, when the Federal Reserve System replaced it. During this time, the Treasury took over an ever-larger number of functions of a central bank and the U.S. Treasury Department came to be the major force in the U.S. money market.^[3]

Background

The Panic of 1819 unleashed a wave of popular resentment against the Second Bank of the United States (the "national bank"), which handled various fiscal duties for the U.S. government after its establishment in 1816.^[4] In addition to storing all government funds, the bank also made loans and acted as a regulator of other banks by periodically presenting banknotes for redemption.^{[ citation needed ]}^{[lower-alpha 1]} In 1829, a group of influential Philadelphians, including William Duane, editor William M. Gouge, and members of the Working Men's Party, presented an influential report claiming that banks "laid the foundation of artificial inequality of wealth, and, thereby, artificial inequality of power."^[5] In 1833, Gouge published A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the United States, which became an influential work among hard money advocates. Gouge and others who favored hard money policies held that banks had a tendency to issue too many bank notes, thereby triggering speculative booms and contributing to inequality.^[6]

Gouge and Condy Raguet proposed the creation of an independent treasury system, whereby the federal government would store its funds as specie in government-controlled vaults, rather than relying on state banks or the national bank.^[7] During his second term, President Andrew Jackson removed federal deposits from the national bank and shifted them to state-chartered banks that became known as "pet banks".^[8] The Jackson administration also banned the pet banks from issuing banknotes of denominations of less than $20.^[9] The federal charter of the national bank had expired by the end of Jackson's second term, but many hard money advocates still favored the removal of all federal deposits from all banks.^{[ citation needed ]}

Establishment

First establishment

Two months into the presidency of Martin Van Buren, on May 10, 1837, some state banks in New York, running out of hard currency reserves, suddenly refused to convert paper money into gold or silver. Other financial institutions throughout the nation quickly followed suit. This financial crisis, the Panic of 1837,^[10] was followed by a five-year depression in which banks failed and unemployment reached record highs.^[11]

To deal with the crisis, Van Buren proposed the establishment of an independent U.S. treasury. Such a system would, he asserted, take the politics out of the nation's money supply: the government would hold all of its money balances in the form of gold or silver and would be restricted from printing paper money at will, a measure designed to prevent inflation.^[12] Van Buren announced his proposal in September 1837;^[10] but that was too much for state banking interests, and an alliance of conservative Democrats and Whigs prevented it from becoming law until 1840,^[13] when the 26th Congress passed the Independent Treasury Act of 1840 (ch. 41, 5 Stat. 385). Although signed into law on July 4, 1840, it lasted only one year; for the Whigs, who won a congressional majority and the presidency in the 1840 elections, promptly repealed the law.^[14]

Re-establishment

The Democrats took back their congressional majority and the presidency in the 1844 elections, re-establishing the dominant position the party had lost four years earlier. President James K. Polk made the revival of the independent treasury and a reduction of the tariff the two pillars of his domestic economic program, and pushed both through Congress. He signed the Independent Treasury Act on August 6, 1846, one week after signing the Walker tariff.^[15]

The 1846 act provided that the public revenues be retained in the Treasury building and in sub-treasuries in various cities. The Treasury was to pay out its own funds and be completely independent of the banking and financial system of the nation. All payments by and to the government were to be made in either specie or Treasury Notes. The separation of the Treasury from the banking system was never completed, however; the Treasury's operations continued to influence the money market, as specie payments to and from the government affected the amount of hard money in circulation.

History

Antebellum Years

Although the Independent Treasury did restrict the expansion of credit, it also posed a new set of economic problems. In periods of prosperity, revenue surpluses accumulated in the Treasury, reducing hard money circulation, tightening credit, and restraining inflation of trade and production. In periods of depression and panic, when banks suspended specie payments and hard money was hoarded, the government's insistence on being paid in specie tended to aggravate economic difficulties by limiting the amount of specie available for private credit.

In 1857, another panic hit the money market. However, whereas the failure of banks during the Panic of 1837 caused the government great embarrassment, bank failures during the Panic of 1857 did not, as the government, having its money in its own hands, was able to pay its debts, and met every liability without trouble. In his December 7, 1857 State of the Union message, President James Buchanan said:

Thanks to the independent treasury, the government has not suspended [specie] payments, as it was compelled to do by the failure of the banks in 1837. It will continue to discharge its liabilities to the people in gold and silver. Its disbursements in coin pass into circulation and materially assist in restoring a sound currency.^[16]

Civil War Modifications

In order to prosecute the Civil War, Congress passed the acts of 1863 and 1864 creating national banks. Exceptions were made to the prohibition against depositing government funds in private banks, and in certain cases payments to the government could be made in national bank notes.

Post-Civil War Years

After the Civil War, the independent Treasury continued in modified form, as each successive administration tried to cope with its weaknesses in various ways. Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw (1902–1907) made many innovations; he attempted to use Treasury funds to expand and contract the money supply according to the nation's credit needs. Nonetheless, during this period the United States experienced several economic panics of varying severity. Economists Charles Calomiris and Gary Gorton rate the worst panics as those leading to widespread bank suspensions—the panics of 1873, 1893, and 1907, and a suspension in 1914. Widespread suspensions were forestalled through coordinated actions during both the 1884 and the 1890 panics. A bank crisis in 1896, in which there was a perceived need for coordination, is also sometimes classified as a panic.^[17]

Federal Reserve System Replacement

When the Panic of 1907 once again highlighted the inability of the system to stabilize the money market, Congress established the National Monetary Commission to investigate the panic and to propose legislation to regulate banking.^[18] The commission's work culminated in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the demise of the Independent Treasury System. As a result, the Federal Reserve Act established the current U.S. Federal Reserve System and authorized the printing of Federal Reserve Notes (now commonly known as the U.S. Dollar).^[19] Government funds were gradually transferred from subtreasuries to the Federal Reserve, and a 1920 act of the 66th Congress (The Independent Treasury Act of 1920^[20]) mandated the closing of the last subtreasuries in the following year, thus bringing the system to an end.

Notes

↑ During the 19th century, the U.S. government minted coins, but did not issue paper banknotes. Banks, including the national bank, issued their own paper banknotes, which could be presented to those banks for redemption in coins.

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References

↑ George A. Selgin, and Lawrence H. White. "Monetary Reform and the Redemption of National Bank Notes, 1863-1913." Business History Review (1994): 205-243. online
↑ Franklin Noll "The United States Monopolization of Bank Note Production: Politics, Government, and the Greenback, 1862–1878." American Nineteenth Century History 13.1 (2012): 15-43.
↑ David Kinley, “The Relation of the United States Treasury to the Money Market.” American Economic Association Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, 1908, pp. 199–211. online
↑ Wilentz, Sean (2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 207–209. ISBN 0-393-05820-4.
↑ Wilentz (2005), p. 357
↑ Wilentz (2005), pp. 439–440
↑ Wilentz (2005), pp. 458–459
↑ Wilentz (2005), pp. 393–396, 438
↑ Wilentz (2005), pp. 441–442
1 2 "Martin Van Buren: Domestic affairs". Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
↑ Rorabaugh, W. J.; Critchlow, Donald T.; Baker, Paula C. (2004). America's promise: a concise history of the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 210. ISBN 0742511898.
↑ Lansford, Tom; Woods, Thomas E., eds. (2008). Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877. Vol. 10. New York: Marshall Cavendish. p. 1046. ISBN 978-0-7614-7758-7.
↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1965). The Oxford History of the American People . New York: Oxford University Press. p. 456.
↑ Gouge, William A.; Dorfman, Joseph (2007). A Short History of Money and Banking. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig Van Mises Institute. p. 22. ISBN 9781610163422.
↑ Trask, H.A. Scott (March 2002). "The Independent Treasury: Origins, Rationale, and Record, 1846-1861" (PDF). Presented at the Austrian Scholars Conference. Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
↑ Kinley, David (1910). "The Independent Treasury of the United States and Its Relations to the Banks of the Country". Washington, D.C.: National Monetary Commission and 61st Congress. Government Printing Office. pp. 71–75.
↑ Calomiris, Charles W.; Gorton, Gary (1992). "The Origins of Banking Panics: Models, Facts and Bank Regulation". In Hubbard, R. Glenn (ed.). Financial Markets and Financial Crises. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 114. ISBN 0-226-35588-8.
↑ Miron, Jeffrey A. (1986). "Financial Panics, the Seasonality of the Nominal Interest Rate, and the Founding of the Fed" (PDF). American Economic Review . 76 (1): 130.
↑ "Currency Notes" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Engraving and Printing Department of the treasury. p. 1. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
↑ "The Independent Treasury Act - 41 Stat. at L. 631". www.mindserpent.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.

v t e Monetary policy and central banking in the United States (pre–1913)
Monetary policy of the United States
Commercial Revolution (1607–1760)	Bills of credit (c. 1690–1750) Tobacco Inspection Act (1730) Maryland Tobacco Inspection Act of 1747 Currency Acts (1751; 1764)
1st Industrial Revolution (1760–1840)	Second Continental Congress (1776–1780) U.S. dollar banknotes (1775–) Continental currency banknotes (1775–1779) Bank of Pennsylvania (1780–1781) U.S. Finance Superintendent (1781–1785) Bank of North America (1781–1791) Article I of the U.S. Constitution 1787–1788; Section VIII Section X U.S. Treasury Department 1789–1913; U.S. Treasury Secretary U.S. Treasury security (1789–present) First Bank of the United States (1791–1811) Coinage Act of 1792 United States Mint (1792–1873) U.S. dollar coins (1792–) Half dime (1792–1873) 1792 half disme Half cent (1793–1857) Large cent (1793–1857) Treasury Note (1812–1913) Banking in the Jacksonian Era Second Bank of the United States, 1816–1836 Suffolk Bank, 1818–1858 McCulloch v. Maryland , 1819 New York Safety Fund System, 1829–1842 Bank War, 1832–1836 Coinage Act of 1834
Civil War Era (1840–1870)	Free banking (1836–1865) Wildcat banking (1836–1865) Forstall System (1842–1865) Independent U.S. Treasury (1846–1913) Coinage Act of 1849 Three-cent silver (1851–1873) Coinage Act of 1853 New York Clearing House Association (1853–1863) Coinage Act of 1857 Demand Note (1861–1862) Legal Tender Act of 1862 United States Note (1862–1971) Fractional currency (1862–1876) National Bank Acts (1863; 1864) Interest bearing note (1863–1865) National banks system (1863–1913) National Bank Note (1863–c. 1930) Gold certificate (1863–1933) Compound interest treasury note (1863–1864) Coinage Act of 1864 Two-cent piece (1864–1873) Three-cent nickel (1865–1889) Contraction Act of 1866 Public Credit Act of 1869
2nd Industrial Revolution (1870–1914)	Legal Tender Cases Hepburn v. Griswold (1870) Currency Act of 1870 National Gold Bank Note (1870–1875) Knox v. Lee (1871) Coinage Act of 1873 Free silver Specie Payment Resumption Act (1875) Twenty-cent piece (1875–1878) Bland–Allison Act (1878) Silver certificate (1878–1964) Refunding Certificate (1879–1907) Juilliard v. Greenman (1884) Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) Treasury Note (1890–1891) Gold Standard Act (1900) Aldrich–Vreeland Act (1908) National Monetary Commission (1909–1912) Federal Reserve Act (1913)

v t e Bank regulation in the United States
Federal authorities	Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Farm Credit Administration Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Federal Housing Finance Agency Federal Reserve Board of Governors Financial Stability Oversight Council National Credit Union Administration Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Major federal legislation	Independent Treasury Act National Bank Act Federal Reserve Act McFadden Act 1933 Banking Act Glass–Steagall Act Federal Credit Union Act Bank Holding Company Act Interest Rate Control Act of 1966 Truth in Lending Act Bank Secrecy Act Fair Credit Reporting Act Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Community Reinvestment Act Electronic Fund Transfer Act Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 Monetary Control Act Depository Institutions Act Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 FIRREA FDICIA Truth in Savings Act Riegle-Neal IBBEA Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Credit CARD Act Dodd–Frank EGRRCPA
Federal Reserve Board regulations	Extensions of Credit by Federal Reserve Banks (Reg A) Equal Credit Opportunity (Reg B) Home Mortgage Disclosure (Reg C) Reserve Requirements for Depository Institutions (Reg D) Electronic Fund Transfer (Reg E) Limitations on Interbank Liabilities (Reg F) International Banking Operations (Reg K) Consumer Leasing (Reg M) Loans to Insiders (Reg O) Privacy of Consumer Financial Information (Reg P) Prohibition Against the Paying of Interest on Demand Deposits (Reg Q) Credit by Brokers and Dealers (Reg T) Credit by Banks and Persons Other Than Brokers or Dealers for the Purpose of Purchasing or Carrying Margin Stock (Reg U) Transactions Between Member Banks and Their Affiliates (Reg W) Borrowers of Securities Credit (Reg X) Truth in Lending (Reg Z) Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices (Reg AA) Community Reinvestment (Reg BB) Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Reg CC) Truth in Savings (Reg DD)
Types of bank charter	Credit union Federal savings association National bank State bank
State authorities	California Colorado Florida Illinois Maryland Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Tennessee Virginia
Terms	Call report CAEL Rating CAMELS rating system Thrift Financial Report
Other topics	Banking in the United States Fair debt collection History of central banking in the United States Wildcat banking
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