Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-08-06

Secretary Fessenden's Circular to the People

Secretary Fessenden, under authority of an
act of Congress of June last, to issue an
amount not exceeding two hundred millions
Of dollars in Treasury notes, etc., has gwen
notice that subscriptions viii be received oy
the Treasurer of the United States, the seve-
raj Assistant Treasurers, and designated
denositories, and by the National Banks
designated and qualified as deposito
ries and financial agents, for Treasury notes,
PAYABLE three years from August is, 1864,
i bearing interest at the rate eff seven and
three-tenths per cent per annum with semi
annual coupons attached payable in lawful
money. These notes will be convertible at
the option of the holder, at maturity into six
per cent gold bearing bonds redeemable at
ter. FIVE and payable twenty years from Au-
gust Is, 1867. The notes will be issued In
denominations Of fifty, one hundred, five hun
dred. one thousand and five thousand dollars,
I and in blank, or payable to order, rs may be
directed by the subscribers. All subscrip-
tons must be for fifty dollars or some multi
pie of fifty dollars. Interest will be allowed
to August 10 on all deposits made prior to
that date and paid by the department upon
receipt of these original certificates. AS the
notes draw interest from August Is, persons
making deposits subsequent to that date must
nav the interest accrued from the date of the
note to the date of the deposit Parties de-
posting TWENTY-FIVE thousand dollars and up
wards for these notes at any one time will be
allowed a commission of one-quarter of one
per cent, which will be paid by the Treasury
Department upon the receipt of a bill for the
amount certified to by the officer with whom
the deposit was made, No deductions for
commissions must be made from the deposit.
Accompanying this advertisement. in a cir
cular form, is Secretary Fessenden's appeal to
the people of the United States, in which ne
says: 6l
The circumstances under which this loan is
asked for and your aid invoked, though diff
fering widely from the existing state of af-
fairs three wears ago, are such as afford equal
announcement and security. Time, while
proving that the struggle for national unity
was to exceed in duration and severity our
worst anticipations, has tested the national
strength and national resources to an extent
alike unexpected and remarkable, exciting
equal establishment at home and abroad
Three years of war have burdened you with
a debt which but three years since would
have seemed beyond your ability to meet
Yet the accumulated wealth and productive
energies of the nation have proved to be so
vast that it has been borne with comparative
ease, and a peaceful future would hardly feel
its weight. As price paid for national exist
ence and the preservation Of Tee institutions
| il does not deserve amOmens consideration.
Thus far the war has been supported and car
ried on, as it only could have been, by peo-
pie resolved, at whatever cost of blood and
treasure, to transmit unimpaired to posterity
the system of free government, bequeathed
to them by the great men who frsmed it,
This deliberate and patriotic resolve has de-
veloped a power surprising even to them
: 1 I. IL. al. -,
turv nation has arisen unsurpassed in vigor
and exhaustless in resources, able to conduct
through a series of years war on its most gi-
gantic scale and finding itself when near its
close almost unimpaired in all its material ell
| ements of power 1t has at the present mo-
| ment great armies in the field, facing an enc
my apparently approaching a period of utter
exhaustion, but struggling with a force the
greater and more desperate as it sees, and
because it sees, the near approach of final
and fatal eOnsummation. Such, in my delib-
crate Judgment, is the present condition of
the great contest for civil liberty in which
you are now engaged Up to the present
moment you have readily and cheerfully
afforded the means necessary to support
your Government in this protracted
struggle. 1t is your war. You proclaimed
it, and you have sustained it against traitors
everywhere with patriotic devotion, unsur-
passed in the worlds history. The securities
offered you are such as should command your
! ready confidence. Much effort has been
made to shake public faith in our national
credit, both at home and abroad. As yet
we have asked no foreign aid. Calm and
: selfreliant, our own means thus far have
, , proved adequate to our wants. They are yet
ample to meet those of the present and fu-
! ture. 1t still remains for a patriotic people
to furnish the needful supply. The brave
men who are fighting our battles by land and
sea must be fed and clothed. Munitions OF
war of all kinds must be furnished, or the
war must end in defeat and disgrace. This
, is not the time for any lover of his country
to inquire into tho state of the money mar
ket, or ask whether he can so invest his sur
plus capital as to yield him larger return.
: No return and no profit can be desirable if
: followed by national dissolution or national
Z disgrace. Present profit thus acquired is but
the precursor of future and speedy destruc-
9 ton No investment can be so surely prof.
D table as that which tends to ensure the ma
5 tional existence. | am encouraged in the
j. belief that by the recent legislation of Con-
Il gress our finances may soon be placed upon
: sounder and more stable footing. The
: present deranged condition of the currency
4 is imputable, in great degree, to disturb.
ances arising from the withdrawal of neees.
: Sary cneckS, OIten lneVlJdDle IN time OF war,
e when the expenditures must largely exceed
I any possible supply of coin. The opportuni.
d ties thus presented to acquire sudden wealth
: have led to vicious speculation, consequent
increase of prices and violent fluctuations.
The remedy is to be found only in control
!, ling the necessity which begets the evil
: Hitherto we have felt the need of more ex.
\ tensive and vigorous taxation. Severe CON-
= ment has been made upon what seemed to
many an undue timidity and hardness of &C.
j ton OH the part Of Congress in this regard
: deem it but just to say that very great mis-.
: apprehension has existed, and perhaps still
exists upon this point. Legislators, like all
others, have much to learn in a new condi-
: ton of affairs. An entirely new system was
to be devised, and that system must necessa.
rily be the growth of time and experience
: 1t is not strange that the first efforts should
have proved imperfect and inadequate. To
; lay heavy burdens on great and patriotic
! people in such manner as to be equal, and
so as to occasion the least amount of suffer-
ing or annoyance, requires time, and caution
, and vast labor, and with all these experience
is needed to test the value of the system and
} correct its errors Such has been the task
that Congress was called upon to perform.
am happy to say that daily results are prov
! ing the Internal Revenue act to exceed in
efficiency the most sanguine expectations of
its authors. For the month of June, 1868, it
Welded about four and half millions of dol