Year: 1864

by an act oil Congress, approved
June 30, 1864, the Secretary of tn
Treasury is authorized to issue NJ
amount not exceeding two hundred


millions Of dollars in Treasury notes
bearing interest ut rate not exceed
ing seven and three-tenths per cent


um, redeemable after three year,


from date and 10 exchange the same


for lawful money The Secretary i.


further authorized to convert tho


same into bonds, bearing interest al


a rate not exceeding six per centum


payable in coin. In pursuance oi


the authority thus conferred, / now


olier to the people of the United


States Treasury notes as described


in my advertisement dated July %,


1864.


The circumstances under which
this loan is asked for, and your aid
invoked, though differing widely
from the existing state Of affairs
three years ago, are such as to afford
equal encouragement and security.
Time, while proving that the strug-
gle for national unity was to exceed
in duration and severity our worst
anticipations, has tested the national
strength, and developed the national
resources TO an extent alike upeX-
Ipected and remarkable, exciting
equal astonishment at home and
abroad. Three years Of war have
burdened You with a debt which, but
three years since, would have seem
ed beyond your ability to meet. Yet
the accumulated wealth and pro
ductiye 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 nation
al existence, and the preservation of
free institutions, it does not deserve
moments consideration.


Thus far the war has been sup
ported and carried on, as it only
could have been, by people re-
solved, at whatever cost OF blood
and treasure, to transmit, unimpair-
eel to posteriiy, the system of free
government hequeathcd TO them by
the great men who framed it. This
deliberate and patriotic resolve has
developed power surprising even
TO themselves. 1t has shown that in
less than n century n nation has
arisen, unsurpassed in vigor, and
cXhaustless in resources, able to con
duet, through series of years, war
on its most gigantic scale, and find
inc Itself, when near its close, al /
most unimpaircd in all the material
elements Of power It has, at the
present moment, great armies iii the
field, facing an enemy apparently ap.
preaching a period of utter cXhaus-
ton, but still struggling with force
the greater and more desperate as it
sees, and because it sees, the near
approach of final and fatal consum-
nation. Such. in my deliberate
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 strug-
gle. 1t is yoa. war. You proclaim I
ed it, and you have sustained it
against traitors everywhere, with a I
patriotic devotion unsurpassed in the
NoIiu HiSlOTA-


The securities offered are such as
should command your ready conf
dence. 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 self-rclant, our own
means have thus far proved adequate
to our wants. They are yet ample
to meet those Of the present ard the
future 1t still remains for q patri-
otic 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 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
as to the state cf the money market,
or ask whether he can SO invest ms
surplus capital as ID yield him a
larger return. No return, and no
profit, can be desirable, if followed
by national dissolution, or national
disgrace. Present profit, thus ac-