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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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John G. Carlisle
(1893 - 1897)
John G. Carlisle (1835-1910) resigned from the Senate
in 1893 to become President Cleveland's Secretary of the Treasury. As Secretary
he was faced with declining Treasury gold reserves, a trend begun during
the administration of his predecessor, Secretary Charles Foster. Shortly after he
took office in 1893, there occurred a severe nationwide panic. Carlisle
attributed the financial ills of the country to the over issue of government
notes based on silver, and demanded their withdrawal and a return to a gold
standard.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed in 1893,
and the Secretary of the Treasury was relieved from his obligation to
buy silver. Carlisle then began to retire the Sherman silver notes. (Final
provision for their retirement was made in the Gold Standard Act of 1900,
which returned the country to a currency based on gold.) The Panic of
1893 also set the stage for the introduction of an income tax that same
year, to provide the government with steady revenue. The tax was declared
unconstitutional and repealed in 1895, and the revenue problem continued.
(The tax was finally made constitutional by the ratification of the Sixteenth
Amendment and reintroduced permanently in 1913.) Carlisle resigned at
the end of Cleveland's term in 1897.
About the Artist
Henry Ulke, a German born artist who worked in Berlin
and New York before settling in Washington, D.C., was not only a leading
portrait painter but a celebrated naturalist as well. He worked for the
government during the 1870's, publishing entomological finds through the
Smithsonian Institution. He also had the largest known personal collection
of American beetles, which he eventually gave to the Carnegie Institute
in Pittsburgh. His portrait of John G. Carlisle, executed in 1893, was
painted from life during Carlisle's tenure as Secretary.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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