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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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Salmon P. Chase
(1861 - 1864)
Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) resigned from the Senate
in 1861 to become President Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury as the Civil
War began. The war created the need to raise money, and with customs revenue
from the Southern cotton trade cut off, Chase had to
implement internal taxes. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, later the Internal
Revenue Service, was created in 1862 to collect stamp taxes and internal
duties.
The next year it administered the nation's first
income tax. In order to further finance the war, the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing was established in 1862 to print the government's first currency,
known as greenback because of their color. These were legal tender notes
not backed by specie. Chase disapproved in principle of the legal tender
notes; with no requirement for specie backing they could be printed in
unlimited quantities and were therefore inflationary. He recognized their
necessity in a time of emergency, but later, as Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, he would declare the notes unconstitutional. The National Banking
System was created in 1863 to establish a uniform currency. The greenbacks,
within a new network of national banks, directly involved the government
in banking for the first time. Chase resigned in 1864, having put the
nation's finances in a more favorable condition. Lincoln appointed him
Chief Justice later that year, and he presided over the Court during the
difficult period of Reconstruction.
About the Artist
Henry Ulke was born and trained in Germany and worked as an illustrator and designer it New York before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1860. Switching from illustration to fine art, he established himself as one of the nation's leading portrait painters. He painted many eminent social and political figures during more than half a century in Washington and is represented in collections at the White House, the Defense Department, and the U.S Capitol among others. He was living at Petersen House, across from Ford's Theater, when Lincoln was brought there after being shot. Ulke's posthumous portrait of Salmon P. Chase, painted in 1880, was probably based on a photograph.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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