William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[184] of the same at the date of such report; and the same shall be pledged and held as part of the sinking fund hereby created, the same to be applied for the redemption of the debt. It also provides, that there shall be raised, by tax, twice in each year, commencing Jan. 1, 1863, a sum equal to one-tenth part of the difference found by the report of the Treasurer, as above provided, to exist between the amount of scrip, or certificates of debt, issued under said acts, and the actual market-value of the scrip or certificates, and to be held as a sinking fund to pay the same. Approved May 21, 1866.

Second. An act to enable banks to purchase Government securities provided that loans directly made by any bank to the Commonwealth or to the United States, and notes or scrip of the Commonwealth or United States, held by any bank, and directly purchased by such bank from the Commonwealth or United States, shall not be deemed debts due within the meaning of the twenty-fifth section of the fifty-seventh chapter of the General Statutes.

Third. An act to provide for the maintenance of the Union and the Constitution confirmed and ratified all that the Governor, Executive Council, or any other person, with his or their sanction, had done in furnishing and forwarding troops for the service of the Government. It vested the Governor, with the advice of the Council, with full power and authority, as he might deem best, to provide for additional troops, and also to appoint and commission all needful officers and agents, and to fix their rank and pay; also, to investigate, adjust, and settle all accounts and matters between the State and the General Government, which might arise under the provisions of this act; also, to pay, out of the fund created by this act, any of the troops of this Commonwealth which had been or might be mustered into the service of the United States, during the whole or a part of the time of such service, and to settle the same with the United States: also, created a fund, to be called the Union Fund, of three millions of dollars, to be raised by the issue of scrip. The scrip to bear interest of six per cent, to be redeemable in not less than ten, nor more than twenty, years from the first of July, 1861; and not more than five hundred thousand dollars shall be redeemable in any one year.