Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[671] eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight dollars, showing, therefore, a simple increase of twenty-six million ninety-eight thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The loans which had occasioned this increase, added to the regular revenue and some extra resources, had succeeded in balancing the budget of 1860-1861, which exhibited eighty-four million five hundred and seventy-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-four dollars of expenditures, and eighty-six million eight hundred and thirty-five thousand and nine hundred dollars of receipts of every description. But the expenditures of the succeeding months had already assumed fearful proportions. Mr. Lincoln, in his message of December 3d, informed Congress that these expenditures for the first quarter amounted to ninety-eight million two hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and thirty-three dollars. The provisions made for repaying the temporary loans, and the redemption of a portion of the treasury bonds, raised the amount of expenditures for the fiscal year to five hundred and forty-three million four hundred and six thousand four hundred and twenty-two dollars. Such an increase, by causing a stringency in the market, rendered the disposal of the bonds already issued more and more difficult, and compromised in advance the success of future loans. In fact, the public had only purchased to the amount of one hundred and ninety millions of the loans issued in virtue of the law of July 17th, which the banks had undertaken to dispose of. When, in the month of November, those houses which had already subscribed for one hundred and fifty millions of the interest-bearing notes were called upon to take up the last third, it was found that they had greatly depreciated; by receiving them at par, they would therefore have sustained a considerable loss. They accepted instead an equal amount of the bonds, bearing six per cent. interest, at the rate of 89.32, fixed by law, although this rate was higher than the market price. Their third payment was reduced by this act from fifty million to forty-five million seven hundred and ninety-five thousand four hundred and seventy-eight dollars. The sums realized by the application of the law of July 17 and August 5, 1861, resolved themselves as follows: