ent the
cancellation and destruction of mutilated United States notes, and
the replacing of the same with notes of the same character and
amount."

This bill was sent to the President, and, not having been returned
by him within ten days, it became a law without his approval, under
the constitution of the United States.

On the 17th of December, 1867, I reported from the committee on
finance a bill for refunding the national debt and for a conversion
of the notes of the United States. This bill was accompanied by
an elaborate report. This report was carefully prepared by me,
and met, I believe, the general approval of the committee on finance.
In that Congress there were but five Democratic Senators, and it
so happened that all the members of the committee on finance were
Republicans, but these represented widely different opinions on
financial subjects. I undertook, in this report, to deal in a
general way with these topics. Upon a careful reading of it now
I find but little that I do not approve. The general policy set
out in this report was subsequently embodied into laws, but the
measures relating to refunding the debt and the resumption of specie
payments were not adopted until several years after the date of
the report.

The ascertained debt on the first day of December, 1867, as stated
by the Secretary of the Treasury, was $2,639,382,572.68, divided
as follows:

Debt bearing coin interest.
5 per cent. bonds, 10-40's, and old fives $205,532,580.00
6 per cent. bonds of 1867 and 1868 . . . . 14,690,941.80
6 per cent. bonds, 1881 . . . . . . . . . 282,731,550.00
6 per cent. 5-20 bonds . . . . . . . . . . 1,324,412,550.00
Navy pension fund . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,000,000.00
----------------
$1,840,367,891.80
Debt bearing currency interest.
6 per cent. bonds . . . . . . . . . . . . $18,601,000.00
3-year compound interest notes . . . . . . 62,249,360.00
3-year 7-30 notes . . . . . . . . . . . . 285,587,100.00
3 per cent. certificates . . . . . . . . . 12,855,000.00
----------------
$379,292,460.00
Matured debt not presented for payment.
3 year 7-30 notes, due August 15, 1867 . . $2,855,400.00
Compound interest notes, matured June 10,
July 15, August 15, and October 15, 1867 7,065,750.00
Bonds, Texas