PeaRidge: “The finances of the Federal Government had been in a very disordered condition due to business downturns beginning with the massive recession in 1857.”
At home I have numbers of actual Federal revenues in every year, including this time period.
From memory now I’ll say they were in the neighborhood of $80 million per year, and rose a couple of million each year.
National debt at the time was near to zero, iirc.
So, when you are discussing a problem of $20 million, that is a squeeze on about three month’s of revenue.
Compared to today’s massive Federal debt, those are mere pittances.
So nobody denies that in early 1861, federal coffers were slim and money tight.
After all, declarations of secession and seizures of major Federal properties, along with threats and firings on Union ships — and the total lack of effective response from Doughfaced Democrat President Buchanan — had the country roiling.
I merely point out that all these economic matters were quickly addressed by Congress in July 1861, Federal finances were put on a much sounder basis, and funds found to pay for a TWENTY FOLD increase in wartime defense spending.
So I don’t think we should exaggerate the financial problems of early 1861.
They were merely a part of the larger failure of Buchanan’s administration to deal with the overall situation.
You said:
“At home I have numbers of actual Federal revenues in every year, including this time period.
From memory now I’ll say they were in the neighborhood of $80 million per year, and rose a couple of million each year.”
Wrong. Tariff revenue for 1860 was 52.7 million.
Tariff revenue for 1861 was 39 million.
You said: “National debt at the time was near to zero iirc.
You do not recall correctly. Federal debt in 1860 was 64.8 million.