During the war of the rebellion in the United States (1861-5) the government issued a volume of legal-tender “greenbacks” which, on July 1st, 1865, was outstanding to the amount of $432,687,966. The first $60,000,000 of this paper money, issued under authority of the acts of July 17th and August 5th, 1861, and February 12th, 1862, called “demand notes,” was made a full legal tender for all debts public and private. This issue never fell below and often was above par as compared with gold. In a speech delivered in the United States Senate, July 4th, 1862, Hon. John Sherman said of these “demand notes”: “The notes are now held and hoarded. The first issue of $60,000,000 were issued with the right of being converted into six per cent. twenty-year bonds and with the privilege of being paid for duties in customs. They are now far above par and hoarded.” In Schuckers’ Life of Salmon P. Chase, p. 225, the author says: “The demand notes, being receivable for customs the same as coin, kept pace with the advance in the price of coin.” All of the greenbacks except the first $60,000,000 were purposely depreciated by the “exception clause;” that is, they were made a legal tender for all debts, public and private, _except duties on imports and interest on the public debt_, which latter were required to be paid in coin. This exception clause created a special demand for coin, and as a consequence metallic money rose to a great premium, at one time (July, 1864) being at a premium of $2.85 in greenbacks to $1 in coin. That these greenbacks were purposely depreciated stands upon the evidence of Hon. John Sherman, who, in a report as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, made on the 12th of November, 1867, said: “But it was found that with such a restriction upon the notes the bonds could not be negotiated, and it became necessary to depreciate the notes in order to make a market for the bonds.” Speaking of the amendment by which the “exception clause” was passed, Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, said in a speech delivered in the House, February 20th, 1862: “It has all the bad qualities that its enemies charged in the original bill and none of its benefits. It now creates money and by its very terms declares it a depreciated currency. It makes two classes of money—one for the banks and brokers, and another for the people. It discriminates between the rights of different classes of creditors, allowing the rich capitalists to demand gold, and compelling the ordinary lender of money on individual security to receive notes which the government had purposely discredited.... But now comes the main clause. All classes of people shall take these notes at par for every article of trade or contract unless they have money enough to buy United States bonds, and then they shall be paid in gold. Who is that favored class? The bankers and brokers, and nobody else.”