President Grant, upon his accession to the Presidency, chose George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Boutwell had already served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and now on him devolved the huge task of reducing the high impost and revenue tax created by the war debt, and borne as a mighty burden by the people. He had to lighten the load on the people’s shoulders, and yet keep the national tax high enough to meet the interest, and reduce the amount of the national debt—in fine, he was expected to relieve the Nation, and to pay the national debt at the same time. A more conflicting demand never rested on a Financial Minister. How ably he met it, the “monthly statement” of the perpetual ebb of the war debt, with the constant legislation to reduce all revenue taxation to the luxuries of life, were ample proof. Before the election of Mr. Boutwell, as United States Senator from Massachusetts, to succeed Vice-President Henry Wilson, the President appointed Judge Richardson, Acting Assistant Secretary, to be Secretary of the Treasury. Judge Richardson stepped from comparative obscurity, and an opposite sphere of labor, to his present high official position. There are many who challenge his claim to it, and his fitness for it. Time may prove one, and disprove the other. As Secretary of the Treasury, his official record is yet to be made—until his administration has been marked by an act of national importance, it is too early to pronounce a verdict. In the statistics of the Treasury Department, we read the marvellous financial history of our country. In them we trace the material progress of the Nation from its beginning. In the accounts current business of the country, we learn that in the years 1793, ’94, ’95, ’96, the Nation imported productions valued at one hundred and seventy-four millions of dollars. In the years 1866, ’67, ’68, ’69, the United States exported values to the amount of nineteen hundred millions. The value between these sums marks the growth of population, territory, and material resources in the space of seventy years—surely, a narrow span in the life of a nation! CHAPTER XXX. INSIDE THE TREASURY—THE HISTORY OF A DOLLAR.