The Civil War revolutionized the financial methods of the United
States. A new monetary system was created, and tax resources
before undreamed of were resorted to, at first timorously, in
the end with a rigor that hardly knew bounds. The tariff, which
had long been the sole source of federal income, was
supplemented by a series of extraordinary internal taxes, and
was itself called on to yield more revenue and still more. When
the Civil War closed, the revenue acts that had been hastily
passed during its course constituted a chaotic mass. Congress
and the secretary of the treasury immediately set to work to
bring some order into this chaos, by funding and consolidating
the debt, by contracting the paper currency, and by reforming
and reducing the internal taxes. The years between 1865 and 1870
are full of discussions and enactments on taxation and finance.
On some parts of the financial system, in regard to which there
was little disagreement, action was prompt and salutary. The
complicated mass of internal t