Meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, [13 July 1792]
Meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund
[Philadelphia, July 13, 1792]
At a meeting of the trustees of the sinking fund, July 13, 1792.
Present: The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General.
The Secretary of the Treasury having informed the Board, that there were, at the disposal of the Board, pursuant to the 7th section of the act, entitled “An act supplementary to the act making provision for the debt of the United States”1 forty thousand four hundred and fifty-one dollars fifty-one cents and four mills, arising from dividends of interest on the public debt, hereto-fore purchased, under the authority of the Board:
Resolved, That the interest on so much of the debt of the United States as has been purchased, or redeemed for or by the United States, and as may have been paid into the Treasury thereof, in satisfaction of any debt or demand, and the surplus of any sum or sums appropriated for the payment of interest upon the said debt, which may have remained after paying such interest, be applied, within the time limited for that purpose, to the purchase of the several kinds of stock, at the lowest prices for which they can be obtained, if not exceeding the respective rates authorized by a resolution of the Board, of the ——— day of last ———.2
That Samuel Meredith, Treasurer, be the agent for making the said purchases.
That they be made by receiving sealed proposals for any sums which parties offering shall incline to sell, preferring the lowest offers, with regard, as far as may be, to the purchasing of equal proportions of the several kinds of stock; and that the said agent, forthwith, advertise to receive such proposals until the 28th day of July, instant, inclusively.3
, Finance, I, 237.
1. Section 7 of this act reads as follows: “And whereas it is expedient to establish a fund for the gradual reduction of the public debt: Be it further enacted, That the interest on so much of the debt of the United States, as has been or shall be purchased or redeemed for or by the United States, or as shall be paid into the treasury thereof in satisfaction of any debt or demand, and the surplus of any sum or sums appropriated for the payment of the interest upon the said debt, which shall remain after paying such interest, shall be, and hereby are appropriated and pledged firmly and inviolably for and to the purchase and redemption of the said debt, to be applied under the direction of the President of the Senate, the Chief Justice, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General for the time being, or any three of them, with the approbation of the President of the United States, for the time being, in manner following, that is to say: First, to the purchase of the several species of stock constituting the debt of the United States, at their respective market prices, not exceeding the par or true value thereof, and as nearly as may be, in equal proportions, until the annual amount of the said funds, together with any other provisions which may be made by law, shall be equal to two per centum of the whole amount of the outstanding funded stock bearing a present interest of six per centum. Thence-forth, secondly, to the redemption of the said last mentioned stock, according to the right for that purpose reserved to the United States, until the whole amount thereof shall have been redeemed. And lastly, after such redemption, to the purchase, at its market price, of any other stock consisting of the debt of the United States, which may then remain unredeemed: and such purchase, as far as the fund shall at any time extend, shall be made within thirty days next after each day, on which a quarterly payment of interest on the debt of the United States shall become due, and shall be made by a known agent, to be named by the said commissioners” ( 283 [May 8, 1792]).
2. Dashes in this sentence indicate places left blank in the original.
3. Section 8 of the act provided: “That all future purchases of public debt on account of the United States, shall be made at the lowest price, at which the same can be obtained by open purchase, or by receiving sealed proposals, to be opened in the presence of the commissioners, or persons authorized by them to make purchases, and the persons making such proposals” ( 283).