[HouSR OF Rf.prf.sf.ntativf.s No, 3] / 
 
 HOUSE OF RE-PUESENTATIVES, December 21, 1863.— Re- 
 ferred to the Special t^Omjuittee on Finance, and ordered to be printed. 
 
 [By Mr. H. W. Bruce.] 
 
 RTTGGESTION^S 
 
 For financial relief. 
 
 1 Congress shall lew and cause to be collected an ad valorem 
 
 2 tax of $2.50,(10(1, (MM) for the year 1864. 
 
 1 Conjs;ref>9 shall impose a further tax of fifty per cent, on all 
 
 2 Confederate States treasury notes outstanding on the 1st day of 
 
 3 April next : P: ovided. That no treasury note of the denomination 
 
 4 of ten dollars, or of a less denomination, shall be so taxed : Pio- 
 ;j vided,fui\'he.. That no treasury note issued after the 1st day of 
 
 6 January next, shall lie subject to this tax, the issue of such notes 
 
 7 not to exceed §25,000,1 MM) per month, and wholly to cease on 
 
 8 the 1st day of April : And provided, a/so. That all treasury notes 
 1) now in circulation, or that may be put in circulation prior to the 
 
 10 ist day of January next, may be converted into bonds of tlic 
 
 1 1 (Confederate States, bearing six per cent, interest, at any timo 
 
 12 before the 1st day of April next, at the option of the holders 
 
 13 thereof. 
 
 1 A tax of $250,000,000, all other taxes being repealed, -would 
 
2 enable the government to prosecute the war for the year 1864, 
 
 3 increased, as that amount -would be, by the proceeds of a fifty 
 
 4 per cent, on outstanding treasury notes, any excess of the cost 
 
 5 of the war to be funded in such manner as Congress shall pro- 
 U vide. The people could pay such a tax, and would do it cheer- 
 7 fully, while a greater one would be oppressive, if not ruinous. 
 
 1 A tax of fifty per cent, on treasury notes outstanding on the 
 
 2 1st day of April, coupled with the privilege of funding such 
 
 3 notes prior to that day, would compel the funding of the bulk of 
 
 4 them, 
 
 1 Notes of the denomination of ten dollars, and of a less de- 
 
 2 nomination, should be exempted from a fifty per cent, tax, be- 
 
 3 cause the poorer classes of the population of the States, who are 
 
 4 unable to buy bonds, and equally unable to pay heavy taxes, 
 
 5 hold such notes, and none other. 
 
 1 Frauds in the collection of a fifty per cent, tax on outstanding 
 
 2 treasury notes, as proposed, could be prevented, and its prompt 
 
 3 collection ensured, by providing that each person holding such 
 
 4 notes shall, on the 1st day of April next, take all such notes in 
 
 5 his possession before the tax collector for his district, who shall 
 
 6 collect the tax, and put a stamp, which should be uniform through- 
 
 7 out the Confederate States, upon the notes upon which the tax 
 
 8 shall have been collected, and prohibiting the circulation of all 
 
 9 unstamped notes of denominations subject to the tax after that 
 10 date. 
 
 1 The'notes not included in the tax, the few of a larger denomi- 
 
 2 nation than ten dollars, left after the payment of the tax, and 
 
 3 those issued after January 1st, would constitute a circulation 
 
 4 sufficient for the wants of the country.