U.S. Census Office, Fiscal Chart of the United States' Public Debts, Revenue, and Expenditures (1874)

This economic visualization from the “Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census 1870,” published in 1874 under the direction of Francis A. Walker, shows the revenue, expenditures, and public debt for the United States between 1789 and 1870. The revenue graph is shown on the left, the public debt graph is in the middle, and the expenditure graph is shown on the right. For the revenue bar graph, the left vertical axis identifies the years chronologically, and the right vertical axis identifies the amount of revenue the United States generated during that year in millions. For the expenditure bar graph, the left vertical axis records the amount of money the United States spent during that year in millions, and the right vertical axis records the years. For the public debt graph, the years are labeled on the left vertical axis, and the amount of debt in millions is labeled on the right vertical axis. The public debt graph shows a very significant increase in the amount of debt starting in 1861, growing exponentially thereafter due to the Civil War, fought between 1861 and 1865. Before the Civil War, in 1860, the public debt totaled $64.8 million; when the Civil War ended in 1865, the debt increased to $2.68 billion dollars. Both the source of revenue and expenditures for the United States changed as well. Whereas before the war, the United States relied heavily on customs and tariffs on imported goods for revenue, during and after the Civil War they relied heavily on internal revenue. One way the government increased internal revenue was by imposing the first ever income tax in 1862. This was a 3% tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and a 5% tax on incomes greater than $10,000. While this did increase revenue during the war, it was not enough to offset the increase in expenditures occurring at the same time. The expenditure graph illustrates an increase in the amount of money spent by the United States between 1861 and 1865, as well as a change in the source of their spending (the Army). Throughout the Civil War, it is estimated that the United States spent a total of $5.2 billion in direct expenditures.