The Treasury Secretary Who Put His Own Face on the First Dollar Bill
When the United States printed its very first paper dollar bills in 1862 to fund the Civil War, George Washington was nowhere to be found. Instead, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase put his own face on the front of the one-dollar note. Chase’s critics accused him of using federal currency to campaign for the presidency. Washington did not claim his iconic spot on the one-dollar bill until seven years later, in 1869.
The Union's Financial Crisis and the First Paper Dollar
In the early months of the American Civil War, the federal government faced an unprecedented financial emergency. Mobilizing armies, purchasing weapons, feeding regiments, and constructing naval vessels required vast amounts of capital that the United States Treasury simply did not have. Historically, the federal government had avoided issuing paper fiat money, relying instead on gold and silver coins alongside loans from commercial banks. However, as warfare escalated and uncertainty mounted, private banks and ordinary citizens began hoarding precious metals, rapidly draining gold and silver from active circulation.
Faced with a depleted treasury and ballooning war expenses, President Abraham Lincoln's administration had to abandon long-standing monetary orthodoxy. Under the leadership of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act of 1862. The legislation authorized the federal government to print paper money that was not directly backed by or instantly redeemable in physical gold or silver coin. Instead, these notes derived their legal value from federal decree, requiring creditors to accept them for public and private debts. Printed with distinctive green ink on the reverse, these United States Notes quickly became known across the nation as greenbacks.
Among the denominations created under this wartime measure was the country's very first one-dollar federal paper note. While contemporary Americans instinctively picture the stoic likeness of George Washington centered on the front of a one-dollar bill, the original 1862 issue looked entirely different. When citizens received the newly printed bills, the portrait looking back at them was that of the sitting Treasury Secretary who had overseen the currency's creation: Salmon Portland Chase.