Legal Tender Act of 1862
E120573
The Legal Tender Act of 1862 was a U.S. Civil War–era law that authorized the issuance of paper money not backed by gold or silver and declared it legal tender for most debts, fundamentally reshaping the nation’s monetary system.
All labels observed (7)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Legal Tender Cases | 2 |
| Greenback Act | 1 |
| Legal Tender Act of 1862 canonical | 1 |
| Legal Tender Acts | 1 |
| Legal Tender Clause | 1 |
| Second Legal Tender Act | 1 |
| Third Legal Tender Act | 1 |
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States federal statute
ⓘ
monetary law ⓘ |
| appliedTo |
private debts
ⓘ
public debts ⓘ |
| authorized |
issuance of United States Notes
ⓘ
issuance of paper money not backed by gold or silver ⓘ |
| challengedInCase |
Hepburn v. Griswold
ⓘ
Knox v. Lee ⓘ Parker v. Davis ⓘ |
| codifiedIn | 12 Stat. 345 ⓘ |
| constitutionalControversy | raised questions about Congress’s power to make paper money legal tender ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dateEnacted | 1862-02-25 ⓘ |
| dateSigned | 1862-02-25 ⓘ |
| declaredAs | legal tender for most debts ⓘ |
| effect |
contribution to wartime inflation
ⓘ
expansion of the federal government’s monetary powers ⓘ fundamental reshaping of the United States monetary system ⓘ increase in the money supply ⓘ |
| enactedBy | United States Congress ⓘ |
| excludedFrom |
customs duties
ⓘ
interest payments on federal bonds ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
established federal paper currency as a central feature of the U.S. financial system
ⓘ
strengthened the Union’s capacity to wage total war ⓘ |
| influenced | later U.S. monetary policy on fiat currency ⓘ |
| inForceDuring | 1860s ⓘ |
| initialAuthorizedAmount | 150000000 United States dollars ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States government
ⓘ
surface form:
United States federal government
|
| legalTenderStatus |
United States Note
ⓘ
surface form:
United States Notes
|
| legislativeBody | United States Congress ⓘ |
| monetaryInnovation | introduction of fiat paper currency at the federal level ⓘ |
| nickname |
Legal Tender Act of 1862
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Greenback Act
|
| politicalOppositionFrom | Democratic Party ⓘ |
| politicalSupportFrom | Republican Party ⓘ |
| product | greenbacks ⓘ |
| purpose |
to finance the Union war effort during the American Civil War
ⓘ
to provide a national paper currency ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
United States taxation and revenue case law
ⓘ
surface form:
Legal Tender Cases
National Banking Act of 1863 ⓘ
surface form:
National Banking Acts
Legal Tender Act of 1862 self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Second Legal Tender Act
Legal Tender Act of 1862 self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Third Legal Tender Act
|
| sectionalOpposition | some border and Midwestern interests ⓘ |
| sectionalSupport | Northern states ⓘ |
| signedBy | Abraham Lincoln ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
currency issuance
ⓘ
legal tender ⓘ public finance ⓘ |
| subsequentIncrease | additional issues of United States Notes by later legislation ⓘ |
| temporalContext | American Civil War ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Legal Tender Act of 1862 Description of subject: The Legal Tender Act of 1862 was a U.S. Civil War–era law that authorized the issuance of paper money not backed by gold or silver and declared it legal tender for most debts, fundamentally reshaping the nation’s monetary system.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Legal Tender Acts
this entity surface form:
Greenback Act
this entity surface form:
Second Legal Tender Act
this entity surface form:
Third Legal Tender Act
this entity surface form:
Legal Tender Cases
this entity surface form:
Legal Tender Cases
this entity surface form:
Legal Tender Clause