[220] President Van Buren had previously established a similar system, but it had been abolished during the Tyler administration.[221] Polk made clear his opposition to a national bank in his inaugural address, and in his first annual message to Congress in December 1845, he called for the government to keep its funds itself. Congress was slow to act; the House passed a bill in April 1846 and the Senate in August, both without a single Whig vote.[222] Polk signed the Independent Treasury Act into law on August 6, 1846.[223] The act provided that the public revenues were to be retained in the Treasury building and in sub-treasuries in various cities, separate from private or state banks.[223] The system would remain in place until the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.[224]
Polk's other major domestic initiative was the lowering of the tariff.[220] Polk directed Secretary of the Treasury Robert Walker to draft a new and lower tariff, which Polk submitted to Congress.[225] After intense lobbying by both sides, the bill passed the House and, in a close vote that required Vice President Dallas to break a tie, the Senate in July 1846.