Title: History of Debt in the United States
Headings: Timeline of U.S. Federal Debt Since Independence Day 1776
Timeline of U.S. Federal Debt Since Independence Day 1776
U.S. Debt by Presidential Term
Revolutionary War Kicks Off U.S. Debt
President Andrew Jackson Cuts Debt to Zero
Recovery from the Civil War
Great Depression and Stock Market Crash
World War II Debt
Debt Grows into the Trillions During 1980s and 1990s
U.S. Federal Debt, 1990-Now
The Great Recession
Today’s National Debt
Can America Keep Piling Up Debt?
Bill Fay

Content: Congress could not finance the Revolutionary war with large tax raises, as the memory of unjust taxation from the British stood fresh in the minds of the American public. Instead, the Continental Congress (made up of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies) borrowed money from other nations. The founders led negotiations with Benjamin Franklin securing loans of over $2 million from the French Government and President John Adams securing a loan from Dutch bankers. We also borrowed from domestic creditors. While the war was still going on, in 1781, Congress established the U.S. Department of Finance. Two years later, as the war ended in 1783, the Department of Finance reported U.S. debt to the American Public for the first time. Congress took initiative to raise taxes then, as the total debt reached $43 million. President Andrew Jackson Cuts Debt to Zero
The War of 1812 more than doubled the nation’s debt. It increased from $45.2 million to $119.2 million by September 1815. The Treasury Department issued bonds to pay a portion of the debt, but it was not until Andrew Jackson became president and determined to master the debt that this “national curse,” as he deemed it, was addressed.