Title: What is the National Debt Year By Year From 1790 to 2019? - TheStreet
Headings: What is the National Debt Year By Year From 1790 to 2019?
What is the National Debt Year By Year From 1790 to 2019?
The First Decades: 1790-1849
The Late 19th Century: 1850-1899
The Early 20th Century: 1900-1950
The Late 20th Century: 1950-1999
The Present Day

Content: In part because of the funds that Jackson pulled out of the bank, in January 1835, America owed essentially no interest-bearing debt for the only time in history. By the end of that year, the national debt had fallen to only about $33,700, or a little less than $1 million in 2019 dollars. The Late 19th Century: 1850-1899
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But then the Civil War happened. Leading up to the Civil War, America fought a war with Mexico to annex Texas and California. That added more than $63 million to the national debt (a little more than $2 billion in 2019 money). But the bigger picture is, America has never really stopped paying for the Civil War. Whether or not you approve of government debt, those five years were the first time that the national debt truly spiked. Between 1860 and 1866 the debt rose from $64.8 million to more than $2.7 billion, approximately $42 billion by today's standards. To keep the nation whole, President Abraham Lincoln pushed debt to nearly 30% of gross domestic product and introduced the first income tax in American history.