Title: Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln
Headings: 
VIII. Savings During the Presidency
Content: 5
Soon after the passage of the income tax law in 1862, newspapers asserted that President Lincoln was exempt from paying the tax, but that he was paying the tax by his own desire. 6 Attorney General Hoar, in an opinion rendered to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1869, held that the Constitution in the first section of the second article prohibited Page 127 the diminution of the salaries of justices of the Supreme Court and the President during their respective terms of office; and that this prohibi|tion extended to the deduction from such salaries of an income tax. 7 On April 25, 1872, Administrator Davis filed a claim with the Treasury for a refund of Lincoln's tax payments of $2,305.94 from his salary and $1,250 paid under the joint resolution of Congress of July 4, 1864. The Treasury allowed the claim, and a warrant for $3,555.94 was issued to Davis. The money was placed by him to the credit of Robert T. Lincoln in the First National Bank, Washington, D.C. Mrs. Lincoln and her son sent their joint receipt to the administrator on May 14, 1872. Income tax was refunded to all members of the United States Supreme Court. 8
Lincoln made his first purchase of government bonds on March 15, 1862. At that time he had on hand seven salary warrants for the months of July, 1861, through January, 1862. With the money received for them Lincoln purchased $14,200 of 7-30 Treasury Notes.