The Register of the Treasury was an officer of the United States Treasury Department. The Register's duties included filing the accounting records of the government, transferring and cancelling federal debt securities, and filing the certificates of U.S.-registered ships.
The signature of the Register of the Treasury was found on almost all United States currency until 1923, along with that of the Treasurer of the United States. Four of the five African Americans whose signatures have appeared on U.S. currency were Registers of the Treasury (Blanche K. Bruce, Judson W. Lyons, William T. Vernon and James C. Napier).
After Woodrow Wilson appointed an African American, Adam E. Patterson, for the position in 1913, Southern senators (including Hoke Smith, James K. Vardaman, and Ben Tillman) expressed their opposition to Patterson on the grounds of his race, also saying that they opposed any African American for an office that would put them above Caucasian women. Patterson quickly withdrew his name, and Wilson appointed Gabe E. Parker, the first non-African American man to hold the position in fifteen years, to the Register of the Treasury, leaving African Americans dismayed.
In 1919, the office of the Register became the Public Debt Service which, in 1940, became the Bureau of the Public Debt, and, in 2012, became the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
Registers of the Treasury The Treasury had eighteen Registers between 1861 and 1933. Name Dates servedLucius E. Chittenden April 17, 1861 – August 10, 1864S. B. Colby August 11, 1864 – September 21, 1867Noah L. Jeffries October 5, 1867 – March 15, 1869John Allison April 3, 1869 – March 23, 1878Glenni William Scofield April 1, 1878 – May 20, 1881Blanche Kelso Bruce May 21, 1881 – June 5, 1885William Starke Rosecrans June 8, 1885 – June 19, 1893James Fount Tillman July 1, 1893 – December 2, 1897Blanche Kelso Bruce December 3, 1897 – March 17, 1898Judson Whitlocke Lyons April 7, 1898 – April 1, 1906William Tecumseh Vernon June 11, 1906 – March 14, 1911James Carroll Napier March 15, 1911 – September 30, 1913Gabe E. Parker October 1, 1913 – December 31, 1914Houston Benge Teehee March 24, 1915 – November 20, 1919William S. Elliott November 21, 1919 – January 24, 1922Harley V. Speelman January 25, 1922 – September 30, 1927Walter Orr Woods October 1, 1927 – January 17, 1929Edward E. Jones January 22, 1929 – May 31, 1933
See also Robert Tyler, Register of the Treasury for the C.S.A. and son of the 10th president, John Tyler.
References
External links
U.S. Treasury - Duties and Functions of the Bureau of the Public Debt (cached)