From the National Archives: The public debt functions of the Treasury Department go back to 1776, when loan offices were established in each of the 13 states by the Continental Congress. These offices were set up to receive subscriptions to the domestic loans for financing the Revolution. After the federal government was established in 1789, the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, continued the loan office system as part of his plan for funding the Revolutionary War debt. In 1817 the duties and records of the State Commissioners of Loans were transferred to the Second Bank of the United States, which had been chartered in the previous year, and the loan offices ceased to exist.

first posted: 0/0/14