[SUB- 7 d.] A subordinate or branch treasury; U.S. the organization by which the separate safe-keeping of the public funds is entrusted to specially appointed officers; any of the branches of the Treasury established in certain cities of the States for the receipt and safe-keeping of public monies.
1837. Calhoun, Wks., III. 81. This proposed reorganization has been called a sub-treasury.
1837–43. Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), II. viii. 118. With their interminable brawls about Banks and the Sub-Treasury, Abolition [etc.].
1858. Homans, Cycl. Comm., 1765/2. The failures of many of these [banking institutions] during the years 1837–1842 led to the establishment, on the 6th August, 1846, of the Independent Treasury, or Sub-treasury…. The sub-treasuries for the reception of the public funds are at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities.
1896. Daily News, 24 July, 8/5. A telegram from Washington says that the Treasury Department has been advised that over 23 million dollars in gold will be turned into the sub-treasuries by the banks.
1901. Alldridge, Sherbro, xxvii. 313. There was a sub-treasury at the port of Sulima; the sub-accountant forwarded down … revenue to the amount of £1,000.
attrib. 1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 766/2. He [Van Buren] … after a four years’ struggle,… succeeded in making the ‘sub-treasury scheme’ law (1840).
