North Carolina Form Promissory Note: Fill & Download for Free

The Civil War was a big event in my family on my mother’s side. Her ancestors came to the US from Great Britain in the early 1800s & became manufacturers & whaling captains. They eventually settled in Newark, NJ.My great-great-grandfather was a young man when the Civil War started. According to family lore, he & his family were strong Abolitionists & viewed slavery as a scourge to be removed from their country. Great great grandpa enlisted right away & found himself shipped off to the South not long afterward.I’m not sure of which battle it was, but great-great grandpa was captured by the Confederates. He was held in a local POW camp somewhere in the Carolinas. Eventually, there was POW exchange between the North & South & he was able to make his way home. Before he was released, he had to sign a “promissory note” stating that he would never take up arms again against the Confederacy on “pain of death”. In other words, if he was captured again while fighting for the North, he would be executed.He eventually made his way back to NJ & ended up going into NYC & re-enlisting under an assumed name. Once again, he fought in the south, except this time he lasted until Lee surrendered. He returned to NJ & his wife & promptly started a family.When he passed away, my great great grandmother was entitled to a veteran’s pension for his service. She had to apply for two pensions since he served under two names. Family lore still tells of her trials & tribulations of proving that my great-great-grandfather was really the person he was even though he had enlisted under an assumed name. Great-great grandma must have been hell on wheels because she eventually did receive the two pensions due to her!This affected my family in two ways: my mother developed an overwhelming passion for the Civil War (she was a high school librarian, too!). She knew more facts about battles, generals, living conditions, etc than most scholars. She dragged my father and me to every single Civil War battlefield. Yep - I’ve been to every one. Plus to the homes & plantations of all of the generals (both northern & southern) & key players in the war. Later, after my father died, I went to Civil War Round Table meetings once a month with her. She was one of the few women present. She read every book on Lincoln & Jefferson Davis as well as their spouses & families. She knew about battlefield strategies, troop movements as well as body counts. Both she & my father donated to Civil War preservation societies. I’ll also mention that she was a big fan of Gone With the Wind…The second way it affected my family is that there was a picture of my great great grandfather in his Civil War uniform (although I don’t know if it’s from his first enlistment or his second). My mother had the photo blown up to portrait-size & had it framed. It held a place of honor in the family room & she loved to point it out to visitors. In it, he’s holding a rifle & sporting a sword off his belt. She had copies made for her brothers & sisters (who very nicely accepted them & promptly put them in the basement or attic) I know his sword was still in my grandmother’s possession when my mother was a child, but I’m not sure where it is now or who has it.Lucky me now has the portrait (okay, honestly, it’s in the attic..) as well as the family Bible that details his adventures.

Original Question: What would happen if the U.S. actually paid off the national debt?Good question!If you look at the History of the United States public debt, you'll notice that there was actually a brief period of about a year (1835–1836) that the Federal government of the United States actually succeeded in fully paying off the entire national debt.And do you know what happened as a result?Absolutely nothing.In January of 1835, the federal government actually succeeded in paying off the entirety of the national debt--in full--only to begin accruing it again, shortly thereafter. (On January 1st, 1836, the national debt was approximately $37,000). From there on, the debt fluctuated somewhat for several years, but remained (relatively) low for quite some time.That all changed around 1863, for reasons which should be obvious, and ever since then America has experienced periodic upticks in our national debt reflecting certain "substantial outlays and expenses," most of which were largely unavoidable, if not entirely justifiable.It's also worth noting that shortly after 1947, America was actually beginning to pay down the massive massive MASSIVE debt we had accrued in the 1930s and 40s, only for us to begin "putting it on the card" again shortly after 1982--once again, for reasons which should be obvious.From 1992 to 2000, we actually began paying down the debt again, only for the debt to begin increasing sharply after 2001--and well, the rest (as they say) is history.If the United States were to pay off the debt in my lifetime, I see no reason why we should not experience the same effects as we did in 1835--namely none. Far more important is the question of how we managed this herculean feat, although for starters I'd probably settle for an answer to the question of "why the #*@& did we even bother?"In short: it doesn't matter when, or even if, we ever pay off our national debt in full. All that matters is that we make sure that the debt can continue to be Serviced responsibly--regardless of whether the exact dollar amount comes out to $1.00 or $1,000,000,000,000,000.00.[EDIT 09/19/2019: For some reason, this answer seems to be getting more popular now, despite being three years old. But since there seems to be some renewed interest, I figured I’d add some additional context below.]For anyone who is curious about that brief period between 1835 and 1836, when the debt was paid in full, here’s the short version:Among his other endearing traits, President Andrew Jackson was a moron when it came to money.For anyone interested in getting a more complete picture, here’s the longer version:Before he was a U.S. President (and before that, a U.S. Senator, and before that, a General, and before that a planter) Jackson tried to make his fortune as a land speculator in Tennessee, dealing in claims for land reserved by treaty for the Cherokee and Chickasaw. (Yes, those Cherokee and Chickasaw[1][1][1][1]). Most of the transactions Jackson and his partners were engaged in involved grants of land made under a law passed in 1783 that briefly opened “Indian lands” west of the Appalachians within North Carolina to claims by that state's residents for settlement. The idea behind the “land grab” law was to “civilize” the American frontier and expand the nation’s taxbase by promoting settlement and agriculture through offers of cheap land to poor farmers in need of new soil. But for a man as smart as Jackson thought he was, it was basically a license to print money:Step 1: Buy large quantities of cheap “unoccupied” lands in the west with cash (almost all of it borrowed from banks).Step 2: Resell that land to other speculators at a huge markupStep 3: ???Step 4: Profit!But Jackson quickly learned that saying is a lot easier than doing. Although he and his partners had numerous successes (he was one of three investors in what would eventually become Memphis, TN), Jackson eventually came to hate the banks (and the concept of debt in general) when a lucrative land deal went sideways, saddling him with a massive debt and worthless promissory notes, and no easy way to offload them to the next sucker—I mean, investor.[2][2][2][2]Fast forward a few years—a couple duels, a stint in the US Senate and Tennessee Supreme Court, a brief flirtation with a treasonous plot by Aaron Burr to wage war against both Spain and America to forge a new empire for himself in Louisiana, as well as the War of 1812—and wouldn’t you know it, Andrew Jackson is now President of the United States!Among other things, Jackson campaigned on a promise to not only tackle those greedy, unscrupulous banks—which, for the record, I can actually respect—but also tackle the nation’s “out-of-control national debt” of nearly $58 million (about $1.6 billion in today’s dollars). And, of course, the voting public ate it up like candy. But unlike most modern “anti-debt” conservatives, Jackson actually had a plan to do it, and armed with the courage of his convictions, his unshakable belief in his own abilities, and at least two bullets lodged firmly in his body, he fully intended to follow through. First, he took advantage of a huge real estate bubble that was raging in the west, by doing everything he could to make it infinitely worse. At the time, land speculators (much like Jackson in his youth) were buying up huge tracts of land in the former Louisiana territories on credit—only to sell them back to one another at a huge profit, which they would use to buy even more land on credit, which they would then sell back to one another at an even huger profit.Rinse, lather, repeat. What could possibly go wrong?Now at the time, the federal government owned a lot of that western land—which Jackson started selling off. This, of course, fueled even more land speculation, as over-leveraged land speculators fell over themselves trying to snap up the (relatively) cheap formerly-federal lands, greedily gobbling them up and then selling them off in a desperate attempt to make as much money as possible to pay off their creditors because that’s the responsible thing to do (lol, jk, they used the money as collateral to borrow even more money to fund further “investments”). And when existing federal lands started to run low, Jackson simply went out and made some more…in truly Jacksonian fashion.[3][3][3][3]But in addition to selling off huge tracts of land in the West (genocide not included), Jackson also took a scalpel to the federal budget—sold it—then bought a hatchet and used that to hack into the federal budget. Remember the federal highway system constructed in 1834? Of course you don’t because Jackson killed the project[4][4][4][4]—along with virtually every other infrastructure spending bill that crossed his desk. But in addition to selling off government assets and refusing any and all investment in durable infrastructure, he also worked to hamstring and cripple American financial and monetary policy. Remember the Second Bank of the United States? Well, thanks to Jackson’s Bank War (and, to be fair, a healthy dose of corruption and mismanagement which was par for the course in Jacksonian America) it eventually went the way of the First. Then there was the Tariff of Abominations, which technically did increase revenues but also led to the Nullification Crisis, prompting Jackson to reverse course and—you know what? Long story short: he cut spending by a lot, and he raised revenues by a lot—and he generally pissed people off. (A lot.)But lo! and behold, on January 1, 1835 the entire federal debt was paid off in full, and all was well in America.…For about a year, until the entire house of cards that Jackson had created to achieve this monumentally pointless and ultimately stupid feat started to collapse on itself.Now, to be fair, the Panic of 1837 was not directly related to Jackson’s paying of the national debt. But the Panic was greatly exacerbated by the methods he chose to do so. Remember all that land in the West that Jackson was selling? Well, by 1836, even President Jackson had begun to realize the rampant speculation was getting out of control. From 1834 to 1836, the sale of federal lands increased by 500%. But most lands sales were being enacted with relatively “soft currency”—paper money that was prone to depreciation, thanks to the absence of a central bank and negligible monetary policy. Some contracts were even being negotiated almost purely on credit—whether by letters of credit from state banks or promissory notes from private institutions, or even more specious credit derivatives thereof. And if any of that is starting to sound familiar…it should.[5][5][5][5]Now, there were a couple of ways that the Jackson administration could have resolved or even prevented this issue from occurring. But, Jackson being Jackson, the President decided to choose the simplest (and absolute stupidest) means of responding of them all: the Specie Circular.Because Jackson had very dutifully (and mercilessly) killed the nation’s central bank, using monetary policy to restrain out of control borrowing and irresponsible lending was out of the question. So, in typical Jacksonian fashion, he decided to cure the nation’s headache with a bullet to the chest. He signed an executive order mandating that all purchases of federal lands had to be conducted in specie—gold or silver coins of a nominal value whose real value was in their content of precious metals[6][6][6][6]—and that the federal government would refuse to take anything but gold and silver specie for sales of public lands of over 320 acres. Now technically, federal law already demanded that land purchases be completed with either hard currency or paper bank notes from specie-backed banks. But a large portion of buyers used paper money from state banks that were not backed by hard money—banks which (not coincidentally) also experienced an explosion of capital and financial activity as a direct result of Jackson’s destruction of the central bank. These non-specie buyers would use non-specie state bank notes either to fund their purchases of hard currency from specie banks to enact their transactions with the government, or to hire agents to enact the transactions on their behalf.But when Jackson signed his executive order, many speculators (and more importantly, their creditors) realized that the large reserves of state banknotes that many land buyers were sitting on could no longer be relied upon to fund more land purchases. This fiasco was made even worse by Jackson’s Deposit and Distribution Act of 1836—which placed federal revenues in various local banks (derisively termed "Pet banks") across the country, thus diverting specie away from the nation's main commercial centers on the East Coast. With lower reserves of hard currency and bullion in their vaults, major banks and financial institutions on the East Coast had to scale back their loans. This made banks with specie reserves less willing to trade their hard currency and bullion reserves for potentially worthless banknotes from state banks who lacked such reserves. And once specie banks began to restrain their lending—including raising interest rates in response to the Bank of England’s decision to replenish their monetary reserves—it became much harder for speculators to procure the bullion necessary to buy the lands they needed to support their investments. Without cheap federal lands to buy and sell at a profit, speculators lost their ability to pay off their creditors, who in turn became less willing to lend money to other buyers, who could no longer afford to buy and sell land to pay off their creditors…and so on.As a result, the restrictions on credit caused by the Jackson administration’s policies resulted in numerous bankruptcies and the failure of smaller banks, which in turn hurt their depositors (remember, no FDIC), but more importantly drove many areas such as the South deep into recession.Footnotes[1] Trail of Tears - Wikipedia[1] Trail of Tears - Wikipedia[1] Trail of Tears - Wikipedia[1] Trail of Tears - Wikipedia[2] When U.S. Paid Off National Debt (Why It Didn't Last)[2] When U.S. Paid Off National Debt (Why It Didn't Last)[2] When U.S. Paid Off National Debt (Why It Didn't Last)[2] When U.S. Paid Off National Debt (Why It Didn't Last)[3] Indian Removal Act - Wikipedia[3] Indian Removal Act - Wikipedia[3] Indian Removal Act - Wikipedia[3] Indian Removal Act - Wikipedia[4] Maysville Road veto - Wikipedia[4] Maysville Road veto - Wikipedia[4] Maysville Road veto - Wikipedia[4] Maysville Road veto - Wikipedia[5] Financial crisis of 2007–2008 - Wikipedia[5] Financial crisis of 2007–2008 - Wikipedia[5] Financial crisis of 2007–2008 - Wikipedia[5] Financial crisis of 2007–2008 - Wikipedia[6] Bullion coin - Wikipedia[6] Bullion coin - Wikipedia[6] Bullion coin - Wikipedia[6] Bullion coin - Wikipedia

Federal student loans are not subject to a statute of limitations, but private student loans are. A statute of limitations sets a clock that limits when a credit can sue a borrower to collect a debt. Debts for which the statute of limitations has expired are often referred to as time-barred.Be careful when talking with a collection agency, as there are many ways to reset the clock on time-barred debt. For example, if you make a payment on the debt, no matter how small a payment, the clock gets reset to zero.You have the right, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), to tell a collection agency to stop contacting you.The statute of limitations on federal student loans was eliminated by the Higher Education Technical Amendments of 1991 (P.L. 102-26). Prior to this law, federal student loans had a 6-year statute of limitations. This statutory change eliminated statutes of limitation on all federal education loans, even loans made prior to 1991. This is why you should never, ever throw away any documentation relating to federal student loans. If you believe your loans were paid off in full, but you did not preserve the paid-in-full statement, you may have a difficult time proving that the loans were paid off if the loan magically resurrects itself.Statutes of limitation vary by state. It can be confusing which state’s laws apply. Possibilities include the borrower’s state of residence, the lender’s state of incorporation or a state specified in the promissory note.Statutes of limitation that apply to private student loans range from 3 years to 15 years. Other types of debt may have different statutes of limitation.3 YearsAlaskaArkansasDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaKansasMississippiNew HampshireSouth Carolina4 YearsCaliforniaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoPennsylvaniaTexas5 YearsArizonaFloridaIdahoIowaMissouriNorth CarolinaOklahomaVirginia6 YearsAlabamaColoradoConnecticutGeorgiaHawaiiMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaNew JerseyNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioOregonSouth DakotaTennesseeUtahVermontWashington8 YearsMontana10 YearsIllinoisIndianaLouisianaRhode IslandWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming15 YearsKentucky