About $44 million in greenback currency was successfully withdrawn from circulation before a recession in 1867 helped fuel opposition in Congress to the deflationary redemption program. In February 1868 Congress terminated the Redemption Act and a state of what is today known as gridlock emerged, during which Congress refused to either formally leave the gold standard or to redeem its non-gold currency in circulation. Secretary of the Treasury of the Grant administration George S. Boutwell formally abandoned the contraction policy and embraced the ongoing state of political inertia.