A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 6

aggregate available fund of $6,058,000 on
hand.
But this fund was chargeable, with outstanding Treasury notes
redeemable in the current year and interest thereon, to the estimated
amount of $5,280,000. There is also thrown upon the Treasury the
payment of a large amount of demands accrued in whole or in part in

former years, which will exhaust the available means of the Treasury
and leave the accruing revenue, reduced as it is in amount, burthened
with debt and charged with the current expenses of the Government.
The aggregate amount of outstanding appropriations on the 4th day of
March last was $33,429,616.50, of which $24,210,000 will be required
during the current year; and there will also be required for the use of
the War Department additional appropriations to the amount of
$2,511,132.98, the special objects of which will be seen by reference to
the report of the Secretary of War. The anticipated means of the
Treasury are greatly inadequate to this demand. The receipts from
customs for the last three quarters of the last year and first quarter of
the present year amounted to $12,100,000; the receipts for lands for the
same time to $2,742,450, shewing an average revenue from both
sources of $1,236,870 per month.
A gradual expansion of trade, growing out of a restoration of
confidence, together with a reduction in the expenses of collecting and
punctuality on the part of collecting officers, may cause an addition to
the monthly receipts from the customs. They are estimated for the
residue of the year from the 4th of March at $12,000,000. The receipts
from the public lands for the same time are estimated at $2,500,000,
and from miscellaneous sources at $170,000, making an aggregate of
available fund within the year of $15,315,000, which will leave a
probable deficit of $11,406,132.98. To meet this some temporary
provision is necessary until the amount can be absorbed by the excess
of revenues which are anticipated to accrue at no distant day.
There will fall due within the next three months Treasury notes of the
issues of 1840, including interest, about $2,850,000. There is
chargeable in the same period for arrearages for taking the Sixth
Census $294,000, and the estimated expenditures for the current service
are about $8,100,000, making the aggregate demand upon the Treasury
prior to the 1st of September next about $11,340,000.
The ways and means in the Treasury and estimated to accrue within the
above-named period consist of about $694,000 of funds available on
the 28th ultimo, an unissued balance of Treasury notes authorized by

the act of 1841 amounting to $1,955,000, and estimated receipts from
all sources of $3,800,000, making an aggregate of about $6,450,000,
and leaving a probable deficit on the 1st of September next of
$4,845,000.
In order to supply the wants of the Government, an intelligent
constituency, in view of their best interests, will without hesitation
submit to all necessary burthens. But it is nevertheless important so to
impose them as to avoid defeating the just expectations of the country
growing out of preexisting laws. The act of the 2d of March, 1833,
commonly called the "compromise act," should not be altered except
under urgent necessities, which are not believed at this time to exist.
One year only remains to complete the series of reductions provided for
by that law, at which time provisions made by the same law, and which
then will be brought actively in aid of the manufacturing interests of the
Union, will not fail to produce the most beneficial results. Under a
system of discriminating duties imposed for purposes of revenue, in
unison with the provisions of existing laws, it is to be hoped that our
policy will in the future be fixed and permanent, so as to avoid those
constant fluctuations which defeat the very objects they have in view.
We shall thus best maintain a position which, while it will enable us the
more readily to meet the advances of other countries calculated to
promote our trade and commerce, will at the same time leave in our
own hands the means of retaliating with greater effect unjust
regulations.
In intimate connection with the question of revenue is that which
makes provision for a suitable fiscal agent, capable of adding increased
facilities in the collection and disbursement of the public revenues,
rendering more secure their custody, and consulting a true economy in
the great, multiplied, and delicate operations of the Treasury
Department. Upon such an agent depends in an eminent degree the
establishment of a currency of uniform value, which is of so great
importance to all the essential interests of society, and on the wisdom
to be manifested in its creation much depends. So intimately
interwoven are its operations, not only with the interests of individuals,
but of States, that it may be