By a table of the National expenditures,[81] exclusive of payments on account of the Public Debt, it appears, that, _in fifty-four years from the formation of our present Government_, that is, from 1789 down to 1843, $155,282,217 were expended for civil purposes, comprehending the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, the post-office, light-houses, and intercourse with foreign governments. During this same period, $370,981,521 were devoted to the Military establishment, and $169,707,214 to the Naval establishment,--the two forming an aggregate of $540,688,735. Deducting from this amount appropriations during three years of War, and we find that more than _four hundred and sixty millions_ were absorbed by vain Preparations for War in time of Peace. Add to this amount a moderate sum for the expenses of the Militia during the same period, which, as we have seen, are placed at $50,000,000 a year,--for the past years we may take an average of $25,000,000,--and we have the enormous sum-total of $1,350,000,000 piled upon the $460,000,000, the whole amounting to _eighteen hundred and ten millions_ of dollars, a sum not easily conceived by the human faculties, sunk, under the sanction of the National Government, in mere _peaceful Preparations for War_: almost _twelve times_ as much as was dedicated by the National Government, during the same period, to all other purposes whatsoever. [81] Executive Document No. 15, Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, pp. 1018-19. From this serried array of figures the mind instinctively recoils. If we examine them from a nearer point of view, and, selecting some particular item, compare it with the figures representing other interests in the community, they will present a front still more dread.