By a table[7] of the expenditures of the United States, exclusive of payments on account of the Public Debt, it appears, that, _in the fifty-three years from the formation of our present Government_, from 1789 down to 1843, $246,620,055 have been expended for civil purposes, comprehending the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the post office, light-houses, and intercourse with foreign governments. During this same period $368,626,594 have been devoted to the military establishment, and $170,437,684 to the naval establishment; the two forming an aggregate of $538,964,278. Deducting from this sum the appropriations during three years of war, and we shall find that more than _four hundred millions_ were absorbed by vain Preparations in time of peace for War. Add to this amount a moderate sum for the expenses of the Militia during the same period, which, as we have already seen, have been placed recently at $50,000,000 a year; for the past years we may take an average of $25,000,000; and we shall have the enormous sum of $1,335,000,000 to be added to the $400,000,000; the whole amounting to _seventeen hundred and thirty-five millions_ of dollars, a sum beyond the conception of human faculties, sunk under the sanction of the Government of the United States in mere _peaceful Preparations for War_; more than _seven times_ as much as was dedicated by the Government, during the same period, to all other purposes whatsoever! From this serried array of figures the mind instinctively retreats. If we examine them from a nearer point of view, and, selecting some particular part, compare it with the figures representing other interests in the community, they will present a front still more dread. Let us attempt the comparison.