State of the Union Addresses (1790-2008)United States. Presidents
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State of the Union Addresses (1790-2008)
United States. Presidents
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary of
the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United
States, for 1,500 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal Company, has been executed by the actual subscription for
the amount specified; and such other measures have been adopted by that
officer, under the act, as the fulfillment of its intentions requires.
The latest accounts received of this important undertaking authorize the
belief that it is in successful progress.
The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000. The
actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short
of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will be
equally productive, but the income of the year from that source may now
be safely estimated at $1,500,000. The act of Congress of May 18th,
1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United
States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in its operation
of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its effect at the
end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce that debt from
$10,000,000 to $7,000,000 By the operation of similar prior laws of
relief, from and since that of March 2d, 1821, the debt had been reduced
from upward of $22,000,000 to $10,000,000.
It is exceedingly desirable that it should be extinguished altogether;
and to facilitate that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival
for one year more of the act of May 18th, 1824, with such provisional
modification as may be necessary to guard the public interests against
fraudulent practices in the resale of the relinquished land.
The purchasers of public lands are among the most useful of our fellow
citizens, and since the system of sales for cash alone has been
introduced great indulgence has been justly extended to those who had
previously purchased upon credit. The debt which had been contracted
under the credit sales had become unwieldy, and its extinction was alike
advantageous to the purchaser and to the public. Under the system of
sales, matured as it has been by experience, and adapted to the
exigencies of the times, the lands will continue as they have become, an
abundant source of revenue; and when the pledge of them to the public
creditor shall have been redeemed by the entire discharge of the
national debt, the swelling tide of wealth with which they replenish the
common Treasury may be made to reflow in unfailing streams of
improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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