Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Since my last annual communication all the remains of the public debt
have been redeemed, or money has been placed in deposit for this
purpose when ever the creditors choose to receive it. All the other
pecuniary engagements of the Government have been honorably and
promptly fulfilled, and there will be a balance in the Treasury at the
close of the year of about $19,000,000. It is believed that after
meeting all outstanding and unexpended appropriations there will remain
near $11,000,000 to be applied to any new objects which Congress may
designate or to the more rapid execution of the works already in
progress. In aid of these objects, and to satisfy the current
expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated that there will be
received from various sources $20,000,000 more in 1836.
Should Congress make new appropriations in conformity with the
estimates which will be submitted from the proper Departments,
amounting to about $24,000,000, still the available surplus at the
close of the next year, after deducting all unexpended appropriations,
will probably not be less than $6,000,000. This sum can, in my
judgment, be now usefully applied to proposed improvements in our navy
yards, and to new national works which are not enumerated in the
present estimates or to the more rapid completion of those already
begun. Either would be constitutional and useful, and would render
unnecessary any attempt in our present peculiar condition to divide the
surplus revenue or to reduce it any faster than will be effected by the
existing laws.
In any event, as the annual report from the Secretary of the Treasury
will enter into details, shewing the probability of some decrease in
the revenue during the next seven years and a very considerable
deduction in 1842, it is not recommended that Congress should undertake
to modify the present tariff so as to disturb the principles on which
the compromise act was passed. Taxation on some of the articles of
general consumption which are not in competition with our own
productions may be no doubt so diminished as to lessen to some extent
the source of this revenue, and the same object can also be assisted by
more liberal provisions for the subjects of public defense, which in
the present state of our prosperity and wealth may be expected to
engage your attention.
If, however, after satisfying all the demands which can arise from
these sources the unexpended balance in the Treasury should still
continue to increase, it would be better to bear with the evil until
the great changes contemplated in our tariff laws have occurred and
shall enable us to revise the system with that care and circumspection
which are due to so delicate and important a subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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