Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
If the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in reference to the
expenditures required for these territories shall be met by corresponding
action on the part of Congress, and appropriations made in accordance
therewith, there will be an estimated unappropriated balance in the
Treasury on the 30th June, 1853, of $20,366,443.90 wherewith to meet that
portion of the public debt due on the 1st of July following, amounting to
$6,237,931.35, as well as any appropriations which may be made beyond the
estimates.
In thus referring to the estimated expenditures on account of our newly
acquired territories, I may express the hope that Congress will concur with
me in the desire that a liberal course of policy may be pursued toward
them, and that every obligation, express or implied, entered into in
consequence of their acquisition shall be fulfilled by the most liberal
appropriations for that purpose.
The values of our domestic exports for the last fiscal year, as compared
with those of the previous year, exhibit an increase of $43,646,322. At
first view this condition of our trade with foreign nations would seem to
present the most flattering hopes of its future prosperity. An examination
of the details of our exports, however, will show that the increased value
of our exports for the last fiscal year is to be found in the high price of
cotton which prevailed during the first half of that year, which price has
since declined about one-half.
The value of our exports of breadstuffs and provisions, which it was
supposed the incentive of a low tariff and large importations from abroad
would have greatly augmented, has fallen from $68,701,921 in 1847 to
$26,051,373 in 1850 and to $21,948,653 in 1851, with a strong probability,
amounting almost to a certainty, of a still further reduction in the
current year.
The aggregate values of rice exported during the last fiscal year, as
compared with the previous year, also exhibit a decrease, amounting to
$460,917, which, with a decline in the values of the exports of tobacco for
the same period, make an aggregate decrease in these two articles of
$1,156,751.
The policy which dictated a low rate of duties on foreign merchandise, it
was thought by those who promoted and established it, would tend to benefit
the farming population of this country by increasing the demand and raising
the price of agricultural products in foreign markets.
The foregoing facts, however, seem to show incontestably that no such
result has followed the adoption of this policy. On the contrary,
notwithstanding the repeal of the restrictive corn laws in England, the
foreign demand for the products of the American farmer has steadily
declined, since the short crops and consequent famine in a portion of
Europe have been happily replaced by full crops and comparative abundance
of food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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