State of the Sinking Fund.

F.-Statement of the appropriation of ten millions of dollars by the second section of the "Act to provide for the redemption of the Public Debt,” passed 3d March, 1817.

Application, per statement G. which accompanied the report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, of the 7th February, 1822, viz:

In 1817

Do. in anticipation of the appropriation for 1818

In 1818

$10,000,000 00
2,830,108 52

Amount of the funded debt 1st January, 1823, subject to a reduction on account of the reimbursement of the deferred stock, in 1822

G.-Statement of the Funded Debt of the United States, on the 1st January, 1823, with its redemption for

1821 and 1822.

Reimbursement of the deferred stock, in 1821

Reimbursement of the 6 per cent. stock, of 1796, in 1822
Reimbursement of the 6 per cent. stock of 1820, in 1822

Add 3 per cent. stock issued in 1822

Amount of the funded debt on the 1st January, 1822, per statement H, which accompanied report of February, 1822

Amount of the debt on the 1st January, 1823, as above stated, brought down
Deduct estimated amount of deferred stock, reimbursed in 1822

91,343,999 69 566,568 09

Amount per statement (3) which accompanied the Secretary's report of 23d December, 1822

$90,777,431 60

a Consisting of deferred stock with reimbursement for 1822

Three per cent.

$1,526,077 06

Exchanged 6 per cent. of 1812

In addition to this amount, there was applied in 1817, the sum of $9,000,000, appropriated by the 3d section of the act above recited, and accounted for in the report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, of the 7th February, 1818.

13,296,099 06

2,668,974 99

$17,491,151 11

OUTSTANDING BONDS, &c.

[Communicated to the House, February 8, 1823.]

Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting (pursuant to a resolution of the House of Representatives, of 9th January last,) a statement of outstanding custom-house bonds of the 1st October, 1822: a statement of bonds taken for duties on merchandise, and debentures issued for drawback, from 1st January, 1821, to 30th September, 1822: a statement of the net amount of revenue on merchandise, tonnage, &c.; of payments into the Treasury, and expenses of collection of the same, on 31st December of the years 1816, '17, '18, '19, 20, and 1821; and a statement of the whole amount of the unexpended balance of the Sinking Fund, distinguishing each year since 1817.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

February 5, 1823.

SIR: In obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 9th ultimo, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report to the House "a statement of the custom-house bonds outstanding on the 1st day of December, 1822, and falling due within the year 1823, with the amount of debentures chargeable upon the same, and the probable expense of collection:"

Also, "a statement of the amount of bonds outstanding on the 1st January, 1821, and at the commencement of each quarter during the year, with the debentures chargeable upon the same, at the respective periods."

Also, "the amount of revenue from customs, which will probably accrue in the year 1823, and the portion thereof which will probably be received in the course of that year, stating the average amount which has been received on the customs accrued within each year since 1816, inclusive."

Also, "a statement of the whole amount of the unexpended balances of the Sinking Fund, distinguishing each year since 1817; and on what principle he distinguishes the balances that will

accrue against that fund in 1823 and 1824, from those of preceding years, by which he proposes, in his annual report of 22d December, 1822, to charge the estimated unexpended balance of 1823 and 1824, upon the revenue of 1825;" I have the honor to submit the statements, required by the resolution, as far as it has been practicable to form them, from the records and files of the Department.

The statement showing the amount of bonds outstanding upon the 1st of December, 1822, is defective: First, the monthly schedules of the bonds, for the months of October and November, have not been received from some of the collectors: Second, because the monthly schedules, almost always, in the principal districts, contain bonds for duties which accrued several months before; and, third, because the duties upon merchandise deposited in the public stores are secured by duty bonds only when they are removed from them; and it is only then that they appear in the monthly schedules. When the deposite is made, a bond is given without sureties, the merchandise being the substitute for them.

From these facts, it is apparent that the amount of duties which accrued during the several quarters of each successive year, as exhibited in the quarterly accounts of the collectors, rendered to the Comptroller for settlement, always considerably exceeds the amount exhibited in the monthly schedules of bonds rendered to the Secretary of the Treasury.

It may be proper to observe that, to ascertain the amount of duties which accrued during the year 1822, that will be payable in 1823, the bonds taken in the month of December, and those in the months of October and November, which have not yet been reported to the Department, and those which may be hereafter liquidated for duties which accrued in the year 1822, and which will be payable in 1823, must be added to the amount represented in statement No. 1, as becoming due in the present year.

When these sums shall be ascertained, and added to that amount, it is presumed that it will be increased to at least $19,000,000.

Outstanding Custom-House Bonds, &c.

In order that statement No. 1 may be correctly understood, it is necessary to state, that the amount of bonds outstanding on the 1st of October, has been ascertained from the quarterly accounts of the collectors rendered to the Comptroller for settlement, and, consequently, contains the amount of duties on merchandise deposited in the public stores. The rest of the statement is formed from the schedules of bonds rendered to the Secretary of the Treasury. The difference between the amount of bonds estimated to be outstanding on the 1st December, 1822, and the amount estimated to become due in 1823, is accounted for as follows:

to

2. Bonds in suit the 1st December,

1822, amounting to

3. Bonds falling due in 1823, amounting to

4. The amount of bonds falling due in 1824, estimated at

5. The amount of duties which have accrued upon merchandise deposited in the public stores, estimated at

Which several sums make the aggregate amount, as stated in No. 1, of

1,319,048

$24,129,196

coming due within the year, were not paid, the whole amount of duties which accrued within the year 1821, that were payable within that year, will be ascertained. The same result may be ob tained for the year 1822, as soon as the amount of the receipts during the year are ascertained. But when it is known that the average number of duty bonds annually liquidated is estimated at more than fifty thousand, the reason why no attempt has been made, since the organization of the Gorernment, to obtain the results required by the res olution, will be readily perceived. The benefit which would result from the possession of the information to be thus acquired, has, it is presumed, 1. Bonds payable in December, 1822, amounting been considered by my predecessors in office, no $2,239,053 sufficient to justify the labor and expense which would be necessary to obtain it. 2,818,427 If I have satisfactorily shown, that this information can be acquired only for the years that are 17,426,257 past, it will readily be perceived that it is wholly impracticable to show the amount of the duties 226,409 which are yet to accrue in 1823, that will be payable within that year. The most that can be offered in obedience to that part of the resolution, is a conjectural estimate of the amount. When there are no sudden or violent fluctuations in the amount of importations, and of re-exportations for benefit of drawback, it is considered safe to estimate the receipts of the year ensuing the date of each annual report, equal to the amount of duty bonds outstanding and payable within the year. Such an estimate is founded upon the presumption, Of the last item, it is probable, that a consider- that the receipts within the year from duties acable proportion will be payable during the year cruing within the same period, will be equal to 1823, but it is impracticable to offer any other the amount of debentures and expenses of collection than a conjectural estimate of that proportion. chargeable upon the revenue of the year. If the The quarterly accounts rendered by the col-importations should fall considerably short of those lectors to the Comptroller, for settlement, present in detail the amount of duties secured during the quarter for which they are rendered. They distinguish between bonds which are not due, and those which are in suit; but, as they are entered in the statement in the order in which they were liquidated, they do not show the amount which will become due within twelve months from the expiration of any given year, nor within any subdivision of that period. They, however, present the dates of the bonds, and the dates at which they become due. By a detailed dissection of these quarterly accounts, it might now be ascertained what proportion of the duty bonds which were outstanding on the 31st day of December, 1820, were payable within the year 1821, and, consequently, what proportion of the duties which accrued in 1821, were paid within that year. After the dissection was completed, from the amount thus ascertained, should be deducted, 1st. The amount of bonds thus becoming due, which were not paid within the year and 2d. The amount received from bonds in suit previously to the year 1821. The difference between the amount thus obtained, and the total receipts from duties, during the year, will be the sum received from duties which accrued within the year; and if to this difference should be added the amount of bonds taken for duties which accrued within the year, which, be

of the preceding year, or if the amount of debenture, issued and chargeable upon the receipts of the year, should be considerably increased, the receipts would necessarily be less than the amount estimated. But, if the reverse of this state of things should occur, the receipts would necessarily exceed the amount estimated. Such has been the case during the last year; the receipts have con sequently considerably exceeded the estimates for that year. From the data in the possession of the Department at the date of the last annual report, the receipts from the customs, during the year 1823, were estimated. The facts since disclosed, tend to confirm the correctness of that estimate.

Statement No 4 exhibits the annual surplusses of the Sinking Fund from the year 1817 to the year 1822, inclusive, and the estimated surplusses of the years 1823 and 1824.

In reply to so much of the resolution as requires me to state upon what principle the balances that will accrue in the years 1823 and 1824, are dis tinguished in the annual report of the 22d of De cember, 1822, from those of preceding years, ! have the honor to submit the following facts and observations. By reference to the several acts of Congress, passed from the 4th of August, 1790, to the 3d of March, 1795, inclusive, providing for the redemption of the public debt, and creating the Sinking Fund, it will be seen that no specific sum

Outstanding Custom-House Bonds &c.

as appropriated to that object. The act of the should accrue to it by provisions previously made, h of May, 1792, and that of the 3d of March, as would amount to the annual sum of $7,300,000, 95, after making reservations of the public reve- and which was declared to be vested in the Comle for the discharge of the current expenses, ap- missioners of the Sinking Fund, and that it should opriate the proceeds of the duties upon imports continue to be appropriated and applied by them, d tonnage, and of other duties and taxes, of the until the principal of the public debt should be les of public lands, of the bank dividends, of the reimbursed and redeemed; with a proviso, that, bts due the United States, before the present "after the whole of the said debt, the old six per ganization of the Government, and lastly of all cent. stock, the deferred stock, the 1796 six per e "surplusses of the revenues of the United cent. stock, and the three per cent. stock, excepted, ates, which shall remain at the end of any cal- shall have been reimbursed or redeemed, any baldar year, beyond the amount of the appropria- ance of the sums annually appropriated by this ns charged upon the said revenues, and which, act, which may remain unexpended at the end of ring the session of Congress next thereafter, six calendar months, next succeeding the end of all not be otherwise specially appropriated or the calendar year to which such annual approprierved by law." These two acts, and the act ation refers, shall be carried to the surplus fund, the 4th of August, 1790, form, together, what and cease to be vested, by the authority of this 5 generally been denominated the Funding Sys- act, in the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund." a. In these acts, provision was made for con- By the provision here recited, the appropriation to ting the public debt into a funded debt; and the Sinking Fund was, in a few years after its funds set apart by them for the payment of date, subjected to the operation of the principle of interest, and redemption of the principal, of the 16th section of the act of the 3d of March, 1795, public debt, in its new form, were declared to which created the surplus fund. The only differvested in the Commissioners of the Sinking ence between this and other appropriations, in rend, in trust, to be applied to the redemption of lation to the surplus fund, was, that it was subject said debt, including such loans as might be to be carried to the account of it eighteen months ained by virtue of the said acts, until the same sooner than other appropriations. The exception uld be fully reimbursed; and the faith of the of the Sinking Fund, in the said section, from the ited States was thereby "pledged that the operation of the principle established by it, was neys, or funds aforesaid, shall inevitably re- rendered a nullity, and virtually repealed. The in, and be appropriated and vested as aforesaid, act of the 29th of April, 1802, remained in full be applied in the said reimbursement and re- force until the 3d of March, 1817, when an act nption in manner aforesaid, until the same was passed, the first section of which repealed "so ll be fully and completely effected." much of any act or acts of Congress as make apThe pledge, thus solemnly given, acquired ad-propriations for the purchase or reimbursement of onal force from the circumstance of its being the principal, or for the payment of the interest, ered as an inducement to the public creditors to of the funded debt of the United States." It has ept of the terms presented in those acts, which been already stated, that the first section of the inged the nature and conditions of the then ex- act of the 29th of April appropriated $7,300,000, ng debt. The sixteenth section of the same and that a proviso to the said section directed, afof the 3d of March, 1795, creates the surplus ter certain parts of the funded debt shall have d, and exempts from its operation all the funds been redeemed, any balance of that appropriation ropriated to the Sinking Fund. This exclusion that might remain six months after the end of the s the necessary consequence of the sacred char-year to which it shall refer, to be carried to the er given by that very act to the funds constiing the Sinking Fund. This mode of reason , and of viewing the subject, was adhered to il the change of the Administration of the ion in March, 1801. At the commencement hat Administration, several laws were in force ich imposed taxes, the proceeds of which formed art of the Sinking Fund, that were considered rous, and consequently produced dissatisfaction he nation. If the pledges made of their prois to the Sinking Fund placed them beyond control of the legislative authority, it was rly perceived that the most odious system axation might be perpetuated against the ded will of the nation. The question was maly examined, and the result of that examinawas presented to the nation in the provisions he act of the 29th of April, 1802. The first ion of this act appropriated so much of the es on merchandise and tonnage, as, together the moneys other than surplusses of revenue, ch then constituted the Sinking Fund, or

amount of the surplus fund. The act of the 3d of March, 1817, either repeals this proviso, or it does not. If it does not repeal it, the balance of the appropriation of ten millions, for the year 1824, which may remain unexpended on the 31st of December, of that year, will be the only sum demandable by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund in 1825, beyond the appropriation of $10,000,000 for that year. If it does repeal the proviso, the question then recurs, what disposition do the existing laws make of the surplusses of that appropriation, since the 3d of March, 1817. It has been inferred, in the annual report to which the resolution refers, that they are subject to be carried to the account of the surplus fund, at the end of two calendar years from the expiration of the year to which such appropriations may severally refer. This inference is founded, 1st, upon the fact that the exception in the section creating the Sinking Fund, having been rendered null, and virtually repealed by the act of the 29th of April, 1802, is not revived by the repeal of the proviso

Outstanding Custom-House Bonds, &c.