of the Mississip. certificates 5,840,010 55 During the fourth quarter it is esti mated that the payments will amount to 8,056,000 00 viz. Civil, diplomatic and miscellaneous ex 450,000 Public debt, to 1st Jan. 1821, 4,900,000 Making the aggregate amount of And leaving, on the 1st of January, 1821, a balance against the treasury, estimated at 2,638,169 17 Leaving outstanding, on the 30th September, 1820, 699,963 26 3. Of the estimates of the public revenue and expenditures, for the year 1821. In forming an estimate of the receipts into the treasury for the year 1821, the amount of revenue bonds outstanding on the 30th of September last; the sum due for public land; the ability and dispo24,964,413 80 sition of the community to purchase, and especially the quantity and quality of land intended to be exposed at public auction in the course of the year, present the data upon which the calculations must be made. As a portion of the duties which accrue in the fourth quarter of the present year, and in the first and second of the next, forms a part of the receipts into the treasury for the latter year, the amount received will exceed or fall short of the estimate by the difference between the duties which actually accrue in those quarters, and are payable within the year, and the amount at which they had been estimated. 2. Of the public debt. The funded debt which was contracted before the year 1812, and which was unredeemed on 1st October, 1819, amount. ed to Dolls. 23,668,254 71 And that contracted subsequent to 1st of Jan. 1812, and unredeemed on the 1st Oct. 1819, amounted to 68,060,336 29 Making the aggregate amount of 91,728,591 00 Which sum agrees with the amount as stated in the last annual report as unredeemed on the 1st of October, 1819, excepting the sum of $63 49, which was then short estimated, and which has since been corrected by actual settlement. The receipts into the treasury may, also, considerably exceed or fall short of the sum estimated, in consequence of the issue of a greater or less In the fourth quarter of the year, there was add-amount of debentures, payable during the year ed to the above sum, for treasury notes brought into the treasury and cancelled, the following sums, viz: 4,152 18 10,525 00 2,601,871 14 242,063 47 Making the public debt which was unredeemed on the the 1st of January, 1820, From the 1st of January to the 30th of September, inclusive, there was, by funding treasury notes and issuing 3 per cent. stock for interest on the old registered debt, added to the public debt, the 34,550 19 amount of And by the loan authorized by act of May 15th, 1820, Making 2,454,431 47 14,677 18 1821, than had been estimated. The degree of punctuality with which the reve. nue bonds are discharged, upon which the estimate is formed, must necessarily affect the amount that will be received into the treasury. If the accruing revenue of the present and two 91,743,268 18 succeeding quarters should exceed that of the corresponding quarters of the present and last year: if the amount of debentures which may be issued and made payable, so as to affect the receipts of the year, should be less than that of preceding years, -2,843,934 61 since the peace, compared with the gross amount of duties secured within those years respectively; and if greater punctuality in the payment of revenue bonds, now outstanding, should be observed than during the last mentioned period, the receipts from the customs will exceed the estimates now presented; and they will fall short of it should all those contingencies be unfavorable, as has been the case during the present year. 88,899,333 57 -2,579,981 66 The revenue bonds outstanding on the 30th of 91,479,315 23 September last, are estimated at $18,770,000; of this sum $3,130,000 are in suit; of which about $1,250,000 will not be collected on account of the insolvency of the debtors; leaving the amount of bonds outstanding, upon which collections are to be made, estimated $17,520,000, The amount of duties secured during the 1st, 2d, and Sd quarters of the year 1820, is estimated at $13,350,000; and that of the whole year maybe estimated at $16,500,000. The amount of debentures outstanding on the 30th of September and payable during the year 1821, is estimated at $1,162,114-16, which is subject to be increased by the amount issued in the present quarter and during the whole of the ensuing year chargeable upon the revenue of that year. The annual average amount of debentures, bounties, and allowances and expenses of collection, charge. able upon the revenue, has been ascertained to be nearly equal to 15 per cent. of the annual average amount of the duties upon imports and ton. nage, which accrued from the year 1815 to the year 1819, inclusive. If this proportion be applied to the revenue bonds outstanding on the 30th of September last; and if the receipts from the tonnage of vessels, and upon duties, secured during the present and the two succeeding quarters, are assumed to be equal to any deficiency resulting from the want of punctuality in the discharge of the outstanding bonds, the receipts into the treasury for the year 1821, from this source of revenue, may be estimated at $14,000,000. propriations of the present and preceding years 2d. The unexpended balances of appropriations 3d. The annual appropriation of 1,000,000 dol- ture of the year 1821, and which is chargeable upon According to the foregoing data, the expendithe treasury during that year, may be estimated as follows, viz: Civil, diplomatic, and miscellaneous, The receipts into the treasury from the public Military department, including fortifications, ordland, during the three first quarters of the presentry pensions, arrears prior to the 1st of January, 187, nance, Indian department, military and revolutiona year, are estimated at $1,124,645 32, and those of and arming the militia, and Indian annuities, the entire year will probably not much exceed for the gradual increase of the navy, Navy department, including the sum of 1,000,000, $1,600,000. The receipts from that source during the year 1821, will probaby not exceed those of the present year, if no incentive to greater punc-for tuality or inducement to make prompt payments should be presented to the public debtors in the course of the present session of congress. The balances of internal duties and direct tax still outstanding, are so considerable as to justify an estimate of some extent, in calculating the re ceipts of the ensuing year, if the difficulty of enforcing payment in those states, where the largest amount is due, were not known to be great. Un der these circumstances, the receipts from that source for the ensuing year, are estimated at 100,. 000 dollars. the Making an aggregate charge upon the treasury, Making 3,269,850 04 5,477,777 76 7,445,195 24 5,170,594 56 21,363,4:7 60 2,638,169 17 24,001,586 77 Leaving a balance of $7,451,586 77 beyond the estimated means for which provision is to be made. To determine whether a deficiency to this or any other amount, will occur in succeeding years, is extremely difficult. The data furnished by the fiscal operations of the government since the peace, must be principally relied upon, in making the calculations necessary to arrive at any general result upon the subject. It has been ascertained, that the nett revenue which has accrued from imports and tonnage, from the year 1815, to 1819, inclusive, has amounted to $120,260,052 46. If this be divided by the num ber of years in which it accrued, the result will be an annual average revenue of $24,052,500. But the revenue which accrued in 1815 greatly exceeded, not only that of any year previous to the war, but that of any year since that epoch. It is also admitted, that the quantity of produce on hand at the close of the war, especially of cotton and tobacco, considerably exceeded the amount of the crop of those articles made during the preceding year. The ability of the community, therefore, to purchase an increased amount of foreign articles in the year 1815, exceeded, in a correspouding degree, that of subsequent years. It has also been ascertained, that the importation of foreign articles during the present year has been considerably less than in any year since the peace. To form an es timate of the average annual revenue which may laccrue from imports and tonnage during the next four years, that will approximate towards accuracy, tomed to receive from us, will lose something of it will be necessary to embrace in the calculation the value which they would otherwise have com. the revenue which accrued from the year 1814 to 1819, inclusive, amounting to $124,510,414 05, and that which shall have accrued in the year 1820, estimated at 14,000,000 dollars, making the aggregate sum of $138,510,414 05, which gives the sum of 19,787,202 dollars, as the annual average revenue for those seven years. manded, until new channels of intercourse shall be discovered, and different articles of merchandise shall be substituted for those formerly received. The capacity of a nation to consume foreign articles depends upon the value of its exports, and not upon its ability to furnish every article of primary or secondary necessity. The precious metals are never imported into any country, when commodities, which will command a profit, can be obtained for importation. Giving full weight to the fact, that cotton, woollen, iron, and various other arti cles, which are now furnished by our domestic establishments, will be hereafter received from fo. reign nations only to a small amount, $17,000,000 of revenue may be assumed as the minimum, and 820,000,000 as the maximum, which will be annually received from imports and tonnage during the next four years. The decrease which has occurred in the last and present years, furnishes no ground to distrust the correctness of the foregoing conclusion. The customs produced in 1815, a nett revenue of $36,306,022 51; in 1816, §27,484,100 36; and in 1817, 17,524,775 15. This last year was considered at the time as the period of greatest reaction. Accordingly, in 1818, the nett revenue from the customs amounted to $21,828,451 48. Other views derived from the fiscal operations of the government will be found to accord with this result. The average product of the duties upon | imports and tonnage, which accrued from the year 1801 to 1807 inclusive, may be stated at $13,610,000; and that which accrued from the former period to 1813, inclusive, amounted to the annual sum of $11,570,000. The increase of population in the United States, has been estimated at 34 per cent. in ten years. If the increase of consumption has corresponded with that of population, the revenue of the year 1820, according to the result furnished by the first seven years, would exceed $20,000,000; and would fail but little short of $17,000,000, acaccording to the data furnished by the whole period. During the former period, the principal states of Europe were involved in wars, which not only gave to our shipping the principal part of the carrying trade, but created an unusual demand for every article of exportation, and greatly enhanced The multiplication of banks, the state of the curtheir value. Any estimate founded upon the aver- rency, and the high price which all exportable ar. age revenue of those years, the duties upon imports ticles commanded until the end of 1818, strongly remaining the same, would most probably not be invited to extravagance of every kind, and partirealized; but, as these duties were considerably in-cularly in the consumption of foreign merchandise. creased in 1816, the objections to such an estimate The resources of individuals had been, by these are, in some degree, diminished. From the year seductions, in a great degree, anticipated, during 1808 to 1813, inclusive, the United States were en- the first years which succeeded the peace. gaged in a state of commercial or actual warfare. sudden reduction in the value of all exportable arThe disadvantages to which their commerce was ticles, which occurred about the commencement subjected by that warfare, more than counterbal- of the year 1819, not only prevented, in a great de anced the peculiar advantages it enjoyed in the se-gree, further purchases, but rendered the discharge ven years immediately preceding. An estimate of engagements previously contracted impracticafor the next four years, founded upon an average of the whole term, would, møst probably, fall short of, than exceed, the sum which would be received into the treasury, notwithstanding the duties were higher, during two years of that term than at pre sent. The ble. The pressure thus produced upon the community, reacted upon the venders of every species of merchandise, whether foreign or domestic; who, without thoroughly investigating the cause of their distress, have sought for relief in measures calcu. lated rather to aggravate than alleviate the public In the investigation of a subject of such complex- embarrassment. The issue and payment of a larger ity, affecting so deeply the interest of the commu. amount of debentures in the present year, in pronity, every fact and circumstance connected with portion to the exportations of the last; the increas it, ought to be considered. Since the year 1807, ed amount of specie, and diminished amount of new interests have arisen, which claim a promi- foreign merchandise imported during the present nent place in this consideration. From time im-year, and the ready sale of foreign and domestic memorial, household manufactures have existed in every part of the United States. The mechanical arts, those branches of manufacture, without which society, even in a very imperfect state of civilization, could not exist, though differing in some degree from those properly denominated household, have long existed in the United States. Since the year 1807, those branches of manufacture have been greatly extended and improved. Others have been established, and a large amount of capital has been invested in manufacturing establishments, which promise to furnish, in a short time, an ample supply of cotton and woollen manufactures, and most of those of iron, glass, and various other articles of great value. articles now in the market, shew that the importation of foreign goods is upon the eve of being regulated by the demand for them, for consumption. It has been stated, that the receipts from the public land, during the year 1821, cannot be estimated at more than 1,600,000 dollars, unless some greater incentive to punctuality, or inducements to make prompt payments, should be offered by the measures which may be adopted in the course of the present session of congress. The act of the 24th of April last, which abolished credit on all purchiases of land, and reduced the minimum price from 200 to 125 cents per acre, furnishes, it is respect. fully conceived, equitable ground for legislative interference in favor of purchasers under the anAs commerce has been properly defined to be cient system. By that system the price could be an exchange of equivalent value, it is probable that reduced to 164 cents per acre by prompt payment. the failure on our part, to receive from foreign na- If the act abolishing credit had fixed the minimum tions the accustomed supply of those articles which price at 164 cents instead of 125 cents, no equita can now be produced in our domestic establish- ble ground for legislative interference could exist ments, the articles which they have been accus-It is not contended that the vender of an article, under ordinary circumstances, does an injury to a purchaser by subsequently selling the same article to others at a lower rate. But if he has in his possession such a quantity of the article sold as to enable him, for an indefinite time, to determine the price of the article, he affects the interest of every previous purchaser by such reduction, who may be constrained, from any cause whatever, to sell that article. The extent of the national domain will for ages enable the government to determine the price of unimproved lands, similarly situated. It is adnitted that the government has been induced to adopt this measure by the most grave considerations. The most prominent of these was the ne. cessity of preventing the further increase of a debt, then about 22,000,000 dollars, strongly affecting the interests and feelings of a great number of citi. zens. If its increase was an object of deep solicitude, its diminution, by an act of grace, founded upon equitable principles, will be in strict accordance with the motives in which that measure originated. Difficulties may occur in adjusting the details of such a measure, unless it be presented as a simple act of grace. Under this point of view, it should be confined in its operation to the debtors of the government for public lands, and should af fect them only to the extent of the debt which they may respectively owe. During the excessive circulation of bank notes, not convertible into specie, and to which the government, from necessity, for some time, gave currency, and the high price which every description of domestic produce commanded, large quantities of public land were sold at public auction, at prices greatly beyond their real value. In many instances the first payment which the government has received could not be obtained by the purchaser, if he were able to convey the land in fee simple. The propriety of legislative interference to change the relations between debtor and creditor, for the benefit of either, may well be questioned. Circum stances, however, may arise, which will influence an upright and benevolent creditor to relax his demands, and to grant relief to his debtor voluntarily, which he might resist as an act of power. Such, it is respectfully conceived, is the situation of the government in relation to the purchasers of pub. lie land, who, in a moment of infatuation, have en gaged to pay for a portion of the national domain a'sum greatly beyond its value, and which will never be paid. In all cases of this kin!, the forfeiture of the sum already advanced will inevitably occur, if relief to some extent is not granted. In conformity with the foregoing views the following propositions for the relief of the purchasers of public land, and for the purpose of increasing the payments into the treasury in the ensuing year, are respectfully submitted: 1st. That every purchaser of public land be permitted, on or before the 30th of September next, to abandon any legal subdivision of his purchase; and that the payments made upon the part abandoned be applied to the discharge of the instalinent due upon the remainder; the right to abandon, in no case to involve any repayment by the government to any purchaser. In all cases the part retained to be in the most compact form that the situation of the whole quantity purchased will permit. 2d. The difference between the former and present minimum price for cash payments being equal to 23.78 on the former, it is respectfully proposed that, on payment of the whole purchase money for any tract of land, * on or before the 30th day of September next, a deduction of 25 per cent. shall be made, and that any interest which may have accrued to the United States in such cases shall be remitted. An act of greater liberality, and which would still further increase the receipts into the treasury, during the next year, would be to allow a deduction of 37 per cent. on all such payments, which is equal te the difference between 200 and 125 cents. 3d. That all sums which may be due by purchasers of public lands, who shall not avail themselves of the preceding conditions, shall be payable in ten equal annual instalments, without interest; provided that such payments shall be punctually made upon the several days in each successive year upon which the purchases were respectively made: any failure in making such payments, to revive the the original terms and conditions of sale. If these or analogous provisions should be adopted, the payments from the public, land, during the year 1821, will be greatly increased; the debt due on that account greatly diminished; and the reve-i nue resulting from that source acquire in future years a more uniform character. If, then, it be assumed that the revenue which will accrue from the customs will be equal to the mean sum between seventeen and twenty millions of dollars, the annual revenue for the four succeeding years may be estimated as follows, viz: Customs, Public lands, Banks dividends, at six per cent. Incidental receipts, Making an aggregate of $18,500,000 2,500,000 420,000 80,000 $21,500,000 But if the annual receipts from the customs shall. be estimated, for the next four years, at the average sum of 17,000,000 dollars, the annual revenue for that period will be equal to 20,000,000. The annual expenditure, for the same period, may be estimated as follows, viz: Civil, diplomatic, and miscellaneous, $2,000,000 Public debt, 5,477,000 War department, including fortifica. tions, ordnance, Indian department, military and revolutionary pensions, arming the militia, and arrears prior to the 1st of January, 1817, Naval department,including 1,000,000 dollars for the permanent increase of the navy, 5,850,000 3,420,000 Making the aggregate amount of $16,747,000 The balance of the sinking fund, after paying the interest of the funded debt, and providing for the annual reimbursement of the 6 per cent. deferred stock, has not, in this estimate, been considered as a charge upon the treasury, before the year 1825, as the price of the public stocks preclude the possibility of purchase within the rates prescribed by law. This estimate is below that which is required for 1821, but is believed to be less than the annual expenditure which will be required for the next four years. According to this estimate, the means will exceed the indispensable expenditure, during that period, 3,253,000 dollars. After the year 1823, the annual expenditure upon the navy will be diminished by 1,000,000 dollars. The expenditure of the government, after that year, including the entire appropriation for the public debt, is estimated as follows, viz: Avil, diplomatic and miscellaneous, Military department, including fortifications, ordnance, Naval department, Making the aggregate amount of 270,000 dollars. 10,000,000 5,850,000 2,000,000 the purpose of meeting the existing or any proba ble future deficiency, it is respectfully submitted, that the importation of foreign spirits be prohibited; and that a duty upon domestic spirits 2,420,000 equal to the amount of that now collected upon foreign spirits, and to such deficiency, be impos20,270,000 ed on the distillation and sale of domestic spirits. Which, after the year 1824, would leave an annual deficit of In any event, a resort to loans, to the extent of If this sum should not be met by the annual in- the deficiency for the year 1821, will be indispensa crease of revenue, resulting from the increase of ble. Of the sum of $3,000,000 authorized by the population, during these and succeeding years, and the increased consumption of foreign articles result-act of the 15th of May last, to be raised by loan, ing therefrom, it may be supplied by a correspond. $2,000,000 have been obtained at a premium of ing reduction in those items of expenditure, which two per cent. upon stock bearing interest at the depend absolutely upon the will of the legislature, rate of 6 per cent. per annum, redeemable at the unconnected with the existing laws regulating the will of the government, and $1,000,000 at par, upon stock bearing interest at the rate of 5 per permanent expenditure. It is, therefore, respectfully submitted, that it cent. redeemable at any time after the first day of is inexpedient to resort, at this time, to the im-January, 1832. There is no just reason to doubt position of additional taxes upon the community. that any sum which may be necessary to be rais The condition of the currency in several of the ed by loan, can be obtained upon terms not less states of the union furnishes strong inducements favorable; but, as it is probable that the surplus to abstain from additional taxation at this time. of the revenue, after satisfying all demands upon The obligation of the government to receive the the treasury, authorized by existing laws, during notes of the bank of the United States, without the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, will be equal to reference to the place where they are payable, the redemption of any debt which may be conhas given to them their universal currency. All tracted in 1821, it is respectfully submitted that notes issued south and west of Washington have, the president of the United States be authorized in consequence of the state of exchange between to borrow from the bank of the United States, or these places and the commercial cities to the from other banks or individuals, the sum which east of this place, centred in those cities. The may be necessary for the service of that year, at bank bas consequently found itself constrained to par, and at a rate of interest not exceeding 6 per. direct those branches to refuse to issue their notes, cent. per annum, redeemable at the will of the goeven upon a deposite of specie. The effect of these vernment. canses, combined, has been, the exclusion from circulation, in all the states west and south of the seat of government, of the notes of the bank of the United States, and its offices. In several All which is respectfully submitted. of those states, there is no sound paper circula- Report on the Anti-Tariff Petitions. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Thursday, Nov. 30. Mr. Baldwin from the committee on manufactures, delivered the following report: The committee of manufactures, to whom have been referred the petitions of sundry inhabitants of Belfast, in Maine, and the merchants and others of Richmond, in Virginia, beg leave to report tion. To resort to internal taxation, under such circumstances, would be to require of the citizens of those states, what will be impossible for them to perform. Wherever paper circulates as money, which is not convertible into specie, it circulates to the exclusion of specie and of paper which is convertible into gold and silver coin. In all such places, the payment of direct or internal taxes in specie, or in the notes of the bank of the United That the general object of these petitions is to States, will be impracticable. Preliminary to a remonstrate against the passage of the bills which resort to internal taxation of any kind, the charter were reported to this house at their last session, of the bank of the United States ought to be to regulate the duties on imports and for other amended, so as to make the bills of all the offices purposes; to regulate the payment of duties on imof the bank, except that at the seat of govern-ported merchandize; and imposing a duty on sales ment, receivable only in the states where they are made payable, and in the states and territories where no office is established. The effect of this modification would be, to make the notes of the offices of the bank of the United States, except the office in this district, a local currency, which will centre and continue in the local circulation of the states in which they are issued. The notes thus issued will render the local circulation of all the states sound, and furnish to the citizens the means of discharging their contributions to the go.dency to those of the last, to make any report on vernment. at auction. As neither of these bills are now depending before either house of the legislature, but have been either expressly or virtually rejected; it would, in an ordinary case, be deemed a sufficient answer to the petitions to say that their object had been already accomplished. It might, too, be deemed premature in a committee of this house, to whom these subjects had been referred at the present session, and who may feel it their duty to report on some of these bills, similar in their ten the matters embraced in these petitions, until the This measure will also place the state institu- committee had agreed on recommending some. tions to the south and west of this city, in a more thing for adoption. But there seems, to the comeligible situation in relation to the offices of the mittee to be, in these petitions, something of a bank of the United States, by enabling them to character perfectly novel, introduced in a manner, adjust their accounts with those offices by the it is believed, so totally unprecedented in the leexchange of notes, instead of liquidating their gislative history of the country, as well as inconbalances by the payment of specie. Should it,sistent with the respect due to the representatives however, be judged expedient by the legislature of the nation, that it is felt to be a duty to notice to lay additional burthens upon the people, for them now. |