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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE.
Message from the President of the U. States,
to the two houses of Congress, at the
commencement of the second session of
’ the twenty-sixth Congress,
Fel/ow-(!!itizr<ns of the Sennit
J House of Representatives :
Otir devout gratitude is due to the Su
preme Being for having, graciously con
tinued to our beloved country, through, the
vicissitudes of another year, the invalua
ble Blessings of health, plenty and peace..
Seldom lias this favored land been so gen- !
eralTy exempted from the ravages of dis
ease, or the labor of the husbandimn more
amply rewarded ; and never before have
our relations with other countries been pla
ced on a more favorable basis than that
which they so happily occupy at this criti
cal conjuncture in the’ affiiirsof the world.
A rigid and persevering abstinence from ]
all interference with the domestic and po
litical relations of other States, alike due
to the genius and distinctive character of
our Government and to the principles by
which it is directed ; a faithful observance
in the management of our foreign relations,
of the practice of speaking plainly, deal
ing justly, and requiring truth and justice
in return, as the last conservatives of the’
peace of nations; a strict impartiality in
our manifestations of ftie<feih.ip, in the
commercial privileges we concede, and
those we require from others; these, ac
companied by a disposition as prompt to
maintain, in every emergency, our own
rights, as we are from principle averse to
the invasion of those of others, have given
to our country and Government a standing
in the great family of nations, of which
we have just cause to be proud, and the ad
vantages of which are experienced by our
citizens throughout every portion of the
earth to which their enterprizing and ad
venturous spirit may carry them. Few,
if any, remain insensible of the value of
our friendship, or ignorant of the terms on
which it can be acquired, and by which it
can alone be preserved.
A series of questions of long sfanding,
difficult in their adjustment,and’ important \
in their conseqwencws, in which the rights 1
ofour citizens and the honor of the country
were deeply involved, have, inthe course
of a few years, ('he most of them during
she successful administration of my imme
diate predecessor,) been brought to a sat
isfactory conclusion; and the most impor
tant of those remaining are, I am happy
to believe, in a fair way of being speedily
and satisfactorily adjusted.
With all the powers of the world our
relations are those of honorable peace.—
Since your adjournment, nothing serious
has occurred to interrupt or threaten this
desirable harmony. If clouds have low
ered above the other hemisphere, they
have not cast their portentous shadows up
on our happy shores. Bound by no entang
ling alliances, yet linked by a common na
ture and interest with the other nations of
mankind, our aspirations are for the pre
servation of peace, in whose solid and ci
vilizing triumphs all may participate with
a generous emulation. Yet it behooves us
to be prepared for any event, and to be al
ways ready to maintain those just and en
lightened principles of national intercourse,
for which this Government has ever con
tended. . In the shock of contending em
pires, it is only by assuming a resolute
bearing, and clothing themselves with de
fensive armor, that neutral nations can
maintain their independent rights.
The excitement which grew out of the
territorial controversy between the United
States and Great Britain having in a great
measure subsided it is hoped that a favora
ble period is approaching for its final set
tlement. Both Governments mL'st now be
convinced of the dangers with which the
question is frought; and it must be their,
desire, as it is their interest, that this per
petual cause of irritation should be remov
ed as speedily as possible. In my last an
nual message, you were informed that the
proposition for a commission of exploration
and survey promised by Great Britain had
been received, and that a counter project,
including also a provision for the certain
and final adjustment of the limits of dis
pute, was then before the British Govern
ment for its consideration. The answer of
that Government, accompanied by addi
tional propositions of its own was received,
through its minister here, since your sepa
ration. These were promptly considered ; j
such as were deemed correct in principle, j
and consistent with a due regard to the just
right of the United States and of the State
of Maine, concurred in ; and the reasons
for dissenting from the residue, with an
additional suggestion on our part, commu
nicated by the Secretary of State to Mr.
Fox. That minister, not feeling himself
sufficiently instructed upon some of the
points raised in the discussion, felt it to be
his duty to refer the matter to his own Go
vernment for its further decision. Having
now been for some time under its advise
ment, a speedy answer may be confident
ly expected. From tbe character of the
points still in difference, and the undoubt
ed disposition of both parties to bring
the matter to an early conclusion, I look
with entire confidence to a prompt and sat
isfactory termination of the negotiation.—
Three coni.nis.sioners.were appointed short
ly after the adjournment of Congress, un
der the act of the last session providing
for the exploration and survey of the line
which separates the States of Maine and
New Hampshire’ tem the Critish Provin
ces; they have bee* actively employed
until their progress was interrupted by the
iuulemonoy of the season; aitd Wilt resume
their labors as soon’ afe- practicable ih> the
ensuing year.
It is understood that their respective ex
antiftations will throw new light upon the
subject in controversy, and serve to re
move any erroneous impressions which
may have been made elsewhere prejudicial
to tfee rights of the United States, {t was
among other reasons, with a view of pre
venting the embarrassments which, ift our
peculiar system of government impede apd
complicate negotiations involving the ter
ritorial rights of a State, and I thought it
my duty, as you have been informed on a
previous occasion, to propose to the British
Government, through its minister at Wash
ington, that early steps should be taken to
adjust the points of difference on the line
of boundary from the entrance of Lake Su
perior to the most northwestern point of the
Lake of the Woods, by the arbitration of
a friendly power, in conformity with the
Ith article of the treaty ofGhent. No an
swer has yet been returned by the British
Government to this proposition.
With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia,
and the remaining powers of Europe, 1 am
happy to informwj*ou our relations continue
to be of the most friendly character. With
Belgium, a treaty of commerce and navi
gation, based upon liberal principles of
reciprocity and equality, was concluded
in March last, and, having bee a ratified’by
lb. Belgium government, will be duly
laid before the Senate.. Pt is- a subject of
congratulation that it provides for the sat
isfactory adjustment of a long'-standing
question of controversy;, thus removing
the only obstacle which could obstruct the
friendly and mutually advantageous inter
course between the two nations. A mes
senger has been despatched with the Han
overran treaty to Berlin, where, according
to- stipulation, the ratifications are to be
exchanged. lam happy to announce to
you that, after many delays and difficul
ties, a treaty xf commerce and navigation,
between the U-. States, and Portugal, was
concluded and signed at Lisbon,, on the
16th of August last, by (Tie plenipotentia
ries of the two Governments. Its stipula
tions are founded upon those principles of
mutual liberality and advantage which the
U. States have always sought to make the
basis of their intercourse witlii Foreign
Powers, and it is hoped they will tend to
foster and strengthen the commercial inter
course ofilre two countries.
Under tl*e appropriation of the las s ses
sion of Congress, an agent been ‘\-ntto
Germany, for the impose of;promoting the
interests of oqv tobacco trade.
n>C appointed under the
I conveo’,ton for the adjustment of claims of
, tne citizens of tho U. States upon Mexico
having met and organized at Washington,
in August last; the papers in the possess
ion of the Government, relating to those
claims, were communicated to the board.
The claims not embraced bv that conven
tion are now the subject of negotiation be
tween the two Governments, through the
medium ofour minister at Mexico.
Nothing has occurred to disturb the har
mony of our relations with the different
Governments of South America. 1 regret,
however, to be obliged to inform you that
the claims of our citizens upon the late
Republic ofColumbia have not yet been sat
isfied by the separate Governments into
which it has been resolved.
The Charge d'Affairs of Brazil having
expressed the intention of his Government
not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will
cease to be obligatory upon either party
on the 12th day of December 1841, when
the extensive commercial intercourse be
tween the U. States and that vast empire
will no longer be regulated by express sti
pulations.
It affords me pleasure to communicate
to you that the Government ofChili has en
tered into an agreement to indemnify the
claimants in the case of the Macedonian,
for American property seized in 1819, and
to add, that information has also been re
ceived which justifies the hope of an early
adjustment of the remaining claims upon
that Government.
The commissioners appointed pursuance
of the convention between the U. States and
Texas, for making the boundary between
them, have according to the last report re
ceived from our commissioner, surveyed
and established the whole extent of the
boundary north along the western bank of
the Sabine River, from its entrance into
the Gulf of Mexico to the 32d degree of
north latitude. The commission adjourn
ed on the 16th June last, to re-assemble on
the Ist of November, for the purpose of
establishing accurately the intersection of
the 32d degree of latitude with the west
ern bank of the Sabine, and the meridian
line thence to Red River. It is presumed
that the work will be concluded in the pre
sent season.
The present sound condition of their fi
nances, and the success with which em
barrassments in regard to them, at times
apparently insurmountable, have been o
vercome, are matters upon which the peo
ple and Government ofthe U. States may
well congratulate themselves. An over
flowing treasury, however, it may be re
garded as an evidence ofpublic prosperity,
is seldom conducive to the permanent wel
fare of any people ; and experience has de
monstrated its incompatibility with the sal
utary action of political institutions like
those ofthe U. Stales. Our safest reliance
for financial efficiency ?nd independence
has, on the contrary, been found to con
sist in ample resources unencumbered with
debt; and in this respect, the Federal Go
vernment occupies a singularly fortunate
and truly enviable position.
When I entered upon the discharge of my
official duties in March, 1837, the act for
the distribution of the surplus revenue was
in a course of rapid execution. Nearly
twenty-eight millions of dollars of the pub
lic moneys were in pursuance of its provi
sions, deposited with the States in the
month of January, April, and J uly, of that
year. In May there occurred a general
suspension of specie payments in the banks,
including with very few exceptions those
in which the’ public moneys were deposit
ed; and upon whose fidelity the Govern
ment fiedi unfortunately made itself depen
dent for the revenues which had been col
lected from the people, and were indispen
sable to the public service. This suspen
sion, and the excess in banking and com
merce out of which it arose, and which
Were greatly aggravated by its occurrence,
made, to a great extent unavailable the
principal pp-rt of the public money then on
hand; suspended the collection of millions
accruing on merchants’ bonds; and great
ly reduced the revenue arising from cus
toms and the public lands. These effects
have continued to operate in various de
grees to the present period ; and in addi
tion to the decrease in the revenue thus pro
duced, two and a half million of duties
have been relinquished by two. biennial re
ductions under the act of 1833* and prob
ably as much more upon the importations
of iron for rail roads, by special legisla
tion.
Whilst such has been our condition for
the last four years in relation to revenue,
we have, during the same period, been sub
jected to an unavoidable sontitiuance of
large extraordinary expenses necessarily
growing ontof past transactions, and which
could not be immediately attested without
great prejudice to the pubLic interest. Os
these, the charge upon the Treasury, the
consequences of the Cherokee treaty alone,
without adverting to others arising out of
Indian treaties, has already exceeded five
millions of dollars ; that for the prosecu
tion of measures for the removal of the Sem
inole Indians, which were found in pro
gress, has been nearly fourteen millions;
and the public buildings have required the
unusual sum of nearly three millions.
it affords me, however, great pleasure
to le able to say, that, from the commence
ment of this period to the present day,every
demand upon the Government, at home or
abroad, has been promptly met. This has
been done, not only without creating a per
manent debt, or a resort to additional tax
ation in any form, but in the midst of a
steadily progressive reduction of existing
burdens upon the people, h aving still a
considerable- balance of available funds
which w ill re-mein-in the Treasury a* the
end of the year. The small amount of
Treasury notes, not exceeding four and a
half millions of dollars, still''outstanding
and less Uy twenty.three millions than the
-'mted States have in deposite with the
States, is composed of such only as are not
yet due, or have not been presented for
payment. They may be redeemed out of
the accruing revenue, if the expenditures
do not exceed the amount within which they
may, it is thought, be kept without preju
dice to the public interest, and the revenue
shall prove to be as large as may justly be
anticipated.
Among the reflections arising from the
contemplation of these circumstances, one,
not the least gratifying, is the conscious
ness that the Government had the resolu
tion and ability to adhere in every emer
gency, to the sacred obligations of law ; to
execute all its contracts according to the
requirements of the Constitution ; and thus
to present, when most needed, a rallying
point by which the business of the whole
country might be brought back to a safe
and unvarying standard —a result vitally
important as well to the interests as to the
morals of the people. There can surely
now be no difference of opinion in regard
to the incalculable evils that would have
arisen ifthe Government, at that critical
moment, had suffered itself to be deterred
from upholding the only true standard of
value, either by the pressure of adverse cir
cumstances or the violence of unmerited
denunciation. The manner in which the
people sustained the performance of this
duty was highly honorable to their fortitude
and patriotism. It cannot fail to stimulate
their agents to adhere, under all circum
stances, to the line of duty ; and to satisfy
them of the safety with which a course re
ally right, and demanded by a financial
crisis, may, in a community like ours, be
pursued, however, apparently severe its
immediate operation.
The policy of the Federal Government
in extinguishing as readily as possible the
national debt, and, subsequently, in resis
ting every temptation to create anew one,
deserves to be regarded in the same favor
able light. Among the many objections to
a national debt, the certain tendency of
public securities to concentrate ultimately
in the coffers of foreign stockholders, is one
which is every day gathering strength.—
Already iave the resources of many of the
States, and the future industry of their cit
izens, been indefinitely mortgaged to the
subjects of European Governments, to the
amount of twelve millions annually, to pay
the constantly accruing interest of borrow
ed money—a sum exceeding half the ordi
nary revenue of the whole United States.
The pretext tvhieh this relation affords to
foreigners to scrutinize the management of
our domestic affairs, if not actually to inter
meddle with them, presents a subject for
earnest attention, not to say of serious a
larm. Fortunately, the Federal Govern
ment, with the exception of an obligation
entered into in behalf of the District ofCo
lumbia, which must soon be discharged, is
wholly exempt from any such embarrass
ment. It is also, as is believed, the only
government which having fully and faith,
fully paid all its creditors, has also reliev.
ed itselffrom debt. To maintain a distinc
tion so desirable and so honorable to our
national character, should be an object of
earnest solicitude. Never should a free
people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose
themselves to the necessity of having to
treat of the peace, the honor, or the safety
of the Republjg, with the Government of
foreign creditors, who, however well dis
posed they may be to cultivate with us in
general friendly relations, are neverthe
less. by the law of their own condition,
made hostile to the success and permanen
cy of political institutions like ours. Most
humiliating may be the embarrassments
consequent upon such a condition. Anoth
er objection, scarcely less formidable, to
the commencement of a fteW debt, is its in
evitable tendency to increase in magnitude,
and to foster national extravagance. He
has been an unprofitable observer of events,
who needs at this day to be admonished of
the difficulties which a Government, habit
ually dependent on loans to sustain its or
dinary expenditures, has to encounter in
resisting the influences constantly exerted
in favor of additional loans, by capitalists,
who enrich themselves by government se
curities for amounts much exceeding the
money they actually advance—a prolific
source of individual aggrandizement in all
borrowing countries ; by stockholders, who
seek their gains in the rise and fall of pub
lie stocks j and by the selfish importuni
ties of applicants for appropriations lor
works avowedly for the accommodation of
the public, but the real objects of which
are, too frequently, the advancement of
private interests. The known necessity
which so many of the States will be under
to impose taxes for the payment of the in
terest on their debts, furnishes an addition
al and very cogent reason why the Feder
al Government should refrain from crea
ting a national debt, by which the people
would be exposed to double taxation for
a similar object. We possess within our
selves ample resources for every emergen
cy; and we may be quite sure that our
citizens, in no future exigency, will be
unwilling to supply the Government with
all the means asked for the defence of the
country. In time of peace there can, at
all events, he no justification for the cre
ation of a permanent debt by the Federal
Government. Its limited range of consti
tutional duties may certainly, under such
circumstances, be performed without such
a resort. It has, it is seen, been avoided
during four years of greater fiscal difficul
ties than have existed in a similar period
since the adoption of the Constitution, and
one also remarkable for the occurrence of
extraordinary causes of expenditures.
But to accomplish so desirable an ob
ject, two things are indispensable : first,
that the action of the Federal Government
be kept within the boundaries prescribed by
its founders ; and, secondly, that all ap
propriations for objects admitted to be con
s'.uution&l, and the expenditures of them
also, be subjected to a standard of rigid but
well considered and practical economy.—
The first depends chiefly on the people
themselves, the opinions they form of the
true construction of the Constitution, and
the confidence they repose in the political
sentiments of those they select as their re
presentatives in the Federal Legislature;
thesecond restsupon the fidelity with which
their more immediate representatives, and
other public functionaries, discharge the
trusts committed to them. The duty of
economizing the expenses of the public ser
vice is admitted on all hands ; yet there
are few subjects on which there exists a
wider difference of opinion than is constant
ly manifested in regard to the fidelity with
: which that duty is discharged Neither
diversity of sentiment, nor even mutual
recriminations, upon a point in respect to
w'hich the public mind is so justly sensitive,
can well be entirely avoided ; and least so
at periods o>fgreat political excitement.—
An intelligent people, however, seldom
fail to arrive, in the end, at correct con
clusions in such a matter. Practical econ
omy in the management of public affairs
can have no adverse influence to contend
with more powerful than a large surplus
revenue ; and the unusually large appro
priations for 1837 may, without doubt, in
dependently of the extraordinary requisi
tions for the public service growing out of
the state of our Indian relations, be, in no
inconsiderable degree, traced to this source.
The sudden and rapid distribution of the
large surplus then in the Treasury, and
the equally sudden and unprecedentedly
severe revulsion in the commerce and bu
siness of the country, pointing with unerr
ing certainty to a great and protracted re
duction of the revenue, strengthened the
propriety of the earliest practicable reduc
tion of the public expenditures.
But, to change a system operating upon
so large a surface, and applicable to such
numerous and diversified interests and ob
jects, was more than the work of a day.—
The attention of every department of the
Government was immediately, and in good
faith, directed to that end ; and has been
so continued to the present moment. The
estimates and appropriations for the year
1838 (the first over which I had any con
trol) were somewhat diminished. The ex
penditures of 1839 were reduced six mil
lions ofdollars. Those of 1840, exclusive
ofdisbursements for public debt and trust
claims, will probably not exceed twenty
twoand a half millions ; being between two
and three millions less than those of the
preceding year, and nine or ten millions
less than those of 1837. Nor has it been
found necessary, in order to produce this
result, to resort to the power conferred by
Congress, of postponing certain classes
of the public works, except by deferring
expenditures for a short period upon a lim
ited portion of them ; and which postpone
ment terminated some time since, at the
moment the Treasury Department, by fur
ther receipts from the indebted banks, be
came fully assured of its ability to meet
them without prejudice to the public ser
vice in other respects. Causes are in op
eration which will, it is believed, justify
a still further reduction, without injury to
any important national interest. The ex
penses of sustaining the troops employed in
Florida have been gradually and greatly
reduced, through the persevering effort of
the War Department ; and a reasonable
hope may be entertained that the necessity
for military operations in that quarter will
soon cease. The removal of the Indians
from within our settled borders is nearly
completed. The pension list, one of the
heaviest charges upon the Treasury, is ra
pidly diminishing by death. The most
costly of our public buildings are either
done, or nearly so ; and we may, I think
safely promise ourselves a continued ex
emption from border difficulties.
The available balance in the Treasury
on the Ist of January next is estimated at
one million and a half of dollars. This
sum with the expected receipts from all
sources during the next year, will, it is be
lieved, be sufficient to enable the Govern
ment to meet every engagement, and leave
a suitable balance in the Treasury at the
end of the year, if the remedial measures
connected with the customs and the public
lands, heretofore recommended, shall be
adopted, and the new appropriations by
Congress shall not carry the expenditures
beyond the official estimates.
The new system established by Congress
for the safe keeping of the public money,
prescribing the kind of currency to be re
ceived for the public revenue, and provi
ding additional guards against losses, lias
now been several months in operation.
Although it might be premature, upon an
experience of such limited duration, to form
a definite opinion in regard to the extent of
its influence in correcting many evils un
der which the Federal Government and
the country have hitherto suffered—especi
ally those that have grown out of banking
expansions, a depreciated currency, and
official defalcations; yet it is but right to
say, that nothing has occurred in the prac
tical operation of the system to weaken in
the slightest degree, but much to streng'h
. n, the confident anticipations of its friends.
The grounds of these have been heretofore
so fully explained as to require no recapit
ulation. In respect to the facility and con
venience it affords in conducting the public
service, and the ability of the Government
to discharge through its agency every duty
attendant on the collection, transfer, and
disbursement of the public money with
promptitude and success, I can say, with
confidence, that the apprehensions of those
who felt ir to be their duty to oppose its a
doption have proved to be unfounded. On
the contrary, this branch of the fiscal affairs
of the Government has been, and it is be
lieved may always be, thus carried on with
every desirable facility and security. A
few changes and improvements in the de
tails of the system, without affecting any
principles involved in it, will be submitted
to you hy the Secretary of the Treasury,
and will, I am sure, receive at your hands,
that attention to which they may, on exami
nation, be found to be entitled.
I have deemed this brief summary of our
fiscal affairs necessary to the due perform
ance of a duty specially enjoined on me by
the constitution. It will serve also to illus
trate more fully the principles by which
I have been guided in reference to two con
tested points in our public policy, which
were earliest in their development, and
have been more important in their conse
quences, than any that have arisen under
our complicated and difficult, yet admira
ble, svstem of government; I allude to a
national debt, and a national bank. It was
in these that the political contests by which
the country has been agitated ever since the
adoption of the constitution, in a great mea
sure, originated : and there is too much rea
son to apprehend that the conflicting inter
ests and opposing principles thus marshal
led, will continue, as heretofore, to produce
similar, if not aggravated consequences.
Coming into office the declared enemy of
both, I have earnestly endeavored to pre
vent a resort to either.
The consideration that a large public
debt affords an apology, and produces in
some degree, a necessity also, for restoring
to a system and extent of taxation which is
not only oppressive throughout, but like
wise so apt to lead, in the end, to the com
mission of that most odious of all offences
against the principles of republican govern
ment—the prostitution of political power
conferred for the general benefit, to the ag
grandizement of particular classes, and the
gratification of individual cupidity—is a
lone sufficient, independently of the weigh
ty objections which have already been ur
ged, to render its creation and existence
the sources of bitter and unappeasable dis
cord. If vve add to this, its inevitable ten
dency to produce and foster extravagant ex
penditures ofthe public money, by which a
necessity is created for new loans and new
burdens on the people ; and, finally, if we
refer to the examples of every Government
which has existed, for proof, how seldom is
it that the system, when once adopted and
implanted in the policy of a country, has
failed to expand itself, until public credit
was exhausted, and the people were nolon
gerable to endure its increasing weight, it
seems impossible to resist the conclusion,
that no benefits resulting from its career,no
extent of conquest, no accession of wealth
to particular classes, nor any, nor all its
combined advantages, can counterbalance
its ultimate but certain results—a splendid
Government, and an impoverished people.
If a national bank was as is undeniable,
repudiated by the framers of the constitu
tion as incompatible with the rights of the
States and liberties of the people ; if, from
the beginning,it has been regarded by large
portions of our citizens as coming in direct
collision with that great and vital amend
ment of the constitution, which declares
that all powers not conferred by that instru
ment on the General Government are re
served to the States and to the people ;
if it has been viewed by them as the first
great step in the march of latitudinous con
struction, which, unchecked, would render
that sacred instrument of as little value
as an unwritten constitution, dependent as it
would alone be, for its meaning, on the in
terested interpretation of a dominant partv,
and affording no security to the rights of
the minority ; —if such is undeniably the
case, what rational grounds could have
been conceived for anticipating aught but
determined opposition to such an institution
at the present day ?
Could a different result have been expec
ted, when the consequences which have
flowed from its creation, and particularly
from its struggles to perpetuate its exist
ence, had confirmed, in so striking a man
ner, the apprehensions of its earliest oppo
nents ; when it had been so clearly demon
strated that a concentrated money-power,
wielding so vast a capital, and combining
such incalculable means of influence may,
in those peculiar conjunctures to which this
Government is unavoidably exposed, prove
an overmatch for the political power of the
people themselves; w hen the true character
of its capacity to regulate, according to its
will and its interests, and the interests of its
favorites, the value and production of the
labor and property of every man in this ex
tended country, had been so fully and fear
fully developed; when it was notorious
that all classes of this great community had
by means of the power and influence it thus
possesses, been infected to madness with a
spirit of heedlesss speculation ; when it had
been seen that, secure in the support of the
combination of influences by which it was
surrounded, it could violate its charter, Ac
set the law at defiance with impunity ; and
when, too, it had become most apparen t
that to believe that such an accumulation
of powers can ever be granted without the
certainty of being abused, was to indulge in
a fatal delusion ?
To avoid the necessity of a permanent
debt, and its inevitable consequences, I have
advocated and endeavored to carry into
effect, the policy of confining the appropri
ations for the public service to suen objects
only as are clearly within the constitutional
authority of the Federal Government; of
excluding from its expenses those improvi
dent and unauthorized grants of public
money for works of internal improvement,
which were so wisely arrested by the con
stitutional interposition of my predecessor,
and which, ii they had not been so checked
would long before this have involved the
finances of the General Government in em
barrassments far greater than those which
are now experienced by any ofthe States ;.
of limiting all our expenditures to that sim
ple, unostentatious, and economical admin
istration es public affairs, which is alone
consistent with the character of our institu
tions ; of collecting annually from the cus
toms and the sales of public lands, a reve
nue fully adequate to defray all the expein
ses thus incurred, but, under no pretence 1
whatsoever, to impose taxes upon the
people 1o a greater amount than was actu
ally necessary to the public service, con
ducted wpon the principles I have stated.
In lieu of a national bank, or a depend
ence upon banks of any description, for the
management of our fiscal affairs, I recom
mended the adoption ofthe system which-is
now in successful operation. The system
affords every requisite facility for the tran
saction ofthe pecuniary concerns of the
Government; will it is confidently antici
pated, produce in other respects many of
the benefits which have been from time to
time expected from the creation of a nation
al bank, but which have never been realL
zed ; avoid the manifold evils inseperable
from sueh an institution; diminish to a
greater extent than could be accomplished
by any other measure of reform, the pat
ronage of the Federal Government, but
more especially so in one likeours, which
works well only in proportion as it is made
to rely for its support upon the unbiassed
and unadulterated opinions of its constitu
ents ; do away, forever, all dependence on
corporate bodies, either in the raising, col
lecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the pub
lic revenues; and place the Government
equally above the temptation of fostering a
dangerous and unconstitutional institution
at home, or the necessity of adapting its
policy to the views and interests of a still
more formidable money-power abroad.
It is by adopting and carrying out these
principles, under circumstances the most
arduous and discouraging, that the attempt
has been made, thus far successfully, to
demonstrate to the people of the United
States that a national bank at all times, and
a national debt, except it be incurred at a
period when the honor and safety of the
nation demand the temporary sacrifice of a
policy, which should only be abandoned in
such exigencies, are not merely unnecessa
ry, but in direct and deadly hostility to the
principles of their Government, and to their
own permanent welfare.
The progress made in the developement
of these positions, appears in the preceding
sketch of the past histo-ry and present state
of the financial concerns of the Federal Go
vernment. The facts there stated fully au
thorize the assertion, that all the purposes
for which this Government was instituted,
have been accomplished during four years
of greater pecuniary embarrassment than
were ever before experienced in time of
peace, and in the face of opposition as for
midable as any that was ever before array
ed against the policy of an administration ;
that this has been done when the ordinary
revenues of tho Government were general
ly decreasing, as well from the operation of
the laws, as the condition of the country,
without the creation of a permanent public
debt, or incurring any liability, other than
such as the ordinary resources of the Gov
ernment will speedily discharge,and with
out the agency of a national bank.
If this view of the proceedings of the
Government, for the period it embraces, be
warranted by the facts as they are known
to exist; if the army and navy have been
sustained to the full extent authorized by
law, and which Congress deemed sufficient
for the defence of the country and the pro
tection of its rights and its honor; if its ci
vil and diplomatic service has been equal
ly sustained ; if ample provision has been
made for the administration of justice and
the execution of the laws ; if the claims
upon public gratitude in behalf of the sol
diers of the Revolution have been promptly
met, and faithfully discharged; if there
have been no failures in defraying the very
large expenditures growing out of that long
continued and salutary policy of peaceful
ly removing the Indians to regions of com
parative safety and prosperity ; if the pub
lic faith has at all times, and everywhft-e,
been most scrupulously maintained by a
prompt discharge of the numerous, extend
ed, and diversified claims on the Treasury;
if all these great and permanent objects,
with many others that might be stated,
have, for a series of years, marked by pe
culiar obstacles and difficulties, been suc
cessfully accomplished without a resort to
a permanent debt, or the aid of a national
bank; have we not a right to expect that a
policy, the object of which has been to sus
tain the public service independently of
either of these fruitful sources of discord,
will receive the final sanction of a people
whose unbiassed and fairly elicited judge
ment upon public affairs is never ultimately
wrong ?
.That embarrasments in the pecuniary
concerns ofindividuals, of unexampled ex
tent and duration, have recently existed in
this as in other commercial nations, is un
doubtedly true. To suppose it necessary
now to trace these reverses to their sources
would be a reflection on the intelligence of
my fellow-citizens. Whatever may have