The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 22
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APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
S.im
28th Cong 2d Sess.
Report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Senate and H, of Reps.
3d. To show' the existing seeurity for the pay-
ment of interest, and the ultimate redemption of the
principal of the public debt.
4th. To propose the establishment of such a sink-
ing fund as will anticipate and accelerate the final
satisfaction of the public debt.
1st. During the revolutionary war, and antecedent-
ly to the adoption of the federal constitution, the
thirteen United States had- contracted debts to the .
- sum of seventy-five millipn four hundred and six-
teen thousand four hundred and seventy-six dollars
and fifty-two cents. ,
On the 1st of January, 1790, the foreign debt, viz:
to Prance, Spain, and to. foreign officers, including
interest for the year 1790, amounted to the sum of
twelve million five hundred and fifty-six thousand
eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and twenty-
eight cents; and the domestic debt to $60,219,022 44—
together amounting to the sum of $72,775,893 72.
The population of the United States then numbered
three million nine hundred and seventy-seven
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven souls, ac-
cording to the census of that year.
On the 1st January, 1800, the national debt
amounted to §82,976,294 35; and the population of
the United States numbered five million three
hundred and five thousand nine hundred and twenty
souls, according to the census of that year.
On the 1st January, 1810, the debt of the United
States amounted to'|53,173,217 52, and the popula-
■ tion numbered seven million two hundred and thir-
ty-nine thousand six hundred and fourteen souls,
according to the census of that year.
On the 1st January, 1816, the public debt had in-
creased to the sum of one hundred and twenty-
seven million three hundred and thirty-four thou-
sand nine hundred and thirty-three dollars and
seventy-four ccnts. This great increase was caused
.by the war of 1812, terminated by the treaty of
Ghent of 1815, for the expenditures of which the
taxes had been increased, the loans obtained
amounted to the sum of $70,478,209 73; and treas-
ury notes were issued to the sum of $36,680,794-rj
together making §107,159,003 73.
On the 1st January, 1820, the public debt had
been reduced to the sum of $91,015,566 15. The
population, as numbered by the census of that year,
consisted of nine million six hundred and thirty-
eight thousand one hundred and thirty-one souls.
On the 1st January, 1830, the public debt was
reduced to the sum of §48,565,406 50. The popu-
lation numbered twelve million eight hundred and
sixty-six thousand and twenty souls, according to
the census of that year.
On the 7th December, 1835, the President's mes-
sage announced that "All the remains of the public
debt have been redeemed, or money has been placed
in deposit for this purpose whenever the creditors
choose to receive it. All the other pecuniary en-
gagements have been promptly and honorably ful-
filled, and there will be a balance in the treasury at
the close of the present year of about nineteen mil-
lions of dollars." On the 6th February, 1836, the
commissioners of the sinking fund, and the leport
of the Secretary of the Treasury, stated that all the
debt had been paid except the sum of $37,513 05,
which consisted of claims for services and supplies
during the revolutionary war, §27,437 96; treasury
notes issued during the war of 1812, §5,755; Mis-
sissippi stock issued under the act of the 3d March,
1815, §4,320 09; and they renewed their recommend-
ation that the sinking fund, and the commissioners
of the sinking fund, be discontinued. It may be
presumed that those treasury notes issued in the
was of 1812 and not presented for payment have
been destroyed, and that of the other sums so long
due and unclaimed, only a small part (if any) will
ever 16 presented for payment.
From the 31st December, 1789, to the 31st De-
cember, 1835, the United Stateg paid, for interest on
the public debt, the sum of §157,629,950 69; and
for the principal, the sum of §257,452,083 24—to-
gether making the sum of four hundred and fifteen
millions eighty-two thousand thirty-three dollars
ninety three cents.
The national income, out of which, that extraor-
dinary sum of four hundred '< .id fifteen millions of
dollars was paid, over and above the ordinary an-
nual expenditures, (which, during that period of
forty-six years, exceeded five hundred millions of
dollars,) was derived principally from the duties on
imports and tonnage, and the sales of the public
lands. Direct taxes and internal duties and excises
' were employed, from and after the 8th day of May,
J 792, until the 3tfth June, 1803, when they were re-
pealed; and again enacted in the year 1813, and re-
pealed 31st December, 1817. A system of direct
taxes and internal duties has been resorted to only
in emergencies, and has prevailed only for about
fifteen years of the fifty-five which have elapsed
since the federal constitution was adopted.
The moral power, courage, and capabilities, by
which a nation in its infancy, loaded with a debt of
the revolutionary war of such magnitude, harassed
by Indian wars, and incumbered by another debt of
the war of-1812, terminated in 1815, discharged
those debts faithfully—exhibiting to a gazing and
astonished world the example of a nation who had
exerted such energies, of a government without a
national debt, with an overflowing treasury, and
without direct taxes, internal duties; and excises—
are to be looked for in the genius of the government,
the integrity of those who have been elected to ad-
minister it, the good sense, honesty, and enterprise
of the citizens, and lastly, though not least, in the
beneficent smiles of all wise and protecting Provi-
dence.
The general modes of operation have been by dis-
tributiug over a succession of years' the costs of the
extraordinary efforts found necessary in - some; ac-
celerating the prompt employment of the abilities of
the nation; using a part of the overplus of others;
leaving every" citizen to choose his occupation; pro-
tecting him m the free enjoyment of life, religion,
property, and the means of acquirement; taking no
more from the earnings of industry, nor encroaching
farther upon the comforts of life, than necessary to
support a government economically administered;
making our country,an asylum for oppressed hu-
manity, and inviting the people of all nations to par-
take of the blessings of a free government. By
such means stimulus has been given to the
increase of our population, insomuch that from
less than the number of four millions of souls
in the year 1790, they had increased to up-
wards of seventeen millions in the year 1840, and
may now (according to the ratio of increase exhibit-
ed by the successive enumerations taken every tenth
year) be stated at not less than nineteen millions
seven hundred thousand souls. A debt which would
have been oppressive and intolerable if levied upon
four millions of people, has been found not oppres-
sive when distributed over a period of forty-six years
and levied upon a continually increasing population.
The particular means by which the interest has
been paid annually, the principal lessened,gradually,
and finally redeemed, were by the operations of a
sinking fund, regulated by the act of the C®n-
gress of the 4th August, 1790, by which
the surplus of certain tuxes, and the proceeds
of sales of the public lands, after paying the ordina-
ry annual expenses of the government, were pledged
and appropriated inviolably to pay the interest and
redeem the principal of the public debt; further reg-
ulated by the act of 12th August, 1790; augmented
by the act of 8th May, 1792; further regulated by
the act of 3d March, 1795; further increased by the
act of April 7th, 1798, by which the proceeds of
sales of the lands ceded by the State of Georgia
were added; further augmented by the act of April
29th, 1802, by which the specific sum of seven mil-
lion three hundred thousand dollars annually was
appropriated, to he paid to the commissioner of the
sinking fund, which was increased to ten millions
annually by the act of March 3d, 1817. This latter
act added to the ten millions .such surplus as should
remain unappropriated after leaving two millions in
the treasury for contingencies, and directed all certi-
ficates of stocks redeemed by the commissioner of
the sinking fund to be cancelled.
By means of the appropriations and provisions
for the sinking fund, the sums of §24,871,062 93 in
the year 1816; §25,423,036 12 in the year 1817;
§21,926,209 62 in the year 1818; §16,568,393 76 in
the year 1834; §16,174,378 22 in the year 1831;
§17,840,309 29 in the year 1832, were applied to
the payment of the interest and principal, besides
the smaller sums in other years, until the debt was
extinguished in the year 1835, as before noticed.
Such has been the effect of the sinking fund: such
has been the scrupulous good faith which has been
observed by the United States towards the creditors
of the government.
2. As to the resources of the United States for
public revenue, and increasing the national income,
when exigencies shall require.
The public lands of the United States, stretching
from the lakes of the North to the Gulf of Mexico,
and from the foot of the Apalachian mountains
westward to the Pacific ocean, constitute a "domain
of incalculable value.
The public lands are to be considered/first, in
respect of the price for which they can be sold in
successive years to the increasing population- sec-
ondly, in respect of the increased revenue which can
be derived from the increased population which
those fertile lands are capable Of sustaining.
Reasoning from the past to the future—from the
increase and spread of our population in the pre-
ceding fifty years to the succeding half century
from the ratio of increase from less than four mil-
lions, by the census of 1790, to upwards of seven-
teen millions, by the census of 1840, and how not
less than nineteen millions seven hundred thousand,
to the number which will be jn the ensuing fifty
years,—it may confidently be affirmed that, by that
time, the population of the United States wilt exceed
seventy millions, covering with continuous connect-
ed settlements the lands from our present frontier
settlements all the way to the Pacific ocean. New
lands, at moderate prices, to be brought into culti-
vation by the rising generations are sure founda-
tions, under our institutions, for the rapid increase
of civilized men; and land and labor, agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, are the true elements
of national wealth, national income, and national
strength.
The proceeds of sales of the public lands, with
duties on imports and tonnage, without direct taxes,
internal duties, or excises, have hitherto been suffi-
cient, in times of peace, to defray the ordinary an-
nual supplies necessary for the support of the na-
tional government, and to yield a surplus for the
sinking fund; also for laying up supplies of arms and
other munitions of war; the gradual augmentation of
the navy, the support of the army, the erecting of
fortifications, light-houses, surveying the coasts, &c.
In the wide extended domain, in the rapid increase
of population, in the physical and intellectual
energy and enterprise of the people, in the conse-
quent increase of agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce, with a government consulting the-gen-
eral welfare and conducting to the true temple of
liberty, the United States of America presents to the
view of mankind a nation. comparatively youthful,
of unsurpassed resources, indicative of gigantic
strength and great moral power. 'Prom thirteen the
States have increased to the number of twenty-six,
spreading over widely extended new territories.
By the instrumentality of State governments for
regulating their domestic affairs, with a federal gov-
ernment for regulating those which concern all,
and particularly commerce, foreign relations, and
the general defence, the United States of America
are capable of expansion over the continent, with-
out relaxing the force of law and order at the ex-
tremities, and without degenerating into tyranny.
In th,e union of the State and federal government we
have a tower of strength, sentinels to guard against
encroachments, preserve public liberty and domes-
tic order, and secure the general felicity. If this,
the fairest fabric of human government, shall nod
from on high and totter to its fall, the sad catastro-
phe will be caused by sacrilegious violators of the
terms of mutual concession and compromise on
which the constitution of the United Stateis is found-
ed. Against any attempt at such violations it is
the duty of all good citizens to oppose their united
strength.
3. As to the existing security forpayment of in-
terest and the ultimate redemption of the principal
of the public debt.
By the act of 21st July, 184), a loan not exceed-
ing the sum of twelve millions of dollars was au-
thorized, reinbursable at any time after three years
from the first day of January, in the year 1842.
By the fourth section of that act, the Secretary of
the Treasury is authorized to purchase, at any time
before the period limited for redemption of the
stock, such portion thereof as the funds of the gov-
ernment may admit of, after meeting all demands
upon the treasury, and any surplus in the treasury
is appropriated to that object.
By the fifth section of • that act, the faith of the
government is expressly pledged for the punctual
payment of the interest and the redemption of the
certificate of stock.
Under the provisions of thatact, certificates of stock
were issued to the sum of §5,672,976 88, bearing
interest at the rate of five and a-half per cent, per
year, redeemable on the first day of January, in the
year 1845. These certificates of stock will be paid
on that day, if presented; the funds in the treasury
are sufficient for the purpose. The facretaty of the
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, legislative document, 1845; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2366/m1/446/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.