m <JEO. w. BOtl lIAIV. NEW SERIES. PRESIDirniESSiIiE. Bead in Conjtress, Tuesday, Dee. 52, IK.iG. Fdloic-Cif iz p ns of ike Senate and House of Representatives: __ The Constitution requires that the President shall* fr° m t ' me ,0 time, not only recommend to the consideration of Congress such measures a, he may j"dge necessary and expedient, but also that he shall give information to them of the slate of the Union. To do this fully in volves exposition of all matters in the actual condition of tile country, domestic or foreign, which essentially concern the general welfare. While performing his constitutional duty in this respect, the President does not speak mere ly to express personal convictions, but as the ex ecutive minister of the government, enabled bv hi, position, and called upon by his official ob lations, to scan with an impartial eye, the in terests of the whole, and of every pait of the United Stales. Of the condition of the domestic interests of the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufactures, navigation and commerce, it is necessary only to sav that the internal prosperity of the coun try, its continuous and steady advancement in wealth and population, and in private as well as public well-being, attest the wisdom of our institutions, and the predominant spirit of intel ligence and patriotism, which, notwithstanding occasional irregularities of opinion or action re sulting from popular freedom, has distinguished and characterized the people of America. In the brief interval between the termination of the last and the commencement of the pres ent session of Congress, the public mind has been occupied with the care of selecting, for a nolher constitutional term, the President and Vice President of the United States. The determination of the persons who are of right, or contingently, to preside over the ad ministration of the government, is, under our svstcm, committed to the States and the people. We appeal to them, by their voice pronounced in the forms of law, to call whomsoever they will to the high post of Chief Magistrate. And thus it is that as the Senators represent the re spective States of the Union, and the members of the House of Representatives the several constituencies of each State, so the President represents the aggregate population of the Uni ted Slates. Their election of him is the expli cit and solemn act of the sole sovereign author ity of the Union. It is impossible to misapprehend the great principles, which, by their recent political ac tion, the people of the United States have sanc tioned and announced. They have asserted the constitutional equali ty of each and all of the States of tlie Union as States : they have affirmed the constitutional equality of each and all of the citizens of the United Slates as citizens, whatever their reli gion, wherever their birth, or (heir residence; they have maintained the inviolability of the constitutional rights of the different sections of the Union ; and they have proclaimed their de voted and unalterable attachment to the Union and to tlie Constitution, as objects of interest superior to all subjects of local or sectional con troversy, as the safeguard of the rights of all, as the spirit and the essence of the liberty, peace and greatness of the Republic. In doing this, they have, at the same time, emphatically condemned the idea of organizing in these United States mere geographical par ties; of marshalling in hostile array towards ■ach other the different parts of the country, Noith or South, East or West. Schemes of this nature, fraught with incal culable mischief, and which the considerate sense of the people has rejected, could have had countenance in no pait of the country, had they not been disguised by suggestions plausible in appearance, acting upon an excited state of the irund, induced by causes temporary in their character, and it is to be hoped transient in their influence. Perfect liberty of association for political ob jects, and the widest scope of discussion, are the received and ordinaiv conditions of gov ernment in our country. Our institutions, fra med in the spirit of confidence, in the intelli gence and integrity of the people, do not forbid citizens either individually or associated togeth er, to attack bv writing, speech or any other methods short of physical force, the Constitu tion and the very existence of the Union. Un der the shelter of this great liberty, and pro tected by the laws arid usages of 'he govern ment they assail, associations have been formed, •in some of the States, of individuals, who, pre tending to seek only to prevent the spread of the institution of slavery into the present or fu ture inchoate States of the Union, are really inflamed with desire to change the domestic in stitutions of existing States. To accomplish 'heir objects, they dedicate themselves to the o dious task of depreciating the government or ganization which stands in their way, and of ca ■umniating, with indiscriminate invective, not °°'y the citizens of particular States, with whose laws they find fault, but ail othprs of <Neir fellow-citizens throughout the country, who do not participate with them in their as saults upon the Constitution, formed and adopt ed by our fathers, and claiming for the privile ges it has secured, and the blessings it has con f-rred, the steady support and grateful rever ence of their children. They seek an object which they well know to be a revolutionary one. I hey are perfectly awarp that the change in ! ne relative condition of the white and black races in the slaveholding States, which they would promote, is beyond their lawful authori ty that to them it is a foreign object; that it cannot be effected by any peaceful instrumen tality of theirs; that for them, and trie Stales °t which they are citizens, the only path to its accomplishment is through burning cities, and ravaged fields, and slaughtered populations, and all these is most terrible in foreign, complies- i ted with civil and servile war; and that the first step in the attempt is the forcible disrup tion of a country embracing in its broad bosoin a degree of liberty, and an amount of individ ual and public prosperity, to which there is no parallel in history, and substituting in its place hostile governments, driven at once and inevi tably into mutual devastation and fratricidal carnage, transforming the now peaceful and fe licitous brotherhood into a vast permanent camp of armed men like the rival monarchies of Eu rope and Asia. Well knowing that such, and such only, are the means and the consequences of their plans and purposes, they endeavor to prepare the people of the United States for civ il war by doing everything in their power to deprive the Constitution and the laws of moral authority, and to undermine the fabric of the U- ; nion by appeals to passion and sectional preju dice, by indoctrinating its people with jwlitical hatred, and educating them hi stand face fo face as enemies, rather than shoulder to shoulder as friends. It is by the agency of such unwarrantable interference, foreign and domestic, that the minds of many, otherwise good citizens, have been so intiarr.ed into the passionate condemna tion of the domestic institutions of the southern States, as at length to pass insensibly to almost equally passionate hostility towards their fel low-citizens of those States, and thus finally to fall into temporary fellowship with the avowed and active enemies of the Constitution. Ar dently attached to iibertv in the abstract, they do not stop to consider practically how the ob jects they would attain can be accomplished, nor to reflect, that, even if the evil were as great as they deem it, they have no remedy to apply, and that it can be only aggravated bv their violence and unconstitutional action. A question, which is one of the most difficult of all the problems of social institution, political economy and statesmanship, they treat with un reasoning intemperance of thought and lan guage. Extremes beget extremes. Violent at tack in the North finds its inevitable conse quence in the growth of a spirit of angry defi ance at tlie South. Thus in the progress of e vents we had reached that consummation which the voice of the people has now so pointedly rebuked of the attempt of a portion of the States, by a sectional organization and move ment, to usurp the control of the government of tlie United States. I confidently believe that the great body of those who inconsideiately took this fatal step, are sincerely attached to the Constitution and the Union. They would, upon deliberation, shrink with unaffected horror from any con scious act of disunion or civil war. But they have entered into a path which leads nowhere, unless it leads to civil war and disunion, and which has no other possible nutlet. They have proceeded thus far in that direction, in conse quence of the successive stages of their prog ress having consisted of a series of secondary issues, each of which professed to be confined within constitutional and peaceful limits, hut which attempted indirectly what a few men were willing to do directly, that is, to act ag gressively against the constitutional rights of nearly one-half of the thirty-one States. In the long series of acts of indirect aggres sion, the first was the strenuous agitation, by citizens of the northern States, in Congress and out of it, of the question of negro emancipa tion in the southern States. The second step in this path of evil consisted of acts ol the people of the northern States, and in several instances of their governments, aimed to facilitate the escape ot persons held to service in the southern States, and to pre vent their extradition when reclaimed according 1o law, and in viitue ef express provisions of the Constitution. To promote this object, legis lative enactments and other means were adopt ed to take away or defeat rights which the Con stitution solemnly guarantied. In order to nul lity the then existing act of Congress concern ing the extradi'ion of fugitives from service, laws were enacted in many States forbidding their officers, under the severest penalties, to participate in the execution of any act of Con gress whatever. In this way that system of harmonious co-operation between the authori ties of the United States and of the several States, for the maintenance of their common institutions, which existed in the early years of the republic, was destroyed ; conflicts of juris diction came to be frequent; and Congress found itself compelled, for the support of the Constitution, and the vindication of its power, to authorize the appointment of new officers charged with Ihe execution of its acts, as if they and the officers of the Stales were the ministers, respectively, of foreign governments ; in a state of mutual hostility, rather than fellow magistrates in a common country, peacefully subsisting under the protection of one well con stituted Union. Thus here, also, aggression was followed by re-action ; and the attacks up on the Constitution at this point did hut serve to raise up new barriers for its defence and se curity. The third stage of this unhappy sectional controversy was in connection with the organi zation of territorial governments, and the ad mission of new States into the Union. When it was proposed to admit the Slate of Maine, by separation of territory from that of Mas sachusetts, and the State of Missouri for med of a portion of the territory ceded by France to the United States, representatives in Congress objected to the admission of the lat ter, unless with conditions suited to particular views of public policy. The imposition of such a condition was successfully resisted. But, at the same period, the question was presented of imposing restrictions upon ihe residue of the territory ceded by France. That question was, for the time, disposed of by the adoption of a geographical line of limitation. In this connexion it should not be forgotten that France, of her own accord, resolved, for considerations of the most far-sighted sagacity, FRIDAY MORNING, BEDFORD, PA. DEC. 12, 1856. to cede Louisiana to the United Stales, and that accession was accepted bv the United States, the latter expressly engaged that 'the inhabitants of the ceded teeritory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the "principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the mean time they shall he maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, properly, and the religion which they profess'—that is to, say, while it remains in a territorial condition, its inhabitants are maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and proper ty, with a right then to pass into the condition ot States on a footing of perfect equality with the original Stales. The enactment, which established the res trictive geographical line, was acquiesced in rather than approved by the States of the Un ion. It stood on the statute hooks, however for a number of years; and the people of the res pective States acquiesced in the re-enactment of the principle as applied to the State of Tex as : and it was proposed to acquiesce in its fur ther application to the territory acquired bv the United States from Mexico. But this proposi tion was successfully resisted by the represen tatives from the Northern States, who, regard less of the line, insisted upon applying restric tion to the new territory generally, whether ly ing North or Soulh of it, thereby repealing it as a legislative compromise, and, on the part of the North, persistently violating the compact, if compact there was. Thereupon this enactment ceased to have binding virtue in any sense, whether as respects the North or the South : and so in effect it was treated on the occasion of the admission of the State of California, and the organization of the Territories of New Mexico, Utah and Wash ington. Such was the State of this question when the timeariived for the organization of the Terri tories ot Kansas arid Nebraska. In the progress of constitutional inquiry and reflection, it had now at length come to be seen clearly that Con gress does riot possess constitutional power to impose restrictions of this character upon any present or future State of the Union. In a long series of decisions, on the fullest argument, and after the most deliberate considerations, the Su preme Court of the United Slates had finally determined this point, in every form under which the question could arise, whether as af fecting publics private rights—in questions of the public dorp&iri, of religion, of navigation, and of servitude. The several States of tile Union are, bv force of the Constitution, co-equal in domestic legis lative power. Congress cannot change a law of domestic relation in the State of Maine; no more can it in Ihe State of Missouri. Any statute which promises to do this is a mere nul lity it takes away no right, it confers none.— If it remains on the statute book unrepealed, it remains there only as monument of error, and a beacon of uarrring to the legislator and tlie statesman. To repeal it will tie onlv to remove imperfection from the statutes without affecting, either in the sense of permission or of prohibi tion, the action of the States, or of their citi zens. Still, when the nominal restriction of this nature, already a dead letter in law, was in terms repealed by the last Congress, in a clause of the act organizing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, that repeal was made the occa sion of a wide spread and dangerous agita tion. It was alleged that the original enactment being a compact of perpetual moral obligation, its repeal constituted an odious breach of faith. An act of Congress, while it remains unre pealed, more especially i( it be constitutionally valid in the judgment of those public function aries whose duty it is to pronounce on that point, is undoubtedly binding on the conscience of each good citizen of the Republic. But in what sense can it he asserted that the enactment in question was invested with perpetuity and entitled to the respect of a solemn compact T Between whom was the compact ? No dis tinct contending powers of the government, no seperate sections of the Union, treating as such, entered into treaty stipulations on the sub ject. It uas a mere clause of an act of Congress, and like any other controverted matter of legis lation received its final shape and was passed by compromise of the conflicting opinions or sentiments of the members of Congress. But if it had moral authority over men's conscien ces, to whom did this authority attach? Not to those of the North, who had repeatedly refused to confirm it by extension, and who bad zeal ously striven to establish other and incompati ble regulations upon tbe subject. And if, as it thus appears, the supposed compact had no ob ligatory force as to the North, of course it could not have had any as to the South, for all such compacts must be mutual and of reciprocal obligation. It has not unfrequently happened that law givers, with undue estimation of the value of the law they givp, or in the view of imparting to it peculiar strength, make it perpetual in terms; but they cannot thus bind the con science, the judgment, and the will of those who may succeed them, invested with similar responsibilities, and clothed with equal authori ty. More careful investigation may prove the law to be unsound in principle. Experience may show it to be imperfect in detail and im practicable in execution. And then both rea son combine not merely to justify, but to re quire its repeal. The Constitution, supreme as it is over all the departments of the government, legislative, executive and judicial, is open to amendment by its very terms ; and Congress or the States may, in their discretion, propose amendment to it, solemn compact though it be between the sovereign States of the Union. In the present instance, a political enactment, which had Freedom of Thought and Opinion. j ceased to have legal power or authority of any | kind, was repealed. The position assumed, that Congress had no moral right to enact such re peal, was strange enough, and singularly so in view of the fact that the argument came from those who openly refused obedience to existing laws of the laud, having the same popular de signation and quality as compromise acts—nay, more, who unequivocally disregard and con demn the most positive and obligatory injunc tions of the Constitution itself, and sought, by every means within their reach, to deprive a jxirtion of their fellow-citizens of the equal en joyment of (hose rights and privileges guaran teed alike to all by the fundamental compact of our Union. This argument against the repeal of the sta tute line in question, was accompanied by a noftier of congenial character, and equally with the foimer destitute of foundation in reason and truth. It was imputed that the measure origi nated in the conception of extending the limits of slave labor beyond those previouly assigned to it, and that such was its natural as well as intended effect ; and these baseless assumptions were made, in the Northern States, the ground of unceasing assault upon constitutional right. The repeal in terms of a statute, which was already absolete, and also null for unconstitu tionality, could have no influence to obstruct or to promote the propagation of conflicting views of political or social institution. When the act organizing the Territories of Kansas and Ne baaska was passed, the inherent effect upon that portion of the public domain opened to le gal settlement, was to admit settlers from all the States of the Union alike, each with his convictions of public policy and private inter est, there to found in their discretion, subject to such limitations as the Constitution and acts of Congress might prescribe, new Stales, hereafter to be admitted into the Union. It was a free field, open alike to all, whether th; statute line of assumed restriction were re pealed or not. The repeal did not open to free competition of the diverse opinions and domes tic .institutions a field, which, without such re peal, would have been closed against them ; it found that field of competition already opened, in fact and in law. All the repeal did was to relieve the statute book of an objectionable enactment, unconstitutional in effect, and injurious in terms to a large portion of the States. ■*. Is it the fact that, in all the unsettled regions of the United States, if emigiation be left free to act in this respect for it-e|f, without legal prohibit ions on either side, slave labor w ill spon taneously go everywhere, in preference to free labor ? Is it the fact, that the peculiar domes tic institutions of the Southern Slates possess relatively so much of vigor, that, wheresoever an £vent)e is freely open to all the world, they will penetrate to the exclusion of those of the Northern States? Is it the fact, that the for mer enjoy, compared with the latter, such irre sistibly superior vitality, independent of cli mate, soil and all other accidental circumstan ces, as to be able to produce the supposed re sult, in spite of the assumed moral and natur al obstacles to its accomplishment, and of the more numerous population of the Northern States ? Of course these imputations on the intentions of Congress in this respect, conceived as they were in prejudice and disseminated in passion, are utterly destitute of any justification in the nature ol things, and contrary to all the funda mental doctrines and principles of civil liberty and self-government. The argument of those who advocate the en actment of new laws of restris tion, and con demn the repeal of old ones, in effect av rs that their paiticular views of government have no self-extending or self-sustaining jower of their own, and will go nowhere unless forced bv act of Congress. And it Congress do but pause for a moment in the policy of stern coercion—if it venture to try the experiment of leaving men to judge for themselves what institutions will best suit them—if it be not strained up to per petual legislative exertion on this point—if Congress proceed thus to act in the very spirit of liberty, it is at once charged with aiming to extend slave labor into all the new territories of the United States. While, therefore, in general, the people of the Northern States have never, at any time, arrogated for the federal government the power to interfere directly with the domestic condition of the persons in the Southern States, hut, on the contrary, have disavowed all such inten tions, and have shrunk from conspicuous affilia tion with those few who pursue their fanatical objects avowedly through the contemplated means of revolutionary change of the govern ment, and with acceptance of the necessary consequences—a civil and servile war—yet rnanv citizens have suffered themselves to be drawn into one evanescent political issue of ag itation after another, appertaining to the same set of opinions, and which subsided as rapidly as they arose when it came to be seen, as it uniformly did, that they were incompatible with the compacts of the Constitution and the existence of the Union. Thus, when the acts of some of the Slates to nullify the existing ex tradition law, imposed upon Congress the duty of passing a new one, the country was invited by agitators to enter into party organization for its repeal; but that agitation speedily ceased bv reason of the impracticability of its object. So, when the statute restriction upon the institu tions of new Slates, by a geographical line, had been repealed, the country was inged to de mand its restoration, and that project also died almost with its birth. Then follows the cry of alarm from the North against imputed Southern encroachments; which cry sprang in reality from the spirit of revolutionary attack on the domestic institutions of the South, and, after a troubled existence of a few months, has been re buked by the voice of a patriotic people. Of this last agitatiton one lamentable feature was, that it was carried on at the immediate expense of the peace and happiness of the peo- 1 pie of the territory of Kansas. That was made the battle-field, not so much of opposing fac tions or interests within itself as of the con flicting passions of the whole people of the U nited States. Revolutionary disorder in Kan sas had its origin in projects of intervention, de liberately arranged by certain members of that Congress which enacted the law for the organ ization of the territory. And when propagan dist colinizalion of Kansas had thus been under taken in one section of the Union, for the sys tematic promotion of its views of policy, there ensued, as a matter of course, a counteraction with opposite views in other sections of the U nion. In consequence of these and other incidents, many acts of disorder, it is understood, have been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional interruption, rather than the permanent suspen sion, of regular government. Aggressive and most reprehensible incursions into the territory were undertaken, both in the North and the South, and entered in on its northern border by way of lowa, as well ason the eastern byway of Missouri, and there has existed within it a state of insurrection against the constituted au thorities, not without countenance from incon siderate persons in each ofthe great sections of the Union. But the difficulties in that Terri tory have been extravagantly exaggerated for pur[>oseß of political agitation elsewhere. The number and gravity of the acts of vio lence have been magnified partly by statements entirely untrue, and partly by federated ac counts of the same rumors or facts. Thus the Territory has been seemingly filled with ex treme violence, when the whole amount of such acts has not been greater than what occasional ly passes before us in single cities to the regret of all good citizens, but without being regard ed as of general or permanent political conse quence. Imputed irregularities in the elections held in Kansas, like occasional irregularities of the tame description in the States, were beyond the sphere of the Executive. But incidents of ac tual violence or of organized obstruction oflaw, pertinaciously renewed from time to time, have been met as they occurred, by such means as were available and as the circumstances requir ed: and nothing of this character now remains to affect the general peace of the Union. The attempt of a part of the inhabitants of the ter ritory to erect a revolutionary Government, though sedulously encouraged and supplied with pecuniary aid from active agents of disor der in some of the States, has completely failed. Bodies of armed men, foreign to the territory, have been prevented from enteiing, or compel led to leave it. Predatory bands, engaged in acts of rapine, under cover of the existing poli tical disturbances, have been arrested or dis persed. And every well disposed person is now enahled once more to devote himself in peace to the pursuits of prosperous industry, for the prosecution of which he undertook to partici pate in the settlement of the Territory. It adords me unmingled satisfaction thus to announce the peaceful condition of things in Kansas, especially considering the means to which it was necessary to have recourse for the attainment of the end, namely, the employment of a part of the military force of the U. S. The withdrawal of that force from its proper duty of defending the country against fereign foes or the savages of the frontier, to employ it for the suppression of domestic insurrection, is, when the exigency occurs, a matter of the most earn est solicitude. On this occasion of imperative necessity, it has been done with the best results, and my sa tisfaction in the attainment of such results by such means is greatly enhanced by the conside ration that, through the wisdom and energy of the present Executive of Kansas, and the pru dence, firmness, and vigilance of the military officers on duty there, tranquility has heen res tored without oue drop of blood having been shed in its accomplishment by the force of the United States. The restoration of comparative tranquility in that territory furnishes the means of observing calmly, and appreciating at their just value, the events which have occurred there, and the dis cussions of which the Government of the Terri tory has been the subject. We perceive that controversy concerning its future domestic institutions was inevitable: that no human prudence, no form of legislation, no wisdom on the part of Congress, could have prevented this. It is idle to suppose that the particular provi sions of their organic law were the causes of agitation. These provisions were but the oc casion, or the pretext of agitation, which was inherent in the nature of things. Congress le gislated upon the subject in such terms as were most consonant with the principle of popular sovereignty which underlies our government. It could not have legislated otherwise without doing violence to another great principle of our institutions,the inprescriptible light of equality of the several States. Wt* perceive, also, (hat sectional interests and party passions have been the great impediment to the salutary operation of the organic princi ples adopted, and the chief cause of the succes sive disturbances in Kansas. The assumption that, because in the organization of the territo ries of Nebraska and Kansas, Congress abstain ed from imposing restraints upon them to which certain other territories had been subject, there tore disorders occurred in the latter territory, is emphatically contradicted by the fact that none have occurred in the former. Those disorders were not the consequence in Kansas of the freedom of self-Government con ceded to that Territory by Congress, but of un just interference on the part of persons not in habitants ol the Territory. Such interference, wherever it has exhibited itself, by acts o! an insurrectionary character, or of obstruction to processes of law, has been repelled or suppress ed, by all the means which the Constitution and the laws place in the hands of the Executive. In those parts of the U. S. where, by reason TERMS, $2 PER YEAR. VOL XXV. NO. 15. of the inflamed state of the public mind, false rumors and misrepresentations have the great est currency, it has been assumed that it was the duty of the Executive not only to suppress insurrectionary movements in Kansas, but also to see to the regularity of local elections. It needs little argument to show that the Presi dent has no such power. All government in the U. S. rests substantially upon popular elec tion. The freedom of elections is liable to be impaired by the intrusion of unlawful votes, or the exclusion of lawful ones, by improper in fluences, by violence or fraud. Hut the people of the U. S. d. r * themselves the all-sufficient guardians of their own rights, and to suppose that they will not remedy, in due season, any such of civil freedom, is to suppose them to have erased to be capable of self-government. The President of tfl'e U. S. has not power to interpose in elections, to see to their freedom, to canvass their votes, or to pass upon their legality in the Territories a ny more than in the States. If he had such power, the Government might be republican in form, but it would be a mon archy in tact: and if he had undertaken to ex ercise it in the case of Kansas, he would have been justly subject to the charge of usurpation, and of violation of the dearest rights of the peo ple of the U. States. Unwise laws, equally with irregularities at elections, are, in periods of great excitement, the occasional incidents of even the freest and best political institutions. But all experience demonstrates in a country like ours, where the right of self-constitution exists in the completest form, the attempt to remedy unwise legislation by resort to revolution, is totally out of place; inasmuch as existing legal institutions afford more prompt and efficacious means for the re dress of wrong. I confidently trust that now, when the peace ful condition of Kansas affords opportunity for calm reflection and wise legislation, either the legislative assembly of the Territory, or of Con gress, will see that no act shall remain on its statute book violative of the provisions of the Constitution, or subversive of the great objects for which that was ordained and established, and will take all necessary steps to assure to its inhabitants the enjoyment, without obstruc tions or abridgement, of all the constitutional rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens of the TJ. S., as contemplated by the organic law of the Territory. Full information in relation to recent events in this Territory will be found in the documents communicated herewith from the Departments of ptate and war. 1 refer you to the report of the Secretary of th, Treasury for particular information concer ning the financial condition of the government, and the various branches of public service con nected with the Treasury Department. During the last fiscal year the raceipts from customs were, for the first time, more than $64, 000,000, and fiom all sources, $73,915,141; which, with the balance on hand up to the first of July, 1855, made the total resources of the year to amount to $92,850,117. The expenditures, including $3,000,000 in execution of the treaty with Mexico, and inclu ding sums paid on account of the public debt, a mounted to $60,172,401; and including the latter, to $72,945,792, the payment on this ac count having amounted to $12,776,390. On the 4th of March 1553, the amount of the public debt was §09,129,939. There was a subsequent increase of 11,756,000 for the debt of Texas, making a total of §71,879,937. Of this sum 145,525,319, including premium, has been discharged, reducing the debt to §30,737, 121: all which might be paid within a year without embarnrrassing the public service, but being not yet due, and only redeemable at the option of the holder, cannot be pressed to pay ment by the Government. On examining the expenditures of the last five years, it will be seen that the average, de ducting payments on account of the public debt, and §10,000.000 paid by treaty to Mex ico, has been but about §43,000,000. It is be lieved that, under an economical administra tion of the Government, the average expendi ture for the ensuing five years will not exceed that sum, unless extraordinary occasion for its increase should occur. The act granting bounty lands will soon have been executed, while the extension of our fron tier settlements will cause a continued demand for lands, and augmented receipis, probably, from that source. These considerations will justify a reduction of revenue from customs, so as not to exceed 48 or 50 millions of dollars. I think the exigency for such reduction is impe rative, and 3gain urge it upon the considera tion of Congress. The amount ot reduction, as well as the man ner of effecting ii, are questions of great and general interest; it being essential to industrial enterprize and public prosperity, as well as the dictate of obvious justice, that the burden of taxation be made to rest as equally as possible on all classes, and all sections and interests of the country. I have heretofore recommended to your con sideration the revision of the revenue laws, pre pared under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and also legislation upon some special questions affecting the business of that dapartment, more especially the enactment of a law to punish the abstraction of official books or papers from the files ot the Government, and | requiring all such books and papers and all o ther public property to be turned over by the | out-going officer to his successor; of a law re quiring disbursing officers to dej>osit* all public money in the vaults of the Treasury or in other legal depositories, where the same are conveni ' entlv accessible; and a law to extend existing ; penal provisions to all persons who may be i come possessed of public money by deposite or | otherwise, or who shall refuse or neglect, on due demand, to pav the same into the Treasury. I invite your attention anew to each of these objects.
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