STATEMENT of Duties, Revenues, and Public Expenditures. 923 49 39,353 28 15,301 09 8,231,317 23 Patent fund... Public buildings in Iowa territory.. Relief of sundry individuals..... Total under the direction of the war department...... Under the direction of the Navy Depart Expenses incidental to the loans.... Support of lunatics of the District of Columbia.......... 2,300 00 Pensions to invalids, widows, &c..... Survey of the harbour of Memphis, Ten 16,834 43 nessee... Building depôt of charts.. Use of Babbitt's anti-attrition metal. Two per cent fund to Alabama.. 103,884 77 Two per cent fund to Mississippi.. Relief of the cities of the District of Debentures and other charges.. Carried forward.. 124,260 92 277,327 04 17,779 58 Paying the old public debt.. 11,315 22 Interest on the loans of 1841, 1842, and 1843| 452,898 18 Redemption of treasury notes....... 18,358 82 Interest on treasury notes...... 98,746 86 46,077 75 1,222,857 03 11,118,828 42 611,010 34 Total public debt....... 12,998,773 54 STATEMENT of Duties, Revenues, and Public Expenditures, for the first Quarter of the fiscal Year, from July 1st, to September 30th, 1844, exclusive of Trust Funds. Amount. STATEMENT of the Debt of the United States, December 1st, 1844. " 210,000 00 1,260,000 00 1,446,815 60 Alexandria ......... Georgetown..................... Total. Carried forward.... 1,912,713 17 23,850,673 03 ABSTRACT of the Appropriation Bills passed at the second Session of the Twenty-eighth Congress. Of notes issued and paid out under the 1,286,650 00 Total.. From the annual report of Mr. R. J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, we extract the following: "TREASURY DEPARTMENT, December 3rd, 1845. "In obedience to the Act supplementary to the act to establish the Treasury Department,' the undersigned respectfully submits the following report. 66 The receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1845, were as follows: RECEIPTS and Means for the Year ending the 30th of June, 1845. THE estimated Receipts and Expenditures for the fiscal Year ending the 30th of June, "But this balance is subject to be decreased by such additional appropriations as Congress shall make, to be expended during the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1846, and to be altered by the sums which may be presented for payment of the old funded and unfunded debt, and old treasury notes. THE estimated Receipts, Means, and Expenditures for the fiscal year commencing the 1st of July' 1846, and ending the 30th of June, 1847, are as follows: THE TARIFF.-The receipts for the first quarter of this year are less by 2,011,885 dollars 90 cents, than the receipts of the same quarter last year. Among the causes of decrease is the progressive diminution of the importation of many high-protected articles, and the substitution of rival domestic products. For the nine months ending June 30, 1843, since the present tariff, the average of duties upon dutiable imports was equal to 37 dollars 84 1-10 cents per cent; for the year ending June 30, 1844, 33 dollars 85 9-10 cents per cent; and for the year ending June 30, 1845, 29 dollars 90 per cent-showing a great diminution in the average per centage, owing in part to increased importation of some articles bearing the lighter duties, and decreased importations of others bearing the higher duties. The revenue from ad valorem duties last year exceeded that realised from specific duties, although the average of the ad valorem duties was only 23 dollars 57 cents per cent, and the average of the specific duties 41 dollars 30 cents-presenting another strong proof that lower duties increase the revenue. Among the causes tending to augment the revenue, are increased emigration and the annexation of Texas. The estimates for the expenditures of 1846 are based chiefly upon appropriations made by Congress. The estimated expenditures of 1847 are founded upon data furnished by the several departments, and are less by 4,108,238 dollars 65 cents than those of the preceding year. These estimates are submitted in the full conviction that, whenever Congress, guided by an enlightened economy, can diminish the expenditures without injury to the public interest, such retrenchment will be made so as to lighten the burden of taxation, and hasten the extinguishment of the public debt, reduced on the 1st of October last to 17,057,445 dollars 52 cents. In suggesting improvements in the revenue laws, the following principles have been adopted: 1st. That no more money should be collected than is necessary for the wants of the government, economically administered. 2nd. That no duty be imposed on any articles above the lowest rate which will yield the largest amount of revenue. 3rd. That, below such rate, discrimination may be made, descending in the scale of duties; or, for imperative reasons, the articles may be placed in the list of those free from all duty. 4th. That the maximum revenue duty should be imposed on luxuries. 5th. That all minimums, and all specific duties should be abolished, and ad valorem duties substituted in their place-care being taken to guard against fraudulent invoices and under-valuation, and to assess the duty upon the actual market value. 6th. That the duties should be so imposed as to operate as equally as possible throughout the Union, discriminating neither for nor against any class or section. No horizontal scale of duties is recommended; because such a scale would be a refusal to discriminate for revenue, and might sink that revenue below the wants of the government. Some articles will yield the largest revenue at duties that would be wholly or partially prohibitory in other cases. Luxuries, as a general rule, will bear the highest revenue duties; but even some very costly luxuries, easily smuggled, will bear but a light duty for revenue, whilst other articles, of great bulk and weight, will bear a higher duty for revenue. There is no instance within the knowledge of this department, of any horizontal tariff ever having been enacted by any one of the nations of the world. There must be discrimination for revenue, or the burden of taxation must be augmented, in order to bring the same amount of money into the treasury. It is difficult also to adopt any arbitrary maximum, to which an inflexible adherence must be demanded in all cases. Thus, upon brandy and spirits a specific duty, varying as an equivalent ad valorem from 180 to 261 per cent yields a large revenue, yet no one would propose either of these rates as a maximum. These duties are too high for revenue, from the encouragement they present for smuggling these baneful luxuries; yet a duty of 20 per cent upon brandy and spirits would be far below the revenue standard, would greatly diminish the income on these imports, require increased burdens upon the necessaries of life, and would revolt the moral sense of the whole community. There are many other luxuries which will bear a much higher duty for revenue than 20 per cent; and the only true maximum is that which experience demonstrates will bring, in each case, the largest revenue at the lowest rate of duty. Nor should maximum revenue duties be imposed upon all articles; for this would yield too large an income, and would prevent all discrimination within the revenue standard, and require necessaries to be taxed as high as luxuries. But, whilst it is impossible to adopt any horizontal scale of duties, or even any arbitrary maximum, experience proves that, as a general rule, a duty of 20 per cent ad valorem will yield the largest revenue.-There are, however, a few exceptions above, as well as many below this standard. Thus, whilst the lowest revenue duty on most luxuries exceeds 20 per cent, there are many costly articles, of small bulk and easily smuggled, which would bring perhaps no revenue at a duty as high as 20 per cent; and even at the present rate, 74 per cent, they will yield in most cases a small revenue; whilst coal, iron, sugar and molasses, articles of great bulk and weight, yielded last year six millions of revenue, at an average rate of duty exceeding 60 per cent, ad valorem. These duties are far too high for revenue upon all these articles, and ought to be reduced to the revenue standard; but if Congress desire to obtain "General Abstract of the Annual Estimates, and Abstract Statements of the Total Amount of the Expenditures and Advances, at the Treasury of the United States. "The estimated amount of the expenditures of "The foregoing estimates being confined to actual treasury payments, are exclusive of the debts of the United States, which were incurred, at various periods, for the support of the late war, and should be taken into a general view of the expense thereof, viz. : Army debt upon commissioners' certificates.. For supplies furnished by the citizens of the several states, and for which cer- For supplies furnished in the quarter-master, commissary, hospital, clothing, For supplies, on accounts settled at the treasury, and for which certificates The foreign expenditures, civil, military, naval, and contingencies, amount, The expenditures of the several states, from the commencement of the war, to Estimated expense of the late war, in specie dollars. cts. 11,080,576 1-90th 3,723,625 20 do. 1,159,170 5 do. 744,638 49 do. 16,708,009 75 do. 5,000,000 00 21,000,000 00 135,193,703 00 dollars. "The advances made from the treasury, were principally in a paper medium, called continental money, and which in a short time depreciated: the specie value of which is given in the foregoing estimate. The advances made at the treasury of the United States, in continental money, in new and old emissions, are estimated as follows, viz.: "In a report made to Congress, by the Board of Treasury, in September, 1787, it is stated, that the requisitions upon the states, for the payment of the interest of the domestic debt, in the years 1782, 1784, 1785, and 1786, amounted to the sum of 6,279,376 dollars 27 cents, and the Board say, "it is with regret we are constrained to observe, that to the 31st of March last, the aggregate payments, on account of these requisitions, do not appear, from any document in the Treasury office dollars. cts. |