of $3,009,849, the estimated difference between the outstanding appropriations at the end of this year, compared with those of the end of the last year. This sum I have obtained in the following manner: The Secretary estimates the demands on the treasury, from the 4th of March to the end of the year, at $33,429,616, and that which will be required for the service of the year, from the 4th of March to the end, at $24,210,000. The difference between them ($9,296,616) would, of course, be the amount of the outstanding appropriations, according to his estimate, at the end of this year. Take that from the sum of $12,306,265, which he states to be the amount of the outstanding appropriations, at the end of last year (see 12th page of report), and the difference will give the amount I have stated, as chargeable to the disbursements of the year; and all the items added, the aggregate amount of those disbursements, according to the Secretary's own data. Subtract the aggregate means of the year ($24,942,935) from the aggregate demands, ($28,012,776), and the deficit would be $3,069,841.

But from this, two items must be clearly deducted. First, the omission in stating, among the means of the year, the item of $215,151 of money in the mints belonging to the treasury. Next, an overcharge in the disbursements of $1,110,611 of treasury notes, issued under the act of 1840, between the 31st December, 1840, and 4th of March, 1841, and which will not fall due till next year. Both the Senators who preceded me, have clearly shown this to be an overcharge. I will not attempt to add to their proof. These two items added make $1,325,762, and that sum subtracted from $3,069,841 gives, for the deficit, according to the Secretary's own data, at the end of the year, the sum of $1,743,979. He estimates it at $16,088,215, making an overestimate on his own data of $14,039,036.

It is true that he makes out his deficit in part, by adding items that have not been, and a large part of them probably

will not be, appropriated by Congress; but when we speak of deficits, we refer to the excess of the authorized demands on the treasury over its available means, and not such demands as the Secretary, or any one else, may think ought to be authorized by law. In that sense there would be no limitation in the deficit.

The

Among items of this kind, the Secretary has added one of four millions of dollars, to constitute a standing deposit in the treasury, that is, the projected bank; and this he proposes to borrow, say at 6 per cent., which would make an annual charge of $240,000 on the people, that the bank may have the use of it for nothing. I, for one, shall never agree to such a measure. If the treasury is to be guarded against the contingency of an accidental deficit, a vote of credit authorizing the temporary use of treasury notes, or, as called in England, exchequer bills, would be greatly preferable. There is another large item of nearly a million and a half, in addition to what has already been voted this year for fortifications, to which I shall not give my assent. great changes that steam has made, and the still greater that it must make in the operations of war on the ocean, require that the whole subject of the defence of our maritime frontier should be reviewed by able and skilful officers, before we proceed any further in the present system of fortifications. Much that has been done, and is proposed to be done, would prove, on such view, to be wholly useless-money thrown away. I say nothing of the other items of the kind; they are small. Nor will I undertake to show what will be the actual deficit, if any. It would be too hazardous. The Secretary can make it more or less, or nothing at all, at his pleasure. But if he should choose to leave the outstanding appropriations as they stood last year, there would be in the treasury a considerable surplus, instead of a deficit. On the contrary, if he should undertake to spend the whole, he

may increase the deficit by many millions. We know what his desire is, and it remains to be seen what he will do.

But, Sir, another and more important question demands our attention. Why this deep and anxious solicitude to make out a large deficit? Does it originate in party feelings? Is the object to detract from his predecessors in office, by showing that they have left the finances in an embarrassed condition? It may be so in part, but it would be doing the Secretary great injustice to suppose that it was his sole or principal motive. No; it was much higher. It originated in the belief, that to make out a large and permanent deficit, for which no provision was made, was highly important, if not necessary, to carry out the measures which he and his party contemplated. Hence the solicitudehence the zeal that has led to so many errors and discrepancies, and to so great an overestimate.

What these measures are, for which such anxiety is felt, the Secretary has not left us to conjecture. He has told us plainly they are, first and foremost, a funded debt,—to be followed by a National Bank,-and, through it, the restoration of the partnership of the Government with the banks,― and that, by a heavy addition to the taxes, to an increase of the tariff,-and finally, the distribution among the States of the revenue from the public lands.

The debt is to be funded in stocks, redeemable in eight years; and is to consist, in the first place, of his estimated deficit of upwards of sixteen millions, of which four millions is to be, in reality, a permanent loan to the bank, without interest, as has been stated. In the next, of six millions to be subscribed by him as our share of the bank stock, and then $9,367,214 of stock to be subscribed by him for the States. What right have we to authorize him to subscribe for the States? In virtue of what right can we give such authority?

The Secretary felt the difficulty; and to make out a show of right for such an extraordinary proposition, he has taken a liberty in using words unexampled in any public document that ever passed under my eyes. He has converted the fourth instalment under the Deposit Act of 1836, proposed to be placed for safekeeping in the State treasuries for the use of the Government whenever called for, into a debt to the States! He speaks of it as due to the States in one place, and as appropriated to them in another. Where will he find the evidence of such debt, or the act making the appropriation? Will he point to the act of 1836 ? That makes it, as plainly and strongly as words can, a mere deposit for our use, whenever called for; that is, a debt from the States to the Government, and not from it to them. And yet, the Secretary is so intent on carrying out his scheme, that he changes at pleasure the relation of the parties-makes the Government, and not the States, the debtor-proposes to subscribe their debt to the Government, as so much stock in the bank to their credit, for which the Government is to pay them interest on the debt they owe it; and to cap the climax of perversion and absurdity, he provides that, if any State should refuse to accept its share of the subscription, it shall go to the other States; thus taking from a State at his pleasure, what he says is due to it, and giving it to the other States, without leave or license! He deals with words, rights, and property, as if his will was the only standard of either; makes debts from the States, debts to them, and transfers what he asserts belongs to one, to others, just as it suits him! But I see that the committee has just reported a bill, which omits a provision founded on such monstrous perversion and abuse of language; and I shall omit the residue of the remarks I intended to make on this point. These items, which it is proposed should compose the projected debt, exceed thirtyone millions of dollars; and exceed, by rather more than a million, the amount of the stock of the bank. Of this large

funded debt (nearly equal to half of that of the Revolution), upwards of nineteen millions is to go directly to the creation, or the benefit of the bank, and the remaining twelve millions is no doubt intended to go into the hands of individuals, with the view, in part, of furnishing the means of meeting their subscription; that is, the bank is to be manufactured out of the credit of the people. A mortgage, in the shape of public stocks, is to be laid on their industry and property, to the amount of thirty-one millions; that to be converted into cash, and thirty millions of it incorporated into a bank to be put under the control and management of seven directors, in this district! Add, that the bank is to have the use of the public revenue, till wanted for disbursements, and that its notes are made equal to gold and silver every where, in its collections and disbursements, and you will have the project of the Secretary, that has been so much lauded by his party!

To meet this heavy encumbrance on the labor and property of the people, and to cover the deficit which would be caused by the distribution of the revenue from the lands, he next proposes to impose a heavy tax of 20 per cent. on the importation of all articles now duty free, with the exception of those contained in the 5th section of the Compromise Act--and to raise the duty to 20 per cent. on all the articles which pay less than that; the effect of which would be to double nearly the present duty or tax on imports.

To complete the list of these odious and oppressive measures, he proposes, finally, that unconstitutional, dangerous, and detestable measure-the distribution of the revenue from the public lands among the States; which must end in a final loss to the Government of this great and growing branch of revenue, and a permanent mortgage to stockholders, domestic and foreign, of the whole of the public domain, consisting of more than a thousand millions of acres ;