Page images
PDF
EPUB

the peace and welfare of our Crown and Dominions; We do therefore hereby, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, strictly charge and command all and every of our natural-born Subjects, of what degree or quality soever, not to serve in any such Military Forces or Ships of War as aforesaid, and not to enlist or enter themselves to serve therein, and not to go beyond the Seas, or embark, in order to serve, or with intent to enter or enlist themselves to serve, in such Military Forces or Ships of War: and it is, at the same time, Our Royal Will and Pleasure, and We do, by and with the advice aforesaid, hereby also strictly charge and command all and every of Our said Subjects not to serve or enlist, or enter themselves to serve, in any of the Military Forces or Ships of War raised or set forth, or to be raised or set forth by His Catholic Majesty, and not to go beyond the Seas, or embark, in order or to the intent to serve or enter, or enlist themselves to serve, in such Military Forces or Ships of War: it is, nevertheless, Our Royal Will and Pleasure, that nothing herein contained shall be deemed or taken to prohibit any of Our Subjects who are engaged at the time of the date of this Our Proclamation in serving in the Military Forces of His Catholic Majesty, with Our leave or licence, from continuing to serve therein, provided that such Our said Subjects do not serve with the Military Forces of His Catholic Majesty, when employed in Spanish America: and We do hereby, by and with the advice aforesaid, strictly require all Our said Subjects duly to conform to Our commands herein contained, under pain of Our highest displeasure, and the utmost forfeitures, penalties and punishments, to which, by Law, they will otherwise be liable.

Given at Our Court at Brighton, the 27th day of November, 1817, in the 58th year of His Majesty's Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING.

REPORT of the Secretary of the Treasury to the President of The United States, containing a General Sketch of the Finances of the Republic.-20th September, 1816.*

EXTRACT, &c.

THE Secretary of the Treasury has the honor to submit to the President of The United States, the following General Sketch of the Fi nances, with reference to the 1st of August, 1816, comprehending:

I. A view of the sources of Revenue, and the objects of Public Expenditure.

II. A view of the Fiscal Measures during 1816.

* Presented to Congress, with the Message of the President, on the Opening of the Session, 3rd December, 1816.

I. A View of the Sources of Revenue, and the Objects of Public

Expenditure.

REVENUE.

The return of Peace enabling the Legislature to alleviate the burdens imposed by the necessities of the War, Congress, during the last Session, discontinued or reduced the following Duties and Taxes:

1. The Acts imposing duties upon Articles of Domestic Manufacture were repealed,

2. The Acts imposing duties on Furniture and Watches were repealed.

3. The duties imposed on Licenses to Retailers of Foreign Merchandize, &c., were repealed.

4. The duties imposed on Spirits, distilled within The United States, were reduced, and the collection modified.

5. The Rates of Postage were reduced.

6. The direct Tax was reduced from 6,000,000 dollars to 3,000,000 dollars, and was imposed for one year only.

7. The double Duties on Merchandize imported were discontinued, and a new Tariff established.

The discontinuance and reduction of the Duties and Taxes, (independent of the Impost,) may be estimated at the annual amount of 8,000,000 dollars; with the contingent diminution of 3,000,000 dollars more, if the direct Tax should not be continued after the year 1816.

But the remaining Sources of Revenue were ample for the maintenance of the Public Credit, and the prosecution of a liberal and provident policy. They consist:

1. Of the Customs, including the Duty upon Salt, according to the new Tariff of Duties.

2. Of the direct Tax imposed for 1816.

3. Of the internal Duties on Stamps; on Licences to retail; on Spirits distilled; on Refined Sugar; on Carriages and Harness; on Sales at Auction..

4. Of Postage.

5. Of the products of fines, penalties and forfeitures, and other miscellaneous receipts.

6. Of the proceeds of the sales of Public Lands.

To these Sources of Revenue, must be added the auxiliary authority to issue Treasury Notes of various denominations, and to receive money upon Loan. The authority was necessary, in anticipation of the Revenue, throughout the year 1815, to meet the arrearages of the War Expenditures; to discharge the floating Public Debt of Treasury Notes and temporary Loans, and to pay the Instalments of the Principal and the Interest of the Funded Public Debt. But the Treasury would no longer require the aid of Loans or Treasury Notes, if the facilities of transferring its Funds from place to place had not been destroyed, when the National Currency became extinct.

The Committee of Ways and Means have heretofore estimated the annual product of the Customs, according to the new Tariff of Duties, at about the sum of 17,000,000 dollars, and although, for the present year, the amount will be much greater, in consequence of the late excessive Importations, the estimate of the Committee may be accepted as a just measure of the permanent annual product of the Customs, for the purposes of a Peace Establishment. The annual product of the direct tax, the internal revenues, and the sales of public lands, has, in like manner, been estimated at about the sum of 7,000,000 dollars, making, upon this general view, and supposing a continuance of the direct tax, a permanent annual revenue of about 24,000,000 dollars.

EXPENDITURE.

It is not intended, in this preliminary view of the objects of public expenditure, to embrace the temporary objects arising from the War, but those only of a permanent nature, upon a Peace Establishment, and which have heretofore been estimated at an annual aggregate of about 24,000,000 dollars.

1. For Civil, diplomatic, and miscellaneous expenses.

2. For Military expenses, including the Indian Department and the armament of the Militia.

3. For the Naval expenses, including the annual appropriations for the purchase of timber, and the gradual increase of the Navy.

4. For the instalments and interest payable on the Funded Public Debt.

It is proper to remark, that Temporary Loans and Treasury Notes, issued under the authority of Acts passed prior to December, 1814, were charged on the Sinking Fund; but as the current Revenue will afford the means to satisfy those demands in the course of a few months, the Floating Debt is not enumerated with the objects of annual expenditure.

It is also proper to remark, that the principal of the Louisiana Stock is reimbursable at the Treasury of The United States in 4 annual instalments, commencing in 1818; and that, by the operation of the Sinking Fund, the old 6 per cent. Stock will be extinguished in 1818, the deferred Stock in 1824, and the Louisiana Stock in 1822. The Stock created on account of the War Debt is charged upon the Sinking Fund, and becomes redeemable at various periods, between the years 1825 and 1828.

For the details connected with this general view of the sources of Revenue, and the objects of Public Expenditure, it is sufficient to refer to the Annual Report from the Treasury Department, dated the 6th of December, 1815; the Report on the subject of the new Tariff of duties, dated the 12th of February, 1816; and the Report of the Committee of Ways and Means, dated the 9th day of January, 1816.

The sequel of the present Sketch of the Finances will likewise serve the purposes of explanation and illustration.

II. A View of the Fiscal Measures during 1816.

In various Communications from this Department to Congress, the injurious effects of the suspension of payments in Coin, upon the administration of the Finances, have been anxiously represented. For the immediate object of the present Statement, it is proper to repeat some of them.

1. The Treasury has been compelled to accept the payment of duties and taxes in the local currency of the respective Places of payment.

The comparative value of the local currencies appeared, in some degree, to render this course of payment unequal; but the alternative was, either to adopt it, or to abandon the hope of collecting the Revenue in any convertible medium for satisfying the public engagements. The rule was, therefore, declared, that the Treasury would receive and pay in the Notes of Banks circulating at par, at the respective Places of receiving and paying. For a time, the test of the fact that the Notes did circulate at par, was the agreement of the Banks employed as the depositories of the Revenue, to credit them as cash in the Treasurer's Accounts. But when the principal Banks withdrew that accommodation, and refused to credit as cash any Bank Notes but those which they had themselves respectively issued, the fact of the circulation at par was necessarily left to its own notoriety, and to the official responsibility of the Collectors. Few Notes, except the Notes of the local Banks, continued to circulate at par; and such as did so circulate, were received by the Banks, upon special deposit, for safe keeping; and constituted a discredited Fund, upon which the Treasurer could only occasionally draw.

The operation of this measure was, undoubtedly, severe in many of the Collection Districts; particularly in the States where the Banks, preparing for the resumption of Coin payments, had so reduced the issues of their Paper, as to render the circulating amount insufficient for the demand. But it was not in the power of the Treasury to dispense with the general rule. If Notes not circulating at par had been received in one District, they must have been received in every District; and there existed no mode of discriminating between Notes to be received, and Notes to be rejected, either as to the Bank, or the Place at which they were issued. The inevitable consequences must have been, that the duties and taxes would every where be paid in the most depreciated Paper; and that the medium thus received could never be employed to discharge the demands upon the Treasury, even at the Places of receiving it. The Revenue would accumulate in the Treasury, only to perish there; while the expedient of substituting

Treasury Notes to meet the public engagements, led to an indefinite augmentation of the National Debt.

2. The Treasury has been compelled to augment the amount of the National Debt, both funded and floating, by issues of Treasury Notes to meet the public engagements, at places where it could not command the local currency. Throughout the Eastern States, the Treasury has hitherto failed to command an amount of the local currency, equal to the amount of the local demands. The Banks of those States, fettered by the stipulations of their Charters, could not follow the example of the Banks of the other States, in the suspension of coin payments; but their issues of Notes have been very limited, and the necessities for a circulating medium have been, principally, supplied by Treasury Notes, and, partially, by the Notes of the Banks of New York. Under these circumstances, the Revenue, in the Eastern Section of the Union, has been almost entirely collected in Treasury Notes. Inferior difficulties, from similar causes, have occurred in some of the Southern States, where, also, the accruing Revenue was less, in proportion to the demands which the arrearages of the War, as well as the current expenditures, pressed upon the Treasury.

From these considerations, it is obvious that the Public Credit could only be maintained, and the Public Service could only be effected, (even with an ample Revenue,) by the use of the auxiliary means afforded to the Treasury, in the authority to borrow money, and to issue Treasury Notes. Little use, however, has been made of the Authority to borrow, since the closing of the Loan of 1815; but the Warrants of the War and Navy Departments, as well as the dividends payable on the Public Funded Debt, have required a considerable issue of Treasury Notes. The Treasury Notes bearing Interest. and fundable at 6 per cent, have been generally disbursed in payments for services and supplies; and the Treasury Notes not bearing Interest, but fundable at 7 per cent, have been generally disbursed in payments on account of the Funded Debt, and the compensation of the Members of Congress. The effect of these measures will be more particularly stated hereafter.

Thus it cannot escape observation, that a cause unconnected with the late War, and which exists without the agency or the authority of the Government, will probably so augment the amount of the Funded and Floating Debt, as to render nugatory the estimates and calculations which have been made, on other occasions, in relation to that subject. The restoration of an uniform National Currency, can alone terminate this evil.

3. The Treasury has been involved in the difficult and delicate task, of designating the medium in which the Warrants drawn by the Heads of Department should be respectively paid.

The Revenue is collected throughout the Union, but the amount of

« PreviousContinue »