Six mo's end'g June 30, 1843, 528,581 57 Fiscal yr. end'g June 30, 1814 1,874,863 66 1815 1,066,985 04 1846 843,228 77 1847 1,117,830 22 1848 3,391,652 17 1819 3,554,419 40 1850 3,884,406 95 1851 3,711,407 40 1852 4,002,014 13 1853 3,666,905 24 1854 3,074,078 33 1855 2,315,996 25 1856 1,954,752 34 1857 1,594,845 44 1858 1,652,774 23 1859 2,637,664 39 1860 3,144,620 94 1861 4,034,157 30 18,815,984 16 22,850,141 46 1862 13,190,324 45 96,006,922 09 109,287,246 54 1863 24,729,846 61 181,086,635 07 205,816,481 68 1864 53,685,421 65 430,197,114 03 483,882,535 72 1,298,144,656 00 1865 77,397,712 00 607,361,241 68 684,758,953 68 1,897,671,224 09 1866 133,067,741 69 620,321,725 61 753,389,467 30 1,141,072,666 09 1867 143,781,591 91746,350,525 94 890,132,117 85 1,093,079,655 27 *Actual payments on the public debt, but not carried into the totals because of repayments to the Treasury. N. L. JEFFRIES, Register. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, REGISTER'S OFFICE, November 9, 1867. 85,387,313 08 570,841,700 25 895,796,630 65 These tables show the wild extravagance of the Government, and the cause of our enormous taxes. The public debt, unnecessarily doubled by the resort to depreciated paper, calls for interest to nearly twice the amount of the whole expenses for any year before the war since the organization of the Government. The civil list alone now costs more than the whole Government during any year of its early stages. Not one step is taken in Congress to diminish these enormous expenditures. Nearly onehalf of our present expenses are occasioned, not by national necessity, but by the reckless and never-ending efforts of the Republicans to retain political power in their own hands. We call upon the people to examine these tables, and to learn where and how these expenses are incurred, and, if they wish them diminished, to secure representatives in Congress who will attend to the interests of their constituents, instead of making the nation pay for keeping the Republican party in power. 139.-OUR PUBLIC DEBT. The Constitution authorizes Congress to borrow money on the credit of the United States, and to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States. This does not authorize taxing the people to sustain Freedmen's Bureaus and armies to govern people in States, or to make and use machinery to produce political effect, which we now see in the Southern States. But we have now a debt upon us, that is already recognized, amounting to $2,757,689,571.43, the details of which we give below. A considerable portion of this vast sum was unauthorized by the Constitution, but cannot now be separated from the honest and legal portion. The evils that are upon us we must endure. But we can secure ourselves against the future by taking the Government from the hands of those who have been unmindful of the Constitution and regardless of their pledges of economy, and place it with those who have been faithful to both, and wise, and sagacious, and will so administer it as to make it a blessing instead of a burden under which the people are bending, staggering, and liable to be crushed, without the hope of possible relief. Statement of the Public Debt on November 1, 1867. Debt having currency interest...... $1,778,110,991.80 payment..... 426,768,640.00 Matured debt not presented for 18,237,538.83 402,385,677.39 Total debt.... $2,625,502,848.02 Debt bearing no interest. Money in the Treasury Debt unprovided for...... 133,998,398.02 $2,491,504,450.00 The unrecognized debts, which must be eventually admitted, will add very largely to this amount, and many estimate that it will nearly double it. The money in the Treasury has already gone, without actually diminishing the public debt, in paying interest and meeting new claims under appropriations by Congress. The legislative authority is daily increasing instead of diminishing our public debt. It keeps in the field, at the South, five armies to promote the interests of the Republican party, and a host of Freedmen's Bureau officers and spies, all of whom are worse than useless for any honest purpose under the Constitution and laws. Receipts for the last Fiscal Year-June 30, 1867. $176,417,810.88 ... Leaving an estimated surplus over expenditures of $9,000,000. If there should be an annual surplus of nine millions to apply to the discharge of the principal, it would take some two hundred years to pay the whole acknowledged debt. But already the Treasury records show a large falling off of the estimated income, and a very considerable increase of the debt, while our expenses are increasing, and are likely to continue to do so. Let us compare these expenses with those incurred in General Jackson's time: "Whole expenses in 1833 were $24,257,298.44, while the estimated expenses for 1868 are $372,000,000, being over fifteen times as much, and at a time when we have no war on hand, except a political one. Notwithstanding all the estimates and pretences to the contrary, our public debt is increasing, instead of being diminished. When will this enormous debt be paid? Honesty and good faith require us to pay it, just as honest men pay their debts. But the signs |