The Secretary of State has addressed to me a paper upon two subjects interesting to the commerce of the country, which will receive my consideration, and which I have the honor to communicate to Congress.
So far as it depends on the course of this Government, our relations of good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations. The true American policy will be found to consist in the exercise of a spirit of justice, to be manifested in the discharge of all our international obligations to the weakest of the family of nations as well as to the most powerful. Occasional conflicts of opinion may arise, but when the discussions incident to them are conducted in the language of truth and with a strict regard to justice the scourge of war will for the most part be avoided. The time ought to be regarded as having gone by when a resort to arms is to be esteemed as the only proper arbiter of national differences.
The census recently taken shows a regularly progressive increase in our population. Upon the breaking out of the War of the Revolution our numbers scarcely equaled 3,000,000 souls; they already exceed 17,000,000, and will continue to progress in a ratio which duplicates in a period of about twenty-three years. The old States contain a territory sufficient in itself to maintain a population of additional millions, and the most populous of the new States may even yet be regarded as but partially settled, while of the new lands on this side of the Rocky Mountains, to say nothing of the immense region which stretches from the base of those mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River, about 770,000,000 acres, ceded and unceded, still remain to be brought into market. We hold out to the people of other countries an invitation to come and settle among us as members of our rapidly growing family, and for the blessings which we offer them we require of them to look upon our country as their country and to unite with us in the great task of preserving our institutions and thereby perpetuating our liberties. No motive exists for foreign conquest; we desire but to reclaim our almost illimitable wildernesses and to introduce into their depths the lights of civilization. While we shall at all times be prepared to vindicate the national honor, our most earnest desire will be to maintain an unbroken peace.
In presenting the foregoing views I can not withhold the expression of the opinion that there exists nothing in the extension of our Empire over our acknowledged possessions to excite the alarm of the patriot for the safety of our institutions. The federative system, leaving to each State the care of its domestic concerns and devolving on the Federal Government those of general import, admits in safety of the greatest expansion; but at the same time I deem it proper to add that there will be found to exist at all times an imperious necessity for restraining all the functionaries of this Government within the range of their respective powers, thereby preserving a just balance between the powers granted to this Government and those reserved to the States and to the people.
From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury you will perceive that the fiscal means, present and accruing, are insufficient to supply the wants of the Government for the current year. The balance in the Treasury on the 4th day of March last not covered by outstanding drafts, and exclusive of trust funds, is estimated at $860,000. This includes the sum of $215,000 deposited in the Mint and its branches to procure metal for coining and in process of coinage, and which could not be withdrawn without inconvenience, thus leaving subject to draft in the various depositories the sum of $645,000. By virtue of two several acts of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue on and after the 4th day of March last Treasury notes to the amount of $5,413,000, making an aggregate available fund of $6,058,000 on hand.
But this fund was chargeable, with outstanding Treasury notes redeemable in the current year and interest thereon, to the estimated amount of $5,280,000. There is also thrown upon the Treasury the payment of a large amount of demands accrued in whole or in part in former years, which will exhaust the available means of the Treasury and leave the accruing revenue, reduced as it is in amount, burthened with debt and charged with the current expenses of the Government.
The aggregate amount of outstanding appropriations on the 4th day of March last was $33,429,616.50, of which $24,210,000 will be required during the current year; and there will also be required for the use of the War Department additional appropriations to the amount of $2,511,132.98, the special objects of which will be seen by reference to the report of the Secretary of War. The anticipated means of the Treasury are greatly inadequate to this demand. The receipts from customs for the last three quarters of the last year and first quarter of the present year amounted to $12,100,000; the receipts for lands for the same time to $2,742,450, shewing an average revenue from both sources of $1,236,870 per month.
A gradual expansion of trade, growing out of a restoration of confidence, together with a reduction in the expenses of collecting and punctuality on the part of collecting officers, may cause an addition to the monthly receipts from the customs. They are estimated for the residue of the year from the 4th of March at $12,000,000. The receipts from the public lands for the same time are estimated at $2,500,000, and from miscellaneous sources at $170,000, making an aggregate of available fund within the year of $15,315,000, which will leave a probable deficit of $11,406,132.98. To meet this some temporary provision is necessary until the amount can be absorbed by the excess of revenues which are anticipated to accrue at no distant day.
There will fall due within the next three months Treasury notes of the issues of 1840, including interest, about $2,850,000. There is chargeable in the same period for arrearages for taking the Sixth Census $294,000, and the estimated expenditures for the current service are about $8,100,000, making the aggregate demand upon the Treasury prior to the 1st of September next about $11,340,000.
The ways and means in the Treasury and estimated to accrue within the above-named period consist of about $694,000 of funds available on the 28th ultimo, an unissued balance of Treasury notes authorized by the act of 1841 amounting to $1,955,000, and estimated receipts from all sources of $3,800,000, making an aggregate of about $6,450,000, and leaving a probable deficit on the 1st of September next of $4,845,000.