218 A. L. Bishop — The State WorJcs of Pennsylvania. 



had completely changed, for now he sounded aloud the cry for finan- 

 cial reform.* 



He seems to have been the first public man of prominence to 

 call attention to the fact that, financially, the state works had been 

 a failure; accordingly, he now felt it his duty to exhibit their 

 actual productivity in a manner somewhat less flattering than that 

 usually represented. Hitherto it had been the custom to state the 

 gross amount of the tolls as if the works had yielded that amount 

 clear of all expenses. The fact was that the yearly revenues for the 

 last five years had exceeded the expenditures, on the average, only 

 $139,697.43. During the same period, however, the average yearly 

 interest on the sums borrowed to construct the works had exceeded 

 $1,200,000. Governors, legislators and the people had all deceived 

 themselves concerning the public works, yet they had embarked in 

 them too deeply to turn back. Their speedy completion was urged 

 in the hope that soon the brilliant anticipations of the early friends 

 of the system might be realized. 



With reference to the general financial aifairs of the common- 

 wealth, the governor did not hesitate to reveal the exact conditions. 

 The public debt had reached the enormous sum of $34,141,663.80, 

 while the ordinary expenditures for the past year had exceeded 

 the ordinary revenues from all sources to the amount of 

 $1,087,743.63. He said:— 



"The affairs of the commonwealth have been, for several years, 

 gradually verging towards deeper and deeper embarrassment, until 

 we have at length reached this unexpected deficiency of funds in the 

 treasury to meet the demands upon it. The people have been 

 told again and again that our fiscal condition was flourishing and 

 prosperous, while, in fact, our prosperity was all based on paper 

 calculations and loans, which loans, we are just now beginning to 

 perceive, bear interest, and are some day to be paid. We are now 

 compelled to forego all temporary expedients, and to look the true 

 state of things in the face. We must resort to taxes, the sale of the 

 public improvements, or to further loans. The public improvements 

 cannot be sold but at a most ruinous sacrifice ; and, as to loans, it is 

 doubtful whether we can procure them at all unless at an unwar- 

 ranted rate of interest. ISTotwithstanding all these difliculties, the 

 sum duo by the state must be paid. To obtain the means, we have 

 at best a choice of evils, and we ought to select that which will 



* See his message of Jan. 8tli, 1840, in J. H. Rep., 1840, II, pp. 19, 20, 21, 

 et seq. 



