GENERAL HISTORY. 



[155 



vidends and incidental receipts at 

 500,000 ; making, in the whole, 

 24,500,000 dollars. 



" The annual permanent ex- 

 penditure for the support of the 

 civil Government, and of the army 

 and navy, as now established by 

 law, amounts to 11,800,000; and 

 for thesinking fund, tolO,000,000; 

 making in the whole 21,800,000; 

 leaving an annual excess of re- 

 venue beyond the expenditure of 

 2,700,000 dollars, exclusive of the 

 balance estimated to be in the 

 treasury on the 1st day of January, 

 1818. 



" In the present state of the 

 treasury, the whole of the Loui- 

 siana debt may be redeemed in 

 the year 1819 ; after which, if the 

 public debt continues as it now is, 

 above par, there will be annually 

 about 5,000, 000 of the sinking fund 

 unexpended, until the year 1825, 

 when the loan of 1812, and the 

 stock created by funding treasury- 

 notes, will be redeemable. 



" It is also estimated that the 

 Mississippi stock will be dis- 

 charged during the year 1819, 

 from the proceeds of the public 

 lands assigned to tliat object ; 

 after which the receipts from 

 those lands will annually add to 

 the public revenue the sum of 

 1,500,000 dollars, making the per- 

 manent annual revenue amount 

 to 26,000,000 of dollars, and leav- 

 ing an annual excess of revenue, 

 after the year 1819, beyond the 

 permanent authorized expendi- 

 ture, of more than 4,000,000 of 

 dollars. 



" By the last retuins from the 

 Department of War, the militia 

 force of the several States may be 

 estimated at 800,000 men, infan- 

 try, artillery, and cavalry. Great 



part of this force is armed, and 

 measures are taken to arm the 

 whole. An improvement m the 

 organization and discipline of the 

 militia is one of the great objects 

 which claims the unremitted at- 

 tention of Congress. 



" The regular force amounts 

 nearly to the number required by 

 law, and is stationed along the 

 Atlantic and inland frontiers. 



" Of the naval force, it has 

 been necessary to maintain strong 

 squadrons in the Mediterranean, 

 and in the Gulf of Mexico. 



" From several of the Indian 

 tribes inhabiting the country bor- 

 dering on Lake Erie, purchases 

 have been made of lands, on con- 

 ditions very favourable to the 

 United States, and, as it is pre- 

 sumed, not less so the tribes them- 

 selves. By these purchases, the 

 Indian title, with moderate re- 

 servation, has been extinguished 

 in the whole of tlie land within 

 the limits of the State of Ohio, 

 and to a great part of that in the 

 Michigan territory, and of the 

 State of Indiana. From the Che- 

 rokee tribe a tract has been pur- 

 chased in the State of Georgia, 

 and an arrangement made, by 

 which, in exchange for lands be- 

 yond the Mississippi, a great part, 

 if not the whole of the land be- 

 longing to that tribe, eastwai d of 

 that river, in the States of North 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Tennesse, 

 and in the Alabama territory, will 

 soon be acquired. By these ac- 

 quisitions, and others that may 

 reasonably be expected soon to 

 follow, we shall be enabled to ex- 

 tend our settlements from the in- 

 habited ])arts of the State of Ohio, 

 along Lake Erie, into the IMichi- 

 gan territory, and to connect our 



settle- 



