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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



debt, $13,190,324 45 ; and for payment of public debt, 

 including reimbursement of temporary loan, and re- 

 demptions, $96,096,922 09 ; making an aggregate of 

 $570,841,700 25, and leaving a balance in the Treas- 

 ury on the 1st day of July, 1862, of $13,043,546 81. 



It should be observed that the sum of $96,096,922 

 09, expended for reimbursements and redemption of 

 public debt, being included also in the loans made, may 

 be properly deducted, both from receipts and expendi- 

 tures, leaving the actual receipts for the year $487,- 

 788,324 97, and the expenditures, $474,744,778 16. 



Other information on the subject of the finances will 

 be found in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 to whose statements and views I invite your most 

 candid and considerate attention. 



The reports of the Secretaries of War and of the 

 Navy are herewith transmitted. These reports, though 

 lengthy, are scarcely more than brief abstracts of the 

 very numerous and extensive transactions and opera- 

 tions conducted through those Departments. Nor 

 could I give a summary of them here, upon any prin- 

 ciple which would admit of its being much shorter 

 than the reports themselves. I therefore content my- 

 self with laying the reports before you, and asking 

 your attention to them. 



It gives me pleasure to report a decided improve- 

 ment in the financial condition of the Post Office De- 

 partment, as compared with several preceding years. 

 The receipts for the fiscal year 1861 amounted to $3,- 

 349,296 40, which embraced the revenue from all the 

 States of the Union for three quarters of that year. 

 Notwithstanding the cessation of revenue from the so- 

 called seceded States during the last fiscal year, the 

 increase of the correspondence of the loyal States has 

 been sufficient to produce a revenue during the same 

 year of $8,299,820 90, being only $50.000 less than was 

 derived from all the States of the Union during the 



Erevious year. The expenditures show a still more 

 ivorable result. The amount expended in 1861 was 

 $13,606,759 11. For the last year the amount has 

 been reduced to $11,125,364 13, showing a decrease 

 of about $2,481,000 in the expenditures as compared 

 with the preceding year, and aoout $3,750,000 as com- 

 pared with the fiscal year 1860. The deficiency in the 

 Department for the previous year was $4,551,966 98. 

 For the last fiscal year it was reduced to $2,112,814 

 57. These favorable results are in part owing to the 

 cessation of mail service in the insurrectionary States, 

 and in part to a careful review of all expenditures in 

 that department in the interest of economy. The ef- 

 ficiency of the postal service, it is believed, has also 

 been much improved. The Postmaster General has 

 also opened a correspondence, through the Depart- 

 ment of State, with foreign Governments, proposing a 

 convention of postal representatives for the purpose 

 of simplifying the rates of foreign postage, and to ex- 

 pedite the foreign mails. This proposition, equally, 

 important to our adopted citizens and to the commer- 

 cial interests of this country, has been favorably enter- 

 tained and agreed to by all the Governments from 

 whom replies have been received. 



I ask the attention of Congress to the suggestions of 

 the Postmaster General in his report respecting the 

 further legislation required, in his opinion, for the 

 benefit of the postal service. 



The Secretary of the Interior reports as follows in 

 regard to the public lands : 



The public lands have ceased to be a source of revenue. 

 From the 1st July, 1861, to the 30th September, 1862, the 

 entire cash receipts from the sale of lands were $137,476 26 

 a sum much less than the expenses of our land system 

 durinsr the same period. The homestead law, which will 

 take effect on the 1st of January next, offers such induce- 

 ments to settlers that sales for cash cannot be expected, to 

 an extent sufficient to meet the expense of the General 

 Land Office, and the cost of surveying and bringing the land 

 into market. 



The discrepancy between the sum here stated as 

 arising from the sales of the public lands, and the sum 

 derived from the same source as reported from the 

 Treasury Department, arises, as I understand, from 



the fact that the periods of time, though apparently, 

 were not really coincident at the beginning point the 

 Treasury report including a considerable sum now 

 which had previously been reported from the Interior 

 sufficiently large to greatly overreach the sum de- 

 rived from the three months now reported upon by the 

 Interior, and not by the Treasury. 



The Indian tribes upon our frontiers have, during 

 the past year, manifested a spirit of insubordination, 

 and, at several points, have engaged in open hostilities 

 against the white settlements in their vicinity. The 

 tribes occupying the Indian country south of Kansas 

 renounced their allegiance to the United States, and 

 entered into treaties with the insurgents. Those who 

 remained loyal to the United States were driven from 

 the country. The chief of the Cherokees has visited 

 this city for the purpose of restoring the former rela- 

 tions of the tribe with the United States. He alleges 

 that they were constrained, by superior force, to enter 

 into treaties with the insurgents, and that the United 

 States neglected to furnish the protection which their 

 treaty stipulations required. 



In the month of August last, the Sioux Indians, in 

 Minnesota, attacked the settlements in their vicinity 

 with extreme ferocity, killing, indiscriminately, men, 

 women, and children. This attack was wholly unex- 

 pected, and therefore no means of defence had been 

 provided. It is estimated that not less than eight 

 hundred persons were killed by the Indians, and a 

 large amount of property was destroyed. How this 

 outbreak was induced is not definitely known, and 

 suspicions, which may be unjust, need not to be stat- 

 ed. Information was received by the Indian Bureau, 

 from different sources, about the time hostilities were 

 commenced, that a simultaneous attack was to be 

 made upon the white settlements by all the tribes be- 

 tween the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. 

 The State of Minnesota has suffered great injury from 

 this Indian war. A large portion of her territory has 

 been depopulated, and a severe loss has been sus- 

 tained by the destruction of property. The people of 

 that State manifest much anxiety for the removal of 

 the tribes beyond the limits of the State as a guar- 

 antee against future hostilities. The Commissioner of 

 Indian Affairs will furnish full details. I submit for 

 your especial consideration whether our Indian system 

 shall not be remodelled. Many wise and good men 

 have impressed me with the belief that this can be 

 profitably done. 



I submit a statement of the proceedings of commis- 

 sioners, which shows the progress that has been made 

 in the enterprise of constructing the Pacific railroad. 

 And this suggests the earliest completion of this road, 

 and also the favorable action of Congress upon the 

 projects now pending before them for enlarging the 

 capacities of the great canals in New York and Illinois, 

 as being of vital and rapidly increasing importance to 

 the whole nation, and especially to the vast interior 

 region hereinafter to be noticed at some greater length. 

 I purpose having prepared and laid before you at an 

 early day some interesting and valuable statistical in- 

 formation upon this subject. The military and com- 

 mercial importance of enlarging the Illinois and Michi- 

 gan canal, and improving the Illinois river, is present- 

 ed in the report of Col. Webster to the Secretary of 

 War, and now transmitted to Congress. I respect- 

 fully ask attention to it. 



To carry out the provisions of the act of Congress of 

 the 15th of May last, I have caused the Department of 

 Agriculture of the United States to be organized. 



The Commissioner informs me that within the period 

 of a few months this department has established an 

 extensive system of correspondence and exchanges, 

 both at home and abroad, which promises to effect 

 highly beneficial results in the development of a cor- 

 rect knowledge of recent improvements in agriculture, 

 in the introduction of new products, and in the collec- 

 tion of the agricultural statistics of the different States. 

 Also, that it will soon be prepared to distribute largely 

 seeds, cereals, plants and cuttings, and has already 

 published and liberally diffused much valuable in- 



