PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



69ft 



tnencemcnt of the vrar to the present time. In a 

 word, peace i; impossible without independence, and 

 it is not be expected that the enemy will anticipate 

 neutrals in the recognition of that independence. 

 When the history of this war shall be fully disclosed, 

 the calm judgment of the impartial publicist will, for 

 these reasons, be unable to absolve the neutral na- 

 tions of Europe from a share in the moral responsi- 

 bility for the myriads of human lives that have been 

 unnecessarily sacrificed during its progress. 



The renewed instances in which foreign powers 

 have given us just cause of complaint need not here 

 be detailed. The extracts from the correspondence 

 of the State Department, which accompany this mes- 

 sage, will afford such further information as can be 

 given without detriment to the public interest, and 

 we must reserve for the future such action as may 

 then be deemed advisable to secure redress. 



Your special attention is earnestly invited to the 

 report of the Secretary of the Treasury, submitted 

 in conformity with law. The facts therein disclosed 

 are far from discouraging, and demonstrated that, 

 with judicious legislation, we shall be enabled to 

 meet all the exigencies of the war from our abundant 

 resources, and avoid, at the same time, such an ac- 

 cumulation of debt as would render at all doubtful 

 our capacity to redeem it. 



The total receipts into the Treasury for the two 

 quarters ending on the 30th of September, 1804, were 

 115,191,550, which sum, added to the balance of 

 32,722. that remained in the Treasury on the 

 1st of April last, forms a, total of $728,474, -272. Of 

 this total, not far from talf, that is to say, $34: 

 827, have been applied to the extinction of the public 

 debt, while the total expenditures have been $272,- 

 398,505, leaving a balance in the Treasury on the 1st 

 of October, 1864, of $108,435,440. 



The total amount of the public debt, as exhibited 

 on the books of the Register of the Treasury, on the 

 1st October, 1854, was $1,147,970,208, of which $530,- 

 840,090 were funded debt, bearing interest, 283,880,- 

 150 were treasury notes of the new issue, and the re- 

 mainder consisted of the formef issue of treasury 

 notes, which will be converted into other forms of 

 debt, and will cease to exist as currency on the 31st 

 of next month. 



The report, however, explains that, in consequence 

 of the absence of certain returns from distant officers, 

 the true amount of the debt is less, by $21,500,000, 

 than appears on the books of the Register, and that 

 the total public debt on the first of last month may 

 be fairly considered to have been $1,126,331,003. 



The increase of the public debt during the six 

 months from the 1st April to the 1st October, was 

 ',780, being rather more than $10,000,000 per 

 month; and it will be apparent, on a perusal of the 

 report, that this augmentation would have been 

 avoided, and a positive reduction of the amount 

 would have been effected, but for certain defects in 

 legislation on the subject of the finances, which are 

 pointed out in the report, and which seem to admit 

 of easy remedy. 



In the statements just made the foreign debt is 

 omitted. It consists only of the unpaid balance of 

 the loan known as the cotton loan. This balance is 

 but 2,200,000, and is adequately provided for by 

 about 250,000 bales of cotton owned by the Govern- 

 ment, even if the cotton be rated as worth but six- 

 pence per pound. 



There is one item of the public debt not included 

 in the tables presented, to which your attention is 

 required. The bounty bonds promised to our sol- 

 diers by the third section of the act of 17th February, 

 1S54, were deliverable on the 1st of October. The 

 Secretary has been unable to issue them by reason 

 of an omission in the law, no time being therein 

 fixed for the payment of the bonds. 



The aggregate appropriations called for by the dif- 

 ferent departments of the Government, according to 

 the estimates submitted with the report, for the six 



months ending on the 30th June, ISO-", an ount tfl 



02,679, while the Secretui ; 



there will remain unexpended, out of funncv appro- 

 priations, on the 1st Janaarv, lvj">, a balance of 

 ' 16,504. It would, therefore, seem that former 

 estimates have been largely in excess of actual ex- 

 penditures, and that no additional appropriations 

 are required for meeting the needs of the public 

 service up to the 1st July of next year. Indeed, if 

 the estimates now presented should prove to be ao 

 much in excess of actual expenditures as has here- 

 tofore been the case, a considerable balance will still 

 remain unexpended at the 'close of the first half of 

 the ensuing year. 



The chief difficulty to be apprehended in connec- 

 tion with our finances results from the depreciation 

 of the Treasury notes, which seems justly to be at- 

 tributed by the Secretary to two causes redun- 

 dancy in amount, and want of confidence in ultimate 

 redemption ; for both of which remedies are sug- 

 gested that will commend themselves to your con- 

 sideration as being practicable as well as sufficient. 



The main features of the plan presented are sub- 

 stantially these : 1st. That the faith of the Govern- 

 ment be pledged that the notes shall ever remain 

 exempt from laxation. 2d. That no issue shall be 

 made beyond that which is already authorized by 

 law. 3d." That a certain fixed portion of the annual 

 receipts from taxation during the war shall be set 

 apart specially for the gradual extinction of the out- 

 standing amount, until it shall have been reduced to 

 $150,000,000; and 4th. The pledge and appropriation 

 : such proportion of the tax in kind, and for such 

 number of years after the return of peace, as shall 

 be sufficient for the final redemption of the entire 

 circulation. The details of the plan, the calculations 

 on which it is based, the efficiency of its operation, 

 and the vast advantages -which would result from its 

 success, are fully detailed in the report, and cannot 

 be presented in a form sufficiently condensed for this 

 message. I doubt not it will receive from you that 

 earnest and candid consideration which is merited 

 by the importance of the subject. 



"The recommendations of the report for the repeal 

 of certain provisions of the tax laws which produce 

 inequality in the burden of taxation; for exempting 

 all Government loans from taxation on capital, anil 

 from any adverse discrimination in taxation on in- 

 come deVived from them ; for placing the taxation 

 on banks on the same footing as the taxation of 

 other corporate bodies; for securing the payment 

 into the Treasury of that portion of the bank circu- 

 lation which is liable to confiscation, because held by 

 alien enemies ; for the conversion of the interest- 

 bearing Treasury notes now outstanding into coupon 

 bonds, and for the quarterly collection of taxation ; 

 all present practical questions for legislation, which, 

 if wisely devised, will greatly improve the public 

 credit, and alleviate the burdens now imposed by the 

 extreme and unnecessary depreciation in the value 

 of the currency. 



The returns of the Produce Loan Bureau are sub- 

 mitted with the report, and the information i 

 veyed that the Treasury Agency in the Trans-^' 

 sippi Department has been fully organized and is now 

 in operation, with promise of efficiency and success. 



The provision heretofore made to some extent for 

 increasing the compensation of public officers, civil 

 and military, is found to be in some places inad- 

 equate to their support ; perhaps not more so any- 

 where than in Richmond, and inquiry, with a view to 

 appropriate remedy, is suggested to vour considera- 

 tion. Your notice is also~called to the condition of 

 certain officers of the Treasury, who were omitted in 

 the laws heretofore passed for the relief of other pub- 

 lic officers, as mentioned in the report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury. 



The condition of the various branches ot the mili- 

 tary service is stated in the accompanying report of 

 the" Secretary of War. Among the suggestions nia 1* 



