FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



301 



The increase in the receipts from internal revenue for the same period has been 

 follows : 



The surplus revenue, amounting in the fiscal 

 year 1882 to $145,543,810.71, and for the cal- 

 endar year to $155,437,163.82, could only be 

 applied under existing laws to the reduction of 

 the outstanding principal of the national debt. 



The changes which have taken place during 

 the year ended December 31, 1882, are shown 

 in the following statement of the condition of 

 the public debt at the beginning and close of 

 the year. 



As will be seen by the above statement, the 

 principal of the public debt bearing interest 

 has been reduced during the last year $162,- 

 289,150 ; the total principal has been reduced 

 $95,384,727.75. The reduction of the total 

 debt, less cash in the Treasury, during the same 

 period was $157,948,040.25, with a correspond- 

 ing reduction in the annual interest charge of 

 $7,127,902.50. 



The refunding operations of the Government 

 for 1882 were limited to the exchange, under 

 authority of section 11 of an act approved 

 July 12, 1882, of the " continued 3 per 

 cents " issued by Secretary Windom, for a like 

 amount of 3 per cent bonds. 



Soon after the opening of the first session of 

 the Forty-seventh Congress, a bill was intro- 

 duced in the Senate by Mr. Sherman, author- 

 izing the issue of $300,000,000, in 3 per cent 

 bonds, payable at the pleasure of the United 

 States after the 1st of January, 1887, the money 

 received therefor to be applied solely to the re- 

 demption of bonds of the United States bearing 

 3| per cent interest. The debate on this bill 

 took a very wide range, extending through a 

 period of several weeks. Although its oppo- 



nents willingly admitted that the Government 

 was now in a position to dictate terms to its 

 creditors, and to float its public debt at the 

 lowest rate of interest at which any nation had 

 been able to borrow money, yet the rate pro- 

 posed was so low, that the measure, even if 

 adopted, would ultimately prove to be a failure. 

 While admitting that our credit was established 

 upon a firm basis, and stood unrivaled in the 

 markets of Europe ; that our bonds were in de- 

 mand both at home and abroad by investors 

 who prefer a perfectly safe investment to one 

 of a speculative character ; that our immense 

 resources and financial vigor, as shown by the 

 steady reduction of the public debt and the 

 rate of interest at each successive funding 

 operation, was of itself sufficient to prove 

 that our securities had no equal; notwithstand- 

 ing these facts, a strong effort was made to 

 defeat the bill by incorporating an amendment 

 providing that these 3 per cent bonds should 

 be the only bonds receivable as security for na- 

 tional-bank circulation, or as security for the 

 safe-keeping and prompt payment of the pub- 

 lic money deposited with such banks, so far as 

 the whole amount issued would enable the 



