AMERICAN REVIEW, No. XXVI. FOR FEBRUARY, 1850. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. THE Report of the Secretary of the Treasury is a document which confirms the judgment of President Taylor in the relection of that officer. Mr. Meredith has done equal honor to himself and the Administration by the use which he has made of the power entrusted to him. The document which he has prepared is not only a statement of the financial condition of the country, but embraces also a thorough refutation of the dogmas of freetrade put forth by his predecessor, Mr. Walker. We here present our readers with a re-statement or summary of its most important facts and positions, attended by such a commentary upon each and upon the whole as may arise on the suggestion of the moment. The receipts for the fiscal year ending July, 1849, were $59,663,097 50, which, estimating the population of the country at 21,000,000, gives somewhat less than $2 37 a head, of expenses, for the support of the most powerful, stable, and efficient government in existence. Of this sum, nearly one-half, or more than $28,000,000, was collected by duties on foreign goods; so that each individual in the country would have been taxed about $1 33 for the use of foreign commodities, had the use of those commodities bee equally distributed. An equal distribution of this tax over the entire property of the country, would be equivalent to a bonus of 28 millions to those persons who use foreign commodities. VOL. V. NO. II. NEW SERIES. It is only those who insist upon using a foreign commodity, or luxury, who contribute thereby to the public treasury. Thus it comes to pass, that taxation for the general government is thrown in a great measure upon those who live expensively, who are obliged to contribute a larger proportion of taxes than those who use homespun. The estimated receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1850, are from customs $31,500,000. Adding those from various other sources, including public lands, balance in treasury, &c., and the total available means for the year, as estimated, will be rather more than $37,800,000. The expenditure, on the other hand, is estimated at more than $43,600,000, leaving a deficit of about $5,800,000. We refrain from giving the exact numbers, as they are unimportant in a general view. Besides the cheapness of collecting a revenue at a few points, by customs, the system has this great advantage, that it limits the patronage of the general government to a few places. The post-office patronage, employed as a political engine, by reason of its extension into every village of the continent, would prove incomparably more powerful than that of a few custom-houses in a few cities on the coast. What use, then, might not be made of a system of collectorships distributed through the interior, and made personally operative and efficient in every village. From this point of view we can easily penetrate 8 a part of the design of those democratic | The interest is 5 per cent. The taxpoliticians who advocate the abolition of the customs and the collection of revenue by direct taxation. The civil and foreign-intercourse list, is brought within $10,000,000 for the three last quarters of the year. That is to say, the salaries of the government functionaries, and foreign agents and embassadors, of a nation of 21,000,000, is somewhere about 5 1-4 cents per month, for each individual. A nation which pays so little for its government officers, may justly boast of the economy of its government. It will be seen, by consulting the tables given in the report, and which are subjoined, that the estimates for the present fiscal year are less in sum, and different in character, from those for the year following. Our limits forbid the review of particulars. A people who pay so little for the support of their government, cannot, with propriety or decency, allow it to run in debt. That a public debt should exist at all, is a slur upon our institutions. We find, however, that in its extreme solicitude to avoid the imposition of specific duties, and notwithstanding its affected preference of direct taxation, the party lately in office suffered the national liabilities to mount up to the enormous sum of $64,704,693; twice the entire annual expenditure of the government on a peace establishment. Let us, for a moment, hold up to contemplation this system of public debts, and observe its workings. The private adventurer in trade who borrows money on interest, does so with the expectation of realizing much more than that interest. He borrows at 10 per cent., expecting to realize 20 or 30 per cent., besides sinking nothing of the original capital. When government, on the other hand, becomes a debtor, it does so without any certainty of turning what it has borrowed to a profitable account. The money borrowed, is converted into cannon, soldiers' clothing, or ships of war, or it is consumed in the general expenses of the nation. These expenses are indeed necessary, and must be provided for; what we have now to consider is the method and economy of the provision. The government, we will say, has borrowed $1,000, to be repaid in 20 years. payers must pay each year $50 of interest, and at the end of twenty years, they must refund the money borrowed. They have then paid two thousand for one thousand. Whereas, if the necessary funds had been got directly through customs, or by any method of taxation, at the time when they were wanted, they would have had to pay only $1,000. If a war is to cost 50 millions, it will be made, by borrowing the funds, to cost 100 millions. The money borrowed by government is not put into a manufactory, or a farm, or a canal, there to re-produce and continually multiply itself; it is cast into the sea, shot away out of the mouths of cannon, and eaten up and worn out, the very year in which it is borrowed. Had it been borrowed for some project of improvement, there would have been less objection; for in that case it continues to be a productive capital, and is not withdrawn from the business of the country. The taxpayers will freely pay double for that which has doubled in value. But it is a severe trial of patience to be obliged to pay double for a vicious expenditure of war, twenty years after it had become thoroughly odious to the world. Twenty years ago a piece of ordnance was taken from New York to Vera Cruz, and cost, in all, a thousand dollars. We have already paid the full price of the vile thing in taxes for the support of the five per cent. stocks, and now, we have the entire price to pay over again to refund the principal. We should with much greater cheerfulness, have paid the full taxes when the money was wanted, and now it is not only intrinsically a more odious imposition, but it has doubled in amount. Giving up, however, all invidious distinctions between one public enterprise and another, it is evident that the system of raising money as it is needed, is far better; and at least one-half as expensive, as the system of loans. It will be offered, as an objection to the above, that when government borrows a sum of money, it suffers an equal sum to lie, in the shape of uncollected taxes, in the hands of the tax-payers, and that these tax-payers will readily pay the five per cent, to be allowed to retain their money: that the capitalist, in effect, loans it to the |