Total amount of the annual appropriations of $10,000,000 for the years 1820 to 1824, inclusive, which will, according to the terms of the contracts in relation to the redemption of the public debt, remain unapplied on the 31st December, 1824 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, REGISTER'S OFFICE, January 22, 1820. $22,074,339 77 JOSEPH NOURSE, Register. SINKING FUND. [Communicated to the Senate, February 5, 1820] WASHINGTON, February 5, 1820. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund respectfully report to Congress : That the measures which have been authorized by the board, subsequent to the last report of the 5th of February, 1819, so far as the same have been completed, are fully detailed in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to this board, dated the 4th day of the present month, and in the statements therein referred to, which are herewith transmitted, and prayed to be received as a part of this report. The Hon. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE. JOHN GAILLARD, President of the Senate, pro tem. The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY respectfully reports to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund: That the sums disbursed from the Treasury, during the year 1818, on account of the principal and interest of the public debt, as per last annual report, was From which deduct amount of repayments in that year $21,596,783 68 $21,296,306 04 State of the Sinking Fund. Which, with a sum arising from damages and interest on protested bills of exchange, being the difference between the cost of said bills at par and the amount received into the Treasury in repayment thereof Together with a further sun, being the difference between the principal of stock purchased during the year 1818, and the money paid for the same Amounting, together, to Have been accounted for in the following manner, viz: The sums actually applied during the year 1818, to the payment of the principal and In the reimbursement of the principal of the old 6 per cent. and deferred stocks In the redemption of the domestic debt In the redemption of the Louisiana stock In the payment of the principal of Treasury notes In the payment of certain parts of the domestic debt $20,770,003 72 (a) 33,752 06 4,708 14 $21,334,766 24 On account of the interest On account of charges $6,011,388 67 4,926 31 6,016,314 98 20,770,003 72 But of this sum there was short provided, consisting of unclaimed dividends on the public debt, not applied for by the proprietors, as per the annexed statement B. The funds in the banks, out of which a part of the interest which accrued on the funded debt for the year 1817 was paid, and which appeared to be short provided, per statement B of last year, was covered by warrants in 1818 And there was a loss on exchange in remittances from America to Europe during the year 1818, as appears by statements D and Dd, annexed to the last report 128,427 69 20,641,576 03 693,058 45 131 76 That, during the year 1819, the following disbursements were made out of the Treasury, on ac count of the principal and interest of the public debt: On account of the interest on the funded domestic debt and reimbursement of the prin Making together, as will appear by the annexed statement C, the sum of $7,721,020 96 State of the Sinking Fund. Which disbursements were made out of the following funds, viz: From the annual appropriation of $10,000,000, for the year 1819, agreeably to the second sec tion of the act to provide for the redemption of the public debt, passed the third of March, 1817 From repayments into the Treasury on account of moneys heretofore advanced for the purchase of bills of exchange, and for the payment of interest and reimbursement of the funded debt And from the appropriation in relation to Treasury notes, being the amount of payments on account of the principal and interest thereof, per statement C, above recited Making the amount paid on warrants, as above stated $7,621,605 58 17,199 09 82,220 29 $7,721,020 96 And have been accounted for, as far as respects the redemption by purchase of the public debt, under the act passed the 3d of March, 1817, and as is exhibited in statement I, annexed, and which is rendered as a part of this report: Stock purchased $711,957 55, cost $665,982 73 7,055,038 23 $7,721,020 96 Will be accounted for in the next annual report, in conformity with the accounts which shall then have been rendered to this Department. In the mean time, the manner in which the said balance has been applied is estimated as follows: There is estimated to have been applied to the payment of the deficiency of the provision, at the end of the year 1818, as per statement B Also, in the reimbursement of the deferred 6 per cent. stock Also, in the payment of the principal of Treasury notes Also, towards the redemption of the Louisiana 6 per cent. stock, Also, in payment of certain parts of the domestic debt And in payment of interest on the funded debt and Treasury notes In the next annual statement the repayments in 1819 will be exhibited as a deduction from the total amount of warrants issued for the public debt in that year, and of which this forms a part, to the amount of And there is estimated as remaining unapplied in the hands of the agents in Europe, and in protested bills, on the 1st of January, 1820, as per estimate G, the sum of From which deduct this sum short provided, on account of unclaimed dividends payable but not demanded at the Treasury, (by estimate) 6,967,741 59 17,199 09 64,232 12 7,049,172 80 $128,427 69 (a) The amount payable in 1819, on account of the Louisiana stock Whereof, on application for payment, warrants were issued for Remained to be issued after the 1st of January, 1820 That, on the 21st of October, 1820, the last instalment of the Louisiana stock, amounting to $2,216,462 77, will be payable. That, in compliance with the sixth section of the act of the 3d of March, 1817, for the redemption of the public debt, the certificates which, by payment or purchase, have become the property of the United States, are regularly cancelled. A statement marked H is annexed, which exhibits the amount of the debt on the 1st of January, 1820. WM. H. CRAWFORD. All which is respectfully submitted. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, February 4, 1820. [The tabular statements of details, which are voluminous, are omitted.] Remonstrance against a change in the Revenue System. REMONSTRANCE AGAINST A CHANGE INI made by our system of revenue of the delay of THE REVENUE SYSTEM. The undersigned, merchants and inhabitants of Baltimore, beg leave to present to your honorable body the sentiments which they anxiously entertain on the proposed measure of discontinuing credit on import duties and denying drawbacks on duties. Your memorialists contemplate the proposed change with concern; and they would, indeed, view any such projected innovation with alarm if they did not believe that the mercantile interest is under watchful and wise control in your honorable body. A lenient system of imposts on foreign commerce is, in the opinion of your memorialists, not only conducive to active commerce, but also favorable to the public revenue: and under such a system the commerce of the United States has flourished, and the national Treasury has been enriched. For a course which hitherto has richly and faithfully answered every object of the laws, and every demand which the fiscal policy has made upon commerce, it is now proposed to substitute a system at once experimental, harsh, and precarious. Under the existing terms of the collection of duties, the United States have surely experienced but little cause for discontent; and your memorialists can, with the most confident anticipation, declare, that fewer evasions of law and fewer defaults in payment have taken place under the present system than what will occur under the rigid and peremptory conditions to which that system is proposed to be contracted. The exaction of duties hitherto, on principles liberal and prudent, and gradual and gentle in its operation, has afforded to industrious commercial enterprise the patronage which judicious policy owes to it. Such a patronage is vitally due to it in a country whose energies are excited and cultivated by commerce, whose power is in so great a degree the fruit of commerce, whose rank among nations owes to it so much of its elevation. The policy which pervades our present code of duties contemplates and adopts meritorious enterprise as part of the national wealth, and, viewing a free and extended commerce as the most bountiful source of revenue, and surest means of power, does not consecrate the field of commerce to the capitalist, and make it the monopoly of the rich. sales. In few or no cases does the credit on the duty exceed the period within which the capital can be realized, or recovered from suspense. In the terms of those duties upon which a drawback is paid, the principle to which your memorialists allude appears to receive a more distinct and marked respect. The duty originally charged is there only contingent upon the stay and consumption of the articles in the country, and the term of credit there extended by the United States is the period to the importer for ascertaining whether they shall be appropriated for consumption or exported to a foreign quarter. Duties in these cases being thus contingent in the eye of our revenue policy, a credit is here not so much an indulgence to the importer as a necessary sequel from the nature of the duty. Must, then, all principle be here violated, and the intolerable severity be here prescribed by Government to the importer, that he shall enjoy no credit, however natural and essential an attendant it be on the duty charged against his importation? Your memorialists do believe as a maxim, safe as a guide, and propitious wherever it is applied, that not only by the dictate of the law, but, in every construction of policy, duties are emphatically a lien on the articles subjected to them; they attach to them, and should be gathered from them. Where, in the collection of duties, the United States surrender to the importer the specific articles, their claim against him is not then embarked upon the conscience or substance of the individual importer; but two additional pledges are involved in the responsibility. Their means are bound, and the assurance of their character is given, all tributary to the demand of the United States. Interwoven with this strong defence, is that preferred claim which the United States has against the property of its debtor, a supreme prerogative lien, which thus furnishes a security calculated to elevate the United States almost above the danger of loss. The necessity which binds every importer to give to the Government such a security, while their discretion in considering it is unrestricted, would seem to be a sufficient guard against all importations destined for sacrifice, or to aid any wanton schemes of private finance; and your memorialists can scarcely imagine that, for premeditated sacrifice, any goods have been imported into this country. Your memorialists cannot conceive that, where a threefold security, in fortune and commercial reputation, is required by the United States, as preliminary to the credit on duties, the indulgence of The policy which now dignifies our system of credit could prompt or facilitate any importations duties assumes that principle of sterling truth, that not in the course of honest industry. Commerce all duties on imports are taxes on consumption; always tends to extremes; excesses of trading and hence, how fair and important is it that some occur under all systems and in the freest peritime should be granted to the importer to convey ods of commercial prosperity. But if importation to the consumer the articles of importation. Not does sometimes swell until business stagnates, com only the custom, but the very nature of commerce requires, in almost every instance of sale, that at least some term of credit shall be afforded to the purchaser; and hence, some period must be allowed to the importer to levy the tax for the United States, and some estimate ought to be merce has a power of self-correction and the resource of self-recovery, and reverses soon allay the intemperate ambition of gain. Your memorialists need not, however, dwell upon the inherent energies of commerce, and its ebbs and flows; nor show how certainly, by the salu Remonstrance against a change in the Revenue System. tary force of experience and competition, it is soon | criminality, not only to the national morals, but shorn of all inordinate adventure, built upon desperate or fanciful speculation. anon. on. The present system of duties, although its indulgence, or rather its equity, is so necessary an auxiliary to the small commercial capital of the United States, has connived at and contributed to none of the irregularities of our commerce. All that have occurred may be explained by the late history of Europe, or traced to the very spirit of commerce itself, since fluctuation and irregularity are inseparable from its life and motion. Restriction may make commerce of smooth and uniform surface, but it cannot be so without being sluggish and shallow; and until commerce be so tamed by restriction and embarrassment, and become the privilege of the wealthy, it will be subject to irregularity and this inequality of character. Young as our country is, and far from being endowed with abundant commercial capital, the necessary consequence of the proposed alteration in the payment of the duties will be to consign commerce to the grasp of a few, expelling from the franchise of commerce, as it will, those who have but moderate means, although they be annexed to character and enterprise. This revolution in our revenue system will limit commerce to the circle of the capitalists; and commerce, the basis and pride of our fame, will dwindle into the diminutive condition, and fade into the pitiful character of a monopoly! Witness the fate of Spain! What if goods do now occasionally accumulate inordinately, and if regular calculating industry sometimes suffers by the careless sacrifices made by wanton speculators; will not the consumer, the whole mass of society, be subjected to severe and painful terms under the new system? Is there not more enormity in the danger that exorbitant prices will then be dictated by the select importers than ground of rational regret that prices have sunk while the existing system has prevailed? This is one of the sure results of the proposed change, and, though there be a pause in business now, commerce will ever be partial and inadequate then. There is, indeed, one palliative against all restrictions which press on the very nerve of commerce, and, though the refuge be a profane one, your memorialists appeal to human nature, and the history of the commercial world, whether it be not certainly and invariably the resource, where commerce is severely confined. Your memorialists here allude to the practice of smuggling; and they make this allusion not only under perfect conviction, but with feelings of alarm. Your memorialists call on your honorable body to consider how far the universal fidelity of this country to the revenue law has been commensurate with the interest of the mercantile community, and with their sense of justice; and, though your memorialists do not mean to identify mercantile virtue with interest, yet, with many, even the justice of Government is measured by calculations of interest! Your memorialists beg you to reflect whether the proposed severity will not instigate delinquency; whether the revenue laws will not, in many instances, be evaded, with all the serious consequences of such also to the national Treasury. Unless the United States can make a discrimination in the amount of duties between citizens and foreigners, no change in the terms of payment can ever exclude foreigners from competing with citizens, whenever such privileges belong to them. But they enter into the crowd of competition, and competition always regulates its own wholesome extent. Your memorialists on this point think it indisputable that the introduction of foreign capital into our country, by this foreign participation in our trade, has been of essential benefit-an important aid in the present ent inadequate amount of our own commercial capital. Your memorialists beg you to reflect earnestly and feelingly on the subject of discontinuing drawbacks on duties, and to remember that the advantage of drawback is emphatically our license for conducting a carrying trade. It is to the benefits of this branch of trade that the United States principally owes all that rapid advancement which is at all attributable to commerce, and to this that it has hitherto been indebted for its pecuniary abilities. To extinguish drawbacks is at once a sentence of banishment against American merchants from a commercial sphere of the greatest national and individual profit. If the United States thus deprives us of all that remains to us of our former greatness in this branch of commerce, but a miserable fragment of commerce will continue to the American people! To abolish drawback will have this fatal effect; for what shall we meet but inevitable loss, if we venture into the competition of a foreign market with goods loaded with the gross duty, of which, by the judicious policy of our present system, we are now disencumbered? The question of drawback is indeed a vital question, and involves the vocation and prosperity of thousands whose pursuits, during a long and brilliant lapse of time, have been tributary to the treasure and renown of the Union. When your memorialists consider that the present system of duties has pressed leniently upon American commerce, and has yet been richly and faithfully productive to the United States; when we consider that the proposed change of making duties payable in cash will imprison commerce within the limits of a dictatorial monopoly, whose members will by their wealth be constituted the representatives of the once universal American commerce; when we consider that the consumers, the great body of society, will be subjected to oppressive terms, which give an unfair proportion to their labor and their relation to the Governmentwhen all this is, to the minds of your memorialists, the certain offspring of this paralyzing change, your memorialists ask you, not only in justice but humanity-not as the patrons of commerce, but as friends of your country-to forbear from this innovation. Your memorialists, viewing the abolition of drawbacks as an excommunication from a trade which yielded so much to enrich and distinguish us, and which, in many points, does not in the remotest degree conflict with any imaginable |