[Footnote 8: Copies of contracts for deepening the channels of the
Southwest Pass and Pass à l'Outre, at the mouth of the Mississippi
River, etc.]
WASHINGTON CITY, _June 12, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I feel it to be an indispensable duty to call your attention to the
condition of the Treasury. On the 19th day of May last the Secretary of
the Treasury submitted a report to Congress "on the present condition of
the finances of the Government." In this report he states that after a
call upon the heads of Departments he had received official information
that the sum of $37,000,000 would probably be required during the first
two quarters of the next fiscal year, from the 1st of July until the
1st of January. "This sum," the Secretary says, "does not include such
amounts as may be appropriated by Congress over and above the estimates
submitted to them by the Departments, and I have no data on which to
estimate for such expenditures. Upon this point Congress is better able
to form a correct opinion than I am."
The Secretary then estimates that the receipts into the Treasury from
all sources between the 1st of July and the 1st of January would amount
to $25,000,000, leaving a deficit of $15,000,000, inclusive of the sum
of about $3,000,000, the least amount required to be in the Treasury
at all times to secure its successful operation. For this amount he
recommends a loan. This loan, it will be observed, was required, after a
close calculation, to meet the estimates from the different Departments,
and not such appropriations as might be made by Congress over and above
these estimates.
There was embraced in this sum of $15,000,000 estimates to the amount of
about $1,750,000 for the three volunteer regiments authorized by the act
of Congress approved April 7, 1858, for two of which, if not for the
third, no appropriation will now be required. To this extent a portion
of the loan of $15,000,000 may be applied to pay the appropriations
made by Congress beyond the estimates from the different Departments,
referred to in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
To what extent a probable deficiency may exist in the Treasury between
the 1st July and the 1st January next can not be ascertained until the
appropriation bills, as well as the private bills containing
appropriations, shall have finally passed.
Adversity teaches useful lessons to nations as well as individuals. The
habit of extravagant expenditures, fostered by a large surplus in the
Treasury, must now be corrected or the country will be involved in
serious financial difficulties.
Under any form of government extravagance in expenditure must be the
natural consequence when those who authorize the expenditure feel no
responsibility in providing the means of payment. Such had been for a
number of years our condition previously to the late monetary revulsion
in the country. Fortunately, at least for the cause of public economy,
the case is now reversed, and to the extent of the appropriations,
whatever these may be, ingrafted on the different appropriation bills,
as well as those made by private bills, over and above the estimates of
the different Departments, it will be necessary for Congress to provide
the means of payment before their adjournment. Without this the Treasury
will be exhausted before the 1st of January and the public credit will
be seriously impaired. This disgrace must not fall upon the country.
It is impossible for me, however, now to ascertain this amount, nor does
there at present seem to be the least probability that this can be done
and the necessary means provided by Congress to meet any deficiency
which may exist in the Treasury before Monday next at 12 o'clock, the
hour fixed for adjournment, it being now Saturday morning at half-past
11 o'clock. To accomplish this object the appropriation bills, as they
shall have finally passed Congress, must be before me, and time must
be allowed to ascertain the amount of the moneys appropriated and to
enable Congress to provide the necessary means. At this writing it is
understood that several of these bills are yet before the committee
of conference and the amendments to some of them have not even been
printed.
Foreseeing that such a state of things might exist at the close of
the session, I stated in the annual message to Congress of December
last that--
From the practice of Congress such an examination of each bill as the
Constitution requires has been rendered impossible. The most important
business of each session is generally crowded into its last hours, and
the alternative presented to the President is either to violate the
constitutional duty which he owes to the people and approve bills
which for want of time it is impossible he should have examined, or
by his refusal to do this subject the country and individuals to great
loss and inconvenience.
* * * * *
For my own part, I have deliberately determined that I shall approve
no bills which I have not examined, and it will be a case of extreme
and most urgent necessity which shall ever induce me to depart from
this rule.
The present condition of the Treasury absolutely requires that I should
adhere to this resolution on the present occasion, for the reasons which
I have heretofore presented.
In former times it was believed to be the true character of an
appropriation bill simply to carry into effect existing laws and the
established policy of the country. A practice has, however, grown up of
late years to ingraft on such bills at the last hours of the session
large appropriations for new and important objects not provided for by
preexisting laws and when no time is left to the Executive for their
examination and investigation. No alternative is thus left to the
President but either to approve measures without examination or by
vetoing an appropriation bill seriously to embarrass the operations
of the Government. This practice could never have prevailed without a
surplus in the Treasury sufficiently large to cover an indefinite amount
of appropriations. Necessity now compels us to arrest it, at least so
far as to afford time to ascertain the amount appropriated and to
provide the means of its payment.
For all these reasons I recommend to Congress to postpone the day of
adjournment for a brief period. I promise that not an hour shall be lost
in ascertaining the amount of appropriations made by them for which it
will be necessary to provide. I know it will be inconvenient for the
members to attend a called session, and this above all things I desire
to avoid.