[Footnote 25: Relating to an act of the legislature of South Carolina
providing for the imprisonment of free negroes found on board vessels
entering any of the ports of that State, complaints of the British
Government relative to the operation of said act, etc.]
WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1842_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I feel it to be my duty to invite your attention to the accompanying
communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, in relation to the
probable demands which will be made upon the Treasury for the present
quarter. It will be seen that, without arresting the requisitions which
will be made by the War and Navy Departments for the months of March,
April, and May, there will be an unprovided-for deficit of upward of
three millions.
I can not bring myself, however, to believe that it will enter into the
view of any department of the Government to arrest works of defense now
in progress of completion or vessels under construction or preparation
for sea. Having due regard to the unsettled condition of our foreign
relations and the exposed situation of our inland and maritime frontier,
I should feel myself wanting in my duty to the country if I could
hesitate in urging upon Congress all necessary appropriations for
placing it in an attitude of strength and security. Such recommendation,
however, has heretofore been made in full reliance as well on Congress
as on the well-known patriotism of the people, their high sense of
national honor, and their determination to defend our soil from the
possibility, however remote, of a hostile invasion.
The diminution in the revenue arising from the great diminution of
duties under what is commonly called the compromise act necessarily
involves the Treasury in embarrassments, which have been for some years
palliated by the temporary expedient of issuing Treasury notes--an
expedient which, affording no permanent relief, has imposed upon
Congress from time to time the necessity of replacing the old by a new
issue. The amount outstanding on the 4th of March, 1840, varies in no
great degree from the amount which will be outstanding on the 1st
of January next, while in the interim the new issues are rendered
equivalent to the redemption of the old, and at the end of the fiscal
year leave an augmented pressure on the finances by the accumulation
of interest.
The contemplated revision of the tariff of duties may, and doubtless
will, lead in the end to a relief of the Treasury from these constantly
recurring embarrassments, but it must be obvious that time will be
necessary to realize the full anticipations of financial benefit from
any modification of the tariff laws. In the meantime I submit to
Congress the suggestions made by the Secretary, and invite its prompt
and speedy action.