EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT, COMPARATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE, AND
SEPARATED FROM EXTRAORDINARIES.
Mr. Benton moved to print an extra number of these tabular
statements received from the Secretary of the Treasury, and proposed
to give his reasons for the motion, and for that purpose, asked
that the papers should be sent to him (which was done); and Mr. B.
went on to say that his object was to spread before the country,
in an authentic form, the full view of all the government expenses
for a series of years past, going back as far as Mr. Monroe's
administration; and thereby enabling every citizen, in every
part of the country, to see the actual, the comparative, and the
classified expenditures of the government for the whole period. This
proceeding had become necessary, Mr. B. said, from the systematic
efforts made for some years past, to impress the country with the
belief that the expenditures had increased threefold in the last
twelve years--that they had risen from thirteen to thirty-nine
millions of dollars; and that this enormous increase was the effect
of the extravagance, of the corruption, and of the incompetency
of the administrations which had succeeded those of Mr. Adams and
Mr. Monroe. These two latter administrations were held up as the
models of economy; those of Mr. Van Buren and General Jackson were
stigmatized as monsters of extravagance; and tables of figures
were so arranged as to give color to the characters attributed to
each. These systematic efforts--this reiterated assertion, made on
this floor, of _thirteen_ millions increased to _thirty-nine_--and
the effect which such statements must have upon the minds of those
who cannot see the purposes for which the money was expended,
appeared to him (Mr. B.), to require some more formal and authentic
refutation than any one individual could give--something more
imposing than the speech of a solitary member could afford. Familiar
with the action of the government for twenty years past--coming
into the Senate in the time of Mr. Monroe--remaining in it ever
since--a friend to economy in public and in private life--and
closely scrutinizing the expenditures of the government during the
whole time--he (Mr. B.) felt himself to be very able at any time to
have risen in his place, and to have exposed the delusion of this
_thirteen_ and _thirty-nine_ million bugbear; and, if he did not do
so, it was because, in the first place, he was disinclined to bandy
contradictions on the floor of the Senate; and, in the second place,
because he relied upon the intelligence of the country to set all
right whenever they obtained a view of the facts. This view he had
made himself the instrument of procuring, and the Secretary of the
Treasury had now presented it. It was ready for the contemplation
of the American people; and he could wish every citizen to have
the picture in his own hands, that he might contemplate it at his
own fireside, and at his full leisure. He could wish every citizen
to possess a copy of this report, now received from the Secretary
of the Treasury, under the call of the Senate, and printed by its
order; he could wish every citizen to possess one of these authentic
copies, bearing the _imprimatur_ of the American Senate; but that
was impossible; and, limiting his action to what was possible, he
would propose to print such number of extra copies as would enable
some to reach every quarter of the Union.
Mr. B. then opened the tables, and explained their character and
contents. The first one (marked A) consisted of three columns,
and exhibited the aggregate, and the classified expenditures of
the government from the year 1824 to 1839, inclusive; the second
one (marked B) contained the detailed statement of the payments
annually made on account of all temporary or extraordinary objects,
including the public debt, for the same period. The second table was
explanatory of the third column of the first one; and the two, taken
together, would enable every citizen to see the actual expenditures,
and the comparative expenditures, of the government for the whole
period which he had mentioned.
Mr. B. then examined the actual and the comparative expenses of
two of the years, taken from the two contrasted periods referred
to, and invoked the attention of the Senate to the results which
the comparison would exhibit. He took the first and the last of
the years mentioned in the tables--the years 1824 and 1839--and
began with the first item in the first column. This showed the
aggregate expenditures for every object for the year 1824, to have
been $31,898,538 47--very near thirty-two millions of dollars, said
Mr. B., and if stated alone, and without explanation, very capable
of astonishing the public, of imposing upon the ignorant, and of
raising a cry against the dreadful extravagance, the corruption,
and the wickedness of Mr. Monroe's administration. Taken by itself
(and indisputably true it is in itself), and this aggregate of
near thirty-two millions is very sufficient to effect all this
surprise and indignation in the public mind; but, passing on to the
second column to see what were the expenditures, independent of the
public debt, and this large aggregate will be found to be reduced
more than one half; it sinks to $15,330,144 71. This is a heavy
deduction; but it is not all. Passing on to the third column, and
it is seen that the actual expenses of the government for permanent
and ordinary objects, independent of the temporary and extraordinary
ones, for this same year, were only $7,107,892 05; being less than
the one-fourth part of the aggregate of near thirty-two millions.
This looks quite reasonable, and goes far towards relieving Mr.
Monroe's administration from the imputation to which a view of the
aggregate expenditure for the year would have subjected it. But,
to make it entirely satisfactory, and to enable every citizen to
understand the important point of the government expenditures--a
point on which the citizens of a free and representative government
should be always well informed--to attain this full satisfaction,
let us pass on to the second table (marked B), and fix our eyes
on its first column, under the year 1824. We shall there find
every temporary and extraordinary object, and the amount paid on
account of it, the deduction of which reduced an aggregate of near
thirty-two millions to a fraction over seven millions. We shall
there find the explanation of the difference between the first and
third columns. The first item is the sum of $16,568,393 76, paid on
account of the principal and interest of the public debt. The second
is the sum of $4,891,386 56, paid to merchants for indemnities under
the treaty with Spain of 1819, by which we acquired Florida. And
so on through nine minor items, amounting in the whole, exclusive
of the public debt, to about eight millions and a quarter. This
total added to the sum paid on account of the public debt, makes
close upon twenty-five millions of dollars; and this, deducted from
the aggregate of near thirty-two millions, leaves a fraction over
seven millions for the real expenses of the government--the ordinary
and permanent expenses--during the last year of Mr. Monroe's
administration.
This is certainly a satisfactory result. It exempts the
administration of that period from the imputation of extravagance,
which the unexplained exhibition of the aggregate expenditures might
have drawn upon it in the minds of uninformed persons. It clears
that administration from all blame. It must be satisfactory to every
candid mind. And now let us apply the test of the same examination
to some year of the present administration, now so incontinently
charged with ruinous extravagance. Let us see how the same rule will
work when applied to the present period; and, for that purpose,
let us take the last year in the table, that of 1839. Let others
take any year that they please, or as many as they please: I take
one, because I only propose to give an example; and I take the last
one in the table, because it is the last. Let us proceed with this
examination, and see what the results, actual and comparative, will
be.
Commencing with the aggregate payments from the Treasury for all
objects, Mr. B. said it would be seen at the foot of the first
column in the first table, that they amounted to $37,129,396 80;
passing to the second column, and it would be seen that this sum was
reduced to $25,982,797 75; and passing to the third, and it would be
seen that this latter sum was itself reduced to $13,525,800 18; and,
referring to the second table, under the year 1839, and it would
be seen how this aggregate of thirty-seven millions was reduced
to thirteen and a half. It was a great reduction; a reduction of
nearly two-thirds from the aggregate amount paid out; and left for
the proper expenses of the government--its ordinary and permanent
expenses--an inconceivably small sum for a great nation of seventeen
millions of souls, covering an immense extent of territory, and
acting a part among the great powers of the world. To trace this
reduction--to show the reasons of the difference between the first
and the third columns, Mr. B. would follow the same process which
he had pursued in explaining the expenditures of the year 1824, and
ask for nothing in one case which had not been granted in the other.
1. The first item to be deducted from the thirty-seven million
aggregate, was the sum of $11,146,599 05, paid on account of the
public debt. He repeated, on account of the public debt; for it was
paid in redemption of Treasury notes; and these Treasury notes were
so much debt incurred to supply the place of the revenue deposited
with the States, in 1836, or shut up in banks during the suspension
of 1837, or due from merchants, to whom indulgence had been granted.
To supply the place of these unattainable funds, the government went
in debt by issuing Treasury notes; but faithful to the sentiment
which abhorred a national debt, it paid off the debt almost as fast
as it contracted it. Above eleven millions of this debt was paid
in 1839, amounting to almost the one-third part of the aggregate
expenditure of that year; and thus, nearly the one-third part of the
sum which is charged upon the administration as extravagance and
corruption, was a mere payment of debt!--a mere payment of Treasury
notes which we had issued to supply the place of our misplaced
and captured revenue--our three instalments of ten millions cash
presented to the States under the false and fraudulent name of a
deposit, and our revenue of 1837 captured by the banks when they
shut their doors upon their creditors. The glorious administration
of President Jackson left the country free from public debt: its
worthy successor will do the same.
Removal of Indians from the Southern and Western States, and
extinction of their titles, and numerous smaller items, all
specified in the third column of the table, amount to about twelve
millions and a half more; and these added to the payments on the
public debt, the remainder is the expense of the government, and is
but about the one-third of the aggregate expenditure--to be precise,
about thirteen millions and a half.
With this view of the tabular statements Mr. B. closed the
examination of the items of expenditure, and stated the results to
be a reduction of the thirty-seven million aggregate in 1839, like
that of the thirty-two million aggregate in 1824, to about one-third
of its amount. The very first item, that of the payment of public
debt in the redemption of Treasury notes, reduced it eleven millions
of dollars: it sunk it from thirty-seven millions to twenty-six.
The other eighteen items amounted to $12,656,977, and reduced the
twenty-six millions to thirteen and a half. Here then is a result
which is attained by the same process which applies to the year
1824, and to every other year, and which is right in itself; and
which must put to flight and to shame all the attempts to excite the
country with this bugbear story of extravagance. In the first place
the aggregate expenditures have not increased threefold in fifteen
years; they have not risen from thirteen to thirty-nine millions,
as incontinently asserted by the opposition; but from thirty-two
millions to thirty-seven or thirty-nine. And how have they risen? By
paying last year eleven millions for Treasury notes, and more than
twelve millions for Indian lands, and wars, removals of Indians, and
increase of the army and navy, and other items as enumerated. The
result is a residuum of thirteen and a half millions for the real
expenses of the government; a sum one and a half millions short of
what gentlemen proclaim would be an economical expenditure. They all
say that fifteen millions would be an economical expenditure; very
well! here is thirteen and a half! which is a million and a half
short of that mark.