The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

Mr. [illegible]—Considerable discrepancy appears in the calculations of the Secretary of the Treasury, and those of the Committee of Ways and Means, to which the Annual Report of that officer was referred. The Secretary finds the balance, necessary to be provided for the reimbursement of the public debt in 1826, to be nine millions, The Committee estimate it at only six millions and a half. The Secretary estimates the deficiency for the same purpose in 1827 at six millions; the Committee at less than two millions. This disagreement appears to arise from a difference in the construction of an act of Congress of 1817, "to provide for the redemption of the public debt."

—The Committee disagree also with the Secretary, with respect to the expediency of a new loan for the purpose of providing for the deficiency which shall actually exist, deeming the present an unfavorable time for effecting the proposed exchange of stock, and that the supposed gain to the Government of the difference in the rate of interest, even if it should be found practicable to effect a loan on the terms proposed, too trifling to deserve attention. There is still another point on which the Committee decidedly express their disagreement with the opinion of the Secretary. The latter recommends, in his remarks on this subject, in case a new loan is created, to place the holders of stock who exchanged their reimbursable six per cent. stock for that bearing a lower rate of interest, under the law of the last session, 'upon an equality with those with whom a contract may be made at this time on terms less advantageous to the Government. The Committee consider this as an act of generosity to which the Government is under no obligation, and for the performance of which the public creditors have no reasonable claim.