The New Hampshire Gazette

Treasurer's Report to Congress.

In obedience to the directions of the act supplementary to the act entitled "An act to establish the Treasury Department," the Secretary of the Treasury respectfully submits the following REPORTS AND ESTIMATES.

The annual revenue of the United States, which in former reports, had been estimated at nine millions five hundred thousand dollars. That estimated revenue, predicated on the importations of the years immediately preceding the late European war, and on the ascertained ratio of increase of the population of the United States, appears from the experience of the two last years, to have been under-rated. The net revenue arising from that source, which accrued during the year 1802, exceeds ten millions one hundred thousand dollars. The revenue which has accrued during the two first quarters of the present year, appears from the best estimate that can now be formed, to have been only fifty thousand dollars less than that of the two corresponding quarters of the year 1802, and the receipts in the treasury, on account of the same duties, during the year ending on the 30th of September last have exceeded ten millions six hundred thousand dollars.

Those facts afford satisfactory evidence that the wealth of the United States increases in a still greater ratio than their population, and induce a belief that this branch of the public revenue may now be safely calculated at ten millions of dollars.

From the statement A it will appear that the same revenue for the two last years of the late European war (1800 and 1801) calculated at the present rate of duties averaged 11,600,000 dollars a year; but although it might with some degree of probability be supposed that the renewal of hostilities will again produce a similar increase, no inference from that period is drawn in this report in relation to the revenue of the ensuing years.

The statement B shews the several species of merchandize on which the duties on importations were collected during the year 1802; the portion of that revenue which was derived from drawbacks and that which arose from the extra duty on merchandize imported in foreign vessels.

Although the sales of the public lands during the year ending on the 30th day of September last affected by the situation of the western country; two hundred thousand acres have been sold during that period; and as it appears from the statement C that independent of future sales the sums already paid to the receivers, together with those which exclusively of interests, fall due during the three ensuing years, amount to 1,250,000 dollars, the annual revenue arising from the proceeds of those sales cannot be estimated at less than four hundred thousand dollars.

The extension of post roads and the acceleration of the mail, whilst diffusing and increasing the benefits of the institution have, as an object of revenue, rendered it less productive. The receipts from that source have amounted during the last year to 270,000 dollars; but as neither these, nor those arising from some other smaller incidental branches, are of sufficient importance to affect any general result, the whole existing revenue of the United States will be computed at only ten millions four hundred thousand dollars.

The permanent annual expenses of government which, under existing laws, must be defrayed out of that revenue, amount to nine millions eight hundred thousand dollars: to wit:

1. The annual appropriation of 7,300,000 dollars, for the payment of the principal and interest of the debt; of which about three millions and an half are at present applicable to the discharge of the principal, and the residue to the payment of interest,

Dolls. 7,800,000

2. The current expenses of government which, according to the estimates for the year 1804, consists of the following items, viz.

For the civil department and all domestic expenses of a civil nature, 791,000

For expenses attending the intercourse with foreign nations, including the permanent appropriation for Algiers, and all other expenses relative to the Barbary powers, 184,000

For the military and Indian departments, 875,000

For the naval establishment, calculated on the supposition that two frigates and four smaller vessels shall be kept in commission, 650,000

2,500,000
9,800,000

And deducted from the permanent revenue of 10,400,000 Leave a surplus revenue of, 600,000

Six hundred thousand dollars applicable to other objects.

The following extraordinary resources and demands not being of a permanent nature, are not included in the calculation, to wit.

The specie in the Treasury, which, on the 30th day of September last, amounted to 5,860,000

The arrears of the direct tax, estimated at 850,000

The outstanding internal duties, amounting to near 400,000

And the sum which will be repaid to the U. States, on account of advances heretofore made in England for the prosecution of claims; estimated at 150,000

Constituting an aggregate of 6,660,000

More than six millions, six hundred thousand dollars, which after reserving the sum which it is necessary to keep in the treasury, will be sufficient to discharge the demands due on account of the convention with Great Britain and amounting to 2,664,000 dollars

Sundry extraordinary expenses in relation to the conventions with France and Great Britain, estimated at 100,000

The loan obtained from the State of Maryland. for the City of Washington amounting to 200,000

And also to pay two millions 2,000,000 Dollars 4,964,000
of dollars on account of the purchase of Louisiana: being the same sum which was reserved for the purpose contemplated by the law of the last session, appropriating that amount for the extraordinary expenses attending the intercourse with foreign nations.

It appears by the estimate (D) that during the year ending on the 30th Sept. last, the payments from the treasury on account of the public debt, have amounted to Dollars 8,096,700

Which, together with the increase of specie in the treasury during the same period amounting to 1,320,000 4,416,700

makes an actual difference in favour of the United States of more than four hundred thousand dollars during that year.

The payments on account of the principal of the public debt, from the first day of April 1801, to the 30th day of September, 1803, have amounted, as appears by the estimates E to 9,924,004 dollars

The specie in the Treasury on the first day of April, 1801, amounted to 1,794,000

And on the 30th day of September, 1803, to 5,860,000
Making an increase of 4,066,000

Those two items constitute an aggregate of 18,990,904 dollars,

From which deducting the extraordinary resource arising from the sales of the bank shares which produced 1,287,600
Leaves for the actual difference, 13,702,401

In favor of the United States, For that period of two years and an half, a surplus of twelve millions seven hundred thousand dollars.

From that view of the present situation of the financial concerns of the United States, it seems that the only question which requires consideration is, whether any additional revenues are wanted in order to provide for the new debt, which, if Congress shall pass the laws necessary to carry the treaty with France into effect, will result from the purchase of Louisiana.

The sum which the United States may have to pay, by virtue of that treaty, amounts to fifteen millions of dollars, and consists of two items--

1st, 11,250,000 dollars payable to the government of France or to its assignees, in a stock bearing an interest of six per cent. payable in Europe, and the principal of which will be discharged at the treasury of the United States, in four installments, the first of which shall commence in the year 1818--2dly, a sum which cannot exceed, but may fall short of 3,750,000 dollars, payable, in specie, at the treasury of the United States, during the course of the ensuing year, to American citizens having claims of a certain description on the government of France.

It has already been stated that 2 millions of dollars may be paid from the specie now in the treasury, on account of the last item: and the whole amount of the new debt which may be eventually created, cannot therefore exceed thirteen millions of dollars, the annual interest of which is equal to 780,000 dollars; but on account of commissions, and variations of exchange, will be estimated at eight hundred thousand dollars.

The existing surplus revenue of the United States will, as has been stated, be sufficient to discharge six hundred thousand dollars of that sum and it is expected that the net revenue collected at New Orleans will be equal to the remaining two hundred thousand dollars.

That opinion rests on the supposition that congress shall place that port on the same footing as those of the United States; so that the same duties shall be collected there, on the importation of foreign merchandize, as are now by law levied in the U. States; and that no duties shall be collected either on the exportation of produce or merchandize from New Orleans to any other place; nor on any articles imported into the U. States from the ceded territories, or into those territories from the U. States.

The statements F, G, H, exhibit the annual exports and imports of the United States to and from Florida and Louisiana, for the years 1799 to 1802; and the statement (G) particularly shews that the exportations from the Atlantic states to those colonies, of articles not of the growth produce, manufacture of the United States amounted for the years 1799, 1800, and 1801, to 6,622,189 dollars; making an average of more than two millions two hundred thousand dollars, of foreign articles, liable to pay duty, annually imported into Florida and Louisiana from the United States alone.

It is ascertained that the exportations from the United States to Florida are so trifling, that that statement may be considered as applying solely to New Orleans; and it is also known that almost the whole of those importations were consumed within that colony, and that during the war the supplies from the United States constituted by far the greater part of its imports.

From thence it results that the annual importations into the ceded territory, of articles destined for the consumption of its own inhabitants, and which will under the revenue laws of the United States, be liable to pay duty, may safely be estimated at two millions five hundred thousand dollars, an amount which, at the present rate of duties. will yield a revenue of about 350,000 dollars. From that revenue must be deducted 10,000 dollars, for the following items, viz.

1st. The amount of duties on a quantity of sugar and indigo equal to that which shall be imported from New Orleans into the United States as those articles being imported free from duty, will diminish by so much the revenue now collected in the seaports of the United States. The whole amount of sugar exported from New Orleans is less than 400,000 pounds, and that of indigo is stated at above 30,000 pounds. Supposing (which, on account of that exemption, is not improbable) that the whole of those articles should hereafter be exported to the United States, the loss to the revenue will be about 100,000 dollars.

2d. No increase of expense in the military establishment of the United States, is contemplated on account of the acquisition of territory; but the expenses of the civil administration of the province and those incident to the intercourse with the Indians are estimated at 50,000 dollars, leaving for the net revenue derived from the province and applicable to the payment of the interest of the new debt, 200,000 dollars as above stated.

The only provisions, which, if that view of the subject be correct, appear necessary, and are respectfully submitted, are

I. In relation to the stock, of eleven million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be created in favor of the government of France or of its assignees;

That that debt be made a charge on the sinking fund, directing the commissioners of the fund to apply so much of its proceeds as may be necessary, for the payment of interest and reimbursement or redemption of the principal in the same manner as, by the existing laws, they are directed to do in relation to the payment of interest and discharge of the principal of the debt now charged on that fund.

That so much of the duties on merchandise and tonnage as will be equal to seven hundred thousand dollars, being the sum wanted to pay the interest of that new stock be added to the annual permanent appropriation for the sinking fund: making together with the existing appropriation, eight millions of dollars annually applicable to the payment of the interest and principal of the public debt.

And that the said annual sum of eight millions of dollars remain thus pledged and be vested in the commissioners of the sinking fund in trust for the said payments, until the whole of the existing debt of the United States and of the new stock, shall have been reimbursed or redeemed.

As a sum equal to the interest accruing on the new stock will thus be added to the sinking fund, the operation of that fund, as it relates to the extinguishment of the existing debt, will remain precisely on the same footing as has been heretofore provided by Congress. The new debt will neither impede nor retard the payment of the principal of the old debt; and the fund will be sufficient, besides paying the interest on both, to discharge the principal of the old debt, before the year 1818, and that of the new, within one year and a half after that year.

II. In relation to the American claims the payment of which is assumed by the convention with France:

That a sum not exceeding 3,750,000 dollars inclusive of the two millions appropriated by a law of the last session of Congress for defraying the extraordinary expenses incident to the intercourse with foreign nations, be appropriated for the payment of those claims, to be paid out of any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

That for the purpose of effecting the whole of that payment, the President of the United States be authorized to borrow a sum not exceeding 1,750,000 dollars at an interest not exceeding six per cent. a year:

And that so much of the proceeds of the duties on merchandise and tonnage as may be necessary, be appropriated for the payment of the interest and for the reimbursement of the principal of the loan which may eventually be effected by virtue of the preceding provision.

It is not proposed to charge that loan on the sinking fund, because its amount, in case it shall be effected, cannot at present be ascertained; and because it may, perhaps, under the then existing circumstances of the treasury be found more expedient not to borrow the money and in lieu of it to pay out of the sinking fund the whole or part of the two last installments payable by virtue of the convention with Great Britain, as authorized by the act making provision for the payment of the whole of the public debt.

It is evident that the possibility of thus providing for the payment of the interest of a new debt of thirteen millions of dollars, without either recurring to new taxes or interfering with the provisions heretofore made for the payment of the existing debt, depends on the correctness of the estimate of the public revenue which has been submitted. Although it is not without diffidence that the hope of such favorable result is entertained, some reliance is placed on the solidity of the basis on which the estimate is grounded. It rests principally on the expectation that the revenue of the ensuing year shall not be less than that which accrued during the year eighteen hundred and two. No part of it depends on the probable increase which may result from the neutrality of the United States during the continuance of the war in Europe; nor even on the progressive augmentation, which, from past experience, may naturally be expected to arise from the gradual increase of population and wealth. Nor has that effect been taken into consideration which the uninterrupted free navigation of the Mississippi and the acquisition of New-Orleans may have on the sale of the public lands, or on the general resources of the inhabitants of the western states.

All which is respectfully submitted.

ALBERT GALLATIN,
Secretary of the Treasury.