In 1823 the revenue from the customs increased to 19,000,000, and the published accounts showed a reduction in the public debt of between two and three millions, and a balance in the treasury at the end of the year of nearly 9,500,000.
An unsuccessful attempt was made under au thority of an act passed in April 1822, to exchange twenty-six millions of the six and seven per cents, which were reimbursable in 1825, 26, 27 and 28, for a five per cent stock, reimbursable at a later period. The holders of stock to the amount of only 56,704 dollars, accepted the terms offered by Congress.
Efforts of this kind were repeated in 1824 and 1825, and were then more successful, though not to the extent anticipated. In 1824 nearly four millions and a half, and in 1825 upwards of one million and a half of the six per cent war-stocks were exchanged for stocks bearing an interest of four and a half per cent.
In 1824 a loan of five millions at four and a half per cent was negotiated with the United States bank, to satisfy the claimants under the Florida treaty. The surplus of moneys in the treasury was applied to the reimbursement of the seven per cent stock, to the reimbursement of the last remains of the old six per cent and deferred stocks, and of all but a very small part of the six per cent exchanged stock of 1812. The published accounts showed a reduction in the total amount of public debt, in the course of the year, of between six and seven mil lions.
In 1825 the sum of five million dollars was bor rowed from the United States bank at four and a half per cent, to facilitate the payment of the six per cent stock of 1812: and upwards of a million and a half of six per cent stocks of other years were, as mentioned above, exchanged for stock bear ing an interest of four and a hall per cent. Since that time the operations of the treasury department have been conducted without incurring any new, or changing the form of any old debts: and, owing to the prosperous state of the revenue, the public debt has been reduced with a rapidity which the expe rience of other years gave the people no reason to expect.
From the 1st of January 1824 to the 1st of January 1828, the principal of the debt was reduced nearly twenty-three millions of dollars. Frcm the
first of January 1828 to the first of January 1832, the reduction was upwards of forty-three millions.
In the tables annexed to this article, the reader will find a view of the receipts and expenditures of government from the 4th of March 1789 to the 31st of December 1791,' and from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, for each year, from 1792 to 1829, both inclusive.
We give these tables in the form in which they were presented to the chairman of the committee on retrenchment in April 1830: and add a state ment of the receipts and expenditures in 1830 and 1831, with an estimate for 1832, taken from subse quent reports of the treasury department.
The surplus of revenue, with the balance in the treasury at the beginning of the year, will be suffi cient to redeem all the three per cent and such other stocks as are by the terms of contract reimbursable in this period. If the money should be applied in this way, the national debt at the end of the year will be about ten millions of dollars.
The public debt on the 2d of January 1832 was as follows : The secretary of the treasury in his report at the commencement of the session of Congress of from the returns of three-quarters, and a calculation of the probable returns of the fourth quarter, estimated the total revenue of the year 1831 at 28,000,412 dollars 87 cents: the expenditures at 30,967,201 dollars 25 cents, (pf which 16,189,289 dollars 67 cents were in payment of principal and in terest of the public debt,) and the balance in the treasury on the 1st of January 1832 at 3,047,751 dollars 37 cents. Of this last amount 1,400,000 consist of funds which are not effective, being bank-notes received during the suspension of spe cie payments, and debts due from broken banks in which the public money was deposited.
This statement of the receipts and expenditures of 1831, is liable to the corrections which the secre The principal revenue of the United States gov ernment is from the duties on imports and tonnage. The public lands have not yet reimbursed the cost of extinguishing the aboriginal title and the expenses of surveying. The post office yields nearly two millions a year, but nearly all it produces is expended in extending the mail routes.