presentatives." The executive has authority to recommend (not to dictate) measures to Congress.

Having performed that duty, the executive department of the government cannot rightfully control the decision of Congress on any subject of legislation, until that decision shall have been officially submitted to the President for approval. The check provided by the constitution, in the clause conferring the qualified veto, will never be exercised by me, except in the cases contemplated by the fathers of the republic. I view it as an extreme measure, to be resorted to only in extraordinary cases-as where it may become necessary to defend the executive against the encroachments of the legislative power, or to prevent hasty and inconsiderate or unconstitutional legislation. By cautiously confining this remedy within the sphere prescribed to it in the cotemporaneous expositions of the framers of the constitution, the will of the people, legitimately expressed on all subjects of legislation, through their constitutional organs, the senators and representatives of the United States, will have its full effect. As indispensable to the preservation of our system of self-government, the independence of the representatives of the States and people is guarantied by the constitution; and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their constituents.

By holding the representative responsible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, we elevate the character of the constituent and quicken his sense of responsibility to his country. It is under these circumstances only that the elector can feel that, in the choice of the law-maker, he is himself, truly, a component part of the sovereign power of the nation. With equal care we should study to defend the rights of the executive and judicial departments. Our government can only be preserved in its purity by the suppression and entire elimination of every claim or tendency of one co-ordinate branch to encroachment upon another.

With the strict observance of this rule and the other injunctions of the constitution-with a sedulous inculcation of that respect and love for the union of the States, which our fathers cherished and enjoined upon their children, and with the aid of that over-ruling Providence which has so long and so kindly guarded our liberties and institutions, we may reasonably expect to transmit them with their innumerable blessings to the remotest posterity.

But attachment to the union of the States should be habitually fostered in every American heart. For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory, and the object of affection and admira. tion with every one worthy to bear the American name.

In my judgment its dissolution would be the greatest of calamities, and to avert that, should be the study of every American. Upon its preservation must depend our own happiness and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers may threaten it, I shall stand by it and maintain it in its integrity, to the full extent of the obligations imposed, and the power conferred upon me by the constitution.

The receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1849,

were:

Leaving a balance in the Treasury July 1, 1849,
as appears in detail by accompanying statement A.

ESTIMATES.

$2,184,964 28

The estimated receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1850, are:

Receipts from customs-1st quarter, by

actual returns,

Receipts from customs-2d, 3d and 4th quarters, as estimated,

Receipts from public lands,

Do. do. miscellaneous sources,

$11,643,728 54

19,856,271 46- $31,500,000 00

1,700,000 00

1,200,000 00

$34,400,000 00

Receipts from avails of loans in specie,

$399,050 00

Do. do. do. in Treasury notes funded,

839,450 00—

1,238,500 00

The estimated receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1850, and ending June 30, 1851, are:

The expenditures during the same period, as estimated by the several departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, and Postmaster General,

are:

The balances of former appropriations which will be required

to be expended this year,

Permanent and indefinite appropriations,

Specific appropriations asked for this year, .

This sum is composed of the following particulars:

$5,656,530 34

5,643,410 24 33,697,152 15

$44,997,092 73

11,088,724 64 2,750,000 00 170,835 00

Civil list, foreign intercourse and miscellaneous,
Expenses of collecting revenue from customs,
Expenses of collecting revenue from lands,

Army proper, &c.,

8,296,183 44

Fortifications, ordnance, arming militia, &c.,

2,015,446 00

Internal improvements, &c.,

1,247,203 38

Indian department,

1,912,710 53

Pensions,

1,927,010 00

Naval establishment,

Interest on Treasury notes and public debt,

Purchase of stock of the loan of 28th January, 1847,

11,353,129 64

3,742,951 13

492,898 97

$44,997,092 73

$10,547,092 73

5,828,121 66

Deficit July 1, 1851,

Do. July 1, 1850,

Total deficit, 1850 and 1851, .

$16,375,214 39

Prior to the first of July last, the expenses of collecting the revenue from customs were paid out of the accruing revenue at the several ports, and only the balance came into the treasury; of course the receipts at the treasury, actual and estimated, were of the net revenue after deducting all expenses.

By the act of 3d March last, the system was changed from and after 1st July, 1849, and, accordingly, the receipts, actual and estimated, from that date, are of the gross revenue, and estimates are submitted of the expenses of collection.

The alteration thus made in the law must prove to be salutary, as the attention of Congress will be annually drawn to the expenditures under this head, and they will be enabled to limit them in a spirit of economy as severe as the exigencies of the public service will admit.

Notwithstanding the great increase of the business of the country, the act of 17th June, 1844, has prevented any addition to the number of inspectors, gaugers, weighers, measurers, or markers, (in any district then established,) since its passage, except ten inspectors at New Orleans, per act 3d March, 1845, and the consequence is, that at all the large ports the number of inspectors is insufficient for the discharge of the duties of those offies, and the prevention of breaches or evasions of the revenue laws.

These duties have been greatly increased by the establishment of the ware

housing system, and the difficulties thereby enhanced without any provision for increasing the number of officers to meet the emergencies of the new service. In addition to the temporary "aids to the revenue" appointed by some of the collectors under the authority of the act of 1799, I have been compelled to meet in part the emergency thus occasioned by authorizing, at the ports of New York, Boston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Bristol, R. I., the employment of thirty-two additional clerks to act as storekeepers, and relieve from attendance upon the warehouses that number of inspectors, in order that they might attend to their appropriate duties; and have declined assenting to requests for similar authority from other ports, only because the necessity did not appear to be of so urgent a character as to make it impossible to await the action of Congress on this subject.

The establishment of new collection districts in Texas and California, and the probable necessity of creating more, will of course make an addition to the expenses heretofore incurred, as well as to the revenue to be received. The preventive service is amalgamated by our system with the service of collection. There are now 110 collection districts in the United States. Of this number, eighteen are maintained at the public expense, not having collected any revenue during the past year. There are thirty-six at which the revenue collected is not sufficient to meet the annual expenses, and but fiftysix at which the gross revenue exceeds the expenses.

Under these circumstances, I submit the estimates herewith presented (marked C) of the expenses of collecting the revenue from customs on the present scale of service, submitting to the wisdom of Congress the question of reducing that scale, and the mode of such reduction. I annex to the report copies of letters (marked T) received from collectors of the customs on the subject. In my judgment, no reduction is practicable, consistently with the security of the revenue; on the contrary, I have no doubt that the force should be increased.

I deem it proper to invite the early attention of congress to the appropriation required for the second half of the current fiscal year, for which a separate estimate is submitted, (C,) as required by the 3d section of the act of 3d of March last. The entire revenue from customs being paid into the public treasury, and remittances made to each collector for all the expenses of collection, very great embarrassment would result if the necessary appropriations were delayed.

Under the provisions of the 6th section of the act of 3d March last, I present herewith a "statement of the amount of money expended at each custom house in the United States during the fiscal year ending the 30th June last, and also the number of persons employed, and the occupation and salary of each person, at each of the said custom-houses during the period aforesaid," (marked D.)

It will be seen, from the statement referred to, that full complement of officers for twenty-four revenue vessels were charged upon the revenue. The number of officers has been reduced to sixteen of each grade.

Annexed will be found table marked (E), in compliance with the 22d section of the act of the 28th of January, 1847, containing the information required thereby, respecting the issue, redemption, purchase, and resale of treasury notes.

As required by the first section of the act of the 10th August, 1846, a statement is appended (marked E E) showing the amount of treasury notes paid within the preceding year under the provisions of that act.

Statement (F) shows the payments into the treasury on account of the loan of 1848.

The public debt amounted, on the 1st of October, 1848, agreeably to table (0)

annexed to the last report of my predecessor, to the sum of $65,778,450 41. Since that time, $1,073,756 70 of the debt has been redeemed and extinguished by the purchase of stocks, &c. Of the amount thus redeemed and extinguished there were on account of the debt of the cities of the District of Columbia assumed by the act of 20th May, 1836, $60,000; on account of the old funded and unfunded debt, $5,089 58; of treasury notes purchased at par and received in payment for lands and customs, $2,150; of military bounty scrip, $233,075; of the stock of 1842, $80,700; of the stock of 1843, $136,000; of the stock of 1848, $260,000; of the stock of 1847, $382,500; which last was paid for out of the land fund, and purchased by Hugh Maxwell, Esq., collector of New York, with the aid (kindly afforded) of C. W. Lawrence, Esq., the late collector of that port, whose resignation had, at that time, just taken effect, and who had acquired some experience in similar operations, from having been employed in them by the government in the previous year. See statement hereto annexed marked (Ğ.) The public debt now amounts to the sum of $64,704,693 71, which will be redeemable as follows:

Parts of the old funded and unfunded debt on presentation, Debts of the district cities assumed by Congress, $60,000, payable annually,

$,122,735 10

960,000 00

303,573 92 6,468,231 35

Five per cent. stock, per act of August, 1846, redeemable 9th
August, 1851,

Five per cent. loan, of 3d March, 1813, redeemable 1st July, 1853, Six per cent. loan of 22d July, 1846, redeemable 12th November, 1856,

4,999,149 45

Six per cent. loan of 15th April, 1842, redeemable 31st December, 1862,

Six per cent. loan of 28th Jan., 1847, redeemable 1st Jan., 1868,

do

do

do.

Do. do. Six per cent. loan of 31st March, 1848, redeemable 1st July, 1868, Treasury notes issued prior to 1846, payable on presentation; if converted into stock, under the act of January, 1847, will be redeemable 1st July, 1868,

WAYS AND MEANS.

8.198,686 03 27,618,350 55 149,828 00 15,740,000 00

144,139 31

$64,704,693 71

It will be observed, that there is estimated a deficit on the 1st July next of $5,828,121 66, and on the 1st July, 1851, of $10,548,092 73; making, in the whole an estimated deficit of $16,375,214 39, to be provided for, arising from the expenses of the war and treaty with Mexico.

In order to aid in forming an estimate of the expenses occasioned by the war with Mexico, I have directed a statement to be prepared, which is hereto annexed, (marked H.) showing the excess of the expenses of the army proper for three years from 1st April, 1846, to 1st April, 1849, over those for the three years immediately preceding; and the excess of the expenses of the navy proper for two and a half years from 1st April, 1846, to 1st October, 1848, over those for the two and a half years immediately preceding.

The excess of army expenditures thus ascertained was,
The excess of navy expenditures,

$58,853,993 41

4,751,627 90

$63,605,621 31

The increase of debt by the loans and treasury notes authorized by the acts of July 22, 1846, 28th January, 1847, and March 31, 1818, was

49,000,000 00

was of course paid out of the revenue (including balance on 1st April, 1846, and