The payment of nearly
$67,000,000 of the public debt, with the great progress made in
measures of defense and in other improvements of various kinds
since the late war, are conclusive proofs of this extraordinary
prosperity, especially when it is recollected that these
expenditures have been defrayed without a burthen on the people,
the direct tax and excise having been repealed soon after the
conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to these great
objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our great
resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may
affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes
they are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in
the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citizens,
and in the devotion with which they would yield up by any just
measure of taxation all their property in support of the rights
and honor of their country.
Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the
productions of the country and every branch of industry,
proceeding from causes explained on a former occasion, the revenue
has considerably diminished, the effect of which has been to
compel Congress either to abandon these great measures of defense
or to resort to loans or internal taxes to supply the deficiency.
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