SELECTED SPEECHES AND REPORTS ON FINANCE AND TAXATION. ON THE MORRILL TARIFF BILL. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 7, 1860. THIS speech was made with a view of securing additional revenues to strengthen the Treasury, which, since the first year of Mr. Buchanan's administration, then in power, had suffered unusual depletion. On June 30, 1857, the public debt was only $29,060,386.90, against which the Treasury held of cash in its vaults $17,710,114.27. To set free the increasing balance, and thereby to relieve if possible the commercial and other interests of the country, which were then struggling to ward off the revulsion which finally came upon them, the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, purchased before the middle of November, of stock not due, an amount of $4,878,377.33, paying thereon a premium of $688,977.78. The revulsion affecting the trade and business of the country more severely than was anticipated, the current revenues of the Treasury were suddenly decreased more than one half in amount, and, upon the opening of the first session of the Thirty-fifth Congress in December, the Secretary was compelled to ask for a loan of $20,000,000. Prompt response was made, and on the 23d of that month Congress authorized the issue of $2,000,000 Treasury notes, payable one year from the dates of their issue; and before the adjournment of the session, on the 23d of June following, it authorized an additional issue of $20,000,000 of bonds, payable in fifteen years. At the close of the fiscal year (June 30, 1858), there was in the Treasury a cash balance of only $6,398,316.10, but none of the notes or bonds authorized had then been sold. During the next year the expenses of the Government were increased, but no steps with a view of increasing the revenue from taxation appear to have been taken. To meet current expenses during the year, the Treasury realized from issue of notes of December 23, 1857, $9,667,400, and from the bonds authorized by act of June 14, 1858, $18,620,000, increasing the debt to $58,754,699.33, but still leaving the Treasury at the close of the year, June 30, 1859, with a balance of only $4,339,275.54. The Thirty-sixth Congress assembled December 5, 1859, and the House organized after a struggle over the election of Speaker of about two months. The opposition finally succeeded, and Mr. Sherman was placed at the head of the Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Sherman said: MR. CHAIRMAN: The revenue act of March 3, 1857, which it is now proposed to repeal, has proved to be a crude, ill-advised, and illdigested measure. It was never acted upon in detail in either branch of Congress, but was the result of a committee of conference in the last days of the session, and was finally passed by a combination of hostile interests and sentiments. It was adopted at a time of inflated prices, when the Treasury was overflowing with revenue. When that condition of affairs ceased, it failed to furnish ordinary revenue, and by its incidental effects operated injuriously to nearly every branch of industry. It went into operation on the 1st of July, 1857. At that time there was in the Treasury of the United States a balance of $17,710,114. The amount of the public debt then remaining unpaid-none of which was then due-was a little over $29,000,000. So that there was in the Treasury of the United States, when the tariff act of 1857 went into operation, nearly enough to have paid two thirds of the public debt. Within one year from that time the public debt was increased to $44,910,777. On the 1st of July, 1859, the public debt had increased to $58,754,699. On the 1st of May, 1860, as nearly as I can ascertain, the public debt had risen to $65,681,099. The balance in the Treasury on the 1st of July next, as estimated by me, will be $1,919,349. Thus it is shown that, under the operation of the tariff of 1857, the deficit in the revenue in three years is over $52,000,000. It may be stated thus: It is impossible to ascertain from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury the condition of our finances for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1860. I have prepared a statement of receipts and expenditures, based upon the actual sums received and paid for three quarters of the year, and the Secretary's estimate for the last quarter. The total expenditures will be $67,702,818, and the receipts from all sources will be $58,950,445, thus showing a deficit for this fiscal year of $8,852,373. It thus appears that during the present fiscal year, a year of great commercial prosperity, the ordinary receipts have been insufficient to pay the expenses of the Government by over $8,000,000, and that too at a time when the expenses of the Government have |