JANUARY, 1832.] bank and its branches. directed to lay before the Senate information, first, | made by Senators of such high standing, and of the amount of debt due from individuals and generally so very correct by Senators who bodies corporate to the Bank of the United States, are so highly appreciated, could not fail to have and its branches, distinguishing the amount secured great influence on this body. I confess, Mr. by mortgage from that secured by personal security President, that I then thought they were misalone; and what portion of said debts are considered taken, and I answered them guardedly. I did as standing accommodations to the customers of said not positively deny the assertion. I somewhat Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be doubted my own opinion, when opposed to the directed to lay before the Senate a list of the di- positive assertions of gentlemen for whom I rectors of the Bank of the United States, and of entertain great respect. When the Senate adthe several branches, and a statement of the stock journed on that day, I remarked to a Senator held by citizens of the United States, with the num- that I thought those gentlemen had committed ber of shares held by each, and the State or Terri- a great error. He replied that he thought tory of their residence; also, the amount of specie, their statements correct. This induced me to according to their last return, in the vaults of the reflect on the subject, and to see whether I bank and its branches, distinguishing the part which could not ascertain the truth or fallacy of the belongs to the bank, the portion belonging to indi- assertion. I found that the Senator (Mr. BENviduals, and to the United States. TON) had taken his seat in the Senate at the session of 1821-'22; of course the expenditures for the year 1822 were those which he asserted had been nearly doubled since he came Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before the Senate the monthly statements of the affairs of the Bank of the United States for the year 1831. Public Expenditures. The bill for the erection of barracks, quarters, and storehouses, and the purchase of a site, in the vicinity of New Orleans, was read the third time, passed, and sent to the other House. into the Senate. I saw how I could obtain the desired information. I caused a statement to be made from the annual reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, from the year 1822 to 1830, both years inclusive. In order to avoid any error in this statement, I sent it to the Treasury for the purpose of being minutely examined. It has been returned to me as perWhen this bill was put on its passage, fectly correct; and I was referred to the book Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, rose to offer some called "Receipts and Expenditures for the year remarks in reply to assertions which had been 1830," lately delivered to each Senator, for a made by gentlemen on a former occasion, full view of the expenses for a series of years, touching the public expenditures. He began and I found a perfect accordance with the by saying he was in favor of the present bill, statement I had prepared. So that the exposé because it appropriated money for an object which I propose to give, is, I may truly say, essential to the interests of a weak part of the founded on facts, leaving nothing vague or deUnion; and no fear of censure for increasing rived from conjecture. The book to which I the annual expenditure of the nation would de- have alluded, I immediately sent to the Baltiter him from supporting measures which he more library without inspecting it. I had no considered necessary and conducive to the pub-idea of looking in it for the detailed statement lic welfare. Our duty, said Mr. S., is paramount to every consideration of this kind. I care not whether the expenses of the present Administration have, or have not, exceeded that of any other Administration; my sole view is to provide for what is necessary, and the provisions of this bill appear to me to be of this character. of our expenditures. Every Senator has the book, and can, at his leisure, compare it with the view which I propose to give; in which I flatter myself I shall be able to show that the Senators from Missouri and South Carolina have been mistaken; that the expenses have not nearly doubled, nor increased-in fact, if the expenditure in one year exceed thirteen millions, the next year falls below that amount; and that the average expenditure of the last nine years, say 1822 to 1830, both inclusive, amounts only to the sum of twelve million three hundred and seventy thousand four hundred and thirty-one dollars. On a late occasion, said Mr. S., a bill in which I felt a deep interest, was rejected on the ground that it increased the public expenses. It did not. It merely authorized an appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars per annum, instead of the annual sum of one hundred thousand dollars, and would have ena- A superficial reader, Mr. President, when he bled the Executive to arm the fortifications in looks at the public expenditures, most generally ten instead of twenty years. The argument will look at the sum total of each year, and was then urged, that the annual expenses of will conclude that the expenses have been the Government went on increasing. The Sen-higher or lower than usual. He has no particator from Missouri (Mr. BENTON) distinctly said ular object in view, and will not give himself "that the expenditures of the Government had the trouble to investigate the causes which crenearly doubled since he took a seat in the Senate the large or small expenditures of any one ate." This assertion was considered essentially year. Thus, he may look at the expenses of correct by the Senator from South Carolina, 1817, and will find the total amount to have (Mr. HAYNE.) The assertion thus broadly been the enormous sum of $40,877,646. He SENATE.] Public Expenditures. [JANUARY, 1832. then turns to the year 1818, and finds the total | whom were then in the House of Representaexpenditures of that year to amount to the sum of $35,104,875. He takes the year 1819, and finds the expenses only $24,004,199, and concludes in his own mind that the Congress of 1817 and 1818 must have been extravagant in their appropriations of the public money, and the Executive no better. When, if he had investigated the subject fully, he would have found that there had been paid in 1817, towards the extinguishment of the public debt, the unusual sum of $25,423,336, thus reducing the ordinary expenses of the Government to the sum of $15,454,609; that, in the year 1818, there had been paid towards the redemption of the public debt the sum of $21,296,001, thus making the ordinary expenditures of the Government amount to the sum of $13,908,673. The expenditure, independently of the payment on account of the debt, amounted to $16,300,273 in the year 1819. This increase arose from various causes not necessary to detail. There was paid towards the public debt in the year 1819 the sum of $7,703,926 only. This diminution of payment is attributable to the fact that there was little of the principal of the public debt then payable. tives, and will correct me if my recollection should lead me into error. During the session of the year 1819-'20, the President asked a loan, I think, of five millions, to defray the expenses of the Government, which he had deemed necessary, and for which estimates had, as usual, been laid before Congress. A loan of three millions only was granted; and, in the next session, another loan of, I think, seven millions was asked, in order to enable the Executive to meet the amount of expenses estimated for, as necessary for the year 1821. A loan of five millions was granted, and in the succeeding year another loan of five hundred thousand dollars was asked, and refused. Congress were dissatisfied that loans should be required in time of profound peace, to meet the common expenses of the nation, and they refused to grant the amount asked for in the estimates, although this amount would have been granted if there had been money in the Treasury to meet them, without resorting to loans. The Committee of Ways and Means (and it was supported by the House) lessened some of the items estimated for, and refused others. No item, except such as was indispensably necesI will now come, Mr. President, to my prin- sary, was granted. By the adoption of this cipal object. It is the assertion, "that, since course, the expenditures were reduced, in 1821, the year 1821, the expenses of the Govern- to $10,723,479, and to the sums already menment had nearly doubled;" and I trust I shall tioned for the two years, 1822 and 1823, and be able to show that the Senator from Missouri the current expenses of 1824, $10,330,144. (Mr. BENTON) had been under some misappre- The consequence was, that the Treasury was hension. The Senate are aware of the effect restored to a sound state, so that Congress was which such an assertion, coming from such enabled, in the year 1825, to appropriate the high authority, must have upon the public full amount of the estimate. The expenditures mind. It certainly had its effect, even upon of 1824 amounted to $15,330,144. This large this enlightened body. I mentioned to an hon-expenditure is to be attributed to the payment orable Senator a few days since, that the average ordinary expenditure of the Government for the last nine years did not exceed the sum of twelve and a half millions. But, said the Senator, the expenditures have greatly increased during that period. I told him I thought they had not; and I now proceed to prove, that, with the exception of four years, viz., 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824, the expenditures of the Government have not increased. I shall endeavor to show the causes of the re-made for the purchase of lands from the Induction of expenses during those years, and that they afford no criteria by which to judge of the necessary expenses of Government, and that they are exceptions to the general rate of expenditures, arising from particular causes. But even they exhibit an expenditure far above the one-half of the present annual ordinary expenses. In the year 1822, which was the period when the Senator from Missouri (Mr. BENTON) took his seat in the Senate, the ordinary expenses of the Government amounted to the sum of $9,827,643. The expenses of the year 1823 amounted to $9,784,154. I proceed, Mr. President, to show the cause which thus reduced the ordinary expenses during these years. I speak in the presence of gentlemen, some of made to Spain in that year, of $5,000,000 for the purchase of Florida. I entertained doubts whether I ought to include this sum in the expenditures; but, on full consideration, I deemed it proper to include it. It may be said that it was an extraordinary payment, and such as could not again occur. So is the payment on account of awards under the treaty of Ghent, in 1827 and 1828, amounting to $1,188,716. Of the same character, too, are the payments dians; for the removal of the Indians; for payments to the several States for moneys advanced during the late war; and a variety of other extraordinary charges on the Treasury. The payment on account of the purchase of Florida happened in the last seven years; and if this sum were deducted from the expenditures of 1824, it would exhibit a great reduction in the expenses of the last seven years, when contrasted with those of the seven years between 1817 and 1823, both years inclusive. The comparison of average expenses between the first seven years, contrasted with the last seven years, would then amount to $12,733,337 for the first period, and $12,388,868 for the latter period; which would show an actual average decrease of $344,469 between these JANUARY, 1832.] Public Expenditures. [SENATE. periods. This decrease could be rendered | 1823, the cause for which has been already much greater, if the other extraordinary ex- stated, and to the payment in 1830 of the Maspenditures to which I have referred were also sachusetts militia claim of four hundred and deducted in the comparison. The subsequent years being years when no deductions were made from the estimates, it will be seen to vary alternately. In the year 1825, the expenses were 1826, 1828, $11,490,450 13,062,316 13,296,041 12,660,490 thirty thousand dollars. Were it not for the payment of this latter claim in 1830, the comparison would have shown a different result. The true test is to be found in comparing the expenditures of the Government in those years when Congress were not restricted in the expenditures by reason of a scanty Treasury. The next comparison I offer, will be the expenditures of the seven years from 1817 to 1829, 1823, both years inclusive, with those of the 1830, seven subsequent years, beginning with the It may be proper for me to show that the year 1824 to 1830, both inclusive, and I find average expenditures of the Government for that the annual average expenditure of the these nine years, say from 1822 to 1830, both in- first seven years amounts to $12,733,337, and clusive, amount only to the sum of $12,370,431. of the last seven years to the sum of $13,103,154 A considerable part of these expenditures has presenting an inconsiderable increase, which arisen from extraordinary charges on the Treas-is entirely attributable to the fact that reducury, such as, for the removal of the Indians; the purchase of their lands; the payment of the States for the advances made by them during the late war; for property destroyed by the enemy; and for payment of awards under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, amounting to $1,188,716. A navy has been created, and our national flag floats proudly on every sea. Immense fortifications have been erected. Arsenals have been built in different parts of the Union, and filled with small arms and the munitions of war. The only wonder is, that so much has been done, with such limited expenditures. I think I have shown, Mr. President, "that the expenditures of the Government have not nearly doubled since the year 1821;" nor do I think that there has been any increase. If there had been any, the fault would rest with Congress. tions had been made in the years 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824, on account of a scanty Treas ury, which reductions, in the ordinary expenses of the Government, had had a tendency to cause an increase of expenditures in the succeeding years. These reductions were not savings; they were a mere temporary diminution of necessary expenditures. The majority of the objects thus reduced, or altogether refused, were, in the subsequent years, provided for. It is perfectly fair, Mr. President, to compare a series of years with an equal number of years; but it is neither fair nor just to select one year, and to compare it with another. I speak with reference to the annual ordinary expenditures. Would it be fair towards the late President Monroe, to compare the expenses of the last year of his Administration, amounting to $15,330,144, with the first year of Mr. Adams's Administration, which amounted only to 11,490,549 dollars? Would it be proper to compare the expenditures of the last year of Mr. Adams's Administration, which amounted to $13,296,041, with the first year of President Jackson's Administration, which $12,660,490? Certainly not. To do so, would be committing an act of political injustice, and yet I have seen this done. But, if you compare the last year of Mr. Adams's Administration with the second year of President Jackson's, ($12,229,533,) little difference in the expenses will be found to exist. was It has been said, Mr. President, "that the expenses of the Government increase annually, and go on increasing." With a view of testing this assertion, and also of elucidating this subject, I trust I shall be permitted to institute a few comparisons. The first will be between the expenditures of the four years, 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820, with those of the four years, 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1830. I find, on examination, that the average expenses of the first four years amount to the sum of $14,699,521, and of the last four years to the sum of $12,959,790, showing a decrease in the public expenditures exceeding a million and a half of I have, Mr. President, shown to my own satdollars; thus amply contradicting the asser-isfaction, and, I trust, to that of the Senate, tion, that the public expenditures "go on in- that the expenses of the Government have creasing." The second comparison I shall not only not nearly doubled since the year 1821 make will be between the four years, 1823,(unless it can be demonstrated that 13,296,041 1824, 1825, and 1826, with those of 1827, 1828, dollars, being the expenditures in 1828, be 1829, and 1830. I find that the average ex- nearly double the sum of $9,827,643, the pense of the first four years amounts to the amount of expenditures of 1822)—have not sum of $12,416,768, and the last four years to increased, but, on the contrary, have actually $12,959,790, showing an average increase of decreased. I have taken for the investigation $543,022, or an annual average increase of of the subject the eight years of the late Pres$135,755, inconsiderable in amount, and arising ident Monroe's Administration, the four years from the reduced expenditures in the year of the Administration of Mr. Adams, and the SENATE.] Public Expenditures. [JANUARY, 1832. two years of President Jackson's Administra- | and, secondly, the actual payments for the last tion, to which the accounts are made up at the Treasury; and in this investigation and comparison I have carefully avoided every thing of a party complexion. year, in the President's Message, were about fourteen millions and three-quarters. The sum estimated for the future expenditures, by the Secretary of the Treasury, was thirteen and a half millions; but fifteen millions were recommended by him to be levied to meet increased expenditures. Mr. B. said these were two great facts which he had in his eye, and which he would justify. He would produce no proofs as to the second of his facts, because the President's Message and the Secretary's report were so recently sent in, and so universally reprint Having been a member of, and for several years Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in the House of Representatives, and having also been Chairman of the Committee on Finance in the Senate, I consider it an implied reflection on those committees that they had seen with indifference the expenses of the Government annually increasing, and actually nearly doubling in nine years. I have there-ed, that every person could recollect, or turn to fore deemed it incumbent upon me, in particular, to make the necessary investigation of this subject, and to present to the Senate the extensive view I have submitted in relation to a matter which has so frequently been misrepresented, and which I trust will be considered a sufficient apology for having occupied so much of the time of the Senate. Mr. BENTON rose in reply to the Senator from Maryland. Mr. B. said that a remark of his, in a former debate, seemed to have been the occasion of the elaborate financial statements which the Senator from Maryland had just gone through. Mr. B. said he had made the remark in debate; it was a general one, and not to be treated as an account stated by an accounting officer. His remark was, that the public expenditure had nearly doubled since he had been a member of the Senate. Neither the words used, nor the mode of the expression, implied the accuracy of an account; it was a remark to signify a great and inordinate increase in a comparatively short time. He had not come to the Senate this day with the least expectation of being called to justify that remark, or to hear a long arraignment of it argued; but he was ready at all times to justify, and he would quickly do it. Mr. B. said that when he made the remark, he had no statement of accounts in his eye, but he had two great and broad facts before him, which all the figures and calculations upon earth, and all the compound and comparative statements of arithmeticians, could not shake or alter, which were-first, that since he came into the Senate, the machinery of this Government was worked for between eight and nine millions of dollars; their contents, and verify his statement upon their own examination or recollection. He would verify his first statement only by proofs, and for that purpose would refer to the detailed statements of the public expenditures, compiled by Van Zandt and Watterston, and for which he had just sent to the room of the Secretary of the Senate. Mr. B. would take the years 1822-'3; for he was not simple enough to take the years before the reduction of the army, when he was looking for the lowest expenditure. Four thousand men were disbanded, and had remained disbanded ever since; they were disbanded since he came into the Senate; he would therefore date from that reduction. This would bring him to the years 1822-3, when you, sir, (the Vice President,) was Secretary of War. What was the whole expenditure of the Government for each of those years? It stood thus: The pensions for those years were Revolutionary. Invalid, Aggregate. 1822, $1,642,590 94 $305,608 46 $1,947,199 40 1823, 1,449,097 04 331,491 48 1,730,588 52 Now, deduct these pensions from the years to which they refer, and you will have just about $8,000,000 as the expense of working the machinery of the Government at the period which I had in my eye. But the pensions have not yet totally ceased; they are much diminished since 1822, 1823, and in a few years must cease. The revolutionary pensioners must now average seventy years of age; their stipends will soon cease. I hold myself well jus JANUARY, 1832.] Public Expenditures. [SENATE. tified, then, in saying, as I did, that the expen- | who was mistaken. He did not intend to do ditures of the Government have nearly doubled this, however, by any comparison of a series of in my time. The remark had no reference to years and general averages, as that gentleman Administrations. There was nothing compara- had done, but he should submit a resolution to tive in it; nothing intended to put up, or put the Senate, calling for the necessary informadown, any body. The burdens of the people tion in relation to the expenditures during the is the only thing I wish to put down. My ser- time mentioned, from the proper officer of the vice in the Senate has extended under three department; and if the result of that stateAdministrations, and my periods of calculation ment did not make out his assertion to be corextend to all three. My opinion now is, that rect, he would acknowledge his error, and the machinery of this Government, after the abide by that decision; and he expected the payment of the public debt, should be worked gentleman from Maryland would do the same. for ten millions or less, and two millions more Mr. H. said that if the event should show him for extraordinaries; in all twelve millions; but in an error, it was that gentleman's fault, for this is a point for future discussion. My pres- he had led him into the error, if an error it ent object is to show a great increase in a short was, which, however, he did not believe. He time; and to show that, not to affect individu- had led him to believe that there was an inals, but to show the necessity of practising creased expenditure, by his repeated attempts what we all profess-economy. I am against to justify the fact, by urging the necessity of keeping up a revenue, after the debt and pen- an increase to keep pace with the times. Sir, sions are paid, as large, or nearly as large, as said Mr. H., can I forget that it had been pubthe expenditure was in 1822, 1823, with these licly stated that, in the two first years of the items included. I am for throwing down my present Administration, the expenditures of the load, when I get to the end of my journey. I Government on internal improvements were am for throwing off the burden of the debt, greater than during the whole four years of the when I get to the end of the debt. The bur- late Administration? Can I forget the fact I den of the debt is the taxes levied on account have never seen denied by the friends of the of it. I am for abolishing these taxes; and present Administration, though repeatedly rung this is the great question upon which parties in their ears? But, on the contrary, they have now go to trial before the American people. uniformly maintained that this increase was One word more, and I am done for the present. occasioned by appropriations under the previThe Senator from Maryland, to make up a ous Administration. Can I forget that the gengoodly average for 1822 and 1823, adds the tleman from Maryland has told the Senate that expenditure of 1824, which includes, besides it was the intention of the Committee on Fisixteen millions and a half for the public debt, nance to reduce the revenue to fifteen millions and a million and a half for pensions, the sum after the extinction of the public debt, because of five millions for the purchase of Florida. that sum would probably be wanted to meet Sir, he must deduct twenty-two millions from the demands of the Government. Where, said that computation; and that deduction will Mr. H., shall we find the boasted diminution of bring his average for those years to agree very the expenses of this Government? Shall we closely with my statement. find it in the civil list, or diplomatic intercourse? Shall we find it in the army, the navy, or in any department of the Government? On the contrary, has it been our constant policy to create new offices, and enlarge the salaries of those already existing? 66 Mr. HAYNE said that he had been called upon unexpectedly to answer for his remarks made a few days ago on another bill. If he had been aware of the intention of the gentleman from Maryland, he should have taken the pains to be prepared with statements to make out the correctness of the assertion alluded to. He said it must be recollected that it was not his assertion that the expenses were nearly doubled." That had been the assertion of the gentleman from Missouri; and it had struck him so forcibly, that he had merely adverted to the language of that gentleman in his subsequent remarks, and added, that the expenditures of the Government had been annually increasing ever since he had been in the Senate. For this additional assertion, and for that alone, he stood responsible; and if he was mistaken in that remark, he was never so much mistaken in any point in the whole course of his life. He was still confident of its correctness; and he trusted that, before this matter was done with, he should be able to satisfy the Senate and the country that it was not he, but the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, But, said Mr. H., we will have this matter determined by an appeal to facts which cannot deceive us, which the proposed resolution will elicit. How can the gentleman suppose that I should imagine the expenditures were not increased, in the face of all those facts which the gentleman himself has admitted? Have I not, said Mr. H., risen in my place, repeatedly, to oppose the various new appropriations which have been called for, and received for answer that the increased wants of our growing country required them? If mistaken, therefore, the fault lies upon those who, having our finances in charge, could long since have corrected the supposed error. He was persuaded, however, there was no error-there could be none. Indeed, he understood the gentleman himself to show an average increase of the expenditures. And how could it be otherwise? |