US Presidency
1842

Ewing, then Secretary of the Treasury, which was shortly thereafter laid before Congress, in which he recommended the imposition of duties at the rate of 20 per cent ad valorem on all free articles, with specified exceptions, and stated if this measure be adopted there will be received in the Treasury from customs in the last quarter of the present year $ 5,300,000; in all of the year 1842, about $ 22,500,000; and in the year 1843, after the final reduction under the act of March 2, 1833, about $ 20,800,000; and adds: It is believed that after the heavy expenditures required by the public service in the present year shall have been provided for, the revenues which will accrue from that or a nearly approximate rate of duty will be sufficient to defray the expenses of the Government and leave a surplus to be annually applied to the gradual payment of the national debt, leaving the proceeds of the public lands to be disposed of as Congress shall see fit.