US Presidency
1845

By a judicious application of the revenues not required for other necessary purposes, it is not doubted that the debt which has grown out of the circumstances of the last few years may be speedily paid off. I congratulate my fellow citizens on the entire restoration of the credit of the general government of the Union and that of many of the states. Happy would it be for the indebted states if they were freed from their liabilities, many of which were incautiously contracted. Although the government of the Union is neither in a legal nor a moral sense bound for the debts of the states, and it would be a violation of our compact of union to assume them, yet we can not but feel a deep interest in seeing all the states meet their public liabilities and pay off their just debts at the earliest practicable period. That they will do so as soon as it can be done without imposing too heavy burdens on their citizens there is no reason to doubt.