US Presidency
1869

It may be advisable to modify taxation and tariff in instances where unjust or burdensome discriminations are made by the present laws, but a general revision of the laws regulating this subject I recommend the postponement of for the present. I also suggest the renewal of the tax on incomes, but at a reduced rate, say of 3 per cent, and this tax to expire in three years. With the funding of the national debt, as here suggested, I feel safe in saying that taxes and the revenue from imports may be reduced safely from sixty to eighty millions per annum at once, and may be still further reduced from year to year, as the resources of the country are developed. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows the receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, to be $ 370,943,747, and the expenditures, including interest, bounties, etc., to be $ 321,490,597.