US Presidency
1889

Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon ourTreasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcelyless imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should alwaysbe made with economy and only upon public necessity. Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is criminal. But there is nothingin the condition of our country or of our people to suggest that anythingpresently necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor shouldbe unduly postponed. It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate theseextraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable annual surplus willremain. We will fortunately be able to apply to the redemption of the publicdebt any small and unforeseen excess of revenue. This is better than toreduce our income below our necessary expenditures, with the resultingchoice between another change of our revenue laws and an increase of thepublic debt.