US Presidency
1858

The public debt on July 1, 1858, the commencement of the present fiscal year, was $ 25,155,977.66. During the first quarter of the present year the sum of $ 10,000,000 has been negotiated of the loan authorized by the act of June 14, 1858, making the present outstanding public debt, exclusive of Treasury notes, $ 35,155,977.66. There was on the 1st of July, 1858, of Treasury notes issued by authority of the act of December 23, 1857, unredeemed, the sum of $ 19,754,800, making the amount of actual indebtedness at that date $ 54,910,777.66. To this will be added $ 10,000,000 during the present fiscal year, this being the remaining half of the loan of $ 20,000,000 not yet negotiated. The rapid increase of the public debt and the necessity which exists for a modification of the tariff to meet even the ordinary expenses of the Government ought to admonish us all, in our respective spheres of duty, to the practice of rigid economy.