Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-04-03
DEFICIENCIES IN APPROPRIATIONS.

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Our neighbor Of g the Union, unable to counter
act the evidence which we have produced from the
public record-showing that the idea of supplying
Deficiencies in annual appropriation acts by partial
appropriation bills, as proposed by the Deficiency
Bill now depending in Congress, SO far from being
any thing new or extraordinary device Of the
present Administration, as represented by the
Union" and dangerous precedent which it is
setting is old at least the first year Of the late
Democratic Administration that he twill
examine the journals, and return to the subject
again" Very well we shall have, at his con-
venience, the benefit Of his second thoughts He
will then perhaps let his readers know that during
the Administration Of President JACKSON, Partial
Appropriations, in anticipation Of the General
Appropriation Bill of each year, were repeatedly
made; and that in single year Qs4O) Of Presi-
dent VAN BUREN's Administration t,co Deficiency
Bills were passed, one on the 9th Of January, and
the other on the 18th of December
When the Editor Of the "Uniony has set him.
self right in the matter Of fact as to- the history Of
Deficiency Bills we trust he will also enlighten his
readers as to the relative amounts Of Annual Ex-
penditure within the last fifteen or twenty years,
under the present Administration and under the
Democratic Administrations
Before we place at his disposal and at that Of
readers the means Of institnting this comparison,
we wish to draw thsr attention to the fact that Of
the Expenditures Of the Government during the
year 1851, more than ten millions Of dollars
was for extraordinary expenses, accruing at the
opening of the present Presidential term, as the
result Of the recent vast acquisitions Of territory by
conquest and by treaty, which, when we come to
comparison Of the ordinary expenditures between
different Administrations, must be deducted from
the expenditures of the year 1851 which have been
stated by I" the Union" at iftytwo millions of dol
lars, and by others at fifty millions, actually
amounting to forty-eight millions which we have
already reduced by the process Of analysis to little
more than thirty-6ve millions. The amount Of
additional annual expenditure, required by the Ter
ritorial acquisitions to which REFER is believed to
be nearer twelve millions than ten but, to avoid
cav we will take the lowest estimate. Deduct ten
millions of dollars from the thirty five millions and
odd hundreds, to which we brought down the expen-
dture of 1851 and it reduces the payment from the
Treasury for the ordinary expenditures Of the
Government, during the year 1851, to twenty-five
millions two hundred thousand dollars.
When our contemporary comes to search the
record, he will discover that the acreage annual ea
penditure of the four years Democratic Administra
ton of Mr.. VAN buren,, Immediately preceding the
Administration of President TYLER, was, for cur
rent expenses, taeeaty-eigM millions Of dollars;
whilst the average annual expense for the preceding
twenty years, including (besides the Administra-
tions of Presidents MONROE and JACKSON that Of
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the only living Wing Ad-
minisration before the present, little more than
fifteen millions Of dollars Eight years of the Ad-
ministration of President TYLER and President POLK
have interviewed, and, with Wing President, the
expenditures of the Government for ordinary pur-
poses actually less, by several millions of dol
lars, than the average yearly expenditure under the
first thoroughly Democratic Administration.