Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-04-02
FROM the National Intelligencer of Wednesday.
The DEFICIENCY RITJ,


~ The necessity for passing, at each session O
Congress, a Defcieacy Bill as it is now called bn
Whlcn was formerly designated as ga partial An
preparation Bill" was supposed to have been re-
NEEDED by the establishment by Congress- SOME
nine years ago, of rule by ai6ich the fiscal ven,
t ma tbn made irst to July in one yea,
" 'no NE The purpose of ma
klng am ns.iof each year in season tc
meet any de1hands upon the Government for the
following year before the expiration of the wear
| that Is current And that object would have been
readily accomplished if Congress had in fact ar
PfoPflated Tor the expenses of the fiscal year the
moneys which the several Departments of the
Government had estimated to be necessary to
meet Its expenses, intead of cutting down the e,
Inmates, W1thoutrhyme reason, so as to withhold
from the Executive Officers, Civil, Military. md
NAVAL certain sums essentially requisite to carry
into execution existing laws and contracts.
Inc authors OF the Deficiencies, to sunnlv
which bill has just passed one branch of Congress-
were not, therefore, the heads of the several ESecu
tive epartments-comprised in the general term
OF the Adnainlstration-but of the two Houses of
Congress, and especially of those who refused the
appropriations, which, in the exercise of dutv
| imperative upon them, the Administration had
estlmatedfor. There may have been cases, Doubt
less, In which there was, in the opinion of Con-
gress and TACT for reducing the appro
prlatlons below the estimates But, as q general
position, it will hardly be denied by any candid
man that the deficiencies which have resulted from,
the curtailment of the estimates made by the De-
partments must be laid at the door of the last Con-
gress, and not of the Administration This is n
position which will, we think, be admitted to be
generally true by those who have famiarized
themselves with the constitutional duties of the
different branches of the Government, and the es
adjustments recognised by the Constitution and
the Legislature OF the country. Without slpply-
ing such deficiency by supplementary law, it is
plain to every observing and reasoning mind that
the wheels OF the Government must come to a
stiha-still, and Its character seriously compro-
missed, before the end of the fiscal year.
IT readers of the Opposition presses would inn
plicitly confide in statements which have been
made by them upon this subject they would be-
leve that the idea ola Bill to supply deficiencies
In the Annual Appropriation Law was new one.
for which the People are indebted to this Admin
1stration. The "Union,' for example, had par
agraph on the day following the passage of the
pending partial Appropriation Bill by the House
OF Representatives dilatng, with conscientious
earnestness upon '.the euils ofanticipating appro
praataon bills to supply deficiencies arising from
the necessities of the service " and expressing its
trust that the Executive branch of the Government
would not again furnish u precedent so much at
variance with the guards thrown around the pub
lie treasury" &c. A precedent" Ell? Why,
our contemporary Is more than usually at fault
as to the facts of history when he supposes this
deficiency Bill to be original sin, either on the
part OF Congress or of the Administration or even
OF the Wings. Togo further back than the Ad-
mlnlstratlon OF President Polk, who came into
office IN March, l845: Congress met in the De-
cember following and, if the worthy but erring
Editor of the "Union'' will consult the Statute7
Dooh' no will fluid 'l,a., tho eth of Nav, 1886
an Act passed Congress ''to Supply q defczenc,, -;
do f,.+ ell,
service OF the fiscal year ending the 3Oth of June
1886" one item of which act was $3.50, 900 for
the Quartermaster's Department, for which an
additional appropriation is now 90 vehemently de-
nounced. He will also further find that in every
other year of Mr.. PoLK's Administration, l847,
l848, l849, and in each intervening year, 1850
and 1851, appropriations were made to supply de-
icencies in the Annual Appropriation Bills of the
preceding years.
Again: In the discussions which have taken
place, IN the newspapers and elsewhere, on the
financial question, an attempt has been made to
hold the present Administration responsible for
an alleged large increase of the Expenditures of
the Government. With the growth of the Gov
eminent, and the additional cost of governing
newly acquired and distant territories it could
not well be otherwise than that the expenses of
the Government must be somewhat increased
but not to any thing like the amount at which it
has been stated; as, for example, in the '!Union'
of a few days ago, in which the expenditures of
Government We're charged to have reached fifty
two millions of dollars, instead of the hirty-seyen
millions which they had reached at one period of
the Van Buren, Administration.
Let us briefly anayze this sweeping CHARGE
tits not true, in the first place, that the expendi
lures of the Government last year amounted so
high as fifty millions. In so large an expendi-
ture, however, few millions more or less would
by some persons be thought to make little differ
ence. But the actual payments during the year
amounted to only forty eight millions of dollars,
instead offtytwo millions, fifty millions, as es-
timated by others; as will be seen by the fol-
lowing statement, made up from authentic mate
rials
The payments mot expenses of the Government for the
fiscal year 1850 and 1881 sac, oo5 s7s
From which deduct
One Mexican instalment. So, 242,400
Mexican indemnity claims. 2,5l6,69l
5,75o,ool