Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1860-01-06

Grand List, their value, the value OF taxable
toxn-lots ard chattels. th2 several aggregates
Of State, county and local levies, and the rates
of levy for State purposes in each OF the last
eight wears. 1t viii be seen that the average (
rate of taxation IN the Grst half of that time
exceeded considerably That in the last half;
while the aggregate revenue Of the last bali
exceeded that of the first. This result was
produced by the larger average basis OF tax
alton ia the last period. More than the whole
excess of levics was for school purposes and
the lyme of debts contracted in the first
period. 40 { IA ~
Another tabular statement, numbered ii,
will show the yearly disbursements for Legs
Iaffve. Judicial and Executive expenses; for
the expenses of the Benevolent and RetorIna-
~ Institutions. and on account of the Public
Works, for three periods Of four years each
the first immediately preceding, and the two
others Immediately following the adoption OF
the existing Constitution. 1t will be seen,
upon inspection of it. that the expenses were
largely increased after the adoption of the
Constitution but that they have been cob
sidsrabIy less during the second of these peri
DDS. The average yearly expenditure irom
ICZC ~ lOr1 HGC ~ IN 49, -G
inclusive, adding to the apparent amounts the
unauthorized debts contracted within those
years and subsequently paid, 1,G95,825 dol
lars from 1886 to 1888 inclusive, deducting
from apparent amounts paid, 995.533 dollars
When it is remembered that during the last
period the Public Works have become a
charge upon the General Revenue that two
new Reformary Institutions have been organ
lied that large additions have been made to
the list of Judges that the Comptrollers Of
fee has been created that four sessions of the
legislature have been held that a number Of
salaries. especially Of Judges and officers on
the Board of Public Works, have been in
creased, and that other new expenditures have
been directed by the Legislature, may it not
be hoped that the results of those four years
| will be accepted as evidence at least of a sin
cere desire and endeavor, on the part of the
Executive Officers, to perform faithfully their
duties to the people?
Besides the advance from the Treasury for
repairs on the Hooking Canal, which has been
heretofore explained to the legislature and
viii be again fully explained in this communi-
c%atioa, ! AIN aware of no expenditures beyond
appropriations and no debts incurred without
authority. during the last two biennial periods,
Which will embarrass the finances, cypress the
revenues of future years.
Permit me now to invite your attention to
soma observations upon the Public Debt of
the State. That debt, | need hardly repeat,
is of two descriptions the Reducible and the
Irreducib!e. The former represents loans from
capitalists; the latter represents the proceeds
of School Lands granted by Congress. The
former may be reduced by payments; the lat
ter must continue to increase as long as the
proceeds of school lands are used and funded as
now directed by law, and under the existing
pledge of six per cent. to the purpose for
which the School Lands were granted.
In January, lS45, after the completion Of
the Public Works, and after the abandonment
of the policy of aid to Public Improvement hy
Safe subscriptions to the Stock of Railroad
Canal and Turnpike Compan es, the entire
debt was l9.25l,l70 dollars; of which the
Reducib!e Debt was l7,796,057 dollars, and
the Irrcdueib!c 1,455,123 dollars
from that time the ReducibIe Debt was
gradually diminished, until the dedication and
debts contracted in anticipation of revenue
created a necessity for the Temporary Ian OF
100000 dollars, which was authorized by your
predecessors and negotiated in 1858, aud is
reimbursab.e en- the lst of July, 1860, and Isl
of March, 1861.
At the close of 1859 the entire debt was
thus constituted The Foreign Debt was
1861 .856 20 dollars the Domestic Debt
275,3S3 dollars; making the Whole Reducib!c
Debt I3, S94.242 20 dollars; tie Irreducib!e
Debt was 2,534,O76 95 dollars ana the Tenn
z-.-- - naN Ill - sS = -ZEl-z
l7,l31 ,3l9 Is dollars. From this amount
may properly be deducted 268,154, already
collected for part payment Of the Temporary
Loan.
1t will be seen that in sixteen years The Pub
lie Debt has been reduced only by the sum o
$2.368,6S0. The sums received in the SAINT
time from Surplus Revenue, sales of Lands
from the Public Works, and a few missed Il
neous sources other than faxes. were S6,6S7,
ga. The greater part, of course, was applied
in payment of interest, instead of reduction O
principal.
Provisions of the new Constitution prohibit.
cd the increase and required the gradual ex-
~tinction Of the debt. An act of the last Gen
erai Assembly was intended to secare that re
suit. It authorizes, whenever any portion Of
the debt shall become payable, the issuing O
new bonds to an amount sufficient to discharge
it. Those new bonds are to be made payable
in such instaliments that the annual levy re
quired by the Constitution viii supply tic
means for their payment in full at maturity
and the act requires their payment accordingly
without renewal and without delay.
This plan, if persistent'y adher ed to, will
certainly extinguish the whole Reducib.e Debt:
but the operation will require thirty-one years,
and many circumstances may occur to suspend
or Illustrate its result. My own impression is
that the wishes of the people viii be better
consulted by provision for earlier payment and
consequent relief from taxation for interest
Should your opinion be otherwise, you will dc
nothing, I trust, to impair, but everything to
secure the certainty of payment within the time
limited by the act.
On the LIST of January, 1861, if it be the
pleasure of the State, $6,4l3,325 81 of the
debt may be paid. The contract of loan, how
ever, does not impose the obligation of pay
ment at that time. The whole duty of the
State viii be performed by punctual pay
ment of interest. and such provision for the dis
charge OF the principal as may be required by
the interests and wishes of the people.
Whether it be thought expedient or not to
adopt the scheme Of payment proposed by the
act of last year, some change will probably be
found necessary in the description of bonds to
be issued HAT act, as originally framed,
aud as it passed the Senate by an unanimous
vote, contained provisions eXenpting from tax
alton the bonds to be issued under it, and also
d jud;cious discrimination in favor of loau-ta-
kcrs within tt State. Ii was amended in the
House by striking out the provision for ex-
emption, and in that shape became Law. The