Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-24
Public Debt. Liability, and Expenditures.
SPEECH
HON. c. i. VALLiNDIGHiM
OF OHIO,
I'm the House of Representatives,
JUNE 30th, 1862.
Continued.
n Il


On the 3lst of May, the Senator from
Iowa, MIR. Grimes sand:
"The Senator said Yesterday, Ibeleve, that the
public Indebtedness now was only $3.50, 900 900,
and that the amount of interest we were paying
was only little upwards of four per cent. But
when you come to examine that, you find inclu-
ded the amount that was unhquidated, that was
outstanding, that had not been reduced to writing
and we do not know much about, and was not
drawing interest at all; and when we struck the
balance then, it reduced the average rate some
where in the neighborhood of four and half per
cent. Ipredict that our Indebtedness will amount
at the end of the year TO 81 500, 100000. You
cannot approximate to the amount of it now.
You have got ten thousand incidental expenses
growing out of this war. You have got to pay
damages, untold damages; nobody can compute
them. / think that the real expenses of the war
will be one third greater than they are nomnally.
Il have not the most remote idea that the
Secretary of the Treasury or any body else
knows what is the amount, can come within
several million dollars what will be the expenses
of the present fiscal year. l presume all the
charter parties for all these vessels that have been
engaged in transporting troops the first two
months have not come in to be settled at this
quarter.
Mr. Harris-Ten months have
"Mr Grimes-We are talking about what are
the expenses of the present fiscal year. They
come in quarterly. These returns have not been
made during the last tsoo months, and during that
time th's army has been transported and 'ce hare
employed rery large amount Of transportation, the
aggregate of which have no means of reaching
but know h is immense.
MIR Harris-There is no use in deceiving
ourselves about this thing. have heard so much
clamor here about spending two or three mil
lions a day. that / want the truth to be known.
Mr.. Grimes-Ihe truth IS, there are none OF uS
,cko kRor anything about II. We can come within
a hundred millions of it, probably, and not
nearer. Congressional Globe, ls6l-62, P. 2474.
Strange to say, this declaration was made
in the Senate some days after the speech of
the gentleman from Massachusetts,.
On the 9th of June. the chairman OF the
Finance Committee of the Senate, Mr.. Fes-
senden, said:
Il gave the other day, and can give perhaps
a little more accurately to-day, the amount OF
those appropriations for the present wear. The
appropriations for the year ending June 3Oth,
1862. were, at the second session of the Thirty
Sixth Congress, s7l ,0C0O OC0, and at the special
session and NJ this session of Congress thus far,
S535 900 900, making 5000 900 GOO Then if YOU
add 10 that the old debt of $4,000 600, YOU have
/ S576 900 900 as the total amount Gentlemen
d
when you take into consideration the state of the
country at the present time, the contracts that
have been made, the outstanding claims. the ex-
pendifures of which no record, necessarily, can
be made in a time like this, with so vast an ex.
pondture, and the deficiencies that we are called
uaon almost every dav of the session TO meet
that Won may safely add twenty or thirty million
dollars 10 that estimate which have thus stated
and in that way YOU have got little over seven
hundred millions. / see no escape from rhe con
clu, sion. that at the end of the year. taking the
appropriations and liabilities together. certain
lv make no unreasonable estimate, if we call tho
amount of what is owing from US. provided moth
inc has been paid, seven hundred million dollars.
-Congr,ssional GLOBE, ls6l-62, p. 26O6.
Such, sir, were the repeated and reiterated
statements of Senators and Representatives
all of them of the Republican party-th,
chairman of the WAYS and Means in th,
House, the chairman of the Finance Commit
tee of the Senate, the organs in this Capito
of the Treasury Department the officia
mouthpieces of the Secretary. men havin;
daily access to, and in daily communication
with him-statements not uttered once and a
random. but repeated over and over again
and with all possible accuracy and minutenes
of detail. Charity, little charity, / pra,
YOU, sir, toward those of US who, having M
entrance within the inner courts of the tenn
pie of the Treasury, and no right to penetrate
its hidden mysteries. are forced 10 conten
ourselves wi,h standing in awe At It's vestibnle