The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-12-15
The Reports.

tneln. IHe most Important VI lutih 10
the report of Hon. Hugh Nc Culoch,
Secretary of the Treasury rs it con
tains succinct and comprehensive
statement of our financial condition
since the close of the war. He com
monces by speaking of the enormity
of the public debt and the imitation of
our currency He says that "the pleth /
ora of paper money is not only under
mining the morals of our people, by
encouraging waste and extravaganza,
but it is striking Mt the root Of our ma
terial prosperity by diminishing labor
"He says IF disaster followed the ex-
pansion of 81 and 81 what must be the
consequences OF the present expansion
Mess speedily checked and reduced
He strongly recommends the con
traction of currency and resump
ton of specie payment. As a means
for accomplishing this, he recommends
that one or two hundred millions Of
circulation be formed into $40 bonds.
The national debt now reaches nearly
three thousand millions He recon-
rnends the gradual extinction Of this
debt by paying two hundred millions,
yearly, towards the principal and in
terest of the debt.
He suggests also that Congress shall
declare the principal as well as the in
terest of the 500 bonds payable in
coin. While he expresses entire con
tidence in the ability of the people to
pay tho debt, at no distant period, by
gradually paying II portion of the
principal, he urges more economy on
the part of the people in order to meet
with the hearty approval of the pub
lie
The Secretary of War reports that
our military force amounted on the 1st
of May last to one million five hun
bred and sixteen thousand that
eight hundred thousand have been
paid off and discharged i'll six months,
and that the army is to be reduced to
less than fifty thousand men He says
this can be done, as ON country is
filed with veterans returned to their
peaceful avocations, and that "tho
speed of the railroad and telegraph
now determines the time required to
raise an army in the United States
The rebel army when it surrendered
numbered 174,223 men showing tn,
vast resources of the northern ovcl
+, the southern states.
Lieut.. Gen Grant has made writ
ten report in which he praises Sher
man, Sheridan, Meade, and Thomas
and oensures many other gondrais
He says, when he assumed command
he found the armies like "balk
horses" pulling in different direction,
The Secretary of the Navy report
that he has diminished the number q
vessels in the blockade service from
All to 20 now on the coast, and tina
the number sold has returned to ia
government five millions of dollars.
The Secretary of the Interior report
: that over five million acres of publ
:, lands were disposed Of during the fl
teen months ending September las
" OF these 1.160,532 acres were take
!, under the Homestead act. The nun
:, Der of army pensioners is l,l30 VIII
- received last year S7,7S2,772. I'll
number of Navy pensioners numbt
1856 and received $230,672.
These reports show conclusively thu
/. ours is vast country immense III II
:, sources as well in lands as in miners
!. products. They further show that
:. the government would make a jud
= cious disposition of the public lane
= and appropriate the ayails of them t
=, wards the payment of the public del
v as well as the Revenue funds, the pul
W lie debt could be paid i'll few year
However this may be, the debt is pril
u cipally owing to our own people AZ
70 they ought to be abundantly able
AT pay themselves in their own good tin
"s and pleasure.
IS