Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-10-09

millions or taxation were taken off for the
benefit of a few New England and other
manufacturers, while the expenditures and
appropriations remained on the largest
scale. We see this extraordinary anomaly
in the condition of the country, that while
the crops are most abundant and general
prosperity prevails, the debt is being in
creased and the Treasury approaching
bankruptcy Y. Herald.
REMARKS.
Mr.. McCulloch made public statement
when Congress had under consideration
the party electioneering bill of the Jaco-
bins, to take off taxes from manufactures,
as follows
"Should the bill referred to become
law, think it may be fairly estimated that
the total revenues for the next fiscal year
will fall from hundred to hundred and
twenty millions below the estimates made
in my last annual report. It is exceedingly
desirable that taxes should be reduced, and
[ should hail with pleasure the proposed
reduction if I felt assured that it would be
accomplished with a corresponding reduc-
ton OF expenditures. I am free TO say that
l am greatly apprehensive that such re-
duction of expenditures will not be made,
and that the revenues of the country for
the next fiscal year, if the bill now before
the Senate, or in the hands of your COM
mittee, should become law, will be insult
fcient to meet the interest on the public
debt and the current expense of the Gov
ernment."
"But this warming" says the report of
Mr.. Delmar, "was Intellectual. The bill it
alluded to was passed on the 31st of March,
| 1868; and the public service, instead of be-
ing cut down, was increased by the crea-
| tion of new functions and the appointment
of new officers. In o. word, the amount of
service to be performed, whether actual or
| nominal, is more than it was last year, and
| it is therefore vain to look for any reduc-
! tion for the present"
The consequence, as states the same re-
port, ''is, if the Treasury endeavors to meet
its current expenditures this year Ito say
nothing of matured claims deferred, or of
the Post Office deficiency it will show a
deficit of $S154, 339, ,202 25 at the end of the
year, to be obtained from increased taxes
or loans.'
Mr.. Delmar's report of the financial con-
dition, published yesterday, show the ex-
penditure for the last three years, as fol-
lows:
For 1865 6. $576, Az, ,1O3 62
For 1866 IT,. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 392. Az, ,291 "a
For 1867 s IA, ,913, ,604 10
The expenditures for the last fiscal year
we're not actual war expenditures, but were
those made in time of profound peace, and
in the third year after the war, and when
it's great Incidental expenses had ceased.
This statement also shows that our expen-
ditures are increasing, having been $780,
469,612 IS greater during the last fiscal
year than the year preceding. The great
est mistake in former unauthorized state
ments was, in emitting from expenditures
tho cupo of G111 77S 17O OK ho
ing unexpended balances of former appro-
priations.
The expenditures specially authorized
for the current fiscal year will be $482, O59,-
2O2 %, thus showing an increase of expen-
diture in the current fiscal year ending
3Oth June, 1869, the fourth year after the
war, of $37, 145, 599 o. as compared with
the year preceding. Here, too, we find
balances outstanding of old appropriations,
July l, 1868, $3.50. AT, 522 II.
The receipts from all sources are then
given, showing sa DEFICIENCY on the Both
June next of 1854, 600, O0O" which can on
ly be supplied by new taxes, or another in
crease of the public debt. to the extent
of one hundred and fifty-four million of
dollars.
The manner in which actual expenditure
have been so much above the purposely
limited appropriations of Congress has
been, by the use of balances of old appro-
priations, and by the use of immense sums
coming into the Treasury from sales of
enormous amounts of material of war. The
naodus operdndi is thus explained by the
Commissioner of Statistics:
"All that expenditure that occurs after
the close of the year goes on the next years
| account, so that though, if series of years
be taken together, the back receipts and
| expenditures are included, yet, if it be de-
| sirable to ascertain the total revenue and
cost of the government for any single year
| by itself alone, it cannot be done from
| these figures alone. For this reason they
are not aggregated in the Secretarys re-
port. Recourse must be had to the Treas
| urer's receipts and expenditures, which
| also include all receipts from sales of cap
tured and abandoned property, confsca-
tions, prizes, sales of quartermasters'
stores, and other property. sales of war
vessels, &C., &C., items which do not ap-
| pear in the Registers accounts as pub
| lished, and which items during the past
three years, with the back receipts and ex.
penditures have averaged nearly fifty mil
| lion dollars year"
| In respect to the enormous gratuity to
manufacturers at the last session, it is only
to be said that had not Congress done thus
much for them they would have revolted,
as they threatened, from the Radical par
ty. True, agriculturalists, mechanics and
laborers have to make up the deficit, but
they had no pompous agents with we'll
lined pocket-books to operate upon Con-
gressmen in their behalf. The bill should
have been opposed by every means and
device known to parliamentary proceed
ings. It should have never passed into
legislative form without full exposure of
it's enormities. Think of it, men of toll,
that gratuity of $4,000, 900 year was
given outright TO the manufacturers who,
during the war, heaped up their gains to
mountain heights, and were thus enabled
to purchase government securities at from
forty to sixty cents on the dollar, bearing
gold interest on the full dollar If the in
famous bill was passed through the menace
of the manufacturers of leaving the Radl-
cal party, why should not the laborer, me-
chanic and farmer adopt retaliatory meas
| ures? The latter interests, IN view OF the
situation, ought to rebel as one man from
the party of the corrupt Congressional
rump.
OF course, under the operation of the
bill referred to, the revenues for excises
diminish and the public debt becomes aug
mented. The deficiency bill at the next