Year: 1869

| The subject of tariff and internal taxation


Will necessarily receive your attention
| The revenues of the country are


greater than the requirements, anC
may with safety be reduced but as the
| funding of the debt in four or four and 6


half per cent. would reduce the annual


current expense largely; thus after fund


ing and justifying a greater reduction OF
taxation than would be now expedient, ]
| suggest postponement of this question


until the next meeting of Congress when
1t may be advisable to modify taxation and
the tariff In instances where unjust OF
burdensome determinations are made by
the present laws, but a general revision
of the laws regulating the subject, re-
commend the postponement of for the
present also suggest the renewal of the
tax on incomes, but at a reduced rate, say
of per cent; this tax to expile in three
years with the funding of the national debt
as here suggested. [ feel safe IN saving the
taxes and revenue from imports may be
reduced safely from so to so millions per an
mum at once nistill further reduction from
year to year as the resources of the country
are developed.


The report of the secretary of the treas
ury shows the receipts of the government
for the fiscal year ending June 80, 1869, to
be $40, 943, 347 dollars, and the expenditures
including interest, bounties, &c. to be
321, 49O, ,597 dollars. The estimates for the
ensuing year are more favorable to the Gov
ernment, and will, no doubt, show a large de-
crease of the public debt. Thereceipts in the
Treasury beyond expenditures have exceed
ed the amount necessary to placed to the
credit of the sinking fund as provided by
law. To lock up the surplus in the Treas
ury and withhold it from circulation, would
lead to such contraction Of the currency as
to cripple trade and seriously affect the
prosperity of the country. Under these
circumstances, the Secretary Of the Treas


ury and myself heartily concurred in the
propriety of using all the surplus currency
In the Treasury in the purchase of Gov
ernment bonds, thus reducing the interest
bearing debt of the country, and of SUBJ
mitting to Congress the question of the
disposition to be made of the bonds so
purchased. The bonds now held by the
Treasury amount to about S75, 600, 900
including those belonging to the sinking
fund. [ recommend that the whole be
placed to the credit of the sinking fund


Your attention is respectfully invited to the
recommendation of the Secretary OF the
Treasury for the creation of the office of





for the increase of salary to certain Of
fcials, and the substitution of increased
National Bank circulation, to replace the
outstanding per cent. certificates and
most especially to his recommendation for
the repeal of the laws allowing shares of
fines, penalties, forfeitures, &C., to officers
of the government, or to inf9rmers.


The Office of Commissioner of Internal
Revenue me of the most arddous and
responsible under the Government; it falls
but little if any short ofa Cabinet position
IN its Importance and responsibilities.
would ask for it, therefore, such legislation
as IN your Judgment will place the Office on
footing OF dignity commensurate with its
Importance and with a character and quail
fications of the class of men required to fill
it properly. AS the United States is the
freest of all nations, SO too its
people sympatllize with all peoples strr1g-
Cling for liberty and elf-government; but
while so sympathizing, it is due to our
honor that we should abstain from enfore-
ing our views upon unwilling nations, and
from taking an interested part, without in
vitation, in the quarrels between different
nations or between governments AID their
subjects. Our course should always be In
conformity with strict justice and law. in
and local. Such has been the
policy Of the administration IN dealing
with those questions for moro than year
A valuable province of Spain, and q near
neig hbor of ours, in whom all our people
cannot but feel a deep interest, has been
for indepence and freedom. The
people and government of the United States
entertain the same warm feelings
and sympathies for the people of Cuba in
their pending struggle that they manifest
ed throughout the previous struggles be-
tween Spain and the former colonies in be-
half of the latter, but the contest at no
time assumed the conditions which
amount to a war in the sense of information
al law. or which would show the existence
of a de faeto political organization of the
insurgents sufficient to justify a recogni
ton of belligerency. The principle is
maintained that this nation is
its own judge when to accord the right of
belligerency, either to a people struggling
to free themselves from government they
believe to be oppressive, or TO independent
nations at war with each other. The Unit
ed States have no disposition to interfere
with the existing relations of Spain to her
colonial posses ions on this continent
They believe that in due time Spain and
other European powers will find it to their
interest to terminate those relations and es.
tablish their present dependendencies IS
independent powers, members Of the
family of nations. These dependencies are
no longer regarded as subject to transfer
from one European power to another. When
the present relations of the colonies cease
they are to become Independent powers, ex-
ercising the right of choice and of self
control in the determination of their future
al,


The United States, in order to put stop to
bloodshed in Cuba ind in the interest
of q neighboring people, proposed
their good offices to bring the existing
contest to termination. The offer not
being accepted by Spain, on basis which
"e believed could be received by Cuba, was
withdrawn. It is hoped that the good of
fees of the United States may yet prove
advantageous for the settlement of this
unhappy strife. Meanwhile a number OF
illegal expeditions against Cuba have been
broken up. It has been the endeavor OF
the Administration to execute the neutral.
ity laws in good faith, no matter how un.
pleasant the task, made SO by the SUFFERING
we have endured from lack of like good
faith towards as by other ma.
tions. The United States scboon-
er Lizzie Major was arrested
on the high seas by Spanish frigate and
two passengers taken from it and carried
as prisoners to Cuba. REPRESENTATIONS OF
these facts were made to the Spanish Gov
ernment, as soon as official information
OF them reached Washington. The two pas
sen9ers were set at liberty, and the Spanish
Government assured the United States that
the captain of the frigate in making the
capture had acted without law; that he had
been reprimanded for the irregularity OF
his conduct, and that the Spanish authori.
ties in Cuba would not sanction any act
that could violate rights or triae with the
sovereignty of this nation.


The question of the seizure of the brig
Mary Lowell, at one of the Bahama Islands
by the Spanish authorities, is now the
subject Of correspondence between this
Government and those of Spain and Great
Britain. The Captain General of Cuba,
about May last, issued proclamation au.
| thorizing search to be made of vessels on
the high seas. Immediate remonstrance
Was made against this, whereupon the
/ Captain-General issued a new proclamation