public debt
payable on the 1st of January next, will be demanded at the Treasury
to complete the expenditures of the present year, and for which the
existing ways and means will sufficiently provide.

The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of October last,
amounted in the whole to the sum of $120,000,000, consisting of
the unredeemed balance of the debt contracted before the late war
($39,000,000), the amount of the funded debt contracted in consequence
of the war ($64,000,000), and the amount of the unfunded and floating
debt, including the various issues of Treasury notes, $17,000,000, which
is in a gradual course of payment. There will probably be some addition
to the public debt upon the liquidation of various claims which are
depending, and a conciliatory disposition on the part of Congress may
lead honorably and advantageously to an equitable arrangement of the
militia expenses incurred by the several States without the previous
sanction or authority of the Government of the United States; but when
it is considered that the new as well as the old portion of the debt
has been contracted in the assertion of the national rights and
independence, and when it is recollected that the public expenditures,
not being exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a transient nature, will
long be visible in the number and equipments of the American Navy, in
the military works for the defense of our harbors and our frontiers, and
in the supplies of our arsenals and magazines the amount will bear a
gratifying comparison with the objects which have been attained, as well
as with the resources of the country.

The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts and
expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will necessarily enter
into the deliberations of Congress during the present session. It is
true that the improved condition of the public revenue will not only
afford the means of maintaining the faith of the Government with its
creditors inviolate, and of prosecuting successfully the measures of
the most liberal policy, but will also justify an immediate alleviation
of the burdens imposed by the necessities of the war. It is, however,
essential to every modification of the finances that the benefits of
an uniform national currency should be restored to the community. The
absence of the precious metals will, it is believed, be a temporary
evil, but until they can again be rendered the general medium of
e