payment of his interest and ultimate reimbursement of his principal.
Such is the character of the land fund. The most vigilant money dealer
will readily perceive that not only will his interest be secure on
such a pledge, but that a debt of $18,000,000 or $20,000,000 would by
the surplus of sales over and above the payment of the interest be
extinguished within any reasonable time fixed for its redemption.
To relieve the Treasury from its embarrassments and to aid in meeting
its requisitions until time is allowed for any new tariff of duties
to become available, it would seem to be necessary to fund a debt
approaching to $15,000,000; and in order to place the negotiation of the
loan beyond a reasonable doubt I submit to Congress whether the proceeds
of the sales of the public lands should not be pledged for the payment
of the interest, and the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized out of
the surplus of the proceeds of such sales to purchase the stock, when it
can be procured on such terms as will render it beneficial in that way,
to extinguish the debt and prevent the accumulation of such surplus
while its distribution is suspended.

No one can doubt that were the Federal Treasury now as prosperous as it
was ten years ago and its fiscal operations conducted by an efficient
agency of its own, coextensive with the Union, the embarrassments of the
States and corporations in them would produce, even if they continued as
they are (were that possible), effects far less disastrous than those
now experienced. It is the disorder here, at the heart and center of the
system, that paralyzes and deranges every part of it. Who does not know
the permanent importance, not to the Federal Government alone, but to
every State and every individual within its jurisdiction, even in their
most independent and isolated individual pursuits, of the preservation
of a sound state of public opinion and a judicious administration here?
The sympathy is instantaneous and universal. To attempt to remedy the
evil of the deranged credit and currency of the States while the disease
is allowed to rage in the vitals of this Government would be a hopeless
undertaking.

It is the full conviction of this truth which emboldens me most
earnestly to recommend to your early and serious consideration the
measures now submitted to your better judgment, as well as those to
which your attention has been already invited. The first great want of
the country, that wit