ction under the act of March 2, 1833, about $20,800,000;" and
adds:

It is believed that after the heavy expenditures required by the public
service in the present year shall have been provided for, the revenues
which will accrue from that or a nearly approximate rate of duty will
be sufficient to defray the expenses of the Government and leave a
surplus to be annually applied to the gradual payment of the national
debt, leaving the proceeds of _the public lands_ to be disposed of as
Congress shall see fit.

I was most happy that Congress at the time seemed entirely to concur in
the recommendations of the Executive, and, anticipating the correctness
of the Secretary's conclusions, and in view of an actual surplus, passed
the distribution act of the 4th September last, wisely limiting its
operation by two conditions having reference, both of them, to a
possible state of the Treasury different from that which had been
anticipated by the Secretary of the Treasury and to the paramount
necessities of the public service. It ordained that "if at any time
during the existence of that act there should be an imposition of duties
on imports inconsistent with the provision of the act of the 2d March,
1833, and beyond the rate of duties fixed by that act, to wit, 20 per
cent on the value of such imports or any of them, then the distribution
should be suspended, and should continue so suspended until that cause
should be removed," By a previous clause it had, in a like spirit of
wise and cautious patriotism, provided for another case, in which all
are even now agreed, that the proceeds of the sales of the public lands
should be used for the defense of the country. It was enacted that the
act should continue and be in force until otherwise provided by law,
unless the United States should become involved in war with any foreign
power, in which event, from the commencement of hostilities, the act
should be suspended until the cessation of hostilities.

Not long after the opening of the present session of Congress the
unprecedented and extraordinary difficulties that have recently
embarrassed the finances of the country began to assume a serious
aspect. It soon became quite evident that the hopes under which the act
of 4th September was passed, and which alone justified it in the eyes
either of Congress who imposed or of the Executive who approved, the
first of the two conditions just recited were not destined to be