considerably exceed the amount of the receipts of the
present year; and it is believed that with the means which the
Government will have at its disposal from various sources, which will be
fully stated by the proper Department, the whole of the public debt may
be extinguished, either by redemption or purchase, within the four years
of my Administration. We shall then exhibit the rare example of a great
nation, abounding in all the means of happiness and security, altogether
free from debt.

The confidence with which the extinguishment of the public debt may be
anticipated presents an opportunity for carrying into effect more fully
the policy in relation to import duties which has been recommended in my
former messages. A modification of the tariff which shall produce a
reduction of our revenue to the wants of the Government and an
adjustment of the duties on imports with a view to equal justice in
relation to all our national interests and to the counteraction of
foreign policy so far as it may be injurious to those interests, is
deemed to be one of the principal objects which demand the consideration
of the present Congress. Justice to the interests of the merchant as
well as the manufacturer requires that material reductions in the import
duties be prospective; and unless the present Congress shall dispose of
the subject the proposed reductions can not properly be made to take
effect at the period when the necessity for the revenue arising from
present rates shall cease. It is therefore desirable that arrangements
be adopted at your present session to relieve the people from
unnecessary taxation after the extinguishment of the public debt. In the
exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation which has
distinguished the friends of our Union in all great emergencies, it is
believed that this object may be effected without injury to any national
interest.

In my annual message of December, 1829, I had the honor to recommend the
adoption of a more liberal policy than that which then prevailed toward
unfortunate debtors to the Government, and I deem it my duty again to
invite your attention to this subject.

Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session passed an act
for the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States, but
the provisions of that law have not been deemed such as were adequate to
that relief to this unfortunate class of our fellow-citizens which may
be safely extended to