, and
of redeeming instead thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt. Should,
however, the difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it
necessary at any time, the power shall be executed and the money thus
unemployed abroad shall, in conformity with that law, be faithfully
applied here in an equivalent extinction of domestic debt. When effects
so salutary result from the plans you have already sanctioned; when
merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a
direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large
and effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and
the emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an
encouragement, fellow-citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we
have begun in substituting economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is
useful for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practiced by
others under different circumstances. And whensoever we are destined to
meet events which shall call forth all the energies of our countrymen,
we have the firmest reliance on those energies and the comfort of
leaving for calls like these the extraordinary resources of loans and
internal taxes. In the meantime, by payments of the principal of our
debt, we are liberating annually portions of the external taxes and
forming from them a growing fund still further to lessen the necessity
of recurring to extraordinary resources.

The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year, with
an estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid before you
by the Secretary of the Treasury.

No change being deemed necessary in our military establishment, an
estimate of its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing,
as also of the sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects
within that department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and
will make a part of the general estimates which will be presented you.

Considering that our regular troops are employed for local purposes,
and that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden
emergencies, you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a
review, and give it those improvements of which you find it susceptible.

Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the
Navy, for another year will in like manner be communicated with the
general estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be
necess