TABLE OF CONTENTS. [Index by subjects will be found on page 543.] I. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Tables accompanying the report................. Liabilities to Indian tribes............. Page. 459 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, December 4, 1871. SIR: The country has been prosperous during the year now closing, and the public finances have shared in the general prosperity. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, the reduction of the public debt was $94,327,764 84. The total decrease in the public debt from March 1, 1869, to December 1, 1871, was $277,211,892 16; and during the same period the annual interest charge has been reduced $16, 741, 436 04. The revenues for the year 1871, and the receipts since the first of July last, show that the time has arrived when a considerable further reduction in taxes can be made, and yet leave the Government in a position to pay at least fifty millions of dollars annually of the principal of the public debt, including the amount pledged through the sinking fund. In my annual report to Congress for 1870, I expressed the opinion that the settled policy of the country should contemplate a revenue sufficient to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government, pay the interest on the public debt, and from twenty-five to fifty millions of dollars of the principal annually. To that opinion I adhere, with even a stronger conviction that the payment annually upon the principal of the public debt should not be less than fifty millions of dollars. Large as the revenues of the country have been during the last three years, our system of taxation has not been oppressive to individnals, nor has it in any sensible degree embarrassed the business of the country; and while relief from taxation is desirable it is yet more desirable to maintain the public credit in its present elevated position, not only as an example to other nations, but for its historical value in enabling the Government to make loans for large amounts upon favorable terms if, unhappily, in the future an exigency should require such loans to be made. The power to negotiate a large loan at five per cent. interest, and to enter upon negotiations for the sale of bonds bearing five, four-and-a-half, and four per cent. interest, is derived entirely from the exhibition of an honest purpose on the part of the people to maintain the public faith, and the consequent ability on the part of the Government to answer that expectation by large and frequent payments upon the public debt. The revenue from customs for the fiscal year 1871 was greatly in excess of the estimates, amounting to $206,270,408 05, against $194,538,374 44, for the preceding year. The cost of collecting this revenue was $6,560,672 61, for 1871, being three and eleven hundredths per cent., while the cost for the year 1870 was $6,237,137 25, or three and twenty hundredths per cent. The appropriation for the collection of the customs, with the additions derived from fines, penalties, and forfeitures, exceeded the expenditures by the sum of more than eight hundred thousand dollars, and there is no doubt that the permanent appropriation will be ample for the present year, and for the next fiscal year. The reduction of the rates of duty on the 1st of January, 1871, under the act of July 14, 1870, diminished the importation of many articles during the last six months of the year 1870, but there was consequently a large addition to the revenues for the first six months of the year 1871. A comparison of the first six months of the calendar year 1871 with the first six months of the calendar year 1870, shows an increase of fifty-five per cent. in the quantity of tea imported, twenty per cent. in the quantity of coffee, fifty-three per cent. in the quantity of brown sugar, one hundred and twenty per cent. in the quantity of pig iron, one hundred and eighty-six per cent. in the quantity of melado, one hundred and thirty-nine per cent. in the quantity of spices, and a large increase in many other articles. The probability is that the customs revenue for the current year will exceed that for the year 1870-'71. The receipts from internal revenue were $143,098,153 63, being $4,048,984 29 less than the estimates presented to Congress in December last for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871. The estimates for the current fiscal year were $126,418,000, and it is probable that the receipts will be equal to the estimates. The net receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, were as follows: The miscellaneous revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, were derived from the following sources: Premium on sales of coin.... Fees from United States consuls.. Storage, rent, labor, &c., at custom-houses... Fines, penalties, and forfeitures for violations of cus toms laws.. Fees on letters patent.. Tax on circulation, deposits, &c., of national banks.. Steamboat fees and marine-hospital tax.. Proceeds of sale of coin-interest on sinking and special funds.... Judiciary-fines, penalties, and forfeitures. Tax on seal-skins.......... $8, 892, 839 95 565, 563 24 414, 310 61 952,579 86 620, 319 11 6, 003, 584 32 813, 284 75 645, 923 17 385,535 16 7,701, 662 73 75, 836 30 101, 080 00 Parting charges-refining gold and silver bullion.... Proceeds of Indian trust lands.... *This is the net amount after deducting $8,280,093 13 repaid into the Treasury as proceeds of sales of ordnance, etc. The true expenditures were $44,080,084 95. 211, 721 14 1, 140, 120 28 |