expenditures connected with certain subjects during the present year, or portions of it, been kept distinct, for reasons before indicated. Thus, the receipts on account of the Post Office, which, under the new organization, are paid into the Treasury, and kept distinct, have, since it took effect, being the last half of the year, been ascertained and computed to be about $1,076,872, including near $410,472 that had been collected previously; and the expenditures have been about $562,952; leaving a balance on hand, at the end of the year, of about $513,920, as will be more particularly exhibited by the head of that department. The receipts on account of the Patent Office, since its new organization, for the present year, have also been ascertained and computed to be about $16,828, the expenditures chargeable to them about $7,241, and the balance about $9,587, as will be more particularly shown by the report of the proper officer. Besides these, the receipts into the Treasury, in trust, from the treaties of indemnity with France, Naples, and Spain, have been about $3,765,994, and the payments to the claimants about $3,663,988, leaving a balance of about $102,026 still uncalled for or unadjusted. The particulars of these will more fully appear in the general annual exhibit of all the receipts and expenditures. Lastly, the receipts into the Treasury on account of the Chickasaw Indians have been about $639,252, the expenditures by investment and otherwise about $577,675, and the balance on hand is about $91,574. The detailed account of these and the other transactions in their behalf, will be, as remarked in a former portion of this report, immediately presented in a separate communication to Congress. The charges already imposed on the general balance of $41,723,959, by means of current and permanent appropriations, which it is expected will not be expended till after the 1st of January next, amount to $14,636,062. Of this sum it is computed that $3,013,389 can be applied in aid of the appropriations for the ensuing year, without reappropriation, and that $195,183 will be carried to the surplus fund; leaving $11,427,490, which will probably be required to accomplish the objects contemplated in the acts of Congress. Deduct this remaining charge of $14,440,879 from the balance estimated to be on hand on the 1st of January, 1837, and the sum of $27,283,080 would be left to be appropriated by Congress towards new or former objects. II. OF THE EXPENDITURES FOR THE PUBLIC DEBT, AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION. Before the passage of the act of Congress, at the last session, on the subject of the public debt, the money which had previously been deposited by the commissioners of the sinking fund in the United States Bank, for the payment of the residue of it, was, under their direction, repaid into the Treasury, amounting to the sum of $136,773 01. Since that event, and the suspension of the duties of the commissioners, this department, by virtue of the above act, has caused all those portions of the public debt outstanding and presented for payment to be promptly discharged. The payments made since the 1st of January last have been as follows, Viz. On the funded debt, towards principal Towards interest $46,405 72 3,139 09 There still remains of the funded debt unclaimed and undischarged-principal about $90,367 00 250,416 00 And interest, with dividends, about A small unfunded debt of $37,440 55 also remains, which It consists of claims registered prior to 1798, for services and And Mississippi stock SS 57 27,385 46 5,735 00 4,320 09 III. OF THE ESTIMATES OF THE PUBLIC REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR 1837. To these add the balance of available funds in the Treas ury on the 1st of January, 1837, estimated, as computed, for public purposes, at And they make an aggregate of · 41,723,959 00 - $65,723,959 00 The expenditures for all objects, ordinary and extraordinary, in 1837, including the contingent of only $1,000,000 for usual excesses in appropriations beyond the estimates, are computed at $26,755,831, provided the unexpended appropriations at the end of this and the next year remain. about equal. Thus, the new and permanent appropriations chargeable to 1837, for specified purposes, whether ordinary or extraordinary, and including what can be used without reappropriation, are computed at $25,755,831 00 Of these, the permanent appropriations already made are estimated at The existing appropriations, which will not be required for the service of 1836, and which it is proposed to apply in aid of 1837, amount to 2,347,000 00 3,013,389 00 The new appropriations that will be needed for 1837, are estimated to amount, in all, to 20,354,442 00 The latter are divided among the different branches of the public service as follows, Viz. Civil, foreign intercourse, and miscellaneous Military service, &c. Naval service, &c. $2,925,671 00 10,758,430 00 6,670,341 00 The details of the above estimates are exhibited in a document from the Register's office, which this department has the honor to lay before the House of Representatives, to-day, in a separate communication. To these have been added for the ensuing year, on account of the usual contingent excesses of appropriation beyond the estimates, one million of dollars; making, in all, as before mentioned, the aggregate of $26,755,831. From these calculations, it will be seen that, if the outstanding appropriations unexpended at the close of 1837 be as large as at the close of 1836, and the other expenditures should agree with the above estimates, they would exceed the computed revenue accruing from all sources nearly three millions, or sufficient to absorb more than half of the present surplus which is not to be deposited with the several States. But if these outstanding appropriations, at the close of 1837, should be much less than those in 1836, as is probable; or should the accruing receipts be much less, or the appropriations made for 1837 be much larger than the estimates, a call will become necessary for a portion of the surplus deposited with the States; though it will not probably become necessary, except in one of those events. IV. SOME EXPLANATION OF THE ESTIMATES FOR 1837. The unusual receipts during the last two years have chiefly accrued from the unprecedented sales of public lands. It is remarkable that those sales assumed their extraordinary character chiefly between July, 1835, and October, 1836-a period of little more than fourteen months. Arising, as they have, principally from private entries, and not from any unusual quantities of land offered for public sale, and marked, as they have been, by sudden and great vibrations, it has not been deemed judicious to consider them as a proper basis for permanent estimates of a public character. Accordingly, the sun adopted for the estimates of the sales the past year, as well as that for the ensuing year, though larger than usual, has been grounded on general considerations of a less fluctuating character, leaving accidental and occasional excesses or deficiencies to happen, as they often will, without either the attempt or ability in this department to predict the extent of them with much certainty. The receipts from customs the present year will be somewhat augmented, by the great speculations which have characterized the business of the country generally, and the destruction by fire of an extraordinary amount of foreign goods near the close of the last year. This calamity, followed by credits more liberal, and competition increased to supply the sudden and large deficiencies in the market, led to an excess in the importations of merchandise during the present year, even greater than the amount destroyed, and thus essentially contributed to swell the revenue from customs beyond the estimates. But overtrading, from whatever inducements it may arise, usually produces a reaction; and it is hoped that no accident of a similar and deprecated character will occur, which may enlarge our importations the ensuing year. The receipts from customs for 1837 have, therefore, from these and other circumstances, which it might be tedious to detail, been estimated at not more than $16,500,000. Only about $50,000 of the amount secured by special bonds from the sufferers by fire last December, under the authority of an act of Congress on that subject, has been postponed, so as to fall due within the ensuing year; while a reduction on account of the diminished rate of duty imposed on wines since July last, has been made in the estimates for 1837, equalling quite three times that sum. Besides unusual speculations and overtrading, which are temporary in their operation, the last two years have exhibited an extraordinary degree of prosperity throughout the whole country, and which, it is presumed, will continue to exercise a considerable direct influence on the whole amount of our exports and imports, and consequently an indirect influence on our receipts from customs. Much of this flattering condition of things may have arisen from the great reductions already made in the tariff and duties on tonnage; from having cast off the burdens of a national debt; from our increasing expenditures on works favorable to commerce and public security; from permanent additions to the moneyed capital of the nation by the many millions obtained abroad for foreign indemnities; from the immense fertile tracts of land redeemed from Indian claims, and opened to the profitable enterprise and industry of our citizens at very low prices, by the humane policy of removing the aboriginals west of the Mississippi; from the unprecedented improvements in the facilities, the rapidity, and cheapness of communication and of transportation by steamboats and rail-roads; from the greater safety of our foreign commerce, and its extension to new and distant regions; from abundant crops and high prices; from the increasing numbers, intelligence, and enterprise of our people generally; or from these and various other causes combined. But though some of these causes may have spent most of their influence, others are acting in full vigor; and our national prosperity does not appear likely to be soon essentially checked, except so far as the excesses before mentioned, or war, or unavoidable physical calamities, like those of pestilence and bad crops, may from time to time produce temporary reactions. The receipts from customs, therefore, though not estimated so high as they proved to be during the past or preceding year, have still been com- . puted at a larger sum than it was formerly anticipated they would, on an average, equal under the existing tariff. The imports during the year ending September 30, 1836, are ascertained and estimated at - $173,540,000 They show, compared with the preceding year, an increase of The imports during the three past years have, on an average, been about 23,644,258 149,985,691 The exports during the past year are ascertained and estimated at 121,789,000 Of these, $101,105,000 were in domestic, and $20,684,000 in foreign products. Compared with the preceding year, they exhibit an increase of $35,423, and are $5,829,150 more than the average for the last three years. The crop of cotton grown the present year, which will constitute the chief exports of that article for 1837, is believed to be large; but, from present appearances, will probably be less valuable than during the two past years. At the same time, the exports of flour and grain are likely to be smaller in both quantity and value; and those of tobacco and rice, which, with the articles before named, form our principal subjects of domestic produce for exportation, are not believed to be materially greater, and have seldom, during the last quarter of a century, in any series of years, much exceeded their previous amount. However enlarged, by our rapid increase of population, has been the demand at home for those and other articles of our own growth and manufacture, the most tempting and augmenting product for exporta tion seems to be cotton. During near forty years it has attracted and engrossed a large portion of the spare capital and labor of nearly half the territory of the Union; and by the great demand for it abroad, independent of its increased consumption at home, it will probably long continue to constitute not only our chief and most profitable product for exportation, but be the regulator, in some degree, of our ability to import, and of the balance of trade between this country and Europe. The receipts from incidental and miscellaneous sources have been estimated on the following data. Nothing very definite could be presented, as arising from an arrangement which, under the recent act of Congress, is contemplated with the United States Bank, in respect to the stock owned by the Government in that institution, until further progress shall be made, and the bank may indicate when it is willing to pay some specified amount. It will be seen, by the documents annexed, (C 1, 2, 3,) that this department took early steps to procure suitable information for a settlement with the bank, and payment, in the course of the present year, of the due share of the United States in the nett collections from the assets existing on the 3d of March last, as well as to obtain specific proposals for an early adjustment of the whole concern. It has been a cause of some surprise that the information desired has not yet been communicated, nor any payment been yet made. On the contrary, the president of the State corporation, to which the assets of the United States Bank have been assigned, forwarded in September last a report of a committee appointed under authority of only those two bodies, estimating the value of the stock on the 3d of March. But it was accompanied by no offer to pay that value, or any other particular amount, then or at any future specified period, though professing a willingness that the United States should receive a just proportion out of the assets of the bank. Commissioners were therefore appointed, and an invitation given to have them joined by others on the part of the United States Bank, to revise the estimate of the value put on the stock by the above committee; and after urging as early payments as practicable towards what might, in the end, be found due to the United States, if failing to obtain any, to recommend such arrangement as might seem just for securing and paying hereafter what they considered to be the true worth of the share of the Government in the capital stock. Copies of the letters, report, and instructions before named, are annexed. (D 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) It is clearly to be inferred from the correspondence had by the commissioners above mentioned with a committee of the bank, that no payment whatever is intended to be made during the present year, and that long credits are expected, and considered by the bank proper for portions of what may be due. That correspondence, and all the steps which have been taken under the particular instructions given to those commissioners, will |