8241. SURPLUS, Disposition of.—
When
both of these branches of revenue [Mediterranean
fund and Salt tax] shall * * * be
relinquished, there will still ere long be an
accumulation of moneys in the treasury beyond
the instalments of public debt which
we are permitted by contract to pay. They
cannot, then, without a modification assented
to by the public creditors, be applied to the
extinguishment of this debt, and the complete
liberation of our revenues—the most desirable
of all objects; nor, if our peace continues,
will they be wanting for any other
existing purpose. The question, therefore,
now comes forward,—to what other objects
shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the
whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge
of the public debt, and during those
intervals when the purposes of war shall not
call for them? Shall we suppress the impost
and give that advantage to foreign over domestic
manufactures? On a few articles of
more general and necessary use, the suppression
in due season will doubtless be right, but
the great mass of the articles on which impost
is paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by
those only who are rich enough to afford
themselves the use of them. Their patriotism
would certainly prefer its continuance and application
to the great purposes of the public
education, roads, rivers, canals, and such
other objects of public improvement as it May
be thought proper to add to the constitutional
enumeration of federal powers. By these
operations new channels of communication
will be opened between the States; the lines
of separation will disappear, their interests
will be identified, and their Union cemented
by new and indissoluble ties.—
Sixth Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 68.
Ford ed., viii, 493.
(Dec. 1806)
