Documents accompanying the President's Message. in the beginning of July, though by no means in a good 8. This line was then laid out accurately straight by means of a transit instrument, and measured, preliminary, by the same chain of twenty metres which had been used in 1817 for the preliminary measurement of the base line in English Neighborhood, and which serves now for the detail planetary survey of the south side of Long Island. At every 400 metres a peg was driven into These the ground, bearing the mark of the distance. precautions are always required as a great means of security against mistakes, by the omission that might happen of inscribing a measuring bar-box in the registers, as thereby constant verifications are presented. 23d CONG. 2d SESS. 13. The apparatus used for this measurement is that which I have described in my printed papers upon the coast survey, which, though grounded upon entirely new ideas of my own, has obtained the approbation of all the men of science acquainted with such kind of works. It has proved itself practically, yielding the greatest accuracy, as its ultimate product is a line of near nine miles, measured microscopically. It has also proved a very expeditious, therefore even an economical arrangement, as the line was measured in the same time (forty-five days) as the base line of Mr. De Lambre, of 11,840 metres, which mine exceeds, evidently, considerably. In fact, this base is one of the longest ever measured, with an accuracy in any way comparable. 66 14. The details of the operations in principle, and even the manipulations, are already described in my papers upon the coast survey;" and as the statement of the final numerical results must naturally be postponed until the adequate calculations will have been made, I have here only yet to state the great satisfaction which it gave me, that my assistants engaged with me in this arduous task, naturally entirely new to them, acquired the manipulations of the apparatus so well, that when otherwise favored by the weather, and the locality, we proceeded with a rapidity far above all expectations; and their cheerful exertions during the whole time, and even that of the laboring men, deserve due praise, and were a great support to my personal exertions, particu 15. The detailed account of this operation, which is my personal exertions very difficult and fatiguing. of rather a scientific nature, I flatter myself will be of interest, and therefore enhance the value of the methods that I have devised for the works of the coast survey, as well as increase the interest of the work with the Government and the well-informed public in general; in mate scientific account of the main triangulation for the fact, this account of the work belongs rather to the ultiwhole work. 9. During the months of August, September, and Oc-larly towards the end, when my ill health had rendered tober, this line was then measured in forty-five days, of which, twenty-seven in August, fifteen in September, and three in October; the other part of that time being taken up either by interruption from unfavorable weather, or such days as were necessarily employed for the moving of our encampment along the line, for which it was always necessary to employ all the helps otherwise engaged at the manual part of the base measurement, there being never any doublets of men engaged in our work; and, I must add, near the end of it, also, my own increased state of sickness was unfavorable. 10. At every 400 metres, as determined by the accurate measurement, and at every 1,000 metres, strong pegs were driven in the ground, marked by their distance from the west end; and every 2,000 metres was besides furnished with one of the stoneware cones that are always used at the station points; these are intended as fixed points, from which the detail points of the soundings in the sea that they border are to be determined. 11. Both ends of the base lines thus resting upon two sand-knolls that will, by their position, in all appearance, always be secure from the sea, have been marked by two monuments, each consisting of a Newark red sandstone, about four feet high, hewn square for about eighteen inches from the top, with an even top of one foot square, and a round hole in the centre; under the squarecut part a frame was fixed in, consisting of four pieces of hard-wood scantling, embracing it closely by grooves made expressly in the stone, the lower part being left rough. These stones were sunk entirely even with the sand, together with their frames; which, by their extending about twenty inches on each side further in the ground, will make them stand more solid, and maintain their perpendicular position. 12. The distance between the monuments will exceed 14,050 metres, or eight and seventy-two one-hundredths miles; the accurate number will result from the calculations that I shall make next winter upon the reductions needed, for, 1st, The varied state of the temperature; 2d, The elevations and depressions that the localities of the ground obliged to make in many places; 3d, The reduction of the line actually measured upon the shore-sand, to that between the monuments, for which all the data have been determined upon the place. 16. I had expected, at the close of the last campaign, that, after the measurement of the base line, I should be able yet, during this campaign, to measure the angles of the triangles, that will determine directly from it the distance from Westhills to Rulands, and also those angles on Harrow hill and Weasel which connect my work of 1817 to the present; this I intended to do with the due time for that purpose. But, unfortunately, not only large instrument ordered of Troughton, and promised in this instrument has not yet arrived, but even many unexpected impediments have arisen that have made the execution of my projects impossible, and deprive me even now of the use of the means by which I had inness of the season at which the campaign could be open. tended to supply this deficiency. Besides that the lateed postponed naturally every thing equally as much as my stay in Washington had been protracted, as above stated; an accessory result of which was, that the season for living and working at the seashore falling partly in the equinoctial storms, not only our progress was im. peded, but it reduced me ultimately to the sick bed, and the lingering state consequent to it, which lasts even now, increased and maintained by the difficulties laid in the way of my progress. I had, therefore, also to avail my. self of the asistance of Mr. Blunt, whose operations were near the base line, for the measurement of the accessory and preliminary angles, that had to be measured at different places of the base line; for which, besides, neither I nor any of the other assistants engaged at the actual measurement could leave our functions. 17. Though the two assistants engaged in the secondsome part of the time with me at the base line, (particu ary triangulations (Messrs. Ferguson and Blunt) were larly Mr. Blunt,) they have continued equally their tasks 23d CONG. 2d SESS. Documents accompanying the President's Message. (as I stated in my last report) that they were engaged in, namely: Mr. Ferguson in Connecticut, Mr. Blunt upon Long Island, continuing the secondary triangulations, of which a part is already included in my report of last May. The comparison of the sketch of Mr. Fergu. son's triangles, here joined, with the maps of my last report, will show his part of progress. The necessity of calling off Mr. Blunt for the triangulation around South bay, and to the base, has made it impossible to present with this report a corresponding sketch of his works, besides that herewith from the said South bay. 18. It is my intention to have the topography of the south part of Long Island, near the base line, fully executed this fall, as well upon land as for the soundings of the great South bay that lies between Fire Island beach and the main shore of the island. With that view I marked off a part from the west end of the base, easterly, of such length as would serve as base to triangles, adapted in size to the dimensions of that bay. Such a triangula. tion was then grounded upon it, by Mr. Blunt, as envel ops the whole bay from its entrance to its eastern extremity, as shown by the sketch here joined. 19. The results so obtained were projected upon the scale of one ten-thousandth, to serve for the filling up of the topography with the planetable, at which Mr. Renard is just now engaged. 20. In the same manner, Lieutenant Gedney, of the navy, who has been appointed, upon my proposition, for the first expedition of soundings, namely, that of the bay so enclosed in these triangles, and the seashore adjacent to the beach, has been furnished with a projection of these triangles, upon a scale sufficiently large to make his preliminary constructions for placing the soundings, in which service he is now engaged upon the bay. 21. It was my intention to procure from Paris the materials and implements (which hitherto I have furnished out of my private stock) necessary to have a fully finished map executed of the part of the coast in the vicinity of the base line, where the topographical details are now executing, and the soundings are now taking, by which I would have been able to present, this winter, a real | sample of the execution of the maps early enough yet to lay it before Congress during the course of the coming session; also, exemplars of drawings in all the different scales that it will become necessary to use were to be procured, as I have only (in my private possession) a single exemplar upon one scale that was presented to me long ago by Mr. Beautemps Beaupré, of the Depot de Marine in Paris; for it must be here observed, that these objects are not obtainable from any other place than Paris, or where they were brought to from there, and that there has been established for all such works a universally understood conventional language of signs and manner of distinguishing the objects, which appears not yet much known in this country, and which it is necessary to adopt, in order to be properly intelligible for every body, and to present the results also from that side, so as it is proper in the present state of the science. But the impediments mentioned in my correspondence, as laid in my way for the best forwarding of the work, by procuring the necessary means in due time, has frustrated me of the pleasure of giving that satisfaction this year; this can only be remedied the following winter, (if in the mean time the difficulties are levied.) 22. The secondary triangulation, made by Mr. Ferguson, is now brought to the pallisadoes, on the west, from New Haven, where its eastern part begins, and | that of Mr. Blunt upon Long Island, parallel to it, both upon the plans as already stated, though I had to interrupt Mr. Blunt several times for works at the base line. 23. Thence, also, of all these parts of the country the work is brought to its ultimate application to the minute details of the topography, which I, therefore, intend to put in full activity, as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made, which, in the present state of things, is impossible. 24. I am sorry to be obliged to state here, yel, what is otherwise evident to every man who occasionally is a witness to the work of the coast survey, that from the most important to the minutest part of the work, every thing is arranged in the most strictly economical manner, and at the same time so as to produce the greatest possible effect, in perfectly accurate results, in the shortest space of time; for in this principle lies the true economy of the work; any arrangement whatsoever not fitting to this aim is a direct loss, as well in work as actually also in money. My experience, by having made similar works formerly, at my private expense, I find a sure guide in this respect; and I dare to assert, with full confidence, that never so much actually valuable work was obtained in the same space of time, and for the same proportional amount of money, in any other survey what soever. 25. By the change of the Department to which this work is committed, it became necessary for me to spend much time in giving the informations necessary, to introduce many gentlemen, completely new in the business, into the proper genius of the work, and its advantageous organization, which lies in documents reaching from 1807 to the present date, during which time, on one hand, the arrangements were constantly perfectioned, while on another, even the older documents in the hands of the Government have been destroyed by the conflagration of the Treasury office; so that now I am alone in the possession of them in their original. I had already some time ago begun the copies to restore these documents, and they needed principally only my revision and signature; but it has become necessary to make use of so many of them, that the collection is now very incomplete, and actually my time is otherwise too much engaged to attend to this part at present. 26. As this report is rather to be made in haste, to reach in due time for the aim of the President, to present it, with the message, to Congress, in addition to that of last May, minuter details have been excluded. I expect, however, to have presented the principal fea tures, and the state of the work, to sufficient satisfaction for the present purpose, and to have made it evident that I have continued the work according to the principles laid out for me, from its first beginning, in 1816, that is, in a manner, honorable and permanently useful to the country, which was already the judgment that late President Jefferson, with whom the first law of 1807 had originated, gave upon my work of 1817; and if nothing is altered in my plans, and my organization of the whole arrangement, I can promise equally good success for the further continuance, and even assure that, by no other means or arrangements it is possible to ob tain such a result; for this the judgment of all the practical and experienced men of science in this line, all over Europe, is already recorded in the scientific prints. F. R. HASSLER. WESTHILLS, Huntington township, L. I., November 11, 1834. The Secretary of the Treasury respectfully presents the following report, in obedience to the "Act supplementary to the act to establish the Treasury Department." He would invite the attention of Congress I. TO THE PUBLIC REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES.-(A.) The balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of January A. D. 1832, was The actual receipts into the Treasury, during the year A. D. 1832, from all sources, were Making the whole amount in the Treasury in that year The actual expenditures during the same year, including the public debt, were The balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of January A. D. 1833, was, therefore Customs Lands Dividends on bank stock Sales of bank stock Incidental items These made, with the above balance, an aggregate of The expenditures during A. D. 1833 were Viz: Civil list, foreign intercourse, and miscellaneous subjects Military service, including fortifications, ordnance, Indian affairs, pensions, arming militia, and internal improvements Naval service, including gradual improvement Public debt $29,032,508 91 $4,502,914 45 31,865,561 16 36,368,475 61 34,356,698 06 2,011,777 55 - 33,948,426 25 - $5,716,245 93 Thus a balance was left in the Treasury, on the 1st of January, 1834, amounting to Of these, the receipts during the first three quarters are ascertained to have been Customs Lands Dividends on bank stock Sales of bank stock Incidental items $12,740,872 25 507,370 19 35,960,203 80 $20,624,717 94 11,702,905 31 And those during the fourth quarter, it is expected, will be Thus, with the balance on the 1st of January, 1834, they form an aggregate of Viz: Civil list, foreign intercourse, and miscellaneous Naval service, including, &c. Duties refunded Public debt 2,913,183 12 108,546 19 1,698,686 47 The expenditure for the fourth quarter, including $4,462,330 99, on account of public debt, it is supposed will be about This balance includes what has before been reported | $1,523,308 79 to be applied in aid of the appropriations by this Department as not available, the sum of about for the ensuing year, without reappropriation, as will be $1,400,000, but which is now ascertained to be reduced seen in the estimates when submitted, and the balance to about the sum of $1,150,000, making the computed of $337,909 14, which has not been required at all, or available balance on the 1st of January, 1835, to be seasonably, for the objects eontemplated in its appro$5,586,232 34. It is estimated that, of former appropriation, and will, therefore, be carried to the surplus priations, there will remain unexpended, at the close of fund. In the examination of this result as to outstandthis year, the sum of $8,002,925 13. Of this amount, it ing appropriations, it should be noticed that one small is supposed that only $5,141,964 27 will be required to amount of unclaimed interest on the public debt, and accomplish the objects intended by the current appro- another of unfunded debt, though chargeable on the priations, leaving the sum of $999,742 93 applicable, af- Treasury, are not included. Embracing those, and the terwards, under permanent appropriations; and that of amount applicable, afterwards, to permanent appropria tions, there would not be money enough in the Treasury to pay at once every claim outstanding; but, excluding them, it will be seen that the effective unexpended funds, on the 1st January, 1835, will be $5,586,232 34, to meet what will be required for the remaining and unexpended appropriations, being $5,141,964 27; or, in other words, that our available means then on hand to discharge all the old and existing claims on the Treasury, with the exceptions before named, will be about $444,268 07 mare than their actual amount. The next subject deserving consideration is the condition of II. THE PUBLIC DEBT. All the four and a half per cents., outstanding at the commencement of the present year, have been redeemed, except the sum of $443 25. Money sufficient to meet the whole balance was placed in the United States Bank and its branches, as commissioners of loans, in May last, and that portion not yet paid to the holders of the debt still remains in those depositories. To which add the balance of the avail- 5,586,232 34 The necessary appropriations for the year 1835, including those under new and permanent acts, are estimated at $15,660,232 73; but the whole expenditures for the service of that year are estimated to require the additional sum of $1,523,308 79, which has before been appropriated and mentioned as applicable to the wants of 1835 without a reappropriation, making, together $17,183,541 52 Viz: A part of the five per cent. stock, created in March, A. D. 1821, amounting to $4,712,060 29, was all of the 123 millions of debt existing in A. D. 1816, and of the subsequent additions to it which was left to be redeem- | And they make, together, the sum of $25,586,232 34 ed. It did not become payable till the 1st of January, 1835; but as there was sufficient money in the Treasury for the purpose, and it having been considered beneficial to the public to save, as far as practicable, all the accruing interest, early in July last, agents were employed by this Department to purchase, at par if possible, the whole of the remaining debt. Between that time and the 30th ultimo, the Department had succeeded in redeeming about $491,258 35 of it, and additional purchases are constantly making. In October last, the undersigned gave notice that the whole of this debt, unredeemed after the 1st of January next, would cease to bear interest, and would be promptly paid after that date, on application to the commissioners of loans in the several States. Under authority from the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, this Department has since placed, and made arrangements to place, seasonably, in those offices, ample funds for the above purpose. Thus, before the close of the year, the whole will be either paid, or money provided to pay it; and the United States will present that happy, and probably, in modern times, unprece dented spectacle, of a people substantially free from the smallest portion of a public debt. Considering these facts, it was deemed proper to charge the whole amount of the remaining debt to the expenditures of the present year. Interest on all not paid before the 30th ultimo has been computed till the 1st of January next, the time being so short; and the account for the payment of the public debt, during the year, will then stand as follows: All the disbursements on account of the public debt And to interest Civil, foreign intercourse, and miscel Unclaimed interest on Naval service and grad 9,672,654 50 50,000 00 ual improvement 4,672,661 17 To this add as a contingent expenditure, about half of the amount of the average excess of appropriations beyond the estimates during the last three years 2,500,000 00 $19,683,541 52 And they make the sum of But should the whole amount of former appropriations, current and permanent, that will be outstanding on the 1st of January, 1835, and be needed to complete the services of former years, amounting, in all, as before shown, to the sum of $6,141,707 20, be actually called for during the year 1835, there would be an apparent deficiency in the Treasury on the 1st of January, 1836. It usually happens, however, that, of the new and the old appropriations, a sum of five or six millions remains uncalled for at the commencement of each year; and hence no real deficit is then anticipated, nor much, if any, excess after defraying all the expenditures then chargeable to the Treasury. This estimate of receipts is formed on the supposition that the value of imports during the ensuing year, and especially of those paying duties, will not differ essentially from the average value during the last three years. Though our population has, within that period, proba Annual Treasury Report. bly, increased over one million, yet our manufactures and internal trade have probably increased nearly in an equal proportion; and this circumstance, coupled with the greater caution and frugality practised during the past year, and still continuing, will, it is believed, tend to prevent any considerable augmentation in the consumption or importation of foreign articles. The imports during the year ending September 30, 1834, are estimated in value at $123,093,351, being, compared with the preceding year, an increase of $14,101,541. Those during the three past years have, on an average, been about $111,038,142. The exports during the same year are estimated at $97,318,724, of which $74,444,429 were in domestic, and $22,874,295 in foreign products, being, compared with the preceding year, an increase of $6,655,321, of which $3,802,399 were in articles of domestic, and $2,852,922 in those of foreign products. The average exports during the last three years have been about $91,719,690, of which $69,407,976 are the average in articles of domestic products, and $22,311,714 in those of foreign. It will thus be seen, that the imports of the last year varied in amount $12,055,209 from the average of the three past years, and those paying duties are believed to have varied much less. It is, therefore, in connexion with the reasons before named, considered safe to infer that the imports of the ensuing year may not differ materiaily from that average. Should they not so differ, the revenue from customs will probably correspond in substance with that of the past year, except so far as it may be changed by the whole amount of all the importations when compared with the above average; because the classes and value of articles paying duty, for aught which is known, will probably be similar, and the rate of duties on them will not, by existing laws, be essentially altered till the 31st December A. D. 1835. The revenue from the sale of public lands has been estimated at half a million more than the amount it was estimated for the current year, and one million more than the amount for 1833. This estimate would have been made still larger, had not the sales of the Chickasaw lands, which will probably exceed half a million of dollars, been pledged by treaty to other purposes, and not to the general revenue of the Government. This large computation is founded on the facts of the progressive increase for some time evinced; the sum actually received during the past year; the great quantity of new and sale able lands coming into market; the enlarged demand for them to satisfy the necessary wants of our growing population and of the emigrants from Europe, and the high prices which their produce fortunately obtains both at home and abroad. The revenue from bank dividends has been estimated at somewhat less than heretofore, in consequence of the sales of our bank stock, under the act of July 10, 1832, for the investment of the accruing income of the navy pension and hospital funds having already amounted to $656,600, and on which the Treasury can now receive no dividends applicable to general purposes. It might, perhaps, be advisable to deduct a still further sum to meet any contingency like that of the present year, in which the United States Bank, without the consent of this Department, or the sanction of Congress, and without any forewarning of its intention, seized on about $170,041 of the estimated revenue from this source, and has since withheld it from the public Treasury. Copies of the opinions of the Attorney General, and the whole correspondence on this subject between the Department and the bank, which took place previously to the request for these opinions, are annexed for the consideration and action of Congress, [B.] It may be proper to add that, within a few days VOL. XI.--H [23d CONG. 2d SESS. past, a new communication in relation to this transaction has been received from the bank, and, when a reply is finished, both will be submitted, if desired. No found. ation appears to have existed in law or equity, for the great claim of damages made by the bank on account of the protest of what has been called, in common parlance, the bill of exchange drawn on the French Government by this Department. It is believed that the bill, when protested, ought, by our agents abroad, had they acted with due regard towards their principal, to have been taken up for the credit of that principal, which was the United States, rather than for the credit of the bank; or, at the farthest, if similar and conflicting relations existed between them and the bank, they should have pursued the equitable course of taking it up for the credit of both the United States and the bank, or the more liberal one of giving the prefernce to the Government, which was the drawer; and, in either of these events, no room for dif ficulty by this extraordinary claim would probably have been left. But as these agents preferred a different course, thereby justly impairing the further confidence of the Government in their discretion, it would seem that the bank, in the next place, having long been the general fiscal agent of the Government, and the primary one in importance, should have returned the bill, and made no charge against its principal, the United States, except for the actual advances and the actual costs and expenses it had incurred in the transaction. The actual advances by the bank, when the bill was originally receiv. ed, had only been a matter of form, and were nothing. The money, in fact, never belonged to this Department, except in trust for the merchants, or their widows and orphans who had suffered by French spoliations; and a sum exceeding the whole amount of it having been left in the bank and its branches, and no part of the money having ever been brought into the Treasury by warrant, it was, immediately on notice of the protest, restored in form, and a willingness was expressed to make remuneration to the bank for all reasonable costs and expenses. But the temptation of an opportunity to obtain more from its principal, by a novel species of litigation, through a virtual judicial prosecution for damages against the Government of the Union, seems to have been too strong for resistance; and the bank concluded to depart from the above equitable rule, and, by some technical regulation of strict law between individuals, to attempt to procure a large sum, as mere constructive damages; and by the extraordinary mode of seizing on the dividends, which had been declared by the bank itself to belong to the United States, and of withholding them to abide the ordinary contingencies of a law-suit. It seems to have preferred this unprecedented course rather than to pursue the usual mode of a petition addressed to the justice of Congress, though Congress is well known to be the customary and only tribunal for adjusting controverted claims against the Government, when no suit is pending by the United States, and the only tribunal which, under the constitution, is empowered to appropriate money to discharge any claim whatever. After applying to this Department, and being, so long as a year ago last June, informed of its inability to admit, or authority to dis. charge, the damages demanded, it is remarkable that the bank should have continued to pay over the accruing dividends, and not till after the last session closed, and when any deficiency in the current revenue could not be provided for, should, without any prior application to Congress, have resorted so this unusual proceeding, and sought to have its claim against the United States adju. dicated by the judiciary, when the United States are not amenable to any citizen or corporation, high or low, before the judiciary, for the decision of any claim, unless they have, of their own accord, been pleased to resort |