Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/112

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��cliers; and the navy is dismantled, except a few vessels in commission-^-so that, even in these two branches, which cost most to the national treasury, the expenses become very much reduced. The great art of the government is always to apportion the amount of its expenses to that of its certain revenue, and to save something from the product of the latter, every year. Notwithstanding this prudent conduct, however, their immense engage- ments during the war of the revolution; the dis- bursements for the purchase of Louisiana, and va- rious Indian frontier territories, and the expenses of the late war with Great Britain, have formed a national debt, which presses but too heavily upon the government of the Union. On the 1st of Janu- ary, 1818, it amounted to 116,490,582 dollars, notwithstanding the periodical redemption and ex- tinction of large sums. But the general govern- ment has appropriated the publick lands for the payment and extinction of this debt, and some .other resources, under the management of a special commission, which proceeds with the greatest ac- tivity and exactitude in the discharge of this im- portant duty; and it is probable, that within a few years the whole debt will be redeemed and ex- tinguished, if the United States continue at peace with all nations, or if some uufortuate event should not disturl) the present order of things in that coun- try.

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