WRITINGS OF S.ur HoVSTON, 1842
79
The crisis demands the employment of all the wisdom, energy and resources of the nation. To give efficiency to whatever course your Honorable Body may determined to be necessary in relation to our enemy, there must be a requisition made upon all our means, and their application must be regulated by discretion, and the most systematic and rigid rules; otherwise, every effort made by us will prove abortive and sink us but yet deeper into mis- fortune. At this time of great prostration in the financial con- cerns of the world, we, in common with every other people, ex- perience a portion of the general inconvenience. The plan presented to the last session of Congress, in relation to the revenues of the country, was not adopted. It was recom- mended that the direct tax, as then existing, be reduced but one half; but, instead of that, it was abolished, or what amounts to the same thing, reduced so low as not to compensate for its col- lection. The currency, therefore, created at that session, was left to rely upon the duties arising from importations; and, con- sequently, the demand of our issues has been confined to that channel of the revenue. Although but a fraction more than one third of the amount authorized to be issued has been put in cir- culation; yet, from a want of confidence in the guarantee given for its redemption, our Exchequer paper has frequently been at a discount of fifty per centum. At least one half the revenue, also, to which the government is entitled from impost duties has not been and will not be collected, unless power is given to the Execu- tive or the Head of the Finance Department to declare and estab- lish such ports of entry on the Red River and the Sabine as may be deemed necessary to prevent smuggling and the illicit intro- duction of goods into the country. The government cannot exist without a revenue. Its officers and agents must be supported. The pittance at present afforded them, is utterly insufficient for that purpose; and some of the most active and efficient officers have retired and others have notified the Executive of their determination to do so. They are totally unable, from their salaries, to obtain the indispensable necessaries of life. Without necessary and competent officers, no government can be properly administered.- The Executive has found his labors more than two fold greater since the commence- ment of his present official term, than they were during the entire period of his last administration- a period of more than two years- when he had to organize a government out of chaos and give it direction. The means placed in his hands at this
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