WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
472
To prevent the evil of further involvement to the country, the Executive respectfully recommends to the Honorable Congress, the total repeal of all the laws heretofore enacted authorising the negotiation of foreign loans. The action under these laws has already been productive of serious detriment. And the nation certainly possesses recources within itself of not only sustaining the government but, as soon as they can be made available, of discharging all our outstanding liabilities. Notwithstanding an almost total failure in the collection of the direct taxes, the revenues of the last two years have been com- mensurate to the support of the government, upon the rigidly economical scale upon which it has been administered. For the present year, there will be a small surplus in the Treasury. Although the crops of the present season, owing to the con- tinued rains which have fallen during the period when the planter was gathering his products for market, will fall short of the calculation at one time made, from the prospect of super- abundance; yet there is every reason to believe that our exports for the present year will largely exceed the imports. And from the best data in possession of the T"reasury Department, similar results are anticipated for the ensuing year. This cannot but be taken as encouraging evidence of our growing prosperity. The assessments of direct taxes amount to forty nine thousand dollars; upon which only thirteen thousand dollars have been paid in. This fact will satisfactorily answer the question as to the source whence we must derive means for the purpose of govern- ment. Had it been reduced to the necessity of relying alone upon the direct taxes, it must inevitably have ceased its function. The attention of the Honorable Congress has heretofore been invoked to the subject of devising some method for enabling the officers of government to enforce the laws and execute their duties. To enact laws without giving the power of inflicting punishment for their infraction, is, certainly, a political paradox. The constitution and laws recognize the offences of treason, in- surrection, mutiny and sedition; but the Congress has never appropriated punishment to their commission. Resistance to the execution of the law, by persons associated for the purpose, is sedition; and individuals setting themselves up in armed bodies in defiance of the laws and with the view of preventing their operation, is insurrection. That acts of this character have been committed to no inconsiderable extent, is well known in the Republic. They have a deleterious effect upon our character
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