at $3,000,000 would be derived annually by a moderate
duty imposed on these articles.

Should Congress avail itself of this additional source of revenue, not
only would the amount of the public loan rendered necessary by the war
with Mexico be diminished to that extent, but the public credit and the
public confidence in the ability and determination of the Government to
meet all its engagements promptly would be more firmly established, and
the reduced amount of the loan which it may be necessary to negotiate
could probably be obtained at cheaper rates.

Congress is therefore called upon to determine whether it is wiser to
impose the war duties recommended or by omitting to do so increase the
public debt annually $3,000,000 so long as loans shall be required to
prosecute the war, and afterwards provide in some other form to pay the
semiannual interest upon it, and ultimately to extinguish the principal.
If in addition to these duties Congress should graduate and reduce the
price of such of the public lands as experience has proved will not
command the price placed upon them by the Government, an additional
annual income to the Treasury of between half a million and a million of
dollars, it is estimated, would be derived from this source. Should both
measures receive the sanction of Congress, the annual amount of public
debt necessary to be contracted during the continuance of the war would
be reduced near $4,000,000. The duties recommended to be levied on tea
and coffee it is proposed shall be limited in their duration to the end
of the war, and until the public debt rendered necessary to be
contracted by it shall be discharged. The amount of the public debt to
be contracted should be limited to the lowest practicable sum, and
should be extinguished as early after the conclusion of the war as the
means of the Treasury will permit.

With this view, it is recommended that as soon as the war shall be over
all the surplus in the Treasury not needed for other indispensable
objects shall constitute a sinking fund and be applied to the purchase
of the funded debt, and that authority be conferred by laws for that
purpose.

The act of the 6th of August, 1846, "to establish a warehousing system,"
has been in operation more than a year, and has proved to be an
important auxiliary to the tariff act of 1846 in augmenting the revenue
and extending the commerce of the country. Whilst it has tended to
enlarge commerce, it has been