se principles in our domestic policy which
shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure
the blessings of freedom to our citizens.

Among these principles, from our past experience, it can not be doubted
that simplicity in the character of the Federal Government and a rigid
economy in its administration should be regarded as fundamental and
sacred. All must be sensible that the existence of the public debt, by
rendering taxation necessary for its extinguishment, has increased the
difficulties which are inseparable from every exercise of the taxing
power, and that it was in this respect a remote agent in producing those
disturbing questions which grew out of the discussions relating to
the tariff. If such has been the tendency of a debt incurred in the
acquisition and maintenance of our national rights and liberties, the
obligations of which all portions of the Union cheerfully acknowledged,
it must be obvious that whatever is calculated to increase the burdens
of Government without necessity must be fatal to all our hopes of
preserving its true character. While we are felicitating ourselves,
therefore, upon the extinguishment of the national debt and the
prosperous state of our finances, let us not be tempted to depart from
those sound maxims of public policy which enjoin a just adaptation of
the revenue to the expenditures that are consistent with a rigid economy
and an entire abstinence from all topics of legislation that are not
clearly within the constitutional powers of the Government and suggested
by the wants of the country. Properly regarded under such a policy,
every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to
individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members
of our happy Confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and
support. But above all, its most important effect will be found in its
influence upon the character of the Government by confining its action
to those objects which will be sure to secure to it the attachment and
support of our fellow-citizens.

Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of Congress to
the Bank of the United States. Created for the convenience of the
Government, that institution has become the scourge of the people. Its
interference to postpone the payment of a portion of the national debt
that it might retain the public money appropriated for that purpose to
strengthen it in a political contest, the e