nges
contemplated in our tariff laws have occurred and shall enable us to
revise the system with that care and circumspection which are due to
so delicate and important a subject.

It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can the burdens of
taxation and to regard all the restrictions which are imposed on the
trade and navigation of our citizens as evils which we shall mitigate
whenever we are not prevented by the adverse legislation and policy
of foreign nations or those primary duties which the defense and
independence of our country enjoin upon us. That we have accomplished
much toward the relief of our citizens by the changes which have
accompanied the payment of the public debt and the adoption of the
present revenue laws is manifest from the fact that compared with 1833
there is a diminution of near twenty-five millions in the last two
years, and that our expenditures, independently of those for the public
debt, have been reduced near nine millions during the same period. Let
us trust that by the continued observance of economy and by harmonizing
the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much
more may be accomplished to diminish the burdens of government and to
increase still further the enterprise and the patriotic affection of all
classes of our citizens and all the members of our happy Confederacy.
As the data which the Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you in
regard to our financial resources are full and extended, and will afford
a safe guide in your future calculations, I think it unnecessary to
offer any further observations on that subject here.

Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the country, not
the least gratifying is that afforded by the receipts from the sales of
the public lands, which amount in the present year to the unexpected
sum of $11,000,000. This circumstance attests the rapidity with which
agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, advances
and contributes to the wealth and power of our extended territory.
Being still of the opinion that it is our best policy, as far as we can
consistently with the obligations under which those lands were ceded to
the United States, to promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave to
call the attention of the present Congress to the suggestions I have
offered respecting it in my former messages.

The extraordinary receipts from the sales of the public lands invite
you to consider what