nally overthrown.

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid extinguishment of
the public debt and the large accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury,
notwithstanding the tariff was reduced and is now very far below the
amount originally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon it, the
design to collect an extravagant revenue and to burden you with taxes
beyond the economical wants of the Government is not yet abandoned. The
various interests which have combined together to impose a heavy tariff
and to produce an overflowing Treasury are too strong and have too
much at stake to surrender the contest. The corporations and wealthy
individuals who are engaged in large manufacturing establishments desire
a high tariff to increase their gains. Designing politicians will
support it to conciliate their favor and to obtain the means of profuse
expenditure for the purpose of purchasing influence in other quarters;
and since the people have decided that the Federal Government can not be
permitted to employ its income in internal improvements, efforts will be
made to seduce and mislead the citizens of the several States by holding
out to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived from a
surplus revenue collected by the General Government and annually divided
among the States; and if, encouraged by these fallacious hopes, the
States should disregard the principles of economy which ought to
characterize every republican government, and should indulge in lavish
expenditures exceeding their resources, they will before long find
themselves oppressed with debts which they are unable to pay, and the
temptation will become irresistible to support a high tariff in order
to obtain a surplus for distribution. Do not allow yourselves, my
fellow-citizens, to be misled on this subject. The Federal Government
can not collect a surplus for such purposes without violating the
principles of the Constitution and assuming powers which have not been
granted. It is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if persisted in
will inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin. The surplus
revenue will be drawn from the pockets of the people--from the farmer,
the mechanic, and the laboring classes of society; but who will receive
it when distributed among the States, where it is to be disposed of by
leading State politicians, who have friends to favor and political
partisans to gratify? It will certainly not be returned to tho