ded $10,000,000 during the present
fiscal year, this being the remaining half of the loan of $20,000,000
not yet negotiated.

The rapid increase of the public debt and the necessity which exists
for a modification of the tariff to meet even the ordinary expenses of
the Government ought to admonish us all, in our respective spheres of
duty, to the practice of rigid economy. The objects of expenditure
should be limited in number, as far as this may be practicable, and the
appropriations necessary to carry them into effect ought to be disbursed
under the strictest accountability. Enlightened economy does not
consist in the refusal to appropriate money for constitutional purposes
essential to the defense, progress, and prosperity of the Republic, but
in taking care that none of this money shall be wasted by mismanagement
in its application to the objects designated by law.

Comparisons between the annual expenditure at the present time and what
it was ten or twenty years ago are altogether fallacious. The rapid
increase of our country in extent and population renders a corresponding
increase of expenditure to some extent unavoidable. This is constantly
creating new objects of expenditure and augmenting the amount required
for the old. The true questions, then, are, Have these objects been
unnecessarily multiplied, or has the amount expended upon any or all
of them been larger than comports with due economy? In accordance with
these principles, the heads of the different Executive Departments of
the Government have been instructed to reduce their estimates for the
next fiscal year to the lowest standard consistent with the efficiency
of the service, and this duty they have performed in a spirit of
just economy. The estimates of the Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior
Departments have each been in some degree reduced, and unless a sudden
and unforeseen emergency should arise it is not anticipated that a
deficiency will exist in either within the present or the next fiscal
year. The Post-Office Department is placed in a peculiar position,
different from the other Departments, and to this I shall hereafter
refer.

I invite Congress to institute a rigid scrutiny to ascertain whether the
expenses in all the Departments can not be still further reduced, and
I promise them all the aid in my power in pursuing the investigation.

I transmit herewith the reports made to me by the Secretaries of War,
of the Navy, of the Interior, and