2. During the
same period the expenditures of the Post-Office Department amounted
to $1,169,885.51, and consisted of the following items, viz:
Compensation to postmasters, $353,995.98; incidental expenses,
$30,866.37; transportation of the mail, $784,600.08; payments into
the Treasury, $423.08. On the 1st of July last there was due to the
Department from postmasters $135,245.28; from _late_ postmasters and
contractors, $256,749.31; making a total amount of balances due to the
Department of $391,994.59. These balances embrace all delinquencies
of postmasters and contractors which have taken place since the
organization of the Department. There was due by the Department
to contractors on the 1st of July last $26,548.64.

The transportation of the mail within five years past has been greatly
extended, and the expenditures of the Department proportionably
increased. Although the postage which has accrued within the last three
years has fallen short of the expenditures $262,821.46, it appears that
collections have been made from the outstanding balances to meet the
principal part of the current demands.

It is estimated that not more than $250,000 of the above balances can
be collected, and that a considerable part of this sum can only be
realized by a resort to legal process. Some improvement in the receipts
for postage is expected. A prompt attention to the collection of moneys
received by postmasters, it is believed, will enable the Department
to continue its operations without aid from the Treasury, unless the
expenditures shall be increased by the establishment of new mail routes.

A revision of some parts of the post-office law may be necessary;
and it is submitted whether it would not be proper to provide for the
appointment of postmasters, where the compensation exceeds a certain
amount, by nomination to the Senate, as other officers of the General
Government are appointed.

Having communicated my views to Congress at the commencement of the
last session respecting the encouragement which ought to be given to our
manufactures and the principle on which it should be founded, I have
only to add that those views remain unchanged, and that the present
state of those countries with which we have the most immediate political
relations and greatest commercial intercourse tends to confirm them.
Under this impression I recommend a review of the tariff for the purpose
of affording such additional protection to those articl