$27,000,000. With the allowances for drawbacks and contingent
deficiencies which may occur, though not specifically foreseen, we may
safely estimate the receipts of the ensuing year at $22,300,000--a
revenue for the next equal to the expenditure of the present year.

The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all classes throughout the
Union for the total discharge of the public debt will apologize for the
earnestness with which I deem it my duty to urge this topic upon the
consideration of Congress--of recommending to them again the observance
of the strictest economy in the application of the public funds. The
depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had commenced with the
year 1826 continued with increased severity during the two first
quarters of the present year. The returning tide began to flow with the
third quarter, and, so far as we can judge from experience, may be
expected to continue through the course of the ensuing year. In the
meantime an alleviation from the burden of the public debt will in the
three years have been effected to the amount of nearly sixteen millions,
and the charge of annual interest will have been reduced upward of one
million. But among the maxims of political economy which the stewards of
the public moneys should never suffer without urgent necessity to be
transcended is that of keeping the expenditures of the year within the
limits of its receipts. The appropriations of the two last years,
including the yearly ten millions of the sinking fund, have each equaled
the promised revenue of the ensuing year. While we foresee with
confidence that the public coffers will be replenished from the receipts
as fast as they will be drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to
those of the current year, it should not be forgotten that they could
ill suffer the exhaustion of larger disbursements.

The condition of the Army and of all the branches of the public service
under the superintendence of the Secretary of War will be seen by the
report from that officer and the documents with which it is accompanied.

During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and
successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment
when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain
provisions of the treaty of August 19, 1825, with various tribes of the
Northwestern Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place of
meeting the unprovoked murder of