Representatives of the United States_:

I lay before you a communication from the Secretary of War, accompanied
by a report of the Commissioner of Pensions, showing the great
importance of early action on the bill from the Senate providing for the
continuance of the office of Commissioner of Pensions. The present law
will expire by its own limitation on the 4th day of the next month, and,
sensible of the suffering which would be experienced by the pensioners
from its suspension, I have deemed it my duty to bring the subject to
your notice and invite your early attention to it.

M. VAN BUREN.

FEBRUARY 17, 1840.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I submit to Congress a communication from the Secretary of the
Treasury, repeating suggestions contained in his annual report in regard
to the necessity of an early provision by law for the protection of
the Treasury against the fluctuations and contingencies to which its
receipts are exposed, with additional facts and reasons in favor of
the propriety of the legislation then desired.

The application assumes that although the means of the Treasury for the
whole year may be equal to the expenditures of the year, the Department
may, notwithstanding, be rendered unable to meet the claims upon it at
the times when they fall due.

This apprehension arises partly from the circumstance that the largest
proportion of the charges upon the Treasury, including the payment of
pensions and the redemption of Treasury notes, fall due in the early
part of this year, viz, in the months of March and May, while the
resources on which it might otherwise rely to discharge them can not be
made available until the last half of the year, and partly from the fact
that a portion of the means of the Treasury consists of debts due from
banks, for some of which delay has already been asked, and which may not
be punctually paid.

Considering the injurious consequences to the character, credit, and
business of the country which would result from a failure by the
Government for ever so short a period to meet its engagements; that the
happening of such a contingency can only be effectually guarded against
by the exercise of legislative authority; that the period when such
disability must arise, if at all, and which at the commencement of the
session was comparatively remote, has now approached so near as a few
days; and that the provision asked for is only intend