5 the answer to the call would prove.the distress and the sufferingof the country. . It was confidently asserted that the Secretary of the Treasury had overestimated the revenues of the year ; that there . would' be a great falling off,—,a decline,—a bank- rujjtcy J that confidence was destroyed,—enterprise checked,—industry paralyzed,—commerce suspend, cd ! that the direful act of one man, in One dire order, had changed the face of the country, from'a scene of unparalleled prosperity tb a scene .of uni paralleled desolation! that the canal was a solitude, the lake a desert waste of waters, the ocean without ships, the commercial towns desert, cd, silent, and sad ; orders for goods countermanded ; foreign purchases stopped; and that the answer of the Secretary would prove all this, in showing the falsity of his own estimates, and the great decline in the revenue and importations of the country. Such were the assertions and predictions under which the call was made, and to which the public attention was attracted by every device of theatrical declama-' lion from this floor. Well, the answer comes. The Secretary sends in his report, with every statement called for. It is a report to make the patriot’s heart rejoice I full of high and gratifying facts j replete with rich information ; and pregnant with evidences of national prosperity. How is it received—how received by those who called for it ? With downcast looks, and wordless tongues ! A motion is even made to stop the reading ! to stop the reading of such a report! called for under such circumstances ! while whole days are given up to reading the monotonous, ^autologous, and endless repetitions of distress memorials, the echo of our own speeches, and the thousandth edition of the same work with, out emendation or correction! All these can be read, arid printed too, and lauded with studied eulo- gium, and their contents sent out to the people', freighted upon every Wind ; but this official report of the Secretary of the Treasury upon the state of their own revenues, and of their own commerce, called for by an order of the Senate, is to be treated like an unwelcome and.worthless intruder ; received without a word,—hot even read,—slipped out upon, a motion,—disposed of as the Abbe Sieyes voted for the death of Louis the Sixteenth, mart sans phrase ! death, without talk ! But he, Mr. B., did not mean to suffer this report to be despatched in this unceremonious and compendious style. It had been called for to be given to the people, and the people should, hear of it. It was not what was expected, but it is what is true, and what will rejoice the heart ofevery patriot in America. A pit was dug for Mr. Taney; the diggers of the pit have fallen into it; the fault is not his ; and the sooner they clamber out the bet. ter for themselves.. The people have a right to know the contents of this, report, and know them they shall; and if there is any man in this America whose heart is so constructed as to grieve over the prosperity of his country, let him prepare himself for sorrow ; for the proof is forthcoming, that never, since, our America had a place among nations, was the prosperity of the country equal to what it is at this day! Mn B. then requested the Secretary of the Senate to send him the report, and comparative statement, - which being done, Mr. B. opened the report, and went over the heads of it to show that the Secretary of the Treasury had not over-estimated therevenua of the year ; that the revenue was, in fact, superior to the estimate ; and that the importations would equal, if not exceed, the highest amount that they had ever attained. To appreciate the statements which he should make, Mr. B. said it was necessary for the Senate to recollect that the list of dutiable articles was now gre*atly reduced. Many articles were now free of duty, which formerly paid heavy duties ; many others were reduced, in duty; and the fair effect of these abolitions, and reductions, would be a diminu- tidn of revenue eVen without a diminution of ini. ports ; yet the Secretary’s estimate, made at tho commencement of the session, was more'than realized, and showed the gratifying spectacle of a full and overflowing Treasury, instead of an empty one. which had been predicted ; and left to Congress the grateful occupation of further reducing taxes, instead of the odious task of borrowing money, as had been so loudly anticipated for six months past. The revenue accruing from imports in the first quarter -of the present year, was 5,344,540 dollars; the payments actually made into the Treasury from the ' Custom houses for the same Quarter, was 4,435,386 dollars; and the payments from lands for the same time, was 1,398,206 dollars. The two first months of the second quarter were producing in full ratio to the first quarter ; and the actual amount of available funds in the Treasury on the 9th day of this month, was ELEVEN MILLIONS TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND TWELVE DOLLARS. The two last quarters of the year were always most productive. It was the time of the largest importations of foreign goods which pay most duty-— the woollens—and the season also for the largest sale of public lands ; it is wellbelieved that the estimate will be more largely exceeded in those two quarters than in the two first; and that the excess for the whole year, over the estimate, will be full two millions of dollars. This, Mr. B. said, was one of the evidences of public prosperity which the report contained ; and which utterly contradicted the idea of distress and commercial embarrassment which had been propagated, from this Chamber, for the last six months. Mr. B. proceeded to the next evidence of commercial prosperity; it was in the increased importations of foreign goods. These imports, judging from the first five months, would be seven millions more than they were two years ago, when the Bank of the United States had seventy millions loaned out; and they were twenty millions more than in the time of Mr« Adams’s administration. At the rate they had commenced, they would , amount to one hundred and ten - millions for the year. This will exceed whatever was known in .our country. The imports, for the time that President Jackson has served, have regularly advanced from about ■ 4 millions to 108 millions. The following is the statement of these imports, from which Mr. B. read,! 1829 - - - - r • S 74,492,527 1830 - . . 70,876,920 1831 ... - 103,191,124 1832 .... 101,029,266 1833 - - - - - 108,118,31
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