FINANCES, ETC. I. UNITED STATES. 1. STATEMENT OF THE DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES, NOVEMBER, 1857.* The public debt on the 4th of March, 1853, amounted to the sum of $69,129,937 27, and was subsequently increased to liquidate the debt of Texas, by the sum of $2,750,000, which gives the public debt at $71,879,937 27. It has since been reduced, up to the 17th day of November, 1857, the date of the Register's last report, to the sum of $25,165,154 51. In addition to the public debt as above, there is due, under treaties with various Indian tribes, payable on time, the sum of $21,066,501 36. This debt, as it becomes payable, constitutes an item of annual expenditure, and is estimated for by the Department of the Interior. 2. RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1857. Receipts from Customs, quarter ending Sept. *Compiled from the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 1857. June 30, 1857... Balance in the Treasury, July 1, 1856. Aggregate Means of the Treasury, for fiscal year ending Expenditures: Civil, Foreign Intercourse and 19,901,325 45 88,532,839 12 27,531,922 37 Balance in Treasury, close of fiscal year, June 30, 1857.. 17,710,114 27 The receipts of the first quarter of the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, 1857, were: From Customs.. From Public Lands.. From Miscellaneous Sources.. 18,573,729 37 2,059,449 39 20,929,819 81 33,000,000 00 750,000 00 36,750,000 00 75,389,934 08 In view of this small balance, Congress, by Act of December 23, 1857, authorized the issue of $20,000,000 of Treasury notes. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his communication to Congress, under date of May 19, 1858 states, that, owing to the continued depression of business throughout the country, the receipts of the Treasury had fallen $10,000,000 below the estimates made in his report of December last; that Congress, having from various causes increased the expenditures $10,000,000, the issue of Treasury notes of December, 1857 is entirely absorbed, and that the fiscal year 1859 would commence without a dollar in the Treasury to meet the amount to be paid during the first two quarters of that year, estimated at $10,000,000. To meet this deficiency, an Act was passed, authorizing a loan of $20,000,000, payable in fifteen years, with interest not to exceed six per cent. per annum. The recent close of the Utah War and the satisfactory adjustment of the Right of Search question with Great Britain, will materially reduce the above estimate, which, together with the present improving condition of business throughout the country, and the rigid system of economy now being introduced in the different departments of the Federal Government, will soon restore our national finances to the same prosperous condition that they were in at the commencement of the present Administration. Showing the amount of the Public Debt on the 3d of March, 1857; the amount redeemed and paid to July 1st, 1857; the amount since; the total amount redeemed and paid, and the amount outstanding on November 17, 1857. [Compiled from the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, December, 1857.] 1. TAXATION AND REVENUE. The State of California claims from the General Government the payment of moneys collected from her citizens by United States officers without law, at a time when no Territorial or State Government existed in accordance with * Increased $1,150 by funding treasury notes. + Reduced $1,150 by funding treasury notes, and $150 by redemption. any act of Congress. This sum of $2,706,512 13 is pledged by statute for the redemption of the funded debt of the State. The State owns also in her sovereignty the tide lands, being that portion of land covered by water from the high water mark to the channels of the bays and rivers, and three miles into the ocean. Also, the swamp and overflowed lands donated by Congress for the purpose of reclamation for agricultural purposes, amounting to about 5,000,000 * acres. Also, for Common School purposes, 500,000 acres originally, but now reduced by sales of school land warrants to 262,560 acres. This donation was made by Congress for purposes of internal improvement, but diverted by the Constitution of California, with consent of Congress, to school purposes. Also, for Common School purposes, the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of each township of all the lands of the State, subject to relocation of such as have been settled upon before U. S. survey, or claimed by valid grants from the Mexican Government. The aggregate of these lands amount to nearly 6,000,000 acres. Also, 46,080 acres for the purpose of erecting a university, and 6,400 acres for the purpose of building a capitol. Beyond these resources, revenue is raised by taxation upon the assessed value of the real and personal property in each county, which amounts in the aggregate, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1857, to $125,859,461 82†, upon which is assessed sixty cents on each one hundred dollars of value. Every resident over twenty-one and under fifty years of age pays a polltax of three dollars. A license tax is required to be paid by merchants, bankers, dealers in stocks, exchange, gold dust and similar occupations, insurance agents, passenger brokers, dealers in liquors, tavern keepers, peddlers, billiard tables used for public purposes, bowling alleys, theaters and other places of amusements; also, incorporated companies and associations for mining and other purposes of gain, and foreign miners. A stamp tax is imposed on bills of exchange, drafts, etc. payable out of the State, policies of insurance, passage tickets of persons leaving the State, and on licenses issued to attorneys to practice. There is also a commutation tax on foreigners arriving within the State, and one-half per cent. on sales of auctioneers and sellers of consigned goods. There is no taxation on property belonging to the United States, to the State or any county, nor town-halls, council-chambers, market-houses or other public structures or edifices, nor colleges, school-houses, hospitals (public), asylums, poor-houses, benevolent institutions, libraries, churches, cemeteries, grave-yards, property of widows and minor orphans to the extent of one thousand dollars, nor growing crops and mining claims. * Report of State Surveyor-General, Dec. 15, 1854. + Exclusive of the counties of Colusa, Klamath, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Cruz, from which no returns were received up to the close of the fiscal year. Estimating the taxable property in these counties at $6,500,000, and there is an aggregate amount of $132,359,461 82 in the State. The revenue derived from merchants, whose business does not exceed five thousand dollars per month and from the sales of liquors at retail, is paid into the Treasury of the county in which it is collected, for county purposes.-Act of the Legislature, April 17, 1858. |