The
actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short
of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will be
equally productive, but the income of the year from that source may now
be safely estimated at a million and a half. The act of Congress of 18th
May, 1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the
United States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in its
operation of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its
effect at the end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce
that debt from ten to seven millions. By the operation of similar prior
laws of relief, from and since that of 2d March, 1821, the debt had been
reduced from upward of twenty-two millions to ten. It is exceedingly
desirable that it should be extinguished altogether; and to facilitate
that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival for one year more
of the act of 18th May, 1824, with such provisional modification as may
be necessary to guard the public interests against fraudulent practices
in the resale of the relinquished land.
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