At the last session of Congress the condition
of the funds was still unpropitious to the measure; but the change so
soon afterwards occurred that, had the authority existed to redeem the
nine millions now redeemable by an exchange of stocks or a loan at 5 per
cent, it is morally certain that it might have been effected, and with
it a yearly saving of $90,000.
With regard to the collection of the revenue of imposts, certain
occurrences have within the last year been disclosed in one or two of
our principal ports, which engaged the attention of Congress at their
last session and may hereafter require further consideration. Until
within a very few years the execution of the laws for raising the
revenue, like that of all our other laws, has been insured more by the
moral sense of the community than by the rigors of a jealous precaution
or by penal sanctions. Confiding in the exemplary punctuality and
unsullied integrity of our importing merchants, a gradual relaxation
from the provisions of the collection laws, a close adherence to which
would have caused inconvenience and expense to them, had long become
habitual, and indulgences had been extended universally because they had
never been abused.
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