I can not, however, withhold the remark that its advantages contrasted with a bank of the United States, apart from the fact that a bank was esteemed as obnoxious to the public sentiment.

The issue of one note in redemption of another is not the payment of a debt.

An Empire supposed to contain 300,000,000 subjects, fertile in various rich products of the earth, not without the knowledge of letters and of many arts, and with large and expensive accommodations for internal intercourse and traffic, has for ages sought to exclude the visits of strangers and foreigners from its dominions, and has assumed for itself a superiority over all other nations.

The exports, too, from the United States to China constitute an interesting and growing part of the commerce of the country.

The importations into the United States from China are known to be large, having amounted in some years, as will be seen by the annexed tables, to $9,000,000.

I can not forego the occasion to urge its importance to the credit of the Government in a financial point of view.

The credit of the Government may be regarded as the very soul of the Government itself--a principle of vitality without which all its movements are languid and all its operations embarrassed.

I did not think that I could stand excused, much less justified, before the people of the United States, nor could I reconcile it to myself to recommend the imposition of additional taxes upon them without at the same time urging the employment of all the legitimate means of the Government toward satisfying its wants.

Relating to the sale or exchange of Government drafts, etc.

The reasons in favor of the propriety of adopting at an early period proper measures for that purpose were explained by the Secretary of the Treasury in his annual report and recommended to your attention by myself.

The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I am happy to say, been very successful.

The precautions which will be recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury to protect faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures are exposed, are commended to your early attention.

The weight which presses upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt, foreign and domestic.

In conducting the fiscal operations of the year it has been found necessary to carry into full effect the act of the last session of Congress authorizing a loan of $5M.

We have seen them everywhere paying their taxes, direct and indirect, with the greatest promptness and alacrity.