$264,500,000, and the estimated ordinary expenditures for the same
period will be $236,320,412.68, leaving a surplus of $28,179,587.32
for that year.

In the foregoing statements of expenditures, actual and estimated,
no amount is allowed for the sinking fund provided for by the act
approved February 25, 1862, which requires that 1 per cent of the
entire debt of the United States shall be purchased or paid within
each fiscal year, to be set apart as a sinking fund. There has been,
however, a substantial compliance with the conditions of the law. By
its terms the public debt should have been reduced between 1862
and the close of the last fiscal year $518,361,806.28; the
actual reduction of the ascertained debt in that period has been
$720,644,739.61, being in excess of the reduction required by the
sinking fund act $202,282,933.33.

The amount of the public debt, less cash in the Treasury, November 1,
1878, was $2,024,200,083.18, a reduction since the same date last year
of $23,150,617.39.

The progress made during the last year in refunding the public debt at
lower rates of interest is very gratifying. The amount of 4 per cent
bonds sold during the present year prior to November 23, 1878, is
$100,270,900, and 6 per cent bonds, commonly known as five-twenties,
to an equal amount, have been or will be redeemed as calls mature.

It has been the policy of the Department to place the 4 per cent bonds
within easy reach of every citizen who desires to invest his savings,
whether small or great, in these securities. The Secretary of the
Treasury recommends that the law be so modified that small sums may