for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious to relieve
my fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could be
dispensed with and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I
recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such
relief was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great
exertions made in the late war. I made that recommendation under a
pledge that should the public exigencies require a recurrence to
them at any time while I remained in this trust, I would with
equal promptitude perform the duty which would then be alike
incumbent on me. By the experiment now making it will be seen by
the next session of Congress whether the revenue shall have been
so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary purposes.
Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it be
probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued
appears to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain
circumstances loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am
equally well satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the
current year, especially in time of peace, should be provided for
by the revenue of that year.

I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in
which I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and
patriotism of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could
never be made in vain, especially in times of great emergency or
for purposes of high national importance. Independently of the
exigency of the case, many considerations of great weight urge a
policy having in view a provision of revenue to meet to a certain
extent the demands of the nation, without relying altogether on
the precarious resource of foreign commerce. I am satisfied that
internal duties and excises, with corresponding imposts on foreign