The War with Mexico/Volume 2/Chapter 33
XXXIII
THE FINANCES OF THE WAR
1846-1848
Mexico, as we have learned, entered upon the contest with neither money nor revenues nor credit. From nothing, nothing comes; and many supposed she was too poor to fight. But she did fight or at least men fought in her name and one cannot help asking how they contrived to do so. In full the question cannot be answered, but some of the facts lie within our view, and these are not only valuable in themselves but highly suggestive.[1]
Aside from loans, the income of the government in 1844 was figured roughly as follows: import duties, seven million dollars; duties on commerce in the interior, four and a quarter millions; profits from the monopolies of the mints, tobacco, stamped paper, playing cards, national lottery, post-office, etc., two and a quarter millions; miscellaneous taxes and revenues, three millions; total, sixteen and a half millions net. But the American blockade cut off nearly fifty per cent of this income at one stroke; and not only our progressive occupation of territory, but the dislike of the people for national taxes, their growing dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's régime, and their increasing destitution caused a rapid shrinkage of the residue.[2]
It was proposed to contrive a general plan of taxation for the emergency; but probably the interests principally threatened put a stop to it, and at all events it mysteriously disappeared. The government was given ample authority, but could do nothing. A war tax was laid on house-rents, for example ; but it could not be collected everywhere, and probably its net proceeds amounted to little. In November, 1846, it was decided to issue drafts for two millions, to be accepted by the clergy and then purchased by designated citizens; but the scheme, though actually decreed, proved a failure, and the famous laws of January 11 and February 4, 1847, were no more successful. June 17, 1847, a special tax of one million was assessed upon the entire population; but only a small fraction of this appears to have been paid. In November, 1847, the government offered to deduct one half of the pending national: taxes levied before May 1, 1846, if citizens would pay them by February 1, 1848; and this indicates clearly how the people had been acting. A few of the states, besides maintaining National Guards, erecting fortifications and manufacturing cannon, remitted some cash to the central government; but when we find the richest of them all, México, boasting that she had sent the insignificant sum of about $160,000, we have reason to place a rather slight value upon this kind of assistance. Moreover, accepted drafts on that state, payable in one, two and three months, could not be sold — even at a discount.[3]
The clergy gave nominally a million and a half, but they. appear to have taken up indirectly, at a discount of forty per cent, the drafts of which this donation consisted. Citizens provided a large part of the new ordnance, but aside from this we hear of few substantial gifts. Just after the battle of Molino del Rey, in order to obtain bread for the army, the government requested the bakers of the capital to meet, but only a part of them came. A "positive supreme order" then brought them together, and they promised contributions; yet the promises were not kept.[4]
Every possible effort was made to borrow. Once the treasury offered a national loan of two and a half millions, but it fell flat in the states that might have paid the most. Just before the battle of Cerro Gordo there was a door-to-door canvass at Mexico; but only small sums can have been picked up. About three months later the government imposed a forced loan, of which more than $280,000 were assigned to the capital; but the Mexicans had learned to evade such extortions, and it proved hard to collect the allotted amounts. In July, 1847, the British consul general, Mackintosh, loaned $600,000 in exchange for the ratification of an arrangement negotiated with the British bondholders. In four loans the clergy furnished some three millions, all told. The President raised money, it was reported, on public and private securities, sold bonds freely at very low rates, and borrowed in effect by giving contracts on terms favorable enough to make the transactions worth while as gambling propositions. The principal mint, for example, was turned over to the British consul general for a period of ten years in February, 1847, in exchange for some $200,000 in cash and a promise to pay one per cent on the amount coined; and on similar principles arms and other necessaries were sometimes obtained.[5]
All of these financial operations were at least ostensibly lawful, but Santa Anna did not pause here. Wherever money could be found, he seems to have taken it, holding that the exigency outweighed all rights and all pledges. Funds belonging to the tobacco revenue were illegally seized, for instance; and a large sum due the Academy of Fine Arts fell into this voracious maw. Not only cash but everything needed for the army went the same way. At Jalapa early in April, 1847, for example, all the owners of horses received orders to bring them in. Grain, forage, lead, lumber, arms, ammunition, tools, cattle, mules and laborers were taken by force; and sometimes military officers exhibited the burglar's predilection for a midnight hour. Here was a kind of finance that saved the expenses of accounting, and without it even the low cost of the Mexican soldier would not explain Santa Anna's holding out so long?[6]
The United States, happily, stood far above this level, but not so far that probably mere good luck did not save us from grave trouble; and it was easy to foresee many dangers — all the worse because they naturally made capital timid — when the hostilities began. The total receipts of the treasury for the fiscal year ending with June 30, 1845, were nearly thirty millions and the ordinary expenditures $22,935,828. It was estimated that during the next year the receipts would fall about three millions, and Walker — allowing the munificent amounts of something more than two and a half millions for the army and something less than five for the navy — expected to reduce the total disbursements a little, anticipating for the period ending with June, 1847, a further saving of more than four millions. The receipts for July-September, 1845, proved to be more than two millions below those of the corresponding months of 1844, and the customs income for the fiscal year 1845-46 was $815,445 less than for the preceding twelve month. In a word, shrinking revenues and curtailed outlays were the prospect.[7]
In this condition of things, not only had the unpredictable costs and embarrassments of war to be faced, but those of war in a distant land. Money was to be sent out of the country, never to return, and the bills for supplies to be increased by the burdens of marine transportation, insurance and losses; while risks from privateers and European complications could be seen. Before such an outlook business men shrank from large enterprises. People with money felt disposed to keep it.[8]
Where, then, were funds to come from? The currency had been inflated by the paper issues of many banks. Stocks were selling far below the prices of twelve months before. Even the business men who did not endorse the tariff of 1842 had adjusted their affairs to it, and now everybody understood that a new scale of duties, based upon free-trade ideas, lay on the treasury anvil. Calls for the government funds held and used by state depositories and for the specie of all the banks were feared. The banks cannot support a loan, and even in peace our capitalists have never done so, remarked the financial editor of the New York Herald, probably the best newspaper authority.[9]
The government must look abroad, concluded the editor, and in Europe no light could be seen. By 1842 our state debts, mostly held there, had amounted to nearly $200,000,000. Mississippi, Michigan, Arkansas and Florida sank in the mire of repudiation. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, [Illinois and Louisiana became delinquent. The bonds of South Carolina fell below par. Missouri passed a stay law. Sidney Smith, when he met a Pennsylvanian at dinner, felt like dividing the man's raiment among the British guests, most of whom, if not all, had probably suffered by the "dishonor" of the state. Indeed, the bondholders were disposed to throw off half of the interest rate, if our national treasury would assume the debts; but a proposition to do this failed in Congress.[10]
As early as 1841 even our six per cent national bonds would not sell in Europe, though money commanded less than half as large a return there. "Who will lend on American securities?"' asked the London Spectator the very month we began war upon Mexico. Our credit then grew worse instead of better. The war bill precipitated a panic in Wall Street, and soon business in the west and south was described as prostrate. Bad as such a financial outlook was in itself, too, it involved a consequent ill. Evidently the administration would have to pinch; and, as Madame de Sévigné once remarked, "There is nothing so expensive as want of money."[11]
The Democrats, however, were committed against the protective tariff of 1842, now in force, and Polk as a party man felt that something must be done about it. Walker no doubt shared this opinion; and, having gained immense prestige in the south by his brilliant advocacy of the annexation of Texas, he very likely hoped that by now carrying into effect the fiscal ideas prevalent in that section, he might supplant Calhoun. Probably, too, he sincerely believed in these ideas. To him the existing scale of duties appeared to be the cause of the shrinking revenues; and he stated boldly that war, which had been recognized for some time as a possibility, "would create an increased necessity for reducing our present high duties in order to obtain sufficient revenue to meet increased expenditures."[12]
Soon after hostilities began, therefore, a tariff bill came before Congress. It was bitterly and stubbornly fought. In the Senate its defeat appeared sure; but Crittenden and Clayton, believing it could only prove a discreditable failure, had a Whig support it in order to gain party advantage at the expense of the nation, and by this unworthy trick and the casting vote of the presiding officer it passed. In company with it went a warehouse bill and the restoration of the subtreasury system, which divorced the government from the banks, and required the treasury to accept and pay out only specie. About the first of August, 1846, this entire system became law. "Our administration seems enamoured of ruin, and woos calamity for itself,' exclaimed the Whig North American; our credit is threatened by the sub-treasury plan; our industries are deprived of protection; "while an expensive war is eating out our vitals, our revenue is to be diminished"; and a direct tax will have to be laid.[13]
The new tariff became effective on the first of December, 1846. As of course importers waited for it, a lean period preceded that event, and the heavy receipts that followed it, providing Walker with an apt retort, did not prevent the total for the year ending with June, 1847, from coming short of his estimate by more than four millions. Without waiting to acquire this unwelcome fact, however, the government found itself compelled in June, 1846, to revise at a sharp angle upward its predictions of the expenditures. Over and above their calculations of the previous December the war and navy departments now called for $23,952,904, which Polk informed Congress was "the largest amount which any state of the service" would require up to July 1, 1847. The secretary of the treasury had expected to find on July 1, 1847, a surplus (virtually that estimated for the previous year minus half a million) of at least $4,332,441, and had confidently hoped for a substantial gain in revenue; but he admitted that it was now requisite, since a working capital of four millions for the treasury and the mints had to be kept on hand, to provide $12,586,406 of additional income.[14]
The proper method of handling our war finances was, in the first place, to increase the existing taxes — not only to obtain funds promptly, but as a firm support for the nation's credit and a basis for those temporary loans which are a wise expedient at the beginning of a war; and Walker expected the proposed tariff to answer this purpose. But the question how to raise these twelve and a half millions remained. Excise and direct taxes, the administration believed, would not be prompt enough, and would not seem to the public warranted by the circumstances. It was therefore recommended to Congress that both treasury notes and a loan should be resorted to; and on July 22, 1846, without much debate, the issue of ten millions in such obligations, to be sold at not less than par, was authorized.[15]
Treasury notes could not really serve the government's purpose well, for they were soon to be paid, the expense of handling them fell upon the treasury, and, as they were receivable for duties, they were sure to pour into the customhouses instead of real money whenever they should be cheaper than specie. The treasury, bound by law to pay out only the latter, would then have to buy coin at the market price — presumably, as Gallatin said, with depreciated notes. These would then fall still more, and so the process appeared certain to continue. But notes were the most convenient and readiest, if not the only way of quickly anticipating revenue; they were particularly suited to the nature of the government's expenditures; they provided an easy method of transmitting the large sums that would be needed in the south on the war account; and financial critics at New York approved of them. Not. all were of that opinion, however. About the middle of September the appearance of notes for half a million was announced by one journal under the heading, "Extensive Paper Money Manufactory"; but the government persisted, and by the ninth of December, 1846, nearly four millions of them were out. This with the balance — more than nine millions — handed over by the previous fiscal year, made up for the lean customs receipts of this period.[16]
Meanwhile attention was given to the more substantial resource of a loan. At the end of September the secretary of the treasury disappeared mysteriously from his accustomed haunts, and to Polk's acute distress of mind wandered for more than two weeks in the perilous jungle of Wall Street. His experiences there were in fact rather hard. 'The capitalists looked with favor on the project of a loan and had plenty of money, but — believing the government would require a large amount, and therefore that a loan made now would be likely to depreciate, as well as actuated by their characteristic spirit of thrift — they stood out for six per cent. The New York and Boston banks, it was thought at the White House, were in league against the administration. Besides, the public had little information about the way money was being spent, and felt apprehensive of extravagance and a huge debt. Many believed the war had cost half a million each day. Not a few distrusted Walker. He had engineered Mississippi into bankruptcy, and had become insolvent personally. In the Senate his reputation had been that of a needy adventurer, intensely ambitious, clever in debate and intrigue, but not of solid ability, and especially not a financier. At present nobody denied his real talents or his extreme devotion to work, but he was charged with inaccuracy and with sophistical reasoning.[17]
Apparently five and two fifths per cent was all he felt ready to offer, and special reasons could be given for halting there, since it was feared that issuing a six per cent loan at par would injure the United States sixes, now held at 106, and also the credit of the government. But finally, with the approval of the President and the Cabinet, he advertised, October 30, for bids on a five million loan for ten years at six per cent. November 12 the:tenders were opened. For a small fraction of the amount a slight premium was offered, and for the rest par. No doubt the rate, in comparison with European standards, had to be regarded as high, but on-the other hand this was our first specie loan, and was said to be the only war loan ever taken without a discount.[18]
Plainly, however, more needed to be done. It was already extraordinarily difficult to pay the comparatively small expenses of the war, wrote the British minister at this time. Congress had not fully provided for even the minimum needs recognized by the sanguine, if not sophistical, Walker; and early in December, 1846, his annual report intimated that on July 1, 1848, with a due allowance for the working capital of the treasury, there would be a deficit of twenty-three millions. Apparently a Joan was requisite, and he advised making the term twenty years. Then, with no little anxiety, the administration waited. At the end of December Bancroft wrote privately, "If we can raise the ways and means," we can surmount the other difficulties. On the eleventh of January, 1847, a bill virtually embodying Walker's recommendations was thrown into the House, and a long, acrimonious debate ensued. The treasury "languishes," announced the organ of the government; needed volunteers could not be called out; but the legislators had irrepressible things to say. At length, however, on January 28 the bill providing $23,000,000 became a law. Though it primarily contemplated treasury notes, it permitted the Executive liberty of action; and a large amount of six per cent bonds were sold.[19]
But Polk was by no means out of trouble now. Walker's estimate made no mention of great outstanding purchases, for which the contractors had not vet sent in their accounts. Not only the customs duties but the sales of public lands were coming far short of his expectations. No allowance appeared to be made for the effect of bounty land scrip that was likely to reduce them still more. The Vera Cruz expedition and a possible march to the enemy's capital were in view. Indeed, the real war had only begun. Besides, the temper of Congress had already threatened trouble and made it. Not only to ensure additional revenue in general, but in particular — it would seem — to strengthen the credit of the government by showing how the interest on its obligations would be taken care of, the Secretary brought up again the suggestion of his annual report, that a duty of twenty-five per cent should be placed on tea and coffee, which — although the free list had been restricted in the tariff of 1846 — had been left untaxed. In fact it had been intimated by him at New York, even if not actually promised, that such a step would be taken; and a few days before Christmas, 1846, he notified the committee on ways and means that probably without this assistance a satisfactory loan could not be made. Yet Congress rejected the proposition by a great majority.[20]
A plan of Benton's also — to grade the public lands on the basis of their attractiveness, and reduce prices accordingly — which would have increased the income of the government, failed to pass, though endorsed by Polk, Walker and the general land commissioner. Pessimists were happy. With Polk, the war, the weather, the sub-treasuries "and perhaps the Devil" to struggle against, wrote a correspondent of Martin Van Buren, soon not an ingot would be "left standing," and there was "no calculating, no prophesying" what would become of the nation.[21]
Apparently to offset the failure of the tea and coffee tax, Walker's active brain produced another scheme, designed not only to bring in revenue and reassure the capitalists, but also to please the shipping men of the United States and neutral countries. This was to open the Mexican ports controlled by us, and permit merchandise to enter there under a moderate scale of duties. During March, 1847, assisted by Senator Benton and the attorney general, Polk satisfied himself that under his powers as commander-in-chief he could impose and collect the duties as military contributions, for by the right of conquest he could either exclude commerce or admit it on his own terms, and contributions were legitimate under the laws of war. Said Vattel, "A nation [at war] on every opportunity lays its hands on the enemy's goods, appropriates them to itself, and thereby, besides weakening the adversary, strengthens itself, and at least in part, procures an indemnification, an equivalent, either for the very cause of the war, or for the expences and losses resulting from it"; and a low scale of duties was an extremely mild application of this principle.[22]
Moreover, it was quite as legitimate under our Constitution also, though not expressly mentioned, as to blockade or bombard Vera Cruz, respecting which the organic law was equally silent. Indeed, to have left the ports wide open or allowed the high Mexican tariff to remain in force would, in addition to being harmful to us, have required as great an exercise of authority. Finally, Scott and some of our naval commanders, moved by the evident proprieties of the situation, fixed duties and used the proceeds at their discretion, and it was manifestly better to arrange the business in a uniform, well-considered manner.[23]
It might have been expected that substantially either our own or the Mexican tariff would be applied, but neither would have answered. Mexican imports were very different from ours; specific, not ad valorem, duties had been customary there; and competent appraisers could not be found. On the other hand the unreasonable Mexican duties, besides preventing commerce to a large extent, encouraged fraud and smuggling. In March, 1847, therefore, a special tariff was prepared by Walker, lowering the Mexican duties on imports more than one half, and substituting for all port dues and charges a uniform tax of one dollar per ton; and on March 31 Polk ordered the system to be put in force. Mexico retorted that goods paying the American duties — especially goods prohibited by her laws — would be confiscated, and this attitude caused some uneasiness in France; but it seemed fairly evident that the United States would protect neutrals accepting our policy, and not only the foreign merchants in Mexico but the neutral governments felt highly pleased with our course.[24]
The authorities at Washington, however, did not rejoice as much. The real difficulty lay, not in landing merchandise at the ports, but in placing it before Mexican customers, and comparatively few of the latter could be reached. Persevering efforts were made to solve the problem on both coasts. Sometimes, for reasons not fully understood, the Mexican government issued licenses for the passage of goods to the interior, and for a consideration local authorities in the northeast did the same; but even these documents were not always valid against officials and military men whose "patriotism" had not been "sweetened." European merchants could see this difficulty. Up to October 20, 1847, only one small cargo from that direction entered the harbor of Vera Cruz, and Walker admitted privately that a very small part of the few imports was disposed of for consumption beyond the coast. In a word, this vaunted plan gave no substantial help on the problem of supporting the war.[25]
But by this time the good luck which has been supposed to keep an eye on the United States of America had intervened. In 1846 came the great Irish famine. British provision laws were suspended. Faced with starvation people cared little what they paid, if they could obtain food. Our agricultural products, which had fallen heavily in market value since October 1, 1845, rose with astonishing buoyancy. Western grain that had scarcely been worth transporting — frequently not worth it — became precious. A ship could earn thirty per cent of her cost in one round trip, yet hardly enough vessels could be found. So abrupt was the turn that a financial editor who had predicted on December 17, 1846, a speedy return to the distress of 1837, declared on January 30, 1847, "We are on the high road to an unprecedented prosperity." The abolition of the British corn laws ensured our farmers not only temporary relief but a permanent market. Cotton, too, and even cotton goods were in active demand abroad; and a famine in Germany gave us additional support.[26]
Every vessel from the other side brought more of the specie that had been expected to disappear from circulation here. Between the first of January and the middle of July, 1847, approximately twenty-four millions came in, besides about five millions in the pockets of immigrants. Everybody who did anything or had anything shared in the general increase of wealth. Hoarding went out of fashion. All were spenders. In particular, a craze for dress demanded great quantities of European fabrics. The warehousing plan also stimulated importation. For the quarter ending with September, 1847, the customs duties amounted to more than eleven millions — almost half the total of the preceding year — and for the week ending with October 1 they were nearly double those of the corresponding week in 1846. In a word, gold rained upon us; the languishing treasury revived; and the credit of the government revived with it. Later, in the autumn of 1847, to be sure, the financial downpour abated, but it had already done its work. The ship of state rode now beyond the bar.[27]
Yet Polk still had to cope with difficulties. Early in December, 1847, when Congress assembled, he found it necessary to present large estimates and to admit that a deficit of nearly sixteen millions was to be expected by July 1, 1848; and there seemed to be little hope that Congress would provide additional revenue. Borrowing was inevitable, and Walker's report of December 8 proposed a loan of $18,500,000. Nothing was done, however. The banks of New York and Boston endeavored to force upon the government a fiscal policy more acceptable to them, and a strong element in Congress, of which more will be heard in the next chapter, not only entertained a similar desire, but seemed willing to impair the credit of the administration. At length, on the nineteenth of January, 1848, a bill was introduced, and after a further delay another long debate opened. "How is the loan bill getting on, Sir?"' inquired a newspaper correspondent of a Representative of the People after it had been on the tapis for about a month. "Oh, they are spouting away, spouting away, Sir," was the careless reply. But on the last day of March a six per cent. loan of $16,000,000 was authorized on substantially the same basis as the previous loans. The treaty of peace had been signed on February 2, and the new bonds brought a premium rising in some instances to $4.05 on a hundred.[28]
In the same report (December, 1847) Walker announced, though evidently a little chastened in spirit, that relief would soon come from Mexico. What he chiefly counted upon at this time, however, was not customs duties. As early as the nineteenth of September, 1846, Polk, justly offended by the enemy's disdainful treatment of our olive branch, decided that instead of endeavoring longer to conciliate the Mexicans by paying liberally for supplies, we should bring them to terms by levying contributions or taking needed articles without compensation, and this course was promptly recommended to General Taylor; but he replied, as we have seen, that such a policy was impracticable. Shortly after the capture of Vera Cruz General Scott received instructions of the same tenor, and he made a similar reply. Early in the autumn of 1847, however, as Mexico had again rejected the olive branch, this change of system was pressed upon Scott with fresh urgency, and before long explicit orders to make all the revenues and resources of Mexico available, as far as they could be, followed.[29]
Scott, however, knowing the laws of war and the wishes of his government, began operations without waiting for these later instructions. Almost immediately after entering the capital he laid upon it an assessment of $150,000, and set on foot an examination into the general question of drawing revenues from the country, which eventually showed that nearly twenty-three millions a year could theoretically be collected, should we take possession of the whole territory. November 25, he directed that no rent should be paid for houses and quarters except so far as contracts existed. About three weeks later, notice was given that in the districts held by the Americans all the taxes and dues previously paid to the Mexican government would be required of the authorities for the support of our army; and at the end of December an assessment equal to four times the direct taxes paid in 1843 was laid upon the states. Scott's action was of course taken by Wool, now commanding in the northeast, as a pattern.[30]
But again Walker's hopes were disappointed. The most important of the monopolies, tobacco, had to be given up because the American product could not be excluded, and for administrative reasons the other monopolies also were surrendered. Owing to the dangers of waste, corruption, extortion and resentment, the business of collecting taxes had to be entrusted to the state 'authorities, and they possessed wonderful dexterity in the arts of evasion. State assessments were actually made on México and Vera Cruz only. The owners of occupied buildings were in many cases friends, and could not well be deprived of their rents. Contracts or agreements that stood in the way had to be respected. Gold and silver were clandestinely exported. Smuggling across the northern border could not be stopped. Brigands exacted their toll. The time required for investigation and planning, and in certain instances for correspondence with our government, militated against prompt action. We strongly desired to settle with Mexico and evacuate 'the country, and hence — especially after the peace negotiations began — it would not have been wise to run the risk of exasperating the nation for the sake of a few dollars. In short the net proceeds, including $106,928 turned in by naval officers, were only $3,935,676.[31]
Some of this money went directly to supply needs of the army and navy, but by far the greater part of those needs had to be met in other ways. During the first nine months of 1847, it was figured that the United States exported more than $12,000,000 in specie to Mexico. Many drafts on the principal American cities were sold there, and those on the quartermasters at New Orleans, Philadelphia, Washington and New York amounted to nearly $8,000,000 before December, 1847. Payments were also made in the United States on the certificates of officers acting in the field; and about the first of August, 1847, Belmont, the New York agent of the Rothschilds, arranged with our administration to place funds in the hands of any paymaster or quartermaster named by Scott. In general the large financial operations made necessary by the transfers of money were skilfully, honestly and safely conducted. Some $24,000,000 were distributed by the pay department through its thirty-five officers, for instance, and nothing was lost by accident, robbery, theft or capture.[32]
The total money cost of the war on the American side has been given at very low and at very high amounts, and none of the estimates inspires much confidence. The excess expenditures of the army and navy appear to have been $63,605,621; of which $49,000,000 were raised by selling bonds and treasury notes, and were substantially added to the national debt. But these figures by no means answer the question. To the apparent cost we must add twelve millions paid later to Mexico, the American claims of which we relieved her, the war expenses of the treasury department, bounty lands, pensions, valid claims for damages, and other liabilities of many kinds gradually discharged after peace returned; and from the total must be subtracted the bonds and treasury notes then available for issue and the actual worth of ships, ordnance and other materials required for the war and left over. Evidently it is not feasible to reach a satisfactory conclusion, but as a very bold guess one may suggest a hundred millions.[33]
Even were that a close estimate, however, it would mean little. On the one hand lives, physical and mental sufferings, personal losses of every description, much national obloquy and a thousand minor factors would need to be considered, and on the other our gain in territory, in recognized power, in military and naval efficiency, in national self-consciousness and in particulars not so obvious. One thing, however, is clear. The war cost far less money than its opponents had expected. Webster solemnly predicted in December, 1846, that should it end the following spring, our debt would be a hundred millions, but on the first of July, 1848, the debt was less than sixty-six millions.[34]