Index :: 1803 Gallatin Budget

Columbian Centinel & Massachusetts Federalist

December 10, 1803

National Legislature, Eighth Congress, First Session, Washington

House of Representatives

Nov. 5, 1803

The Speaker laid before the House, a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, covering a report and estimates of the appropriations which appear necessary for the service of the year 1804; also a statement of the receipts and expenditures at the Treasury of the United States, for one year preceding the first day of October, 1803, viz.

REPORT

The Secretary of the Treasury respectfully reports to the House of Representatives of the United States,

That for the service of the year 1804, the following appropriations, as detailed in the estimated here within transmitted, appear to be necessary.

For military pensions	98,000
For the support of the mint establishment	9,400
For the support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, and other establishments for the security of navigation	60,451
For defraying the expences of surveying the public lands south of the state of Tennessee	10,000
For satisfying miscellaneous claims	4,000
For furniture for the president's house, being the unexpected balance of former appropriations	145
Total		183,496

For the expences of intercourse with foreign nations, viz.
For the diplomatic department	46,550
For the expences incident to the intercourse with the Barbary Powers	100,000
For aid to distressed seamen in foreign countries	10,000
For prosecuting claims in relation to capture	3,350
Total		159,900

For the Military Department, viz.
For the pay, forage, subsistence and clothing of the army, bounties, hospital transportations, and contingent expences	677,954
For fortifications, arsenals, magazines and armouries	109,897
For the Indian department	75,500
Total		863,351

For the Naval Department, viz.
For the expences of two frigates, two brigs, and three schooners in actual service	354,001
For the expences of eleven frigates in ordinary and for the half pay officers not in actual service	154,720
For ordinance	5,000
For the support of the marine corps	80,934
For completing the marine barracks at the city of Washington	3,585
For improving navy yards, docks, and wharves	52,000
Total		650,000

Total, all expenditures		2,421,050

Amounting in the whole, to two millions four hundred and twenty one thousand and fifty six dollars, and twenty seven cents.

The funds out of which appropriations may be made for the purposes before mentioned, are,

First—The sum of six hundred thousand dollars of the proceeds of duties on imports and tonnage, which will accrue in the year 1804, which sum is, by law annually reserved for the support of government.

Secondly—The surplus of the revenue and income of the United States, which may accrue to the end of the year, 1804, after satisfying the objects for which appropriations have been heretofore made.

The Secretary also transmits a statement of the receipts and expenditures of the United States, for the year prior to the first of October last, being the latest period to which an account can be prepared.

All which is respectfully submitted,

Albert Gallatin

Treasury Department, November 4th, 1803

Questions

1. What is the source of the government’s revenue? What are other important revenue sources of the American federal government today?

2. Go on the Internet and find data for major categories of spending by the current federal government. What is the proportion of spending devoted to the military? How does that compare with the 1804 budget? What are major categories of spending in the current budget that do not appear in the 1804 budget?

3. What actions is the federal government of 1804 taking to promote commerce?

4. What accounted for the majority of the spending for "intercourse with foreign nations"?