Expenditures.

The expenditures of a State, or nation, as well as its population, have been arranged by political economists, under different titles as suited their respective systems; and no small ingenuity has been displayed, by the partizans of different theories, each in illustrating, and defending his own theory, and disproving the propriety of those of others. The various heads under which the different items of expenditure, or classes of the population have been arranged, may be chiefly, if not wholly, included in the terms, guardian, distributive, directly, indirectly or partially productive, unproductive, consumptive; and different writers have sometimes refered the same subject to different classes; but it is not within the design of this work to enter into disquisitions upon the propriety or impropriety, of any particular mode of arranging these different subjects; Yet as some principle of classification, is to say the least, convenient, an attempt will be made to assign to each of the different branches of the public expenditure of the State, a distinctive title; without, however, undertaking to defend the propriety of the assignment, any farther than by a simple statement of the principles on which it is made; and each reader, as his own judgment shall dictate, will suffer the assignment to remain, or remove it to some other class, to which, in his opinion, it may more properly be referred.

Those expenditures of public monies, which are made for objects which do not directly reproduce money, or other capital equivalent; nor partake of the character of those public improvements, which of themselves, either directly yield a revenue to the government, or facilitate the acquisition of wealth by the citizens of the State, or increase the intrinsic value of the property of the individual citizens of the State, or that of the community, may, in some sense be with propriety considered as unproductive; or, perhaps without much impropriety, as consumptions of the public revenue,

This however is not always correct, and these terms sometimes convey an idea stronger than is intended. There are many objects of expenditure, which do not directly reproduce capital nor revenue, yet which are equally necessary and advantageous with those which do so; and without which the welfare of the people could not be efficiently promoted, nor their rights and liberties securely exist; and the terms guardian, or distributive, will express their character with much more accuracy.

To this class belong all that pertains to the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial departments, with all their circumstances and contingencies, so far as is necessary for the discharge of their proper functions; but any excess, beyond this point, must be termed consumptive, or waste expenditure. To these also, within certain limits, and under certain qualifications, may be added the Military department.

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Expenditures for the education of youth, and for public instruction generally, in all its various forms, are also, by some, included in this class; and no doubt with propriety; but when it is considered that these may have a direct, and powerful, bearing on the means of increasing the wealth of the community (as unquestionably its happiness) and diminishing many the public burdens; that the proper intellectual and moral culture of the rising generations, forms the surest basis for any increase, or even the continuance, of the power of the community; and that virtue and intelligence, the foundation of which must be laid in youth, and preserved by continual instruction, may be said to be incorporated with, and form an essential part of the capital stock, from which the disposable public wealth and strength are to flow; or, are qualities without which all capital must fail of accomplishing its proper end, and may be mischievous instead of useful; this article may with great propriety be classed with those of productive expenditure; qualified however, by the condition that it is properly directed. With some, the propriety of this may be questiona

ble; and it may be admitted that if this can be in any sense properly assigned to the productive class, it is less directly so; but it is not intended to enter the lists of debate on the question, and it will merely be said, that, for the purposes of this work, and for the reasons here assigned, this subject will be considered as belonging to those of productive expenditure.

Those public expenditures the objects of which directly produce wealth, or reproduce the capital expended, with a profit; or which, by the facilities or conveniences they render to the people, enable them to increase their wealth or comforts; or which give an intrinsic value to the property of the individual citizens in general, or to that of the State at large, must be styled productive expenditures; and, however large may be their amount, yet, if they are made judiciously, and with proper economy, they can not be considered as consumptions of the public revenue, but are in fact secure investments of so much of the floating public capital, and additions to the public resources, or in many cases, the actual creation of new capital.

And, even if these expenditures are made, not from capital, or revenue actually existing and disposable; but from anticipations on the faith of future reimbursement, with an annual rent, or interest, for the use of them; still, if they add to the annual wealth or income of the community, any thing more than sufficient to re-imburse the annual rent, or interest required as a compensation for the anticipation, they add to the public capital, precisely the amount of this surplus.

The importance of the distinction between the effects of expenditures of this and the preceding, or any other class; and the extensive interest which this State peculiarly, may have in the result of such distinctions, will justify the introduction of some illustrations of the different principles.

If the State should adopt the system of borrowing money to defray the ordinary annual expenses of government; or, to meet those expenditures which are considered as belonging to the unproductive, or guardian class; the interest annually paid

for the loan, is a perpetual subduction from the annual revenues of the State, or from the aggregate of the individual revenues of the community. And, if the process is repeated, from year to year, it must eventually produce an accumulation of public debt, to discharge which, or even the interest of which, nothing but a correspondent, or superior, accumulation of general wealth and prosperity will be equal; and, whenever the wealth and prosperity of the country become stationary, the additional interest on the continual additional loans, must accumulate until the whole disposable annual revenues of the country will be unequal to its discharge, and the end must be a general bankruptcy. So with a private individual, who borrows continually to defray the current expenses of his fam ily. In process of time he must mortgage his estate. The accumulating interest on his annual loans, must, by degrees, arrive to a sum which exceeds his annual revenues; and, at length absorb his capital stock, and leave him bankrupt.

Or if, instead of borrowing money for these purposes, they are effected by means of revenue annually accruing, still, as they directly reproduce nothing, the amount of the expenditure is so much subduction from the means of effecting other objects, and therefore should be carefully guarded, and limited to the least possible sum; but as these objects, though not directly productive, yet are indispensably necessary for the well being of the community, this least possible sum should not be less than that which will command the talents of the best and ablest men to perform the services required, and prompt their utmost diligence and economy in the administration of the public concerns.

On the other hand, if the State borrows money, or creates a stock, to be appropriated to expenditures of the productive class; for example-internal improvements, such as roads, canals, railways, &c. for the accommodation of the citizens at large, or for the promotion of the sale and settlement of its public lands; and if these improvements enable the people gene