The ordinary receipts from all sources for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1885, were $322,690,706.38.  Of this sum $181,471,939.34 was received from customs and $112,498,725.54 from internal revenue.  The total receipts, as given above, were $24,829,163.54 less than those for the year ended June 30, 1884.  This diminution embraces a falling off of $13,595,550.42 in the receipts from customs and $9,687,346.97 in the receipts from internal revenue.

The total ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal year were $260,226,935.50, leaving a surplus in the Treasury at the close of the year of $63,463,771.27.  This is $40,929,854.32 less than the surplus reported at the close of the previous year.

The expenditures are classified as follows: 

The amount paid on the public debt during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1885, was $45,993,235.43, and there has been paid since that date and up to November 1, 1885, the sum of $369,828, leaving the amount of the debt at the last-named date $1,514,475,860.47.  There was however, at that time in the Treasury, applicable to the general purposes of the Government, the sum of $66,818,292.38.

The total receipts for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, ascertained to October 1, 1885, and estimated for the remainder of the year, are $315,000,000.  The expenditures ascertained and estimated for the same time are $245,000,000, leaving a surplus at the close of the year estimated at $70,000,000.

The value of the exports from the United States to foreign countries during the last fiscal year was as follows: 

Some of the principal exports, with their values and the percentage they respectively bear to the total exportation, are given as follows: 

Our imports during the year were as follows: 

The following are given as prominent articles of import during the year, with their values and the percentage they bear to the total importation: 

Of the entire amount of duties collected 70 per cent was collected from the following articles of import: 

The fact that our revenues are in excess of the actual needs of all economical administration of the Government justifies a reduction in the amount exacted from the people for its support.  Our Government is but the means established by the will of a free people by which certain principles are applied which they have adopted for their benefit and protection; and it is never better administered and its true spirit is never better observed than when the people’s taxation for its support is scrupulously limited to the actual necessity of expenditure and distributed according to a just and equitable plan.

The proposition with which we have to deal is the reduction of the revenue received by the Government, and indirectly paid by the people, from customs duties.  The question of free trade is not involved, nor is there now any occasion for the general discussion of the wisdom or expediency of a protective system.