One  or  two  matters,  however,  may  be  proper  to  be  added,
with  a  view  to  greater  accuracy.
There  are  certain  instances,  in  which  the  estimates  of  appro-
priations have  exceeded,  and  will  exceed,  the  sums  actually  ex-
pended. Hence  the  apparent  excess  of  the  expenditure,  as  exhi-
bited in  the  statement  A,  beyond  the  product  of  the  revenue,  as
shown  in  the  statement  B,  will,  probably,  not  be  found  real.
But  the  amount  of  these  surplusses  or  over-estimates  cannot  be
now  ascertained,  and  it  is  not  likely  to  be  very  considerable;
and  because,  also,  if  it  should  do  more  than  counterbalance  the
excess  alluded  to,  it  will  be  safest  to  set  off  the  surplus  against
those  contingent  demands,  which,  from  time  to  time,  occur.
No  deduction  has  been  made  from  the  annual  interest  on
account  of  the  debt  purchased.  This  has  proceeded  from  a  sup-
pofflition  that  it  will  be  deemed  expedient  by  the  Legislature,  to
appropriate  inviolably  the  interest  of  any  part  of  the  debt  which
shall  be,  at  any  time,  extinguished,  towards  the  extinction  of  the
remainder.  This  point  will  be  more  particularly  submitted  in  a
report  on  the  subject  of  the  public  debt.
All  which  is  humbly  submitted.
Alexander  Hamilton,

Secretary  of  the  Treasury.
286  HAMILTON'S    WORKS.  [^t.34.
LOANS.
Commnnicated  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  7, 1792.
Treasury  Department,  January  28, 1792.
