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top right margin note: Summary. urgency and import. It is certain that the character as well as the interest of the United States is deeply pledged to extinguish the claims, national and individual of this people; and equally so that no failure, whether through mismanagement or any other cause, to fulfil the arrangements already entered into for the purpose, can exonerate us from that obligation; hence it is our first duty to discover how we stand in relation to it. Now, it would be a waste of time and labour to examine whether the estimates which guided either class of the appropriations were made inadequate as a mere decoy for any special purpose, or through miscalculation; but it is certain that such a result was often & earnestly predicted, and has occurred; and that for the sake of covering the inconvenience (to use a homely adage, but one which embraces the entire case), Peter has been robbed to pay Paul; and yet both Paul and Peter remain unpaid. Grievous as may be such a state of the affairs, sooner or later it will require to be confronted and cured; and its difficulty will only be aggravated by delay.