In regard to the regiment of volunteers authorized by the same act of Congress to be called into service for the defense of the frontiers of Texas against Indian hostilities, I desire to leave this question to Congress, observing at the same time that in my opinion the State can be defended for the present by the regular troops which have not yet been withdrawn from its limits.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, June 11, 1858.

To the Senate of the United States: 

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th ultimo, respecting the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents by which it is accompanied, together with the copy of a letter from the Postmaster-General of the 21st ultimo to the Department of State.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON CITY, June 11, 1858.

To the House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with the accompanying papers,[8] in obedience to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 2d of June, 1858.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

[Footnote 8:  Copies of contracts for deepening the channels of the Southwest Pass and Pass a l’Outre, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, etc.]

WASHINGTON CITY, June 12, 1858.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I feel it to be an indispensable duty to call your attention to the condition of the Treasury.  On the 19th day of May last the Secretary of the Treasury submitted a report to Congress “on the present condition of the finances of the Government.”  In this report he states that after a call upon the heads of Departments he had received official information that the sum of $37,000,000 would probably be required during the first two quarters of the next fiscal year, from the 1st of July until the 1st of January.  “This sum,” the Secretary says, “does not include such amounts as may be appropriated by Congress over and above the estimates submitted to them by the Departments, and I have no data on which to estimate for such expenditures.  Upon this point Congress is better able to form a correct opinion than I am.”

The Secretary then estimates that the receipts into the Treasury from all sources between the 1st of July and the 1st of January would amount to $25,000,000, leaving a deficit of $15,000,000, inclusive of the sum of about $3,000,000, the least amount required to be in the Treasury at all times to secure its successful operation.  For this amount he recommends a loan.  This loan, it will be observed, was required, after a close calculation, to meet the estimates from the different Departments, and not such appropriations as might be made by Congress over and above these estimates.

There was embraced in this sum of $15,000,000 estimates to the amount of about $1,750,000 for the three volunteer regiments authorized by the act of Congress approved April 7, 1858, for two of which, if not for the third, no appropriation will now be required.  To this extent a portion of the loan of $15,000,000 may be applied to pay the appropriations made by Congress beyond the estimates from the different Departments, referred to in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.