Upon the general government the first effect of this period of
distress was a general reduction of the revenue. Imports fell from
about $121,000,000 in 1818 to $87,000,000 in 1819. Customs receipts,
Which in 1816 were over $36,000,000, were but $13,000,000 in 1821.
Receipts for public lands, which amounted to $3,274,000 in 1819,
were but $1,635,000 in 1820. In December, 1819, Crawford, the
secretary of the treasury, was obliged to announce a deficit which
required either a reduction in expenditures or an increase in
revenue. Congress provided for two loans, one of $3,000,000 in 1820,
and another of $5,000,000 in 1821. A policy of retrenchment was
vigorously instituted, leveled chiefly at the department of war.
Internal improvement schemes which had been urged in Congress in
1818 were now temporarily put to rest. With the year 1822, however,
conditions brightened, and the treasury began a long term of
prosperity. [Footnote: Dewey, Financial Hist. of the U. S., 168.]
One of the most important results of the crisis was the complete
reorganization of the system of disposal of the public lands.
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