3096. FORTIFICATIONS, Sites for.—
I do not see that we can avoid agreeing to
estimates made by worthy men of our own
choice for the sites of fortifications, or that
we could leave an important place undefended
because too much is asked for the site. And,
therefore, we must pay what the sites at Boston
have been valued at. At the same time,
I do not know on what principles of reasoning
it is that good men think the public
ought to pay more for a thing than they
would themselves if they wanted it.—
To Henry Dearborn. Washington ed. v, 293.
(M.
1808)
