University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MONROE.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the 24th. has just been
recd. I am fully aware of the load of business on
your hands preparatory to the meeting of Congress.
The course you mean to take in relation to Roads
& Canals, appears to be best adapted to the posture
in which you find the case. A reluctance has
generally been felt to include amendments to the
Constitution among Executive recommendations to
Congs. but it seems to be called for on the present
occasion as preferable to arresting their deliberations,
by a notice though the result will be negatived,
or to meeting the result with an unexpected negative.
For myself, I had not supposed that my view[135] of
the Constitution could have been unknown, and
I felt with great force the delicacy of giving intimations
of it, to be used as a bar or a clog to a depending
measure.

The expediency of vesting in Congs a power as to
roads & Canals I have never doubted, and there
has never been a moment when such a proposition
to the States was so likely to be approved. A
general power to establish Seminaries, being less
obvious and affecting more the equilibrium of
influence between the National & State Govts. is
a more critical experiment. The feelings awakened
by the proposed University within the Congressional

District, are a proof of the opposition which
may be looked for. I should consider it as at least
essential that the two propositions whatever may
be the modification of the latter shd. be so distinct,
that the rejection of the one by the States
should not be inconsistent with the adoption of
the other.

It is very grateful to have such an overflowing
Treasury, especially when every other nation is
on the brink, if not in the abyss of bankruptcy.
A natural effect is, the prevailing desire that the
taxes may be reduced, particularly the internal
taxes which are most seen & felt. May it not however
deserve consideration whether the Still tax
which is a moralizing as well as a very easy, productive
tax Wd. not be advantageously retained,
even at the expence of revenue from foreign trade.
Why not press on the Whisky drinkers rather than
the Tea & Coffee drinkers, or the drinkers of the
lighter kinds of Wine. The question will depend
much I am aware on the public opinion and on the
expence of collecting a solitary internal tax, both
of which points will be better understood in the
Cabinet than they can be by the fireside, and in
the result there I shall rest with perfect confidence.
I make the same remark with respect to the influence
which the disbanding at this moment of a
conspicuous portion of our fiscal strength may have
on the calculations of any other power, particularly
Spain.

Health & prosperity.