947. BOUNTIES, Recommended.—
Among the purposes to which the Constitution
permits Congress to apply money, the granting
premiums or bounties is not enumerated,
and there has never been a single instance of
their doing it, although there has been a multiplicity
of applications. The Constitution has
left these encouragements to the separate
States. I have in two or three messages to
Congress recommended an amendment to the
Constitution, which shall extend their power
to these objects. But nothing is yet done in
it. I fear, therefore, that the institution you
propose must rest on the patronage of the
State in which it is to be. I wish I could
have answered you more to my own mind, as
well as yours; but truth is the first object.—
To Dr. Maese. Washington ed. v, 412.
(W.
Jan. 1809)
