1805: | 
«© At home, fellow citizens, you beft know 
whether we have done well or ill. The fup- 
preffion of unneceffary offices, ‘of ufelefs etta- 
blifhments and expences, enabled us to dif- 
continue our internal taxes. Thefe, covering 
our land with officers, and opening our doors 
to their intrufions, had already began that pro- 
cefs of domiciliary vexation, which, once en- 
tertained, is {carcely to be reftrained from 
reaching fucceflively every article of produce 
and of property. If among thefe taxes fome 
minor ones fell, which had not been ineonve- 
nient, it was becaufe their amount would not 
have paid the officers who collected them, and 
becaule if they had any merit, the ftate autho- 
rities might adopt them inftead of others lefs 
approved. 
_ “© The remaining revenue on the confump- 
tion of foreign articles, is paid chiefly by thofe 
who can afford to add foreign luxuries to do- 
meflic comforts. Being colleéted on our fea- 
board and frontiers only, and incorporated 
with the tranfactions of our mercantile ‘citi- 
zens, it may be the pleafure and the pride of 
an American to afk, what farmer, what me- 
chanic, what labourer, ever fees a tax gatherer 
of the United States? Thefe contributions 
enable us to fupport the current expences of 
the government, to fulfil contracts with foreign 
nations, to extinguifh the native right of foil 
within our limits, to extend thofe limits, and. 
to apply fuch a furplus to our public debts, as 
places at a fhort day their final redemption, 
and that redemption once effected, the revenue 
thereby liberated, may, by a juftor partition 
among the ftates, and a correfponding amend- 
ment of the conttitution, be applied in time of 
peace, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufac- 
tures, education, and other great obiedts within 
each ftate. In time of war, if injuftice by our- 
felyes or others muft fometimes produce war, 
increafed as the fame revenue will be by in- 
creafed population and confumption, and aided 
by other refources referved for that crifis, it 
may meet within the year all the expences of 
the year, without encroaching on the rights of 
future generations, by burthening them with 
the debts of the paft. War will then be but a 
fufpenfion of ufeful works, and a return to a 
ftate of peace, a return to the progrefs of im- 
provement. 
“* T have faid, fellow citizens, that the in- 
come referved‘had enabled us to extend our 
limits; but that extenffon may poifibly pay for 
itfelf before we are called on, and in the mean 
time may keep down the accruing intereft. In 
all events it will replace the advances we fhall 
have made. I know that the acquifition of 
Louifiana has been difapproved by tome, from 
a candid apprehenfion that the enlargement of 
our territory may endanger its union; but who 
«an limit the extent to which the federative 
principle may operate effectively? The larger 
Our affociation, the lefs will it be fhaken by 
_ local paffions ; and in any view is it not better 
that the oppofite bank of the Mifliffippi fhould 
‘be fettled by our own brethren and children, 
than by ftrangers of another family? With 
which fhall we b= moft likely to live in har- 
ony and friendly intercourfe? 
Montway Mac. No, 128, 
State of Public Affairs in April, 1805. 393 
“© In matters of religion J have confidered 
that its free exercife is placed by the confitu- 
tion, independent of the powers of the general . 
government. I have therefore undertaken, on 
no occafion, to prefcribe the religious exercifes 
fuited to it; but have left them as the coniti- 
tution found them, under the direction or dif- 
cipline of the ftate or church authorities ace 
knowledged. by the feveral religious focieties, 
“© The aboriginal inhabitants of thefe coun= . 
tries I have regarded with the commifferation 
their hiftoryinfpires. Endowed with the fa~ 
culties and the rights of men, breathing an 
ardent love of liberty and independence, and 
occupying a country which left them no dehre 
but to be undifturbed, the {tream of overflowing 
population from other regions directed itfelf on 
thefe fhores. Without power to divert, or 
habits to contend ‘againft it, they have been 
overwhelmed by the current, or driven before 
it. Now reduced within limits too narrow tor 
the hunter ftate, humanity enjoins us to teach 
them agriculture and the domeftic arts; to 
encourage them to that induftry which alone 
can enable them to maintain their place in 
exiftence, and to prepare them jn ume for 
that ftate of fociety, which, to bodily comforts, 
adds the improvement of the mind and moralse 
We have therefore liberally furnifhed them 
with the implements of hufbandry and houle- 
hold ufe; we have placed among them inftruc- 
tors in the arts of firit neceflity; and they are 
covered with the aegis of the law againft ag~ 
greffors from among ourfelves. - 
** But the. endeavours to enlighten them on 
the fate which awaits their prefent courfe of 
life, to induce them to exercife their reafon, 
follow its didtates, and change their purfuits 
with the change of circumftances, have powere 
ful obftacles to encounter. ‘They are combated - 
‘by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their 
minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of 
interefted and crafty individuals among themy 
“who. feel themfelves fomething in the prefent 
order of things, and fear to become nothing im 
any other, ‘Theie perfons inculcate a fancti- 
monious reverence tor the cuftoms of their 
anceftors; that whatever they did muft be 
done through all time; that reafon is a falle 
guide, and to advance under its counfel in 
their phyfical, moral, or political condition, is 
perilous innovation; that their duty is to re- 
main as their Creator made them, ignorance 
being fafety, and knowledge full of danger, In 
fhort, my friends, among them allo is feen the 
aGtion.and counter-action of good fenfe and , 
of bigotry. . They,.too, have their anti-philos 
fophitts, who fad an intereit in keeping things 
in their prefent fiate; who dread reformation, 
and exert all their faculties to maintain the 
afcendancy of habit over the duty of improving 
our reafon and obeying its mandates. 
‘¢ In giving thefe outlines, 1 do not mean, 
fellow citizens, to arrogate co myfelf the merit 
of meafures. That is due, in the firft place, 
to the reflecting character of our citizens at 
large, who, by the weight of public opinion, 
influence and ftrengthen the public meafures. 
Ic is due to the found difcretion with which 
they [elect from among themi¢ives thele to 
40g whem 
