Memorandum to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 21 February 1805]
Memorandum to Thomas Jefferson
[ca. 21 February 1805]
Is the fact certain that the amt. of the internal taxes not objectionable in their nature would not have paid the Collectors?1
What is the amendment alluded to as necessary to a repartition of liberated revenues amg. the States in time of peace?2
page 3—“in any view” may be better than “in any event” that phrase having but just preceeded.3
Instead of “acts of religious exercise suited to it (religion)[“] “exercises suited to it” or some equivalent variation, is suggested.4
RC (DLC: Jefferson Papers). Undated; date assigned based on Jefferson’s docket on verso: “Departmt. State. recd. Feb. 21. 05. inaugl.” Unsigned; in JM’s hand. Addressee not indicated; identified as Jefferson by his docket.
1. JM is questioning Jefferson’s statement in the fourth paragraph of his second inaugural address that the amount collected from internal taxes that were not “inconvenient” was insufficient to pay the collecting officers (Richardson, Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:367).
2. For Jefferson’s reference to the redistribution of excess revenues, see the fifth paragraph of his address (ibid.).
3. Jefferson adopted JM’s suggestion in the sixth paragraph of his address (ibid.).
4. Jefferson revised the wording to accord with JM’s suggestion in the seventh paragraph of his address (ibid., 367–68). See also JM to Jefferson, 8 Feb. 1805, containing JM’s earlier comments on Jefferson’s draft.