From James Madison to Congress, 11 April 1816
To Congress
April 11th. 1816
With a view to the more convenient management of the important and growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to Inventors & Authors; I recommend the establishment of a distinct Office, within the Department of State, to be charged therewith, under a director, with a Salary adequate to his services; and with the privelege of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend also that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.1
James Madison
RC, two copies (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 14A–D1; and DNA: RG 46, President’s Messages, Legislative Proceedings, 14A–E2); Tr (DNA: RG 59, ML). Both RCs in John Payne Todd’s hand, signed by JM. Tr in William Thornton’s hand and docketed by him as “never taken into consideration.”
1. On 24 Apr. 1816 the House of Representatives referred the matter to a committee of the whole but discharged it three days later. The Senate sent the bill to a select committee on 15 Apr. 1816, from where it was discharged on 29 Apr. ( 14th Cong., 1st sess., 318, 321, 367–68, 1418–19, 1451, 1455).