In his annual message to Congress of 2 Dec. 1806, TJ called for a constitutional amendment to allow federal funding of “the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement, as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers,” explaining that he thought an amendment “necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied.” He went on to emphasize the feasibility and desirability of “a national establishment for education” (JHR, 5:469). In his allusion to this proposal on p. 26 of the enclosed speech, Livingston argued that TJ had “recommended several objects of internal improvement, among which were roads and canals, and others not within any of the powers granted to Congress, such as a national system of education, and he only recommends an amendment to embrace such of the powers as were not vested in Congress—most clearly indicating, that the others, to wit, the roads and canals, were.”

Livingston also sent his speech to Madison, who responded at length in a letter of [17] Apr. 1824 (Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– : Congress. Ser., Pres. Ser., Retirement Ser., Sec. of State Ser. description ends , 3:265–7).