Suppose the war to terminate here, to wit, at the end of seven years, the reduction will proceed as follows:

This is a tabular statement of the amount of emissions, taxes, redemptions, and balances left in circulation every year, on the plan above sketched.

TO JAMES MONROE.

J. MSS. MONTICELLO, October 16, 1814.

DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 10th has been duly received. The objects of our contest being thus entirely changed by England, we must prepare for interminable war. To this end we should put our house in order, by providing men and money to indefinite extent. The former may be done by classing our militia, and assigning each class to the description of duties for which it is fit. It is nonsense to talk of regulars. They are not to be had among a people so easy and happy at home as ours. We might as well rely on calling down an army of angels from heaven. I trust it is now seen that the refusal to class the militia, when proposed years ago, is the real source of all our misfortunes in this war. The other great and indispensable object is to enter on such a system of finance, as can be permanently pursued to any length of time whatever. Let us be allured by no projects of banks, public or private, or ephemeral expedients, which, enabling us to gasp and flounder a little longer, only increase, by protracting the agonies of death.

Perceiving, in a letter from the President, that either I had ill

expressed my ideas on a particular part of this subject, in the letters I sent you, or he had misapprehended them, I wrote him yesterday an explanation; and as you have thought the other letters worth a perusal, and a communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, I enclose you a copy of this, lest I should be misunderstood by others also. Only be so good as to return me the whole when done with, as I have no other copies.

Since writing the letter now enclosed, I have seen the Report of the committee of finance, proposing taxes to the amount of twenty millions. This is a dashing proposition. But, if Congress pass it, I shall consider it sufficient evidence that their constituents generally can pay the tax. No man has greater confidence than I have, in the spirit of the people, to a rational extent. Whatever they can, they will. But, without either market or medium, I know not how it is to be done. All markets abroad, and all at home, are shut to us; so that we have been feeding our horses on wheat. Before the day of collection, bank-notes will be but as oak leaves; and of specie, there is not within all the United States, one-half of the proposed amount of the taxes. I had thought myself as bold as was safe in contemplating, as possible, an annual taxation of ten millions, as a fund for emissions of treasury notes; and, when further emissions should be necessary, that it would be better to enlarge the time, than the tax for redemption. Our position, with respect to our enemy, and our markets, distinguishes us from all other nations; inasmuch as a state of war, with us, annihilates in an instant all our surplus produce, that on which we depended for many comforts of life. This renders peculiarly expedient the throwing a part of the burdens of war on times of peace and commerce. Still, however, my hope is that others see resources, which, in my abstraction from the world, are unseen by me; that there will be both market and medium to meet these taxes, and that there are circumstances which render it wiser to levy twenty millions at once on the people, than to obtain the same sum on a tenth of the tax.

I enclose you a letter of Colonel James Lewis, now of Tennessee, who wishes to be appointed Indian agent, and I do it lest he should have relied solely on this channel of communication. You know him better than I do, as he was long your agent. I have

always believed him an honest man, and very good-humored and accommodating. Of his other qualifications for the office, you are the best judge. Believe me to be ever affectionately yours.

TO JOSEPH MILLIGAN.

J. MSS. MONTICELLO Oct. 17. 14.

DEAR SIR,-Your letters of Sep. 24. & Oct. 12. have been duly received. The packet of books will probably come on by the next stage. By the present one I send to the care of Mr. Gray of Fredericksburg a packet of 6. vols, which though made up of 4. different works, I wish to have bound as one work in 6. vols, to be labelled on the back 'The Book of Kings.' The 1st & 2d vols. will be composed of the Memoirs of Bareuth, the binding to remain as it is, only changing the label. The Memoirs of Made. La Motte will make the 3d & 4th vols, pared down to the size of the first & bound uniform with them. Mrs. Clarke's will be the 5th vol. pared & bound as before, and 'the Book' will make the 6th which to be uniform in size with the rest, must perhaps be left with it's present rough edges. Pray do it immediately and return it by the stage that they may be replaced on the shelves should Congress take my library, the proposition for which is before them. I mentioned to you the work on political economy by Tracy which had been translated by Genl. Duane, but could not be printed by him. I then wrote & offered it to Mr. Ritchie, from whom I had not received an answer when you were here, and I consulted you as to the allowance which ought to be made by Ritchie to Duane. Ritchie declines printing it, and I now inclose you a copy of my letter to him, which I will pray you to consider as now addressed to yourself, but to be returned to me, as I have no other copy. I shall be very glad if you will undertake the printing it, and I think it the best work ever written on the subject, and that you might count on a great sale of it to the members of Congress. Answer me as soon as you can if you please, because I have not yet answered Duane's letter. The moment you say you will undertake it & specify the allowance for translating, I will have the MSS. brought on. I will correct the translation here and for

ward it to you sheet by sheet. When Congress return my Catalogue I will send that also to you to be printed. Accept assurances of my esteem & respect.

TO ALEXANDER DALLAS.

J. MSS. MONTICELLO Dec. 7. 14.

DEAR SIR,-I tender my sincere congratulations on the occasion of your counsel and services being engaged for the public, and trust they will feel their benefit. The department to which you are called is the most arduous now in our government, and is that on which every other depends for it's motion. Were our commerce open, no degree of contribution would be felt, but shut up as it is, the call on the people for taxes is truly a call for bricks without straw, in this state especially where we are feeding our horses with wheat as the cheapest forage; 50 cents being it's price thro' the middle country.

On the adoption of the land tax of the last year, an office of Assessor was established in every district, with power to determine what every land owner should pay, by his own judgment & without appeal. This important power could not fail to interest us highly, in the choice of the person vested with it. On a consultation with most of the principal persons in our quarter, there was but one opinion as to the fittest man in our district. All agreed that in the hands of a Mr. Peter Minor they would be safe, his ability, his judgment & independence being a sufficient security. I took the liberty therefore of writing to the President and to Mr. Campbell recommending this appointment. We were told soon after that it had been given to a Mr. Armstead of a neighboring county. This was given out by himself and Mr. Garland (formerly a member of Congress) whose protege Armstead is. The Assumption of the land tax by the state prevented further interest in the case. We now learn he had not the appointment and is now going on for it. If there be a better man than Minor we wish his appointment, but as to Mr. Armstead all agree he is the weakest & laziest man that could be found. Some believe him honest, others very openly deny it. Of his character however I have nothing personally, stating what I do from the information of

others. Colo. Monroe, I think, knows Minor personally, & the President knows his family, it's standing & character. He is nephew to Genl. Minor of Fredericksburg. The Collector being of this county (Albemarle) the principle of distribution might be supposed to require the Assessor from a different one. This principle may weigh between candidates of equal merit but it cannot make the worse the better man, nor remedy the evils of an incorrect agent. The importance of this appointment towards a just apportionment of the public burthens & one which will probably be permanent, will I hope excuse my expressing to the government my own sense of it, and that of the most respectable persons of our quarter, with an assurance nevertheless, of our entire confidence that whatever appointment the government shall make will be founded in the best motives: and I avail myself of this occasion of assuring you of my great esteem & respect.

TO JAMES MONROE.

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, January 1, 1815.

DEAR SIR,-Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been received with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the ocean of newspaper lies, serves like head-lands to correct our course. Indeed, my scepticism as to everything I see in a newspaper, makes me indifferent whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in August last, I expected would be great in any state of things; but they proved greater than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the President were wise and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1, to the insubordinate temper of Armstrong; and 2, to the indecision of Winder. However, it ends well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check, perhaps, the silly boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the feelings of the world on our side; and the advantage of public opinion is like that of the weather-gauge in a naval action. In Europe, the transient possession of our Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every Capital there was in possession of its enemy; some often and long. But diabolical as they paint that enemy, he burnt neither public edifices nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show