esented
to them. To do so with the questions involved in this bill, and to urge
them to an early, zealous, and full consideration of their deep
importance, is, in my estimation, among the highest of our duties.

A supposed connection between appropriations for internal improvement
and the system of protecting duties, growing out of the anxieties of
those more immediately interested in their success, has given rise to
suggestions which it is proper I should notice on this occasion. My
opinions on these subjects have never been concealed from those who had
a right to know them. Those which I have entertained on the latter have
frequently placed me in opposition to individuals as well as communities
whose claims upon my friendship and gratitude are of the strongest
character, but I trust there has been nothing in my public life which
has exposed me to the suspicion of being thought capable of sacrificing
my views of duty to private considerations, however strong they may have
been or deep the regrets which they are capable of exciting.

As long as the encouragement of domestic manufactures is directed to
national ends it shall receive from me a temperate but steady support.
There is no necessary connection between it and the system of
appropriations. On the contrary, it appears to me that the supposition
of their dependence upon each other is calculated to excite the
prejudices of the public against both. The former is sustained on the
grounds of its consistency with the letter and spirit of the
Constitution, of its origin being traced to the assent of all the
parties to the original compact, and of its having the support and
approbation of a majority of the people, on which account it is at least
entitled to a fair experiment. The suggestions to which I have alluded
refer to a forced continuance of the national debt by means of large
appropriations as a substitute for the security which the system derives
from the principles on which it has hitherto been sustained. Such a
course would certainly indicate either an unreasonable distrust of the
people or a consciousness that the system does not possess sufficient
soundness for its support if left to their voluntary choice and its own
merits. Those who suppose that any policy thus founded can be long
upheld in this country have looked upon its history with eyes very
different from mine. This policy, like every other, must abide the will
of the people, who will not be likely