Dear Mr. Pennington,
Thank you for letter of congratulations. My victory would not have been possible without the hard campaigning for the Republican cause done in crucial states such as you in Maryland. I am filled with great hope for the upcoming term, and write you today to begin working on legislative strategy. The Federalists, sadly enough, still hold a majority in the senate, and some degree of cooperation with them will be crucial in advancing our legislation. I would advise that we work with Mr. Wedgewood of Delaware, a relatively moderate Federalist, to seek compromises capable of securing passage through the Senate.
As my good friend Mr. Monroe proposed during our caucus, the first priority of the administration shall be auditing our administrative expenditures to see if there is any waste to be trimmed. Our latest budget seems to include…
- 2.8 million for building and upkeep of the capital -- Where is this money going?
- 12.8 million is going toward coinage -- I imagine much of this involves obtaining the metal itself, but perhaps there could be some fat to trim here as well.
- 9 million toward our system of tariff collection and maintenance of our fleet -- captains and collectors must be paid, true.
- 1.465 on the army and navy -- not bad. Perhaps we can lay off some Federalist officers, however…
- 12.8 million in bureaucratic expenses -- a fair portion of this is salaries for officials, but perhaps some officials are redundant or unnecessary.
I will instruct Mr. Gallatin to oversee this audit and make the results available to Congress.
I pledged to pay off 1/5th of our national debt by the end of my 4 year term; this would mean running a $3.7 million budget surplus yearly. Last year we ran a $4.3 million budget surplus, but farmers and laborers across the whole country felt the sting of taxation; this, probably more than any other factor was likely what delivered the presidency unto us. Thus, we can safely trim our duties by a total of 600,000, satisfying our popular mandate to reduce to tax burden while still remaining on target to pay off our debts.
In my opinion, tariffs are an excellent source of revenue for our republic, as they primarily fall on luxury goods and hence are largely paid by the wealthy. Mr. Wedgewood’s tariff act, however, might be altered to reduce some of the overtly protective aspects. Increased duties on molasses, cordage, and ship-building supplies might also help shift some of the tariff burden northward. Additionally, I have long been of the opinion that we could use the imposition of tonnage duties on foreign vessels as a diplomatic bargaining chip. Imposing moderate tonnage duties on foreign merchants could also raise revenue, allowing us to reduce other duties, and protect American manufacturers while not favoring any one industry over another.
The excise tax on whiskey must go, as this falls most heavily upon our western settlers! We can probably make up this revenue by fiddling with tariff rates.
In principle, I am not opposed to a national property tax, such as the one Mr. Daigneux had passed during the last administration, and this tax is bringing in a nice extra bit of revenue. The millage act as now written, however, is unfairly levied by acreage and is possibly unconstitutional, as Mr. Blount has noted in his pending suits. In my opinion, a tax levied on property values would be fairer, but also possibly unconstitutional. We must carefully monitor the progress of Mr. Blount’s suits to see what comes of them.
I am curious to know if you have any further suggestions for reducing our governmental administrative costs, or how to spread the revenue burden most fairly. After all, it shall be you who must guide our legislation through the senate, and not I!
Yours Truly,
Thomas Jefferson
