but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this
desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom
of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the
prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view
to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and
compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great
interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally
favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should
consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them
that may be found essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can
be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are
of high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of
peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor
disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches
that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The
gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant
climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation
of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of
progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches
of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I
should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging
on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national
militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population
must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered