Such a system could not be administered with any approach to equality
among the several States and sections of the Union. There is no equality
among them in the objects of expenditure, and if the funds were
distributed according to the merits of those objects some would be
enriched at the expense of their neighbors. But a greater practical evil
would be found in the art and industry by which appropriations would be
sought and obtained. The most artful and industrious would be the most
successful. The true interests of the country would be lost sight of in
an annual scramble for the contents of the Treasury, and the Member of
Congress who could procure the largest appropriations to be expended in
his district would claim the reward of victory from his enriched
constituents. The necessary consequence would be sectional discontents
and heartburnings, increased taxation, and a national debt never to be
extinguished.
In view of these portentous consequences, I can not but think that this
course of legislation should be arrested, even were there nothing to
forbid it in the fundamental laws of our Union.
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