TO MR. SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
Monticello, January 15, 1810.
Sir,—Your favor of December 12th has been duly received, as was also that of September 28th. With the blank subscription paper for the academy of Frederic county, enclosed in your letter of September, nothing has been done. I go rarely from home, and therefore have little opportunity of soliciting subscriptions. Nor could I do it in the present case in conformity with my own judgment of what is best for institutions of this kind. We are all doubtless bound to contribute a certain portion of our income to the support of charitable and other useful public institutions. But it is a part of our duty also to apply our contributions in the most effectual way we can to secure their object. The question then is whether this will not be better done by each of us appropriating our whole contributions to the institutions within our own reach, under our own eye; and over which we can exercise some useful control? Or would it be better that each should divide the sum he can spare among all the institutions of his State, or of the United States? Reason, and the interest of these institutions themselves, certainly decide in favor of the former practice. This question has been forced on me heretofore by the multitude of applications which have come to me from every quarter of the Union on behalf of academies, churches, missions, hospitals, charitable establishments, &c. Had I parcelled among them all the contributions which I could spare, it would have been for each too feeble a sum to be worthy of being either given or received. If each portion of the State, on the contrary, will apply its aids and its attentions exclusively to those nearest around them, all will be better taken care of. Their support, their conduct, and the best administration of their funds, will be under the inspection and control of those most convenient to take cognizance of them, and most interested in their prosperity. With these impressions myself, I could not propose to others what my own judgment disapproved, as to their duty as well as my own. These considerations appear so conclusive to myself, that I trust they will be a sufficient apology for my not having fulfilled your wishes with respect to the paper enclosed. They are therefore submitted to your candor, with assurances of my best wishes for the success of the institution you patronize, and of my respect and consideration for yourself.