1Madison’s Rebuttal to “The Earth Belongs to the Living” Precept, 4 February 1790 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
JM’s cogent reply to Jefferson’s famous 6 September 1789 letter with its radical proposition that “the earth belongs to the living, not to the dead,” now needs little introduction to the serious scholar. Yet there were generations of Americans who studied Jefferson without knowledge of Madison’s philosophical chiding of his fellow Virginian; an oversight corrected since the 1940s by the...
2From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 4 February 1790 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 9th. of Jany. inclosing one of Sepr. last did not get to hand till a few days ago. The idea which the latter evolves is a great one, and suggests many interesting reflections to legislators; particularly when contracting and providing for public debts. Whether it can be received in the extent your reasonings give it, is a question which I ought to turn more in my thoughts...