27701Remission and Pardon for George J. Julien, [25 June 1816] (Madison Papers)
Whereas at the late Circuit Court of the United States for the County of Washington, in the District of Columbia, George J. Julien, of the said County, pleaded guilty, to a charge against him for larceny, in the said Court, whereupon he was sentenced by the Court to be publickly whipped & to pay a fine of five Dollars to the United States: and whereas it is represented to me that the said...
27702Relationship between Federal and State Governments, [21 June] 1787 (Madison Papers)
Having rejected the New Jersey Plan, the convention now was considering the amended Virginia Plan as reported out of the Committee of the Whole on 13 June. The resolution calling for a legislature with two branches was under debate. Johnson argued the small states’ view that it was necessary to give each state an equal vote in the legislature in order to preserve state sovereignty against the...
27703Account with the Commonwealth of Virginia, [20 April] 1787 (Madison Papers)
By an act of the October 1785 session of the Virginia assembly, delegates to Congress from Virginia were allowed a salary of “six dollars per day while attending on, travelling to, and returning from Congress,” to be paid quarterly ( Hening, Statutes William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in...
27704Naturalization, [3 February] 1790 (Madison Papers)
The first clause of the naturalization bill, requiring one year’s residence by aliens for citizenship and an additional residence of two years to be capable of holding either a state or federal office, was under consideration. Tucker moved to strike out the one-year residence requirement in order to permit aliens to purchase and hold lands immediately upon taking an oath of allegiance. Mr....
27705Salaries for Members of the First Branch of the Legislature, [22 June] 1787 (Madison Papers)
The clause in the report of 13 June providing that the members of the first branch of the legislature “receive fixed stipends … to be paid out of the National-Treasury” was under debate ( Farrand, Records Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (4 vols.; New Haven, 1911–37). , I, 228). Mr. Madison concurred in the necessity of preserving the compensations for the Natl....
27706Constitutionality of the Residence Bill, [ca. 14 July] 1790 (Madison Papers)
The brief memorandum printed below is the only surviving record of JM’s opinion regarding the constitutionality of the bill which fixed the permanent national capital on the Potomac and the temporary capital at Philadelphia. The constitutional question had arisen during the latter stages of the House debate on the bill and continued during the interval between the passage of the bill on 9 July...
27707Speeches of Indian Delegates at Washington, [ca. 22 August] 1812 (Madison Papers)
White hair’s son spoke first. My Great father. I am your little son. I come to see and speak to you this day. My great father. The first nation who came to speak to you was my nation. My father I therefore speak to you without fear. My father. When my father came to see you he received good advice. He is now dead. My great father. All that you promised my father he saw nothing of it—he is...
27708Article on Religion Adopted by Convention, [12 June 1776] (Madison Papers)
16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator , and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity, towards each other.
27709Session of Virginia Council of State, 1 May 1778 (Madison Papers)
present His Excellency; John Page James Madison & David Jameson Bolling Stark Esquires The Governor laid before the Board a Letter from Colonel Muter informing him that Phillips the noted Traitor has again made an Insurection in Princess Anne County at the head of fifty men; Whereupon they do Advise his Excellency to order one hundred men from the Militia of Nansemond to act in Conjunction...
27710Detatched Memoranda, ca. 31 January 1820 (Madison Papers)
I did not become acquainted with Dr. Franklin till after his return from France and election to the Chief Magistracy of Pennsylvania. During the session of the Grand Convention, of which he was a member and as long after as he lived, I had opportunities of enjoying much of his conversation, which was always a feast to me. I never passed half an hour in his company without hearing some...
27711Notes on Debates, 23 March 1787 (Madison Papers)
Nothing till Friday Mar. 23d. [1787] The Report for reducing salaries agreed to as amended Unanimously. The proposition for reducing the salary of the Secretary of F. Affairs to 3000 dollars was opposed by Mr. King & Mr. Madison who entered into the peculiar duties & qualifications requird in that office, and its peculiar importance. Mr. Mitchel & Mr. Varnum contended that it stood on a level...
27712Resolutions of the Mississippi Territorial Legislature, [ca. 1 December] 1811 (Madison Papers)
Resolved by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Mississippi Territory in General Assembly Convened That the embarrassments and difficulties under which the United States have for many years laboured have been caused by the injustice of foreign nations and of domestic faction. That the late and present administrations of the general government have in our opinions...
27713Account with St. Mary’s College, 1 March 1812 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
1 March 1812. Lists charges to JM for one quarter’s tuition, paper, slates, quills, and postage for John Payne Todd, amounting to $17.38½. Ms ( MdBS : Day Book, 1810–13). 1 p.
27714Notes on Debates, 23 May 1783 (Madison Papers)
MS ( LC : Madison Papers). For a description of the manuscript of Notes on Debates, see Papers of Madison William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al ., eds., The Papers of James Madison (7 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). , V, 231–34 . The Report from Mr. Hamilton Mr. Gorham and Mr. Peters, in favor of discharging the soldiers enlisted for the war, was supported on the ground that it...
27715The Federalist Number 14, [30 November] 1787 (Madison Papers)
We have seen the necessity of the union as our bulwark against foreign danger, as the conservator of peace among ourselves, as the guardian of our commerce and other common interests, as the only substitute for those military establishments which have subverted the liberties of the old world, and as the proper antidote for the diseases of faction, which have proved fatal to other popular...
27716Power of Congress to Regulate Commerce, [29 August] 1787 (Madison Papers)
Charles Pinckney moved to require the approval of two-thirds of each house to pass an act regulating foreign and interstate commerce, insisting that any regulatory power over trade was a concession made by the South. Mr. Madison went into a pretty full view of the subject. He observed that the disadvantage to the S. States from a navigation act, lay cheifly in a temporary rise of freight,...
27717Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 7 October 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors &c. held at Charlottesville 7. Oct: 1817. On information of the amount of the subscriptions to the Central College, known to be made, and others understood to be so, the board resolves, that the Pavilion now erecting be completed as heretofore directed, with the 20. dormitories attached to it, and that two other pavilions be contracted for and executed the next...
27718Motion of Virginia Delegates on Western Lands, [14 November] 1781 (Madison Papers)
Printed text ( JCC Worthington Chauncey Ford et al ., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). , XXI, 1113). A motion was made by the delegates of Virginia, That the first Tuesday of December next, be assigned for the consideration of the report of the committee, to whom were referred the cessions of New York, Virginia, Connecticut, and the...
27719Memorandum from Thomas Jefferson, [March] 1809 (Madison Papers)
Memoranda for the President Information having been recieved in October last that many intruders had settled on the lands of the Cherokees & Chickasaws; the letter from Genl. Dearborn to Colo. Meigs was written to have them ordered off, & to inform them they would be removed by military force in the spring if still on the lands. These orders remain still to be given, & they should go to the...
27720Import Duties, [28 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
Goodhue, Gerry, and Thatcher of Massachusetts objected to the six-cent duty on molasses as ruinous to the Massachusetts fishing industry and rum distillers and burdensome to the poor. Mr. Madison . I shall make no observation, Mr. Speaker, upon the language of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Thatcher) because I do not conceive it expresses either the deliberate temper of his own mind, or...
27721Resolutions Respecting Vermont Lands, [16 September] 1780 (Madison Papers)
MS ( NA : PCC , No. 20, II, 249–52). These resolutions were merely one episode in an exceedingly difficult and prolonged controversy into which Congress was first drawn on 8 May 1776 ( Journals of the Continental Congress , IV, 334–35, 405). During the war, the concern of Congress about the dispute among New Hampshire, New York, and, to a lesser degree, Massachusetts over jurisdiction and land...
27722“Helvidius” Number 1, [24 August] 1793 (Madison Papers)
Several pieces with the signature of Pacificus were lately published, which have been read with singular pleasure and applause, by the foreigners and degenerate citizens among us, who hate our republican government, and the French revolution; whilst the publication seems to have been too little regarded, or too much despised by the steady friends to both. Had the doctrines inculcated by the...
27723Remarks on the Speech of John Wilson Croker, [15 May] 1813 (Madison Papers)
The following observations, in the House of Commons in February, in the debate on the American war, deserve attention, coming from Mr. Croker , Secretary of the Admiralty: “The right hon. gentleman had said, that it was not till the moment the news arrived of the capture of the Macedonian, that we shewed any signs of activity, and that then indeed the Chesapeake was shut up by a paper...
27724Note on “The North-American,” No. 1 and No. 2, 17 September and 8 October 1783 (Madison Papers)
17 September and 8 October 1783. In the Pennsylvania Journal, and the Weekly Advertiser (Philadelphia) of 17 September and 8 October there are two essays, respectively entitled “The North-American, No. 1” and “The North-American, No. 2.” With some reservations, Edmund C. Burnett attributed these anonymously written articles to James Madison. Irving Brant is completely convinced that JM was...
27725The General Assembly Session of May 1784 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The sword had been sheathed, so the problems faced by the Commonwealth of Virginia and her sister states in 1784 were no longer a life-and-death matter. As James Madison rode down to Richmond in May his thoughts must have been on the still-unsolved dilemma that had confronted Congress from almost the outset: finance. The cost of running the small bureaucracy that kept the Confederation...
27726Tonnage Duties, [4 May] 1789 (Madison Papers)
Before this day’s debate began, JM gave notice that on 25 May he would introduce the subject of amendments. “He thought it necessary thus early to mention the business, as it was weighty and important” ( Gazette of the U.S. , 6 May 1789). The postponed tonnage clauses were then taken up. Laurance moved to strike out the discrimination between countries having a commercial treaty with the...
27727Proportional Representation, [19 December] 1791 (Madison Papers)
On 9 December 1791 the Senate approved the apportionment bill but amended the ratio of representation from 1:30,000 to 1:33,000. When the House considered the Senate amendments on 12 December, “Mr. Madison observed, that the idea of diminishing the fractional parts appears to be the only reason for the alteration proposed by the Senate. The aggregate of these fractions only has been taken into...
27728Motion on Instructions to Francis Dana, [27 May] 1782 (Madison Papers)
MS ( NA : PCC , No. 36, II, 137). In JM’s hand. Docketed by him: “Motion of Mr. Madison seconded by Mr. Rutledge[.] Passed May 27 1782.” When Robert R. Livingston, secretary for foreign affairs, asked Congress to approve his proposed letter of 10 May to Francis Dana, he suggested the advisability of recommissioning Dana as minister resident rather than as minister plenipotentiary at the court...
27729Petition of Peter Gree, ca. 13 December 1796 (Madison Papers)
Document not found. Ca. 13 December 1796. Presented by JM to the House of Representatives, 13 Dec. 1796, and referred to the Committee of Claims. Reported in Claypoole’s Am. Daily Advertiser , 14 Dec. 1796.
27730Presidential Proclamation, [19 April] 1809 (Madison Papers)
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas it is provided by the 11th. Section of the Act of Congress entitled “An Act to interdict the Commercial Intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies; and for other purposes”—that “in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or Modify her Edicts as that they shall...
27731Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 28 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a called meeting of the Visitors of the Central College, held at the House of Mr. Madison in Orange, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Hartwell Cocke, and Joseph C. Cabell, being present: The plan of the first Pavilion to be erected, and the proceedings thereupon, having been stated and agreed to— It is agreed that application be made to Doctor Knox of Baltimore to accept the...
27732Remission of Forfeiture for the Sloop Fame, 4 March 1815 (Madison Papers)
Whereas it has been represented to me that a certain Sloop, or vessel, called the Fame, whereof Barnabas Haskell was master, did, some time in the year 1814, commit a breach of the act of Congress passed on the 2d of August, 1813, entitled “An Act to prohibit the use of licenses, or passes, granted by the authority of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,” and...
27733Assumption of the State Debts, [3 March] 1790 (Madison Papers)
Carroll moved to discharge the Committee of the Whole from consideration of assumption. His purpose was to suspend the larger question until Secretary Hamilton reported (in consequence of White’s motion of 2 March) on the ways and means of paying the state creditors. Laurance suspected that the motion was intended to shunt the matter aside indefinitely. JM denied “that the motion was intended...
27734Motion on Southern Reinforcements, 18 April 1781 (Madison Papers)
MS ( LC : Thomas Rodney’s Diary, pp. 50–52). Mr. Maddison moved that Genl. Washington send effectual force to the Southward, And that he be impowered to draw out as many Malitia from the ea[s]tward of the North river as may be [un?]necessary to the Eastward etc. Mr. Smith of Virginia said that Virginia had done her part in the war, that they had afforded great Succour lately to the Southern...
27735Notes on Debates, [14] January 1783 (Madison Papers)
MS ( LC : Madison Papers). For a description of the manuscript of Notes on Debates, see Papers of Madison William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al ., eds., The Papers of James Madison (6 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). , V, 231–34 . Congress adjourned for the meeting of The Grand Committee to whom was referred the report concerning the valuation of the lands and who accordingly met....
27736Virginia Delegates’ Agreement with Ebenezer Cowell, 27 April 1781 (Madison Papers)
FC (Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.). Not in Cowell’s hand nor in that of any of the Virginia delegates, but signed by all of them. Endorsed, “Articles Between the Delegates of Virginia & Ebenezer Cowell about 2000 Ramport Muskets.” A copy made for Governor Jefferson by Theodorick Bland is in the Executive Papers of the Virginia State Library. Memorandum of an Agreement entered into this 27th of...
27737Notes on Debates, 21 December 1782 (Madison Papers)
MS ( LC : Madison Papers). See Notes on Debates, 4 November 1782 , ed. n. The Committee to confer wth. Mr. Livingston was appointed the preceding day in consequence of the unwillingness of several States to elect either Gel. Schuyler, Mr. Clymer or Mr. Read the Gentlemen previously put into nomination, & of a hint that Mr. L. might be prevailed on to serve till the Spring. The Committee found...
27738Militia, [17 December] 1790 (Madison Papers)
The second section of the militia bill was still under consideration. Mr. Madison enquired if the committee had come yesterday to any resolution respecting the exemption of the members of the state legislatures: if they had not, he wished to pass them over, as it was better, in his opinion, to leave the legislatures of the states to make the whole of the exceptions themselves, especially as...