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...