27731Address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle, 12 May 1818 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
At the 12 May 1818 meeting of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle, “the President took the chair, and delivered an address upon the nature and principles of the objects which the Society have in view, pointing out at the same time many prevailing errors in the present general system of Agriculture” (Rodney H. True, ed., “Minute Book of the Albemarle [Virginia] Agricultural Society,” printed...
27732Madison’s Detatched Memoranda, ca. 31 January 1820 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
This document presents a number of puzzles for the editors of James Madison’s papers. The manuscript is in Madison’s hand and it appears to have been written over the course of a relatively short period of time. The paper is of good quality and of uniform appearance, suggesting that the pages came from a single source. There are numerous emendations, deletions, and additions, most of which are...
27733Madison and Richard Cutts’s Financial Difficulties: Editorial Note (Madison Papers)
This letter is the first serious indication of Richard Cutts’s financial problems, which eventually led to his bankruptcy and JM’s involvement in Cutts’s personal affairs. Cutts, a former U.S. congressman (1801–12) from Saco, Massachusetts, District of Maine, had married Dolley Madison’s beloved sister, Anna, in 1804. A member of a prosperous merchant and ship-building family, Cutts engaged in...
27734Madison and the Allegory of Jonathan and Mary Bull: Editorial Note (Madison Papers)
Sometime during the Missouri Crisis of 1819–21, most probably during the winter of 1821, James Madison wrote this allegory on slavery. Using a form that dated from the American Revolution, but which owed its popularity to one of Madison’s friends, James Kirke Paulding, Madison created a dialogue on slavery between Jonathan Bull, representing the northern states, and Mary Bull, representing...
27735Madison’s Response to John Armstrong’s Review (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The memorandum of documents printed below is the first indication that JM was beginning to gather material to answer allegations made by John Armstrong in an essay entitled “Appendix—Negotiation for Louisiana,” published in the New York Literary and Scientific Repository, and Critical Review in October 1821. The task would ultimately result in a compilation, entitled “Review of a Statement...
27736James Madison and His Stepson, John Payne Todd, Editorial Note (Madison Papers)
A month before Madison left the presidency in March 1817, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “I pitty our good Brother Madison. You and I have had Children and Grand Children and great grand Children. Though they have cost us Grief, Anxiety, often Vexation, and some times humiliation; Yet it has been cheering to have them hovering about Us; and I verily believe they have contributed largely...
27737James Madison’s Preface to the Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
“Take care of me when dead,” Thomas Jefferson famously asked James Madison in one of the last letters that passed between the two elder statesmen. Specifically, Jefferson mentioned two issues. First, he hoped that Madison would assume leadership of the nascent University of Virginia, expressing “comfort to leave that institution under your care.” Second, Jefferson stated that it would be “a...
27738James Madison and the Early Years of the University of Virginia (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
Addressing John Adams’s concern that James Madison might fall victim to boredom in retirement, Thomas Jefferson offered assurances that Adams’s fears were unfounded. “Such a mind as [Madison’s] can never know ennui,” Jefferson explained. “Besides,” Jefferson continued, “there will always be work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness to his country.” The particular work...