111From James Madison to John Blair Smith, 27 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
I have before me your note requesting my information relative to a fact asserted on your part, and denied on that of Carter H. Harrison Esqr. Your own feelings will suggest to you my motives for wishing not to be made a Witness or Judge in any case where the characters of Gentlemen are concerned. Under the circumstances of the present in which I am only called on by one of the parties, &...
112From James Madison to James Monroe, 29 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of May [8] came to hand a few days ago. It is fortunate that the variant ideas have been so easily accomodated touching the mode of surveying & selling the territorial fund. It will be equally so I think if you can dispossess the British of the Western posts, before the land office is opened. On this event and the navigation of the Mississippi will much depend the fiscal importance...
113From James Madison to William Grayson, 29 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 29 May 1785. Mentioned by Grayson in his letter to JM, 27 June 1785 . JM to James Monroe, 7 August 1785 , notes that he had answered Grayson’s letter of 1 May 1785 with suggestions concerning the revision of Article IX of the Articles of Confederation.
114Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, [ca. 20 June] 1785 (Madison Papers)
The most striking element in JM’s authorship of the Memorial and Remonstrance was the pains he took to keep the public ignorant of his heavy involvement in this battle over state-subsidized religion. So successful was he in maintaining anonymity that a few libraries still have a printed version with speculative attributions of the work to other public men. Although in 1786 printer Isaiah...
115From James Madison to James Monroe, 21 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
Finding from a letter of Mr. Mazzei that you have never been furnished with a copy of the Bill for establishing the Christian Religion in this State, I now inclose one, regretting that I had taken it for granted that you must have been supplied thro’ some other channel. A very warm opposition will be made to this innovation by the people of the middle and back Counties, particularly the...
116Copy of a Protestant Episcopal Church Petition to the General Assembly of Virginia, [July?] 1785 (Madison Papers)
Whether JM wrote the petition calling for repeal of the act incorporating the Protestant Episcopal church in Virginia or merely copied the work of another for his own personal use is a matter of speculation, with the latter circumstance appearing the most likely one. Hunt and Brant assumed that JM wrote the petition, although the former assigned a 1786 date to the document despite the internal...
117From James Madison to Richard Henry Lee, 7 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 30th. of May came to hand yesterday only, having lain some time in Fredg. and finally reached Orange via Albemarle. I agree with you perfectly in thinking it the interest of this Country to embrace the first decent opportunity of parting with Kentucky, and to refuse firmly to part with any more of our Western settlements. It seems necessary however that this first instance of...
118From James Madison to Edmund Randolph, 26 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of the 17th. inst: inclosing a letter from Mr. Jones and a copy of the ecclesiastical Journal, came safe to hand. If I do not dislike the contents of the latter, it is because they furnish as I conceive fresh and forcible arguments against the Genl. Assessment. It may be of little consequence what tribunal is to judge of Clerical misdemesnors or how firmly the incumbent may be...
119From James Madison to James Monroe, 28 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
I received yesterday your favour of the 12th. inst. The date of the preceding one was early in May. From this interval and your not acknowledging some of my letters I suspect that our correspondence suffers from some fault in the post office. This has certainly been the case with letters between Col. Grayson and myself. The part of your letter which has engaged most of my attention is the...
120From James Madison to James Monroe, 7 August 1785 (Madison Papers)
I received the day before yesterday your favour of the 26th July. I had previously recd. the Report on the proposed change of the 9th. art: of the Confederation, transmitted by Col: Grayson, and in my answer to him offered such ideas on the subject as then occurred. I still think the probability of success or failure ought to weigh much with Congress in every recommendation to the States; of...