201To James Madison from John Blair Smith, [ca. 16 May] 1785 (Madison Papers)
I am sorry to interrupt your attention to more important objects by an appeal to you in a dispute between Carter H. Harrison Esqr. of Cumberland & myself, but as you were present at its origination, & as my character for veracity is interested in your decision, I have no doubt of your inclination to do me the justice which is in your power. All that I have to request of you at present is, to...
202To James Madison from Richard Barbour, 19 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 19 May 1785. Noted in the lists probably made by Peter Force (DLC: Madison Miscellany). No other reference to it has been found.
203To James Madison from Gabriel Royez, 24 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
Je m’engage a fournir chez moi aussitot l’announce toutes les Livraison futures de l’Encyclopedie par ordre de matieres in 4°. Dont j’ai reçu le montant des livraisons y compris la 13°. montant a la Somme de troit cent quatrevingt Livre en deduisant sur ce prix fixe par la souscription et Suivant la notte y joint un primer quarante huit livres Suivant nos convention. A Monsieur James Madison...
204From 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, &...
205To James Madison from William Grayson, 28 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
I did myself the pleasure some time since of writing to you; and I expect by this time you have recieved my letter; since which nothing has happened of any consequence except the passage of the Land Ordinance & the arrival of Don Diego de Gardoqui at Philadelphia. I inclose you a copy of the Ordinance: & if it is not the best in the world, it is I am confident the best that could be procured...
206From 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...
207From 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.
208To James Madison from Richard Henry Lee, 30 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
Two days ago, and not sooner, your favor of March the 20th was deliverd to me, so that you find it has been more than two months travelling thus far. It seems to me that our Assembly were influenced more by the letter than the spirit of the Confederation. The consequence will certainly be, if our meetings are slow as usual, that Virginia will be unrepresented for some time after the federal...
209To James Madison from François de Barbé-Marbois, 31 May 1785 (Madison Papers)
I have been happy in forming the acquaintance of Mr. Mazzey, & receiving at the Same time your letter dated 3d. June 1784. He is now on his way to france where I know he will find many friends. Mr. Jepherson one of them is generally esteemed in paris & Versailles, & I have no doubt but his appointment as a minister to our court will give great Satisfaction. The opinion in paris is that peace...
210To James Madison from Philip Mazzei, 3 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
Le vostre lettere per Mr. Jefferson e per il Marchese le ò io, e le consegnerò in proprie mani. Io parto, ma il mio cuore resta. Tutte le mie cure paiono concentrate nel soggetto, da cui solo depende la futura libertà o schiavitù di questo almo Paese. L’America è il mio Giove, Venere la Virginia. Quando refletto a quel che sentii nel traversar Potomack, mi vergogno della mia debolezza. Non so...
211To James Madison from Joseph Jones, 12 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
Being from Town when your order for the Trunk arrived was the reason it was not then sent. If an opportunity offers it shall be forwarded as you desire. In the mean time the precaution of preserving the cloaths from the moth by exposing them to the sun has been attended to and shall be repeated. I know not whether any Copy of the resolution you allude to has been officially communicated to Mr....
212To James Madison from Philip Mazzei, 15 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
Il nostro comune e degno Amico Monroe vi manderà un mio scritto sulla necessità di stabilire 2. soli Porti nel nostro Stato. Il Col. Innes estorse da me la promessa di scrivere sul detto soggetto prima d’ imbarcarmi, e di mandargli ciò che la Botte avrebbe prodotto. Ma siccome ei non intende questa lingua, il Col. Monroe glie ne manderà la traduzione, subito che le altre più pressanti...
213Memorial 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...
214From 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...
215To James Madison from Joseph Jones, 23 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Beckley has at length furnished me with a copy of the resolution you lately requested might be sent to you. I confide it to the care of Mr. Maury of Fredericksburg in hopes it will get safe and soon to your hands. Mr. Blair tells me a Copy of this resolution has been transmitted to the State of Maryland but knows nothing further of the matter—perhaps the Clerk or Speaker sent one to Mr....
216To James Madison from William Grayson, 27 June 1785 (Madison Papers)
I have recieved your favor of the 29. May acknowledging the receipt of my first letter, though making no mention of the last, which I presume has not yet come to hand. Since the date thereof the affair of the treaty with the Western Indians which was decided on the 18th. March last, has been opened again & very much canvassed; the result however is that the treaty is to be held; & for the...
217Copy 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...
218From 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...
219To James Madison from George Nicholas, 7 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
I expected to have done myself the pleasure of calling on you from the last Orange court but was disappointed in going there. I received the remonstrance and had it copied for I found that any change in it must be for the worse. One hundred and fifty of our most respectable freeholders signed it in a day. I have sent copies to the counties that I mentioned in my last. I am with regard and...
220To James Madison from James Monroe, 12 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
I enclose a copy of the journals so far as they are printed. They contain nothing you will find respecting the requisition nor the commercial interests of the Union. The former upon the report of a committee hath been frequently before Congress of late and as often recommitted, in which state it now lies. As the principal part of the debt which in other States forms a part of the present...
221To James Madison from Caleb Wallace, 12 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
Having accommodated my Family in this remote quarter of the Country, I wish to renew a correspondence which was formerly pleasing to me and I trust no[t] disagreeable to you. Since I saw you last I have removed twice, first from Charlotte to Botetourt and then from there to Kentucky; this, with some vissisitudes of fortune & health have occasioned me to neglect for a while some of the...
222To James Madison from Edmund Randolph, 17 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
By some inexplicable mystery, the inclosed letter from Mr. Jones, and my intended answer to your last epistolary favor, have still remained in my possession. Being engaged when the gentleman, who brought your friendly attention to me, I doubt whether I gave him an intelligible reply to his question, if my answer was ready. Our apparent disobedience to the appointment of the assembly must be...
223To James Madison from John Dawson, 20 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
Your goodness will excuse me, for addressing this letter to you, when you consider of what consequence it may be to me. The General Assembly, at their Session in October last, I find, had it in contemplation to pass an Act respecting Naval Officers, by which Collectors are to be appointed to the several Districts; and altho it did not then pass for want of a sufficient number of members to...
224To James Madison from George Nicholas, 24 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
I am very unhappy to find by your letter which has just now come to hand that two of mine to you have miscarried. I found that no alterations could be made to the remonstrance* without injury and immediately had it copied and sent to the counties I mentioned in a former letter. One of my letters must certainly have reached you before this but for fear of accident shall desire my brother to...
225From 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...
226To James Madison from James Monroe, 26 July 1785 (Madison Papers)
Since my last a report proposing a change in the first paragraph of the 9th. of the articles of confideration hath been taken up & acted on two days in a committee of the whole. It proposes to invest Congress with power to regulate trade externally & internally. Those in favor of it were of opinion that the exercise of this power in the hands of each State, wod. be less advantageous to its...
227From 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...
228From 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...
229To James Madison from George Mason, 9 August 1785 (Madison Papers)
I shou’d have answered Your Favour of the 2d. of June, long ago, had not ill Health, & the Absence of my Sons from Home, disabled me from making out the Copys of the Proceedings of the Virga. & Maryd. Commrs. which I now inclose; and upon which I wish to be favour’d with Your Sentiments. We thought ourselves unfortunate in being deprived of your, & my Friend the Attorney’s Assistance, in this...
230To James Madison from Richard Henry Lee, 11 August 1785 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of July the 7th was long coming to hand as I find my letter of the 20th May was in getting to you. This joined to the uncertainty of letters ever arriving safe is a very discouraging circumstance to full & free correspondence. I have the honor of according most perfectly and entirely with your ideas for regulating our severance from Kentucky. It is unquestionably just that this...