1To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
On opening my letters from France in the moment of my departure from Washington, I found from their signatures that they were all from literary characters except one from mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset that it was private, & that his public communications were in the letter to the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find however on reading his letter to me (which I did not do...
2To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you several letters which must have been intended for the office, & not the person named on the back. They belong therefore to your files, and I will pray you particularly as to those asking office on this & all other occasions to consider me merely as the channel of conveyance, & not as meaning to add an atom of weight to the sollicitations they convey—unless indeed I know any thing...
3To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 19th. came to hand by the last post; but that allows us so little time that I could not answer by it’s return. I had not before heard of mr. Latrobe’s claim of Lenthall’s salary in addition to his own. That some of Lenthall’s duties must have fallen on him I have no doubt; but that he could have performed them all in addition to his own so as to entitle himself to his whole...
4To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 31 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
Since my letter of yesterday I have recieved yours of the 27th. & 28th. and in the former the 500. D. for mrs. Trist. The bronze time piece mentioned will run a fortnight, but I found it better to wind it up once a week, as during the 2d. week the greater expansion of the spring occasioned her to lose time. With respect to newspapers, none can now come to Washington for me. Of those which,...
5To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of the 9th. and to thank you for the political information it contained. Reading the newspapers but little & that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives. If the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London which is the...
6To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 27 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 24th. came to hand last night. The correspondence between mr. Smith & mr. Erskine had been recieved three days before. I sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation. It is the source of very general joy here, & could it have arrived one month sooner would have had important effects not only on the elections of other states, but of this also, from...
7To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 May 1809 (Madison Papers)
It is my duty to write to you on the subject of the Note you were so kind as to endorse for me at the bank of the US. and I do it willingly altho’ painfully. Notwithstanding a fixed determination to take care that at the termination of my duties at Washington my pecuniary matters should at least be square, & my confidence that they would be so, I found, by an estimate made in December last,...
8To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 June 1809 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you three letters from detained seamen which came to hand by the last post. Your favor of the 12th. was recieved at the same time. The intelligence by the Pacific gives me great anxiety. When I consider the tenor of the new order of council & the official exposition of it by the Lords of trade to the London American merchants (in the inclosed paper) and compare it with the engagement...
9To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1809 (Madison Papers)
Your two letters of the 4th. & 7th. were recieved by the last mail. I now inclose you the rough draught of the letter to the emperor of Russia. I think there must be an exact facsimile of it in the office, from which mr. Short’s must have been copied; because that the one now inclosed has never been out of my hands appears by there being no fold in the paper till now, and it is evidently a...
10To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 August 1809 (Madison Papers)
I recieved your’s of yesterday by mr. Coles. My journey to Bedford has been delayed by sickness among my laboring people. No new case having arisen for some time, I am in hopes it is at an end. Still no particular object fixing my departure to any precise time, it lies over for convenience, and should I fix a time before we have the pleasure of seeing yourself & mrs. Madison here I shall...
11To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 September 1809 (Madison Papers)
I had intended to have been with you before this, but my daughter, who wishes to pay her respects to mrs. Madison & yourself at the same time, has been confined by the illness of her youngest child. He has been mending for some days, but slowly, & from the nature of his complaint (visceral) it will be some days yet before she can leave him. I think therefore, on the departure of our present...
12To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 18 September 1809 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 18 September 1809. Jefferson hopes to visit Montpelier before JM returns to Washington and will make the trip if the health of his grandson Benjamin Franklin Randolph improves. Mrs. Thomas Mann Randolph, Jefferson’s daughter, will accompany him if the boy is sufficiently recovered (brief abstract in International Autographs Catalogue No. 5 [1954], item 140).
13To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 9 October 1809 (Madison Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 6th. & now return mr. Dupont’s letter. At a time when I had a hope that Virginia would establish an University I asked of mr. Dupont & Dr. Priestly to give me their ideas on the best division of the useful sciences into Professorships. The latter did it concisely; but Dupont wrote an elaborate treatise on education which I still possess. After I saw that...
14To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 October 1809 (Madison Papers)
I recieved at Richmond your favor covering a check on the bank of Norfolk for 743. Doll. 15. cents the balance in full of our accounts. I have learnt from P. Carr that under an idea that Rodney was about to resign, & on a desire expressed by mr. R. Smith to him or some other person that Wirt should be sounded, it had been found that he would accept. I do not know whether it was communicated to...
15To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 November 1809 (Madison Papers)
Yours of Oct. 30. came to hand last night. Capt Coles passed this place on the 31st. to Washington. I gave a copy of the paper you desire to Thomas Monroe for his government; and, through him, another to Mayor Brent, that the city magistracy might understand what I considered as the limits separating our rights & duties. Capt Coles can borrow either of these probably for copying. Should they...
16To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 November 1809 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 6th. was recieved from our post office on the 24th. after my return from Bedford. I now re-inclose the letters of Mr. Short & Romanzoff, and with them a letter from Armstrong for your perusal, as there may be some matters in it not otherwise communicated. The infatuation of the British government & nation is beyond every thing immaginable. A thousand circumstances announce...
17To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 November 1809 (Madison Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 27th. & rode this morning to Colo. Monroe’s. I found him preparing to set out tomorrow morning for Loudon, from whence he will not return till Christmas. I had an hour or two’s frank conversation with him. The catastrophe of poor Lewis served to lead us to the point intended. I reminded him that in the letter I wrote to him while in Europe proposing the...
18To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 December 1809 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed letter is from Father Richard, the Director of a school at Detroit; & being on a subject in which the departments both of the Treasury & War are concerned, I take the liberty of inclosing it to yourself as the center which may unite these two agencies. The transactions which it alludes to took place in the months of Dec. & Jan. preceding my retirement from office, & as I think it...
19To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 March 1810 (Madison Papers)
You knew, I believe that the society of Agriculture of Paris had sent me a plough which they supposed the best ever made in Europe. They at the same time requested me to send them one of ours with my mould board. I have made one for them which every body agrees to be the handsomest & of the most promising appearance they have ever seen, and I have five at work on my own farms, than which we...
20To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 April 1810 (Madison Papers)
On my return from Bedford I found in our post office your favor of the 2d. inst. as also the inclosed letter from mr. Martin, formerly of N. C. recommended to us by mr. Blackledge. I dare say you will recollect more of him than I do. I remember that his being a native French man, educated I believe to the law there, very long a resident of this country and become a respectable lawyer with us,...
21To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 May 1810 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for your promised attention to my portion of the Merinos, and if there be any expences of transportation Etc & you will be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours & notify the amount it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we do with them? I have been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions lately practised in the sale of these animals, & with the ascription of...
22To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 May 1810 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you the extract of a letter from Govr. Tyler which will explain itself, and I do it on the same principle on which I have sometimes done the same thing before, that whenever you are called on to select, you may have under consideration all those who may properly be thought of & the grounds of their pretensions. From what I can learn Griffin cannot stand it long, and really the state...
23To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 May 1810 (Madison Papers)
In the action brought against me by Edward Livingston, the counsel employed, Wirt & Hay (Wickham declining) desire me to furnish them with the grounds of defence, with as little delay as possible. The papers relating to the batture in the offices of State, the Treasury & war, will undoubtedly be needed to exhibit facts. I am now engaged on this subject, and not to give you unnecessary trouble...
24To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 14 June 1810 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Thweatt my particular friend and connection expecting that an excursion he is to make will put it in his power to pay his respects to you personally, en passant, and being desirous to do so, I with pleasure present him to you as a gentleman of perfect worth, and of sincere zeal in those political principles which you & I have so steadily cultivated. His energy in their support has been...
25To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 27 June 1810 (Madison Papers)
Your letters of the 8th. 15th. & 22d. are now to be acknoleged. I should consider the debt to mr. Hooe as made incumbent on us by the wish of our Donor, and shall chearfully acquiesce in any arrangement you make on that subject. I have accordingly suspended sending for my portion till further information from you. Dougherty’s bill shall be duly attended to. I have recieved a copy of Judge...
26To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
I return you mr. Bassette’s letter & think you may safely tell him we possess no Dutch accounts of Virginia. We have De Laët; but it is a folio volume of Latin, & I have no doubt a good translation will sell well. I have not examined De Bry’s collection to see if that contains any Dutch account. That is in 3. folio volumes of Latin, and certainly will not take off one single reader from mr....
27To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
Your’s of the 17th. & that by the last mail are recieved. I have carefully searched among my papers for that of Hamilton which is the subject of your letter, but certainly have it not. If I ever had it (which I should doubt) I must have returned it. I say I doubt having had it because I find it in your Conventional debates under date of June 18. where it is copied at full length, being so...
28To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 9 August 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have just time before closing the mail to send you the Memoir on the Batture. It is long; but it takes a more particular view of the legal system of Orleans & the peculiar river on which it lies, than may have before presented itself. However you can readily skip over uninteresting heads. My visit to you depends on the getting a new threshing machine to work: which I expect will permit me to...
29To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 August 1810 (Madison Papers)
Yours of yesterday was recieved last night. The McGehee who is the subject of it, is an overseer of mine at a place, which on account of it’s importance to me, mr. Randolph takes care of. He employed McGehee, & solely superintends him. We consider him as extremely industrious, active, attentive, and skilful in the old practices, but prejudiced against any thing he is not used to. We have...
30To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 20 August 1810 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Wirt having suggested to me that he thought the explanations in my case of the Batture, respecting the Nile & Missisipi not sufficiently clear, and that the authority cited respecting the Nile might be urged against me, I have endeavored, by a Note, to state their analogies more clearly. Being a shred of the argument I put into your hands I inclose it to you with a request, after perusal,...
31To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 September 1810 (Madison Papers)
I returned yesterday from Bedford, and according to my letter written just before my departure, I take the liberty of informing you of it in the hope of seeing mrs. Madison & yourself here. And I do it with the less delay as I shall ere long be obliged to return to that place. By a letter of Aug. 15. from Genl. Dearborn he said in a P. S. that he has just recieved information that Bidwell had...
32To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 October 1810 (Madison Papers)
Tho late, I congratulate you on the revocation of the French decrees, & Congress still more; for without something new from the belligerents, I know not what ground they could have taken for their next move. Britain will revoke her orders of council, but continue their effect by new paper blockades, doing in detail what the orders did in the lump. The exclusive right to the sea by conquest is...
33To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1810 (Madison Papers)
I found among my papers the inclosed survey of La Fayette’s lands adjacent to N. Orleans. Whether it be the legal survey or not I do not know. If it is, it gives a prospect of something considerable after the 600. yards laid off round the ramparts. I inclose it to you as it may possibly be of use. With me it can be of none. I inclose you also a piece in MS. from Dupont on the subject of our...
34To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 March 1811 (Madison Papers)
On my return from a journey of 5 weeks to Bedford I found here the two letters now inclosed, which tho’ directed to me, belong in their matter to you. I never before heard of either writer and therefore leave them to stand on their own ground. I congratulate you on the close of your campaign. Altho it has not conquered your difficulties, it leaves you more at leisure to consider & provide...
35To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 April 1811 (Madison Papers)
Your favors of Mar. 18. and Apr. 1. have been duly recieved. The extract from Armstrong’s letter of July 28. 08. which you desire is in these words. ‘My poor friend Warden writes to you, & asks from you the appointment of Consul for this place. I could not promise to do more than send his letter. He is an honest and amiable man, with as much Greek & Latin, & chemistry & theology, as would do...
36To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 April 1811 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 19th. is recieved. I have carefully examined my letter files from July 1808. to this day, & find among them no such Anonymous letter as you mention. Indeed the strong impression on my memory is that I never recieved an Anonymous letter from England, or from any other country than our own. Certain newspapers are taking a turn which gives me uneasiness. Before I was aware of it, I...
37To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 May 1811 (Madison Papers)
As I sent you my first effort to keep Duane right, so I communicate the second, which the failure of our measures to help him obliged me to write. It probably closes our correspondence as I have not heard a word from him on the subject. Ritchie is correct as to the administration generally. I have written to a friend there what I am in hopes will put him right as to mr. Gallatin, altho, as my...
38To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 July 1811 (Madison Papers)
I have seen with very great concern the late Address of mr. Smith to the public. He has been very ill advised both personally and publicly. As far as I can judge from what I hear, the impression made is entirely unfavorable to him. Every man’s own understanding readily answers all the facts and insinuations, one only excepted, and for that they look for explanations without any doubt that they...
39To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 October 1811 (Madison Papers)
Mrs. Lewis, the widow of Colo. Nich Lewis, has requested me to mention to yourself the name of a mr. Wood, an applicant for a commission in the army. On recieving the request I rode to her house to ask something about him, observing to her that something more than his name would be necessary. She candidly told me at once that he was a very capable young man, connected with her only as being a...
40To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 31 December 1811 (Madison Papers)
It is long since I have had occasion to address a line to you, and the present is an irksome one. With all the discouragements I can oppose to those who wish to make me the channel of their wishes for office, some will force themselves on me. I inclose you the letters of several merely to be placed on the file of candidates & to stand on their own ground, for I do not know one of them...
41To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1812 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 12th. has been duly recieved. I have much doubted whether, in case of a war, Congress would find it practicable to do their part of the business. That a body containing 100. lawyers in it, should direct the measures of a war is, I fear, impossible; and that thus that member of our constitution, which is it’s bulwark, will prove to be an impracticable one from it’s cacoethes...
42To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 March 1812 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 6th. was duly recieved. The double treachery of Henry will do lasting good both here & in England. It prostrates the party here, and will prove to the people of England, beyond the power of palliation by the ministry, that the war is caused by the wrongs of their own nation. The case of the Batture not having been explained by a trial at bar as had been expected, I have...
43To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 April 1812 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed papers will explain themselves. Their coming to me is the only thing not sufficiently explained. Your favor of the 3d. came duly to hand. Altho’ something of the kind had been apprehended, the embargo found the farmers and planters only getting their produce to market and selling as fast as they could get it there. I think it caught them in this part of the state with one third of...
44To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
It is a grievous thing to be pressed, as I am, into the service of those who want to get into service themselves. The great mass of those sollicitations I decline: but some come forward on such grounds as controul compliance. Mr. Archibald C. Randolph, an applicant for command in the new army, is my near relation, which in his own eye and that of our common friends gives him a claim to my good...
45To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
The difference between a communication & sollicitation is too obvious to need suggestion. While the latter adds to embarrasments, the former only enlarges the field of choice. The inclosed letters are merely communications. Of Stewart I know nothing. Price who recommends him is I believe a good man, not otherwise known to me than as a partner of B. Morgan of N. O. and as having several times...
46To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
Another communication is inclosed, and the letter of the applicant is the only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember such a person as the Secretary of mr. Adams & messenger to the Senate while I was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding to it a strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the Anglomen, and malcontents, in other words the...
47To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 June 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have taken the liberty of drawing the attention of the Secretary at War to a small depot of military stores at N. London, and leave the letter open for your perusal. Be so good as to seal it before delivery. I really thought that Genl. Dearborne had removed them to Lynchburg, undoubtedly a safer and more convenient deposit. Our county is the only one I have heard of which has required a...
48To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 29 June 1812 (Madison Papers)
I duly recieved your favor of the 22d. covering the declaration of war. It is entirely popular here, the only opinion being that it should have been issued the moment the season admitted the militia to enter Canada. The federalists indeed are open mouthed against the declaration. But they are poor devils here, not worthy of notice. A barrel of tar to each state South of the Patomac will keep...
49To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 5 August 1812 (Madison Papers)
In a letter of May 6. from Foronda is this passage. ‘ No remito a Vm exemplares de mis papelitos para el ilustrado y sabio Madison, aunque le tributo todos mis respetos: pero es Presidente, y las vilas almas, lexos de conocer que esto seria un acto de Cortesania que no tiene relacion con la presidencià, me tacharian tal vez de poco afecto à la patria, alegando que tenià consideraciones con...
50To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 August 1812 (Madison Papers)
The death of my much valued friend & relation George Jefferson will doubtless produce many competitors for the office of Consul at Lisbon. Among these a neighbor of mine, mr David Higginbotham wishes to be considered. He is a merchant of Milton, of very fair character, steady application to business, sound in his circumstances, and perfectly correct in all his conduct. He is a native of this...