51From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, [29 July] 1791 (Madison Papers)
I have this instant recd. yours of the 27th. in which you refer to as inclosed the pamphlet desired by me—to wit T. Coxes answer to Sheffield: As it is not inclosed I snatch this sudden oppty. to request you to forward it by Monday’s mail. I thank you for the other inclosures & have only time to add that I am Sir, RC ( DLC ). Addressed by JM. Docketed by Jefferson, “July 29. 1791 / recd July...
52To James Madison from Henry Lee, 29 July 1791 (Madison Papers)
In the forenoon this day I got here—soon saw the President & your affectionate friend Mr. Jefferson. The first has nearly recovd. Mr. J. & myself dined with him & as far as I can judge, no chance for 16 years opposes the happiness of the U:S from any event feared by us in N york. As to your corn which you so much prized & which Mr J. seems to reckon valuable & uncommon, the president says he...
53To James Madison from James Maury, 29 July 1791 (Madison Papers)
I return you my best Thanks for the Satisfaction I have recieved from the State papers you were so kind as to send me & I do rejoice most cordially with you on the pleasing prospect of increasing Happiness to our Country—perhaps you may be amused with the perusal of the inclosed. Our Vessells continue in a Manner to monopolize the Freights hence to America—altho they take in a price at 50 or...
54From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 31 July 1791 (Madison Papers)
I recd. yours of the 28th. last evening. Your preceding one covering among other things your memorandums through France was acknowledged by a few lines put into the hands of a young gentleman bound to Philada. in the Stage of yesterday. The purpose of them was to apprize you that you had omitted Coxe’s answer to Sheffield and to request the favor of you to send it by Monday’s mail. Should the...
55From James Madison to William Bingham, [ca. August] 1791 (Madison Papers)
The Legislature of Virginia chuse their Senators for Congs. as they do their State officers, by joint ballot of the two Houses. The ballots are first separately collected in each House & then brought together & counted by Committees from each in presence of such other members as think fit to attend, the election being decided by the major vote without regard to a distinction of Houses. It is a...
56From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 1 August 1791. Acknowledged in Jefferson to JM, 3 Aug. 1791 . In his list of letters to Jefferson (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers), JM noted that this letter dealt with “Freneau. Col. H. Lee.”
57To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
Your favours of July 31. & Aug. 1. are recieved, but not that of the 30th. which was trusted to a private hand. Having discovered on Friday evening only that I had not inclosed Coxe’s pamphlet, I sent it off immediately to the post office. However I suppose it did not leave this place till the post of Monday nor get to your hands till Tuesday evening. Colo. Lee is here still, & gives me hopes...
58To James Madison from Henry Lee, 3 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
During my absence the physicians attending our afflicted countryman Col: Fisher have after various examinations decided that he has no stone, & incline to think his disorder is what is called a catarhh, a disease in the neck of the bladder or prostrate glands. In this doubt & consequent anxiety, I have advised him to obtain Doer. Mcnights opinion, to do which with certainty your agency is...
59From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 4 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
It being probable that I shall leave this place early in the ensuing week I drop you an intimation of it, that you may keep back any letters that may fall into your hands for me, or that you might intend to favor me with. The outward bound packet for Halifax & London sailed to day. The one expected for some time past is not yet arrived, and I do not learn that any foreign news is recd. thro’...
60To James Madison from Henry Lee, 6 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
As I hope on my return to Virga. to raise as much money as will pay off old Fairfax & put into our power the great falls, I mention to you my intention that you may lend as much aid as you can. I have ordered the deed to be made out to you & me in the proportion agreed on & have charged you with one fourth of the purchase. If the event turns out as I expect, I shall not only be pleased by the...
61To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 6 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
From our former intimacy while I had the pleasure to serve with you in Congress & the Convention I am induced to make you the following communication in the confidence of friendship assured that you will only mention it to the person & in the manner I wish—as it is upon a subject of some Delicacy. It has been suggested to me that several foreign ministerial appointments will take place at the...
62From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 8 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of putting the inclosed into your hands that in case Col: Lee should have left Philada. the contents may find their way to Col: Fisher who is most interested in them. And I leave it open for the same purpose. The Attorney will be a fit channel in the event of Col: Lee’s departure, for conveying the information. You will find an allusion to some mysterious cause for a...
63To James Madison from Robert Pleasants, 8 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
I wrote thee of the 6th. of the 6th. month last, requesting (on behalf of the humane society lately established here) thy favor and assistance, in presenting, and promoting a Memorial to Congress on the subject of the Slave-trade; and also a Memorial from the last Yearly Meeting of our Friends in this State, respecting the Militia Bill under consideration of Congress. And altho I have received...
64To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 18 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
I have just now recieved your favor of the 16th. and tho late at night I scribble a line that it may go by the morning’s post. I inclose you two letters which have been awaiting you here several days. Also a copy of the census which I had made out for you. What is in red ink is conjectural, the rest from the real returns. The return of Virginia is come in this day, seven hundred & forty odd...
65From James Madison to Joseph Jones, [post 23] August 1791 (Madison Papers)
This will be handed you by Mr. Childs who solicits subscriptions to a new Gazette to be edited from his press by Mr. Freneau. The plan will be shewn you & speaks its own merits. Those of Mr. Childs have besides other vouchers the character & success of a paper of which he has long been the printer in New York. With Mr. Freneau I have been long & thoroughly acquainted. He is a man of genius, of...
66From James Madison to Mann Page, Jr., [post 23] August 1791 (Madison Papers)
This will be handed you by Mr. Childs who solicits subscriptions to a new Gazette to be edited at the Seat of Federal Government, from his press by Mr. Freneau. He will communicate to you the plan, which speaks its own merits. Those of Mr. Childs have, besides other vouchers, the character & success of a paper of which he has long been the Printer in New York. With Mr. Freneau I have been long...
67From James Madison to Charles Simms, [post 23] August 1791 (Madison Papers)
This will be handed you by Mr. Childs who solicits subscriptions to a new Gazette to be edited from his press by Mr. Freneau. The plan being inclosed speaks its own merits. Those of Mr. Childs are vouched by the character & success of a paper which has been for a long time published by him in N. York. With Mr. Freneau I have been long and intimately acquainted. He is a man of genius, of...
68To James Madison from Henry Lee, 24 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
Soon after I parted with you, I left Phild. and quickly got here. My whole rout presented to me one continued scene of stock gambling; agriculture commerce & even the fair sex relinquished, to make way for unremitted exertion in this favourite pursuit—thousands even at this late hour entering into a line of life which they abhor, in order to participate in legal spoil & preserve in some degree...
69To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
Will you come and sit an hour before dinner to-day? also take soup with me tomorrow? Since writing the above the President has been here, & left L’Enfant’s plan, with a wish that you & I would examine it together immediately, as to certain matters, & let him know the result. As the plan is very large, will you walk up & examine it here? RC ( DLC ). Addressed by Jefferson. Dated only “1792” in...
70From James Madison to Edward Carrington, 28 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 28 August 1791, Philadelphia. Acknowledged in Carrington to JM, 21 Sept. 1791 . Encloses note of Tench Coxe and concerns related business to which JM attended for Carrington.
71To James Madison from Thomas Goodwin, 7 September 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 7 September 1791. Calendared on a list probably kept by Peter Force (DLC: Madison Miscellany).
72To James Madison from George Nicholas, 16 September 1791 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Brown left us so lately that nothing has occurred here worthy your notice since his departure: all that happened before he will communicate. Genl. St. Clair has called for a body of militia to aid him in his grand operations; the men have been ordered out by the County Lieutenant but I very much fear they will not go. The General Government have neglected to pass a militia law, and I very...
73To James Madison from Edward Carrington, 21 September 1791 (Madison Papers)
Having an opportunity by return of Mr. Barburs Servant to Orange, I embrace it to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 28th. Ult. from Phila. annexed to Mr. T. Coxes Note, & to thank you for your attention to the business to which it related. You I suppose hear much said in your passage through the Country upon the Subject of the Excise. It daily becomes better understood and consequently...
74To James Madison from Thomas and John Dickenson, [ca. 1 October] 1791 (Madison Papers)
I Expected to a Seen you at Orange Court but Cannot Make it Convenient to Come Down, the Certificates that I left for You the Reason of their not b[e]ing in the Office if you Remember I Told you was by a Mistake of Mr Jno. Nicholas who informd. us that Such was not Cald. Down. The Office at that Time as I understand was Kept at Richmon[d] by Mr. Dunscomb, we Shall Take it as a great favour if...
75To James Madison from George Washington, 10 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 10 October 1791, Mount Vernon. Listed in Stan. V. Henkels Catalogue No. 694 (1892). The list probably kept by Peter Force (DLC: Madison Miscellany) mentions a letter of this date from Washington to an unspecified correspondent and notes that it “Relates to house repairs.”
76From James Madison to Hubbard Taylor, 11 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
Since my arrival in Orange which was long delayed by a ramble into the Eastern States, I have recd. two favors from you, one of them inclosing a Kentucky Gazette. I am glad to find the true method of dealing with the savages has been hit on; and hope that such a terror has been struck into them as will prevent the necessity of future chastisements. In my present situation I can give you little...
77To James Madison from Daniel Carroll, 21 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
The last Mail carry’d you a few lines from me. By this you will receive the particulars of the sales. I hope we may be ready to proceed Much more effectually in the Spring. There were many persons present who wanted Lotts in Various parts of the City, which cou’d not be gott ready at this Time. Private sales are makg. by individuals much on the same terms with the public. Yrs. &ca PS. I...
78To James Madison from John Stadler, 22 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
When his Exellency Hancock then President of Congress, sent a Commission as first Engineer to the Committee of safety for me, dated March the 30th. 1776 with expression of a Field Officer, I went to General Lee then Commander at Williamsburg to know what my Commission was worth ⅌ Day, after looking over the Commission he answered four shillings ⅌ Day. I told him I never saw a Commission in...
79To James Madison from Francis Corbin, 25 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
It is a long time since I did myself the Honor of writing to you: a gratification of which I have been deprived by a concurrence of cross and untoward circumstances. The Accident which happened in my family last year, the ill State of my health for three years past—the multiplicity of private—and the perplexity of the Occasional public business in which I have been engaged have more than...
80Address of the House of Representatives to the President, [27 October] 1791 (Madison Papers)
In receiving your address at the opening of the present Session, the House of Representatives have taken an ample share in the feelings inspired by the actual prosperity and flattering prospects of our Country: And whilst, with becoming gratitude to Heaven, we ascribe this happiness to the true source from which it flows, we behold with an animating pleasure, the degree in which the...
81To James Madison from George Washington, 27 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
Enclosed I return you the list of Sales in the Federal City. You will oblige me, by drafting a short answer to the Address, to be presented tomorrow, and sending it to me this Evening or in the Morning early. If you want the Address let me know it & it shall be sent to you. Yours—Sincerely & Affectly. RC (Hawaii State Archives: Cartwright Collection); Tr ( MH : Sparks Transcripts). RC...
82To James Madison from John Tyler, 28 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
You will pardon me I hope for drawing your Attention from the great Affairs of Government to a private Gentleman and his little pursuit after Justice. Mr. Munford is soliciting a settlement of his Father’s claim as Commissary of Issues for the Southern Department. He is now of Age & his Father has been dead a few years which prevented this application sooner. I am his Executor and have given...
83Reply of the President to the House of Representatives, [28 October] 1791 (Madison Papers)
The pleasure I derive from an assurance of your attention to the objects I have recommended to you, is doubled by your concurrence in the testimony I have borne to the prosperous condition of our public Affairs. Relying on these sanctions of your enlightened Judgment, and on your patriotic aid, I shall be the more encouraged in all my endeavours for the public weal; and particularly in those...
84To James Madison from William Overton Callis, 29 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
I never received you[r] favor respecting my claim against the U. States un[t]il congress had adjourned which will account to you for my not giving it that attention which my own interest, and deceant deportment to you required. I now inclose you a Power of Attorney to Draw a Warrant for my Land; of which if it is not too troublesom I will be particularly obliged to you to dispose, upon the...
85From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 30 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
We arrived here yesterday morning was a week, having been obliged to push through the bad weather by the discovery first made at Mount Vernon that the meeting of Congress was a week earlier than was calculated at our setting out. The President had been under the same mistake, and had but just been apprized of it. Many others had equally miscalculated. Being obliged to attend immediately on my...
86From James Madison to Robert Pleasants, 30 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
The delay in acknowledging your letter of the 6th. June last proceeded from the cause you conjectured. I did not receive it till a few days ago, when it was put into my hands by Mr. James Pemberton, along with your subsequent letter of the 8th. August. The petition relating to the Militia bill contains nothing that makes it improper for me to present it. I shall therefore readily comply with...
87To James Madison from George Joy, November 1791 (Madison Papers)
I am so circumstanced in a matter of much importance to myself that on the early or late adoption of certain measures in the legislature of the U.S. depends my being involved in , or emancipated from intolerable difficulty and distress. I should not, however, presume so far on your friendship as to expect or request any immediate exertions in the business but that I conceive the Object to have...
88To James Madison from Ambrose Madison, ca. 1 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. Ca. 1 November 1791. Mentioned by JM in his letter to his father, 13 Nov. 1791 . Reports his mother’s recovery and orders articles of clothing, linen, jewelry, and food for various Madison family members and friends.
89To James Madison from Monsieur Jorre, 5 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Dr. McHenry has communicated to you how & why I came to this country. Your character of liberality encourages me to address to you withoute even the suspicion that you will look upon me as importunate or forward. From this I ask your leave to submit to your consideration the case I find myself in. I came to this country with more than necessary to efface from the minds the general presumption...
90To James Madison from John Dawson, 7 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
By the public papers I observe that you have arriv’d in Philadelphia, & I trust in good health. It is very doubtful whether the present will be a very long or short session of the general assembly. The commissioners appointed to prepare & report on the laws of the state have not yet come forward—but it is said they will in a few days. Shoud this business be gone into, it will take up much...
91To James Madison from John Walker, 7 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Colo. Otway Byrd, who has a Claim to lay before Congress, will deliver this letter. Let me beg leave to introduce him to your Notice & civilities as a Man of approved Merit & as one of my most intimate friends. His claim will, I doubt not, meet with your Support, should you think it reasonable, otherwise, I am sure he has too much liberality to expect it. We are here on our Way to South...
92To James Madison from Oliver Towles, 8 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Towles being about to depart from this State for Philadelphia, on business, has amongst other things been kind enough to undertake the management of some Representations of mine, that are to be laid before Congress; being unable personally to attend to them myself; As they are matters in which I am greatly interested, I shall hold myself highly obliged for your generous attention to the...
93To James Madison from Larkin Smith, 10 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
You will pardon I hope the intrusion I am about to make, in the solicitation of your advice respecting a claim; which I think in justice ought to be established against the united States in my favor. The claim is founded upon the following circumstances. From the commencement of the late war untill the year eighty two, I was annexed to the army in different characters; at which time (from the...
94Preliminary Draft of an Essay on Natural Order, [ca. 10 November] 1791 (Madison Papers)
Symmetry of Nature The planetary system, the greatest portion of the Universe, as yet brought under human observation, is regulated by fixed laws, and presents most demonstrably, a scene of order and proportion. From analogy we conclude that the whole universe, if it were equally understood, would exhibit equal proofs of a like arrangement. The general aspect of the earth leads us to remark...
95From James Madison to William Overton Callis, 10 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 10 November 1791. Acknowledged in Callis to JM, 18 Nov. 1791 . Concerns sale of Callis’s land warrant and settlement of a Revolutionary War claim.
96From James Madison to Reuben Lindsay, 10 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 10 November 1791. Acknowledged in Lindsay to JM, 9 Dec. 1791 . Concerns the exchange of John and Thomas Dickenson’s certificates of registered debt.
97To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
In my report on How’s case, where I state that it should go to the President, it will become a question with the house Whether they shall refer it to the President themselves, or give it back to the Petitioner, & let him so address it, as he ought to have done at first. I think the latter proper, 1. because it is a case belonging purely to the Executive. 2. The Legislature should never shew...
98To James Madison from James Maury, 12 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
Since my Respects of 29th July I have recieved 2 Hhds of your Tobaccoe ⅌ Venus—landed—the Success is just arrived with another. I thank you for these Consignments—your Draft in favor Philips & C for £21 is honored. Our Virginia Staple is so far mended as to have better Demand of late, tho’ with very little amendment of price. I again repeat my Recommendation that you give Directions to have a...
99From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 13 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
I recd. yesterday a letter from my brother Ambrose which gave me the first information I had since I left home concerning the state of my mothers health. I am extremely glad to find she had so much mended and hope her health may continue to grow better. My brother signified to me that Miss Baynton wished a furr instead of a chip hat to be sent her. Unluckily the latter had been bought, packed...
100From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 17 November 1791 (Madison Papers)
My last informed you of the articles procured & forwardd. in consequence of my several commissions. I now send the key of the trunk in which some of the articles are contained. I forgot to mention that the Tea in the Dressing boxes belongs to my brother Ambrose. You will see by the inclosed papers that the number of future representatives in Congress has been a subject of discussion, and is...