James Madison Papers

James Madison to Lyman C. Draper, 9 August 1833

Montpellier August 9. 1833

Dear Sir,

(private.)

Since your letter of 3d. June came to hand my increasing age and continued maladies, with the many attentions due from me, have caused a delay in acknowledging it, for which these circumstances must be an apology in your case, as I have been obliged to make them in others.

You wish me to refer you to sources of printed information on my career in life, and it would afford me pleasure to do so. But my recollection on the subject is very defective. It occurs that there was a biographical volume in an enlarged edition compiled by General or Judge Rodgers of Pennsylvania, which may perhaps have included my name among others. When or where it was published I cannot say. To this reference, I can only add generally the newspapers at the Seat of Government and elsewhere during the electioneering periods, when I was one of the objects under review. I need scarcely remark that a life which has been so much a public life must of course be traced in the public transactions in which it was involved, and that the most important of these are to be found in documents already in print, or soon to be so. With friendly respects

James Madison

RC (WHi); copy (ViU).

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