James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Arnold Henry Dohrman, 4 March 1809

From Arnold Henry Dohrman

Pittsburgh 4th March 1809

Sir

It is with extreme Satisfaction that I do my self the honour to address you as President of these United States; to see Merit, Virtue & Benevolence thus rewarded, my gratefull heart cannot help to rejoice at; your indulgence & friendly Offices have saved me from ruin & my Duty & Inclination prompts me to pray to God Almighty that your health be adequate to the arduous task Providence has pleased to impose on you & for the complete success of your administration.

To your endeavours to preserve & encrease the happiness & Glory of this great Empire, the rectitude of yr Intentions, your Experience & habilities & above all the magnanimous Equity & Humanity you profess, must prove a sure presage off their eventual efficacy.

My self & famely thirteen in number have resided these 12 months past in Pittsburgh, from whence in a month we shall remove to Steubenville, in Ohio State, about 30 Miles from that township for which we are indebted to yr humanity, & for which my Famely offers continually their most ardent prayers for the happiness & Success of yr whole Famely.

To hear from you & that my endeavours to Serve might be any ways of use or agreable, could not increase, but would invigourate that sense of Duty & gratitude with which I have the honour to remain Sir Your most humble & Obliged Servant1

Arnd. Henry Dohrman

RC (DLC). Docketed and marked “private” by JM.

1For the background of Dohrman’s “Duty & gratitude,” see PJM description begins William T. Hutchinson et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (1st ser., vols. 1–10, Chicago, 1962–77, vols. 11–, Charlottesville, Va., 1977—). description ends , 2:34 n. 4.

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