To James Madison from Henry Wheaton, 6 March 1824
From Henry Wheaton
Washington, March, 6, 1824
My Dear Sir,
I am extremely indebted to you for your kind attention to my wishes.
The letters can be sent at any time to the President, when you may find an opportunity, & I shall be able to have them transmitted to me at N. York without confiding in the Mail. I do not, at present,1 any opportunity of communicating with Montpellier. But should I learn any before I leave here, I will take care to inform you. I shall probably go home in about ten days.
We have had an unusually interesting Term of the Court, in respect to its including discussions of some very important points of constitutional Law. You will have seen the Opinion of the Chief Justice in the Steam Boat cause.2 I am with great respect your obliged servant,
H. Wheaton
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Wheaton evidently omitted the word “have” here.
2. The case before the U.S. Supreme Court referred to, Gibbons v. Ogden, 2 Mar. 1824, dealt with a challenge to a monopoly on steamboat traffic under New York state law. Aaron Ogden, who held a license for a ferry service between Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and New York City, sued Thomas Gibbons, who had begun his own ferry operations on the same route. The constitutional point at issue was how far the federal power to regulate commerce between the several states extended in an effort to limit state powers. Chief Justice John Marshall, speaking for the majority, sided with Gibbons and struck down the New York state law. For a cogent summary of the case and Marshall’s opinion, see Johnson et al., Papers of John Marshall, 10:7–14.