To James Madison from James Barbour, 11 April 1818
From James Barbour
Washn. Apl. 11—18
Dear Sir
Permit me to enclose you a paper containing my remarks on the navigation bill1 which you will previously have seen in the papers. Altho to you the view I have taken will present nothing new2 who has been so familiar with the Subject for forty years it may employ a leisure half hour in its perusal—deriving its interest principally from the consideration that they are made by one who claims to be among the foremost of those who entertain for you a high and friendly regard. The bill will pass I believe both houses by a large majority. Yr. Friend
Jas Barbour3
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Barbour’s speech in the Senate in support of the navigation bill was published in the Daily National Intelligencer, 11 Apr. 1818. It had been adverted to in a report on Senate proceedings in the same paper on 4 Apr. For a discussion of Barbour’s speech, which argued for a strict reciprocity in commercial relations with Great Britain, see Charles D. Lowery, James Barbour, A Jeffersonian Republican (University, Ala., 1984), 102–3. For a larger discussion of the West Indian reciprocity dispute, see Benns, “Study No. 56: The American Struggle for the British West India Carrying-Trade,” Indiana University Studies 10 (1923): 50–53.
2. The words “to you” are crossed out here.
3. James Barbour (1775–1842) of Barboursville, Virginia, was a political supporter and close neighbor of JM’s. He served as governor of Virginia, 1812–15; U.S. senator, 1815–25; secretary of war, 1825–28; and U.S. minister to Great Britain, 1828–29 (, 3:321 n. 1).