11From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 19 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). You preserve your character for punctuality so well that I always have the pleasure to begin with acknowledging the receipt of a favor from you. That of the 11 instant came to hand yesterday. As the sufferings of your Militia are ascribed to the conduct of their Commanding Officer, I hope the disgust will be only local. A general disgust would be a very serious...
12From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 14 November 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Yr. favor of the 6th. inst: came to hand yesterday. Mr. Griffin by whom you appear also to have written has not yet arrived. It gives me great pleasure to find that the Enemy’s numbers are so much less formidable that [than] was at first computed, but the information from N. York makes it not improbable that the blank in the computation may shortly be filled up. Genl...
13From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [13] February 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I have your favor of the 5th. instant by the post. Col. Harrison arrived here yesterday, and as he mentions no circumstance which indicated an intended departure of the Enemy I am afraid your intelligence on that subject was not well founded. Immediately on the receipt of your former letter relating to an exchange of C. Taylor I applied to the Admiralty department,...
14From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 27 August 1782 (Madison Papers)
I have examined into the law of this State relating to slaves coming into it from other States, and find an exception for the case of fugitives which will secure your nephew agst. danger from that source. As the French army however is at this time but beginning to move from Baltimore, I hope the Messenger will recover the slave before he reaches this place. Should it happen otherwise my...
15From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 26 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I have your favor of the 18th. inst: inclosing another relating to Capt: C. Taylor with a certificate of his situation, to which I shall pay the necessary attention but cannot undertake to predict certain success. The Danish Declaration with the step taken in consequence by the Ct. of London mentioned in the inclosed are the chief news of this week. There is a report...
16From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 10 October 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Your favor of the first Inst. came safe to hand yesterday. The inclosed was sent to Mr. Pendleton who is still in town. All we know of the several fleets in the American Seas is that Rodney with a few ships at N. York, the remainder having joined Graves & Arbuthnot whom we know nothing about: Ternay is still at Rhode Island. The main french fleet under Guichen left...
17From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 10 September 1782 (Madison Papers)
I am extremely sorry for the ill luck which your favr. of the 2d. instant informs me attended the endeavors to regain Mr. Pendletons fugitive negro; and the more so, as his hopes from my pursuit of him will be equally disappointed. I shall write immediately to Col: Jameson on the subject & enclose your description of the negro, and the request of Mr. Pendleton as to the sale of him. As it is...
18From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 9 July 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Unsigned letter in JM’s hand. The cover is missing. Docketed, “James Madison Esqr. July 9. 1782.” The betts which your favr. of the 1st. inst: says are still laid on the subject of the naval combat of the 12th. of April, are a proof rather of the fashion of the Country than of uncertainty as to the event. Altho’ no official accts. have been recd. on the part of...
19From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 25 December 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but the letter is docketed in Pendleton’s hand, “James Maddison Esq. Decr. 25 1781.” You only do me justice in ascribing your disappointment in the post of the week preceding your favor of the 16th. instant, to some other cause than my neglect. If I were less disposed to punctuality your example wd. preserve me from transgressing it. As the lost...
20From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 9 October 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Addressed to “The Honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia” Having sent you the arguments on one side of the judiciary question relating to the property of Virga. seized by Mr. Nathan, it is but reasonable that you should see what was contended on the other side. With this view, although I in some measure usurp the task of Mr. Jones, I enclose the paper...
21From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 5 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I have your favor of the 27th. ulto. and congratulate you on the deliverance of our Country from the distresses of actual invasion. The spirit it has shewn on this occasion will I hope in some degree protect it from a second visit. Congress yesterday received letters from Mr. Jay & Mr. Carmichael as late as the 4 & 9th of Sepr. The general tenor of them is that we...
22From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 7 February 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but the contents of the letter permit no doubt that Pendleton was the recipient. The post has been very irregular for several weeks past & this week the Mail South of Annapolis has failed altogether; by which means I lose the pleasure of your alternate favor. A vessel from France informs us that the frigate freigted with the event at York had...
23From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 16 January 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I was very glad at not being disappointed in my expectations of a favor from you by yesterday’s post. Several reports in quick succession of the arrival & progress of the predatory band under Arnold had rendered us exceedingly anxious to hear the truth & particulars of the matter. Some letters by the post tell us that the Governor with Baron Steuben was wholly...
24From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 3 September 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Addressed to “The Honble. Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” I am favored with yours of the 27th. ultimo. This letter will be the most agreeable of any I have long had the pleasure of writing. I begin with informing you that the Commander in chief and the Ct. Rochambeau, the former with a part of the American Army, and the latter with the whole of the...
25From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 18 September 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Maddison Esqr. Sepr. 18th. 1781.” I was yesterday favored with yours of the 10th. instant. The various reports arrived of late from Chesapeake prepared us for a confirmation from our correspondents of a fortunate rencontre between the 2 fleets. A continuation of these reports although unsupported by any authentic evidence still keeps up...
26From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 8 January 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison, Esq. Jan. 8, 1782.” I have before me your favor of the 31st. Ulto. I regret much the refusal of Mr. J. to become a member of the Virga. delegation, not only as it deprives his country of that particular service, but as I fear it proceeds from a fixed disinclination to all public employments. Yesterday was opened for the first...
27From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 29 October 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Unsigned but in JM’s hand. Cover missing. Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison jr. Octr. 29. 1782.” A continuance of Mr. Jones’s indisposition has procured me the office of answering yours of the 21st. instant. His relapse has been more severe than I was aware, and will keep him a prisoner in his room for some time to come. His disorder is at present rather...
28From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 16 October 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but the letter is docketed in Pendleton’s hand, “Jas. Madison jr. Esqr. Octr. 16. 1781.” When you get a sight of the Resolution of the Gen: Ass: referred to in your favor of the 8th. you will readily judge from the tenor of it what steps would be taken by the Delegates. It necessarily submitted the fate of the object in question to the...
29From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 16 July 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Unsigned and cover missing. Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison, jr. Esqr. July 16th. 1782.” Your favor of the 8th. instant escaped the danger of late incident to the post; the robbers having removed to the Northward for the purpose of attacking the Eastern mail which fell into their hands near Trenton last week. It is said to have been the identical party. I am...
30From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 31 July 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but the letter is docketed by Pendleton, “James Maddison jr. Esqr. July 31. 1781.” I have the pleasure of your’s of the 23d. I congratulate you on your return to Caroline and on the safety of your estate from the ravages of the Enemy. The mail of last week having been intercepted near Wilmington has kept back the post a day later than his usual...
31From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 12 September 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The address sheet is missing, but Pendleton wrote on the letter: “James Maddison, Esqr. Sepr. 12. 1780.” Although the originals of most of the letters from Pendleton to JM have not been found (see headnote to Pendleton to JM, 27 August 1780 ), JM’s letters to Pendleton, insofar as their present location is known, are with one exception in two repositories—the Library...
32From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [5] November 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Cover missing. Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison Esqr. Nov. 4. 1782.” JM misdated the letter. His textual references to “yesterdays mail” (which could not have been that of 3 November, a Sunday), to “Yesterday” as the date of Elias Boudinot’s election to the presidency of Congress ( Notes on Debates, 4 November ), and to “my letter of this date to Mr....
33From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [24] October 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). In its present state the original letter lacks its last line. In the copy below, this line is taken from Madison, Writings (Hunt ed.) Gaillard Hunt, ed., The Writings of James Madison (9 vols.; New York, 1900–1910). , I, 75. At the head of the letter, JM left a space between “Octr” and “1780” without filling in the date of the month. In view of what he states in the...
34From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 9 January 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The address sheet is missing, but JM, probably late in life, wrote “To Mr. Pendleton” at the top. Pendleton docketed the letter “James Maddison Esq Jan. 9th. 1781.” I have again the pleasure to begin with acknowledg the receipt of a favor from you, that of the 1st. inst: having come to hand yesterday. On Thursday last Congress were informed by Genl. Potter & Col....
35From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 1 October 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Unsigned letter in JM’s hand. Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison jr. Esqr. Octr. 1. 1782.” We have red. no addition since to my last to the intelligence from Europe: except an anecdote mentioned in a letter from the Marquis de la Fayette, which exemplifies the tergiversation of Mr. Grenville. On his interview with the Ct. de Vergennes he said that the...
36From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 14 August 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Addressed to “The Honble. Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” I have your favor of the 6th. inst: before me. The defect of intelligence from your correspondents here must have been removed soon after you wrote, unless a miscarriage befell my letter as well as that of Mr. Jones who wrote the week before by the intercepted mail. Such accidents or sickness...
37From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 23 January 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Mathematical notations by Pendleton appear on the cover sheet. I have nothing new this week for you but two reports: the first is that very great discontents prevail in N. York among the German Troops for causes pretty similar to those which produced the eruption in the Pennsylvania line. It is further said on this head that a party of 200 have deserted from Long...
38From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 13 November 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Addressed to “The honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” I was favored with yours of the 5th. yesterday. There are some flattering reports here of a meeting between the fleets which brought another drubbing on the English, but the most probable report is that the British fleet have returned to their station at the Hook, judging it inadvisable to...
39From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 3 September 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Unsigned letter in JM’s hand. JM franked the letter and addressed it to “The honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison jr. Esq. Sepr. 3d. 1782.” An unknown hand, seemingly contemporaneous, lightly sketched in ink in the center of the page an unhappy British lion courant being pursued by an Indian, probably...
40From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 7 November 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Your favor of the 30 of last month came by yesterday’s post, and explained a report which had amused us here for several days. It was said that some movements of the French to the Southward, had alarmed the enemy to such a degree that they had suddenly re-embarked their troops and were leaving Virginia. The re-embarkation of the detachment which had taken possession...
41From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 25 June 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Maddison Jr. Esq June 25th. 1782.” The cover is missing. Your favor of the 17th. escaped the accident which befel that of the preceeding week. The loss of the mail is the more regretted as we now understand that a packet from N.Y. to England, which had been intercepted & carried into N. Carolina, made a part of it. No authentic...
42From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 9 April 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). The cover is missing, but Pendleton docketed the letter, “James Madison Esqr. Apl: 9. 1782.” The paper of this morning will make a small but high seasoned addition to the treat afforded you by our last parliamentary intelligence. A French frigate is lately arrived at Rhode Island which has brought despatches for the Chevr. de la luzerne, the contents of which are...
43From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 3 October 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 25 ulo. yesterday and am sorry it is not yet in my power to gratify your hopes with any prospect of a successful issue to this campaign. The reports of the approach or arrival of a French fleet continue to be circulated, and to prove groundless. If any foreign operations are undertaken on the continent it will probably be...
44From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 25 February 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but the letter was docketed by Pendleton, “James Maddison jr. Feb. 25th. 1782.” In another hand, “E. Pendleton Esq Caroline County Va” appears at the bottom of the second page of the letter. The irregularity of the post has again left me two of your favrs. to acknowledge at once, the first of which is of the 28th. Ultimo & the other of the 11th....
45From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [15 October] 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Undated, but Pendleton’s docket reads, “James Madison jr. Sepr. 12. 1782.” This obviously refers not to the date of the letter but to the date of the dispatch quoted by JM in the letter. In it JM duplicated in a considerable degree his letter of 15 October 1782 to Edmund Randolph ( q.v. ). Extract of a letter from Sr. Guy Carlton to Genl Washington dated Sepr....
46From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [27 November] 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover is missing, but Pendleton docketed the letter, “James Madison Esqr. Novr. 27. 1781.” Your favor of the 19th. instant came to hand yesterday. On the same evening arrived our illustrious General returning to his position on the North river. We shall probably however have his company here for some days at least, where he will be able to give Congress very...
47From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 22 October 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison jr. Octr. 22d. 1782.” The address of your favor of the 14th. instant to me coincides with the order which Mr. Jones & myself had settled. It would have been the more inconvenient too for him to have had his turn this week, as the dregs of his late indisposition are working themselves off to his no small disturbance. His lady...
48From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 23 April 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Addressed to “The Honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison Esqr. April 23d. 1782.” We have had here the same reports of the evacuation of Charleston which your letter of the 15. recites, but the wished for confirmation is still wanting. That it will take place in the course of the Campaign cannot I think be...
49From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 2 October 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Only a fragment of the cover remains. It reads, “Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” Yours of 24th. ulto. came safe by yesterdays post. In addition to the paper of this day I enclose you two of the preceding week in one of which you will find a very entertaining & interesting speech by Mr. Fox, and in the other a handsome forensic discussion of a case...
50From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 22 January 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The post having not yet come in I have not the pleasure of acknowledg[in]g yours which I make no doubt he brings for me. Congress are much occupied & perplexed at present with the case of Vermont. The pretensions of that settlement to the character of an independt. State, with the grounds on which they are made & the countenance given them by Congress are I presume...
51From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 24 September 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison Esqr. Oct 1. 1782.” In his letter of 14 October to JM ( q.v. ), Pendleton implied that the present communication and that of 1 October reached him simultaneously, and he probably docketed both as though they had been written on the same day. I am very glad to find that the recovery of Mr. Pendleton’s slave hath at length been...
52From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [28 July] 1783 (Madison Papers)
Printed excerpts (William Cabell Rives, History of the Life and Times of James Madison [3 vols.; Boston, 1859–68], I, 490–91). These excerpts, except for differences in punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, and one minor instance of phraseology, are identical with the passage on the same topic in the manuscript of JM’s letter to Edmund Randolph on the same date ( q.v. ). If little weight...
53From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 29 May 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Addressed to “The Honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr. Caroline County Virginia.” The two circumstances relating to the proposed duty on trade mentioned in your favor of the 1st. instant were subjects of discussion when the measure was on the anvil. It was evident that the disposition of the States to invest Congress with such a power wd. be influenced by the length of the...
54From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 23 July 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC (New York Public Library). Docketed by Pendleton, “James Madison Esqr. July 23d. 1782.” Cover missing. The sterility of my late correspondence will be compensated by the contents of the inclosed paper, which besides other interesting particulars sufficiently confirms the recognition of our Independence by the States General. Among the numerous good consequences of this event to us I wish...
55From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 31 October 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Your favor of the 23. came to hand yesterday. We received notice of the invasion of Virga. yesterday morning and more fully last evening. I am sensible of the great difficulties you will have to contend with and that no practicable exertions can save the State from much injury whilst the Enemy have a total command of the Bay & rivers. The meeting of the Legislature...
56From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 2 April 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). That Pendleton was the addressee is made clear by his letter of 15 April to JM ( q.v. ). The only event with which the period since my last has enabled me to repay your favor of the 25th. Ulto. is the arrival of four Deputies from Vermt. with a plenipotentiary commission to accede to the confederacy. The business is referred to a Committee who are sufficiently...
57From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 30 October 1781 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). On the cover is this note: “Colo. Pendleton will be so Obliging as to bring the form he promised to Church next Sunday T. Jones.” Pendleton and Thomas Jones (d. 1782), a planter, lived in St. Mary’s Parish, Caroline County, and were members of the same congregation of the Church of England. JM addressed the letter to “The Honble Edmund Pendleton Esqr Caroline County...