31To James Madison from James Monroe, 2 September 1794 (Madison Papers)
To morrow will make one month since our arrival here, and such have been my ingagments that altho’ I resolved that I wod. begin a letter to you every succeeding day yet when the day arrived it was not in power heretofore. You will readily conceive the variety of the objects to which I have been forced to attend, many of which requiring the utmost effort of my judgment, all delicate and...
32To James Madison from James Monroe, 20 September 1794 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Swan of Boston who has resided for some years past in this city in the character of a Merchant & in which line he has been extensively engaged will present you this. He leaves this for the purpose of purchasing & shipping to this country the productions of ours & relies much on the advances to be made by our govt. for the means. He will I understand be sole agent in that line of this...
33To James Madison from James Monroe, 30 November 1794 (Madison Papers)
By not hearing from you before this I conclude I shall not untill after you shall have commenc’d the session in Phila. Indeed I calculate upon hearing at the same time from Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Jones, for surely they will not decline writing by you to be forwarded thence with your communications. I therefore wait the lapse of sufficient time to bring yr. letters here with that kind of...
34To James Madison from James Monroe, 18 December 1794 (Madison Papers)
I enclose you three letters one for Mr. R. and the other two for whom ever you may think it best to direct them. You will in case they are delivered take a copy of one for yr.self, for I have not had time to write you nor indeed is it necessary on that subject as I send them open to yr. inspection. You will know whether there is any thing in the report & act accordingly either by presenting or...
35To James Madison from James Monroe, 18 December 1794 (Madison Papers)
I have addressed to your care a letter for Mr. R. & two others, to be addressed by you according to circumstances either to Langdon, Burr, Butler, Ross or any other person in case you shod. deem it proper to be presented at all & sent them in a packet by Havre. This which covers one for Mr. R. is to go by Bordeaux. I submit it entirely to you either to present or suppress it as the state of...
36To James Madison from James Monroe, 18 February 1795 (Madison Papers)
I was yesterday favored with yours of the 4th. of Decr. the only one yet recd. I had perfectly an[ti]cipated the secret causes & motives of the western business, and was extremely happy to find that the patriotism of the people in every quarter, left to its own voluntary impulse and without any information that was calculated to stimulate it, was sufficient to triumph over the schemes of...
37To James Madison from James Monroe, 25 February 1795 (Madison Papers)
Being under the necessity of explaining the motives of my conduct upon my arrival, to the Executive, & in consequence of presenting a statmt. of the circumstances under which I acted, I have thought I could not better convey my ideas to you on that head than by enclosing a copy of the paper. This will of course be kept from Mr. R. because of his official station, & all others from whom it...
38To James Madison from James Monroe, 13 June 1795 (Madison Papers)
I was sometime since favd. with yours of the 11. of March being the second since I left America. You were I presume soon after the date of that in possession of several from me, of two more especially which opened fully the state of things here under the impression of Mr. Jay’s treaty, and which state has not been essentially varied since: for as all communication upon the subject of that...
39To James Madison from James Monroe, 28 June 1795 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. from you 3. letters of which that of the sixth of April was the last. Dr. Edwards by whom it was sent has not yet arrived in Paris so that I am yet to receive his communications upon the state of our affairs. The cypher was recd. in this last letter, and by which I have been highly gratified for it will greatly facilitate our future correspondence. Since my last the committee of...
40To James Madison from James Monroe, 30 June 1795 (Madison Papers)
I send herewith a copy of the constitution reported by the committee of 11. & which will be discussed in the course of a few days. A doubt arises with many upon the propriety of the executive organizn., & some wish and with a view of strengthening it that the number be reduc’d to 3—but this wod. certainly produce the opposit effect, for the annual rotation by the with-drawal of one & the...
41To James Madison from James Monroe, [ca. 23 July] 1795 (Madison Papers)
I received yours of the 26. of march and had before received those of the 4th. of Decr. 11 of march and 6th. of April which comprize all that I have received since my arrival here. I am happy to hear that you judged it expedient to deliver my letter of the 18th. of Decr. to Mr. R. because I think it could in no view do any harm, & might possibly in a particular view do some good. I wait with...
42To James Madison from James Monroe, 26 July 1795 (Madison Papers)
I had began a long letter to you in cypher, it appearing the British have commenc’d seizing my letters, but which not being complete I forward the enclosed by the present private opportunity, & which being on the moment of departure prohibits more being added than that the comn. is intended as a friendly deposit in your hands & for the purpose of guarding my reputation from unjust attacks...
43To James Madison from James Monroe, 5 August 1795 (Madison Papers)
Soon after my arrival here last year I found it necessary to appoint some one consul provisionally & in consequence appointed Mr. Skipwith to that office & announc’d him to this govt. as well as our own: but before this step was known the President had nominated a Mr. Pitcairn for that place. Mr. P. being by birth a British subject & having latterly become an American citizen & in consequence...
44To James Madison from James Monroe, 8 September 1795 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 2d. of May is the last with which I have been favd., tho most probably this is owing to the seizure of our vessels by the British & the free use I hear they make of my correspondence. Since my last to you Mr. Masons copy of the treaty with such proceedings of the senate upon it as were published up to the 3. of July have arrived here: and since which we have seen the discussions...
45To James Madison from James Monroe, 23 October 1795 (Madison Papers)
I send you herewith an invoice of the articles purchased for you according to yr request & by wh. the duties will be paid. The price will I fear exceed what you expected, for by Dr. Edwards acct. the reports in America were very erroneous in this respect. It is however in my opinion comparatively with what is usual in America very cheap. In the bed there are abt. 80. French ells of Damask...
46To James Madison from James Monroe, 24 October 1795 (Madison Papers)
I wrote you yesterday with a view of sending the letter by the same vessel which takes the articles we have purchased for you—but as an excellent opportunity, that of Mr. Murray a very worthy young man, offers, I shall avail myself of it not only to send the letter of yesterday but to add something to it. Perhaps these articles may likewise be sent by the same opportunity, altho the vessel...
47To James Madison from James Monroe, 29 October 1795 (Madison Papers)
To day the members of the Directoire are to be chosen. Yesterday the two houses were organised and the prospect is that the present will be a propitious Era in the history of the revolution. The spirit of dissention seems already to be checked by the seperation of the members into different chambers. If suitable men are put into the Directoire the happiest effects must result from the change,...
48To James Madison from James Monroe, 8 November 1795 (Madison Papers)
The gentn. (Mr Murray) by whom my letters are forwarded was detained longer by contrary winds in Engld. than was expected. I endeavor however to repr. the injury of delay in my other communications by adding to them what intervenes before his departure. The govt. is now completely organised in all its departments, & its effect the happiest that can be conceived upon the publick opinion. What...
49To James Madison from James Monroe, 12 January 1796 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 6h. of April is the last I have received from you, though since that period I have written you eight or ten at least. The theatre too on which you are, has been and probably will continue to be an interesting one, for it is presumeable the same subject which creates such solicitude among the People at large, will produce a like effect among their representatives. Certain it is,...
50To James Madison from James Monroe, 20 January 1796 (Madison Papers)
I think I mentioned to you sometime since that Mr. Paine was with me. Upon my arrival I found him in prison, & as soon as I saw my application in his behalf would be attended to, I asked his release & obtained it. But he was in extreme ill health, without resource, & (affrs. being unsettled) not without apprehensions of personal danger, & therefore anxious to avail himself as much as possible...
51To James Madison from James Monroe, 27 February 1796 (Madison Papers)
This will accompany your china which is addressed to Mr. Yard. I enclose also the charge by wh. you will be able to pay the duty. About a fortnight past I was informed by the minister of foreign affairs that the government had at length resolved how to act with us in respect to our treaty with England . That they considered it as having violated or rather annulled our treaty of alliance with...
52To James Madison from James Monroe, 24 March 1796 (Madison Papers)
I have not recd. a line from you since June last altho’ I have written you vols.: In my last I communicated to you that this govt. had resolved to send an Envoy Extry. to the U. States to complain of our treaty &ca with Engld. & from wh. it had been diverted (if it is diverted as I presume it is) by my earnest representations agnst it, but that it was still dissatisfied & wod. complain in...
53To James Madison from James Monroe, 7 May 1796 (Madison Papers)
I have within a few days past received yours of Febry. 26th. by the French consul, the only one since June last. That spoken of from Mr. Jones has not come to hand. I informed you sometime since that this government had taken up the treaty with a high tone ( our treaty with England ) appointed forthwith an envoy extra. to repair to the United States and with instructions in case he did not...
54To James Madison from James Monroe, 7 June 1796 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 25. of Feby. is the only I have recd. for 12. months past, altho’ I have written unceasingly & fully. I suspect your letters are thrown over in the sea by the captns of vessels to avoid compromittment. For the future therefore it may be well to address by the way of Engld. under the care of Mr. Pinckney or in case he withdraws, some merchants deserving confidence. Mr. Yard wod....
55To James Madison from James Monroe, 5 July 1796 (Madison Papers)
Yesterday the Fourth of July was celebrated here by the Americans. I intended to have done it but having given them an entertainment last year they returned the compliment this. You will observe by the copy sent in that to the American government the term executive is used and not president . The course of the business was as follows . The project began first with the friends of the British...
56To James Madison from James Monroe, 1 August 1796 (Madison Papers)
This with other letters & papers are committed to Dr. Edwards for you, & to whom I beg to refer you upon many points of importance for the most correct information; I have long known him, & from the confidence I have in his principles as well as discretion, have communicated very freely with him, & therefore refer you to him as to an authority pure, & a person to be confided in. Indeed there...
57To James Madison from James Monroe, 1 September 1796 (Madison Papers)
This government has at last and against my utmost efforts to prevent it sent an order to their minister to withdraw giving for reason our treaty with England and declaring that the customary relations between the two nations shall cease. I have no official communication and can’t be more particular . After deliberating about seven months they resolved that the honour of their country would be...
58To James Madison from James Monroe, 19 September 1796 (Madison Papers)
From what I see in an American newspaper and what Dr. Edwards writes me from London it is probable the English faction with us will endeavor to impose on the publick the belief of an intrigue between some men in America [and] this government to prevail on the latter to interfere in our interior and to make Major Fulton the organ—nothing is more false—the man has come here to get paid what was...
59To James Madison from James Monroe, 20 September 1796 (Madison Papers)
It is hinted to me by a person lately from London that it was said there I presume by King or Gore or both that Fulton had mentioned me in some correspondence hence to the United States perhaps with Governor Blount as being friendly to their interest, and which has got into Timothy’s hands and is considered by that enlightened statesman & his friends as a proof [of] a conspiracy—when this man...
60To James Madison from James Monroe, 26 September 1796 (Madison Papers)
The state of affrs. remains nearly the same since my last: except that upon the Rhine or rather in the intr. of Germany since the check of Jourdan or perhaps complete defeat & wh. I rather presume, the progress is impeded, & in Italy Bounaparte has gained another victory taking 5000. prisoners & driving Wurmser into Mantua where he is closely besieged. I think I mentioned to you in my last...
61To James Madison from James Monroe, 15 November 1796 (Madison Papers)
This will pass by the way of Engld. & will therefore most probably arrive safe. It is committed to Mr. Dease lately with Mr. P. in Engld. & who will deliver it to some careful person abt. departing thence for America. I enclose in it two letters from T. Pickering to me, my answer to the first, & a communication wh. finally wound up my discussion with the minister of for: affrs. upon the...
62To James Madison from James Monroe, 1 January 1797 (Madison Papers)
I have not heard from you since the adjourmt. of the last Congress or rather since you left Phila. after the adjourment. In my last I informed you that Adet was suspended & orders issued to seize British property in our bottoms & that the aspect here was a very menacing one, and in consequence my situation as the minister of our country a very disagreeable one, & wh. was made more so, after...
63To James Madison from James Monroe, 8 January 1797 (Madison Papers)
I recd. notice of my recall in Novr., Mr. Pinckney arrived here in decr. & I took my leave of this govt. on the first of Jany. so that you will perceive it was impossible unless I exposed myself & family to the danger & inconvenience of a winters voyage, to depart hence before the begining of April next, wh. we propose to do, in case a suitable passage can be obtained from any of the ports of...
64To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 16 January 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
The badness of the weather and Mrs. M’s ill health has prevented our calling on you since we saw you. As the people of the county intend to make you their acknowledgments for your services, sometime in the course of the ensuing week , I have thought it might not be improper to give you a view of the manner in which they propose to express them. I forwarded your letters by the post to Richmond...
65To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 20 May 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
Your friends have been made uneasy by a report of your indisposition, but flatter themselves it has been remov’d ere this, as they hear it was a periodical complaint you have had before and which was never accompanied with any dangerous symptoms. I have just return’d from Albemarle whither I went lately from the chancery to qualify in the circuit court of the U. States. The Judges were...
66To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 7 June 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you lately by Judge Wilson whom I accompanied to the circuit court at Charlottesville. I have since been to the chancery which clos’d as to business of consequence on Saturday. Our child who hath been dangerously ill hath so far recover’d as to admit of her removal home. We sit out thither tomorrow, where I shall remain untill the appeals about the 25th. This will be presented to you...
67To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 3 July 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 20th. of June I have received and am happy to hear of your restoration to health. Mrs. Monroe and family are in Albemarle whither I sit out in a day or two. They are well.—The assumption of the state debts is disliked here, and will create great disgust if adopted under any shape whatever. The minds of all are made up on it, and I doubt whether even the immediate removal to...
68To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 18 July 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
My last from Richmond in answer to yours of the 20th. of June has no doubt been received. The more I have reflected on the subject, the better satisfied I am of the impolicy of assuming the state debts. The diminishing the necessity for State taxation will undoubtedly leave the national government more at liberty to exercise its powers and encrease the subjects on which it will act, for that...
69To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 26 July 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
A few days past your favor of June 11. was presented me by your relation Mr. G. Jefferson expressive of your friendly and benevolent wishes toward that young gentleman. Colo. Lewis is on a visit to Bedford, so that whatever depends on him will remain in suspense, untill his return, which will be in a few days. In the interim he will remain with me, and indeed untill he shall be comfortably...
70To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 20 October 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
After the most mature reflection I have at length yielded to my inclinations to suffer my name to be mention’d for a public appointment. If it takes place, unless some unpleasant reflections on probable future events should press on me, it will contribute greatly to my own and the gratification of Mrs. M. as it will place us both with and nearer our friends. But to be candid there is not that...
71To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 22 October 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you a few days past in great hurry by the Albemarle post which I presume has been received. You have been able to collect from that communication that my services will be offer’d for the Senate, unless upon the information of my friends it shall appear probable they will be rejected. I gave you there a detail of circumstances relative to that business, and can only now add that as far...
72To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 26 November 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my appointment I have not before had leasure to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging favor from Monticello. The arrangement of my business in the different courts, and other affairs, has given me full employment and detain’d me so long that it will be difficult to reach Phila. by the day appointed for the meeting of the Congress. This however I shall attempt and for this purpose sit...
73To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 15 December 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you the letters mention’d last night, among which you will find two, from Mr. Fitzhugh and Mr. Page each, cover’d by one from the old gentleman his father recommendatory of young Mr. Mortimer. He is extremely anxious to have him admitted into your office and under your care. The young man appears to be amiable in temper and manner, sensible, prudent, and is well esteem’d among his...
74To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 17 January 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you soon after my arrival here relative to the wishes and pretentions of a Mr. Mortimer, son of Dr. M. of Fredbg., to an appointment in your office. As I understood mine was accompanied with letters from Mr. Fitzhugh and Mr. Page I suppos’d an answer would have been communicated to these gentlemen. Latterly I have received several applications on that subject from the Doctor and his...
75To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 17 February 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be presented you by Mr. Yard at present residing in this city, but lately from St. Croix, whither also he proposes shortly to return. Presuming the establishment of consuls will be extended to that Island, and being willing to accept of such appointment, he has requested me to make his pretensions known to you. His connection with Mrs. Monroe’s family has given me the pleasure of his...
76To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 29 March 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Charlottesville, 29 Mch. 1791. When he left for Philadelphia last November he sought to place his brother “in a quiet good family and where he might pursue his studies to the best advantage.” From general opinion of his friends he engaged lodgings for him with James Kerr, the more so because Monroe “had render’d him services, and had a claim to his attention.” But to his astonishment he...
77IX. James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, 25 July 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 10th. found me here upon the business mention’d in my last. I left Mrs. M. at Monticello to remain till my return. I have been here near three weeks and shall leave it tomorrow on my way back. We have gone thro’ the business, allotted to each his duty and are to meet again in Fredbg. on the 5th. of Octr. next. A part of our duty was to consolidate (when many were drawn) all...
78To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 17 June 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been favor’d with 2 letters from you since my arrival with Paine’s pamphlet in one, and should have answer’d them sooner, but knew of your departure Eastward and of course that it would not have been sooner received. By the 25th. we shall be settled in Albemarle upon my plantation, the unfinish’d state of the buildings having prevented the removal there sooner. The appeals and general...
79To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, [11] January 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
You will have heard that upon the discussion of G.M.’s merits, the foreign business was postponed untill tomorrow, nothing having been done respecting the Hague. The order of proceeding required that a similar question shod. have been taken respecting that court that had been as to the others. But owing I presume to the friends of the gentn. in nomination for it, being in opposition to the...
80To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 2 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been requested by Mr. Dawson to make known to you his willingness to accept the office of Director of the Mint, to which bill the President has this day announced his assent. As my opinion of this Gentleman was communicated to you on a former occasion and he is known personally to you, tis not necessary that I should add any further on the subject. With the greatest respect & esteem...