To James Madison from Edmund Pendleton, 21 July 1790
From Edmund Pendleton
Virginia, July 21, 1790.
… I am happy to find that Potowmac stands on so good grounds as the Permanent seat of Congress. I could not help wishing that the temporary Residence had remain’d at New York, as a recompense for their expence in y’r Accommodation; to save the expence & trouble of a double removal of the Public Offices, and from a conviction, that Philadelphia is in bad order for y’r reception, & must incur a considerable expence to be in order, besides I doubt from former experiences, whether those Citizens may not more intermeddle with the Fœderal proceedings, than they have at York.…
Printed extract (Stan. V. Henkels Catalogue No. 694 [1892]). In this letter Pendleton also posed queries concerning the peace treaty with Great Britain (JM to Pendleton, 2 Jan. 1791). The list probably kept by Peter Force (DLC: Madison Miscellany) notes that the letter consisted of two pages and calendars it as follows: “The Potomac as a future seat of Government. British debts. The Treaty provisions on the subject. Treaty obligations superior to laws.”