To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 5 May 1781
From James Madison
Philada. May 5th. 1781
Dear Sir
In compliance with your request I have procured and now send you a copy of the Constitutions &c. published by order of Congress. I know not why the order in which they stand in the Resolution was varied by the Committee in binding them up. The encomium on the inhabitants of Rhode Island was a flourish of a Delegate from [that] State who furnished the Committee with the account of its Constitution, and was very inconsiderately suffer[ed] to be printed. I am Dear sir, yr sincere friend,
J. Madison Junr.
RC (DLC: Madison Papers); addressed in part: “private.”
The constitutions &c.: The Constitutions of the Several Independent States of America; the Declaration of Independence; the Articles of Confederation between the said States; the Treaties between His Most Christian Majesty and the United States of America (Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1781); published in accordance with a resolve of Congress of 29 Dec. 1780 that “a committee of three be appointed to collect and cause to be published 200 correct copies of the declaration of independence, the articles of confederation and perpetual union, the alliances between these United States and his Most Christian Majesty, with the constitutions or forms of government of the several states, to be bound together in boards” (, xxi, 1200, No. 364; same, xviii, 1217).