From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 3 August 1795
To James Madison
Aug. 3. 95.
Th:J. to J.M.
You will percieve by the inclosed that Hamilton has taken up his pen in support of the treaty. [Return it to me.] He spoke on it’s behalf in the meeting at New York, and his party carried a decision in favor of it by a small majority. But the Livingstonians appealed to stones and clubs and beat him and his party off the ground. This from a gentleman just from Philadelphia. Adieu.
P.S. Richmond has decided against the treaty. It is said that not even Carrington undertakes to defend it.
RC (DLC: Madison Papers); brackets in original. Not recorded in SJL. Enclosure not identified, but see note below.
Hamilton has taken up his pen: “The Defence” No. I, the first of 38 essays by “Camillus” defending the Jay Treaty, appeared in the New York Argus, or Greenleafs New Daily Advertiser, 22 July 1795. Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King collaborated in the series, but Hamilton wrote the first 22 installments published through 11 Nov. 1795 and 6 others of later dates. The final essay appeared 9 Jan. 1796 (, xviii, 475–7).
The source of TJ’s description of the meeting at New York on Saturday 18 July has not been identified, but an account from Philadelphia on 21 July “By a gentleman who left New York on Sunday evening” was printed in the “Postscript” to the 29 July 1795 issue of the Richmond Virginia Gazette, and General Advertiser. For the sequel, see Madison to TJ, 6 Aug. 1795, and note.