To James Madison from Stephen Van Rensselaer, 4 February 1823
From Stephen Van Rensselaer
Washington Feby 4th. 1823
Sir
Pardon the liberty I take of troubling you with the enclosed address1 and beg the favor of your opinion of the project. Any improvements that may occur to you will cheerfully be adopted. We look up to you as the great Patron of Agriculture. In our State we propose establishing an Agrictr School & I have offered a farm to the Board of Agriculture for a pattern farm if the Legislature will sanction it. A Bill is reported to the Assembly which I hope will pass into a Law.2 I am very respectfully Your ob St
S. Van Rensselaer
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Amos Eaton, To the Gentlemen Residing in the Vicinity of the Erie Canal (Troy, N.Y., 1822; Shoemaker 8589). JM’s copy is in the Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
2. The bill was unsuccessful, but in 1836 the legislature passed an act incorporating the New York State Agricultural School, the money for its support to be raised by public subscription. Though several attempts were made to raise the necessary funds, the school never got off the ground (Harry J. Carman, ed., Jesse Buel, Agricultural Reformer: Selections from His Writings [1947; reprint, New York, 1972], xxiv–xxv).