71From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 26 January 1828 (Madison Papers)
Your favours of the 18th have been duly recd. I am sorry you thought an apology necessary for the delay in sending me the residue of my letters to Mr. Jefferson, and rather surprized that you should be scrupulous of reading them. I took for granted that you would regard them, as on his files equally open tho less entitled to inspection than his to me. In forwarding the parcels, you are so...
72From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, [ante 10] April 1827 (Madison Papers)
The explanation you give of Mr. Key’s determination to leave us, surprizes me. I had taken for granted that it had its origin very much with Mrs. Key, and had a sanction at least from the opinion of his friends in England. Were his views less fixed, it might be hoped that if the advice of his friends, from whom it seems he is yet to hear, should press his stay where he is, it might, when...
73James Madison to [Nicholas P. Trist], 15 February 1830 (Madison Papers)
I have recd your favours of and have looked over the remarks enclosed in them, meant as an introduction to an explanatory comment on the proceedings of Virginia in -98-99. occasioned by the Alien & Sedition laws. It was certainly not the object of the member, who prepared the Documents in question, to assert, nor does the fair import of them, as he believes, assert a right in the parties to...
74From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 16 October 1826 (Madison Papers)
Since I asked the favor of you to sketch a report from the Visitors of the University such as would embrace the topics and statements which the Board appeared to have in view, it occurred that the occasion required, and the members of the Board would approve, some tribute to the memory of Mr J. With this view I prepared an introductory paragraph, as you will see; and that the Report might be,...
75James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 23 December 1832 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. yours of the 19th. inclosing some of the S. C. papers. There is in one of them some interesting views of the doctrine of secession; one that had occurred to me, and which for the first time I have seen in print, namely that if one State can at will withdraw from the others, the others can withdraw from her, and turn her, nolentem, volentem, out of the Union. Until of late, there...
76From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 2 March 1827 (Madison Papers)
I recd. in due time your favor of the 21. Ult: and have looked over the lucubrations of Regulus now returned to your files; but with an attention less close than the subject of them would require. I concur entirely in the distinction made between the authority of a Constitution, and that of public opinion. The former is the record of the national Will, and no evidence however specious or true...
77James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 1 December 1831 (Madison Papers)
I return with my thanks the printed speech of Colo. Hayne on the 4th. of July last. It is blotted with many strange errors, some of a kind not to have been looked for from a mind like that of the author. I cannot see the advantage of this perseverance of South Carolina in claiming the authority of the Virginia proceedings in. 98-99, as asserting a right in a single State to nullify an Act of...
78From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 7 February 1827 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your two letters of the 31st Ult. and the first inst: and with them the “Harmony Gazettes” and the “Westminster Review.” The former I now return. The Review I retain for another mail, to avoid encumbering too much the present. You justly set a high value on Gymnastics. But a letter from Mr. Cabell gives little hope that the funds of the University will be aided for that or any...
79James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 1 March 1829 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 24th. Ult. was recd. by mail of thursday last. The copies of Mr. Monroe’s paper had been just before forwarded to Mr. Johnson & Mr. Cabell, and I sent to Mr Randolph by the earliest mail the copies of Mr. Jeffersons letters to Mr. Adams senr. and myself; having previously adverted to the passages you wished to have my consideration. The word "species" last repeated, I found...
80From James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 12 January 1827 (Madison Papers)
I did not receive your two letters of the 8th & 9th. till last evening after the Mail for Charlottesville had passed, and could not therefore sooner acknowledge them. The letters ought to have come to hand the day before yesterday, and might then, have been answered by the mail of yesterday. How the failure happened I know not. That no time might be unnecessarily lost I sent the day before...