1To James Madison from Edmund Edrington, 1 February 1813 (Madison Papers)
You will no doubt be surprised at being addressed by an obscure individual and an utter stranger to you; and perhaps still more so when the cause which has induced him to address you is know[n]: it is to ask a favour, and a pecuniary one too, that I have presumed to trespass upon your important engagements: I am a young man of a respectable but not wealthy family, and of a somewhat better...
2To James Madison from Edmund Edrington, 14 February 1813 (Madison Papers)
I received your Excellencies letter of the 8th. Inst. and thank you for the promptitude with which you favoured me with an answer, as it has saved me from expectations which I might have hoped would be fulfilled. I should not again obtrude myself upon your engagements but to make this acknowledgment; notwithstanding as my pen is in my hand and it appears not mal a propos I will relate an...