331From James Madison to Isaac Cox Barnet, 18 July 1804 (Madison Papers)
Since the letter which gave you an election of the appointments of Commercial Agent at Havre and Antwerp, information was received which indicated that the former place had your preference. A commission was therefore some time ago forwarded to Mr. Jacob Ridgway appointing him to Antwerp, and another to Mr. John Mitchell appointing him Vice Commercial Agent at Havre. The latter commission will...
332From James Madison to Isaac Cox Barnet, 12 November 1802 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of Sepr. 10. has just been recd. I am glad to find that the appointment given you, proves so acceptable. Since it was forwarded, a vacancy in the consulate at Havre has come into view; and I am authorized by the President to enquire whether that place would be preferred by you to Antwerp. It is desireable that your answer on this point should be delayed as little as possible, that...
333From James Madison to Isaac Cox Barnet, 30 September 1803 (Madison Papers)
If the scope of your communication of the 19th. of June is correctly conceived you retain a predilection for the Commercial Agency at Antwerp; tho’ the uncertainty whether it remained vacant induced you to adhere to the appointment to Havre which you last received. Should this be the true state of your choice, you will be at liberty to retain Antwerp, and on your intimating that determination...
334From James Madison to Joshua Barney and Others, 1 May 1794 (Madison Papers)
I have been favored with your letter of Mar: 13. from Jamaica with its inclosure, in which the American Masters of Vessels detained in that Island have been pleased to express their sentiments on the Resolutions proposed by me in the House of Representatives on the 3d. of January last. Having long regarded the principles on which those Resolutions were founded, as the basis of a policy most...
335From James Madison to Joshua Barney, 30 August 1804 (Madison Papers)
In answer to your letter intimating that a claim you had upon the French Government has been rejected by the Commissioners under the Convention respecting Louisiana, and desiring the interposition of the Executive, I have to inform you that as the Convention provides for its own exposition and execution there would be no room for such an interference. It may be further observed that your being...
336From James Madison to James Barry, 4 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I return the notification which Mr. Palyart has given of your appointment to act in his place as Consul General of Portugal, during his absence; and beg leave to inform you, that there will be no impropriety in your giving it publicity. Any communications, which you may have to make to me, respecting the business of your charge, will be received and attended to in the manner which custom...
337From James Madison to Jonathan Barry, 24 December 1808 (Madison Papers)
I have just received a Letter from the Wife of William Bassett, whose case was committed to this Department in yours of the 12th. of August last, requesting that an application might be made to the proper authority at Cayenne, for the person of her Husband, the said William Bassett, in order to his being sent to the United States, to be tried for the offence with which he stands charged, by a...
338From James Madison to William T. Barry, 30 December 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd the copy of your Eulogy on Adams Jefferson & Shelby; and I can not return you my thanks without alluding to the particular value given to it by facts which it records; as well as to the additional interest it derives from the glowing patriotism which pervades it. May I remark at the same time that it has not escaped circumstancial errors which will probably be corrected by a...
339From James Madison to William T. Barry, 4 August 1822 (Madison Papers)
I recd. some days ago your letter of June 30, and the printed Circular to which it refers. The liberal appropriations made by the Legislature of Kentucky for a general System of Education can not be too much applauded. A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowlege will for ever govern...
340From James Madison to Ira Barton, 5 September 1822 (Madison Papers)
J.M. with his respects to Mr. Barton returns the thanks for his Oration, which are due as well to its merits, as to the Politeness of Mr. B. in forwarding a Copy. Draft ( DLC ). Ira Barton, An Oration, Delivered at Oxford, on the Forty-Sixth Anniversary of American Independence (Cambridge, Mass., 1822; Shoemaker 7968). Ira Barton (1796–1867) graduated from Brown University in 1819 and...
341From James Madison to Robert Mayo and William A. Bartow, 31 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. the copy of an Address in behalf of the Juvenile Library Company of Richmond which you have been pleased to forward to me. Knowledge of the useful kinds, is so conducive to individual & social happiness: and so essential to the form of govt. most friendly to both, that all the means of diffusing it have their merit. Among these means, libraries adapted to the early period of life,...
342From James Madison to Henry B. Bascom, 27 March 1827 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 19th. inst. saying that the Trustees of the College recently established in Union Town have been pleased to call it by my name. Regarding every new Institution for the wholsome instruction of youth as a gain to the cause of national improvement and to the stability and prosperity of our free System of Government, I feel that my name is greatly honoured by such...
343From James Madison to Henry B. Bascom, 10 November 1827 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of Ocr. 19. was recd. in due time. The acknowledgment of it has been delayed by a wish to accompany it with a Copy as requested of the Enactments of our University, which I did not obtain till two days ago. I congratulate you on the encouraging prospect which dawns on the Infant Establishment under your presiding care. A temporary deficiency in the articles of Apparatus & Library,...
344From James Madison to Henry B. Bascom, 21 July 1827 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of June 26. inclosing a copy of the Charter of the College, having arrived during an absence from which I am just returned, I could not sooner acknowledge it. It gives me pleasure to find that the Trustees are about to attach to the Institution, an Agricultural Department, an improvement well meriting a place among the practical ones, which the lights of the age, and the genius of...
345From James Madison to Omar Bashaw, [ca. 12 April 1815] (Madison Papers)
Your highness having declared war against the United States of America, and made captives of some of their Citizens, and done them other injuries, without any just cause, the Congress of the United States at its last Session, to repel this act of aggression, authorized, by a deliberate and solemn act, hostilities against your Government and people. A squadron of our ships of War, to be...
346From James Madison to John Bassette, ca. 20 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. Ca. 20 July 1810. Mentioned in JM to Jefferson, 24 July 1810 . Replies to Bassette’s inquiry about Dutch accounts of early Virginia history.
347James Madison to George W. Bassett, 30 April 1833 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 25th. inst: which requests my Company at the laying of the Corner Stone of the proposed monument to the memory of the Mother of Washington I feel much regret that my very advanced age, to which is added a continued indisposition, will not permit me to be present; on an occasion commemorative of the mother of him who was the father of his own Country, and has...
348From James Madison to Frederick Bates, 15 April 1806 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To Frederick Bates. 15 April 1806, Department of State. “I have recd. your letter of the 26th. January [not found], advising me of a draft you have drawn in part of your Salary as Judge of the Michegan Territory. It is necessary, therefore, to observe, that the Department of State has no agency in the payment of Salary, which is a subject belonging to the Treasury Department: it is however...
349From James Madison to Frederick Bates, 4 February 1807 (Madison Papers)
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America, To all who shall see these presents, Greeting: Know Ye, That reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Integrity, Diligence and Abilities of Frederick Bates, of the Michigan Territory, I have nominated, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate do appoint him Secretary in and for the Territory of Louisiana; and do...
350From James Madison to Joseph Bates, 21 April 1804 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
21 April 1804, Department of State. “Mr. Williams placed in my hands your statement respecting the Ship President, carried into Aligesiras and condemned under a pretence of the Blockade of Gibraltar. This will be cognizable under the late Convention with Spain as soon as the Board of Commissioners for which it provides is organized, of which due notice will be given.” Letterbook copy ( DNA :...
351James Madison to Stephen Bates, 24 January 1832 (Madison Papers)
I received long ago your interesting favor on the 31st of Oct with a pamphlet referred to, and I owe an apology for not sooner acknowledging it. I hope it will be a satisfactory one that the state of my health crippled by a severe Rheumatism, restricted my attention to what seemed to have immediate claims upon it, and in that light I did not view the Subject of your communication, ignorant as...
352From James Madison to Samuel Bayard, 23 March 1806 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To Samuel Bayard. 23 March 1806, Department of State. “Your letter of the 20 January and the memorial of Mr. Slade inclosed in it having been considered, instructions have been forwarded to Mr. Lyman, the public Agent in London, to settle his bills upon the same footing individuals usually pay the bills of proctors.” RC ( NN ); letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 15). RC fragment. First...
353From James Madison to Samuel Bayard, 31 October 1807 (Madison Papers)
I have the Honor to inform you that the Secretary of the Treasury has this day been requested to cause a Remittance of Thirteen hundred and eighty eight pounds, nineteen shillings and two pence stg. to be made to General Lyman, Consul of the U. States at London, to pay the Balance still due to the Proctors, agreeably to the Intimation in your letter of the 3rd. Inst. I am, respectfully, Sir,...
354From James Madison to Thomas M. Bayly, 10 March 1807 (Madison Papers)
I have received your letter directed to Mr. Giles, and in his absence to me, dated 25th. Feby.. An act of Congress passed the 2d. day of the present month, giving a further time, of three years, to complete the location of the Virginia Military land warrants, and five years to return the surveys & warrants to the office of the Secretary of War. This law amongst others, will be published in a...
355From James Madison to Peter Baynton, 31 March 1791 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Madison has just recd. the inclosed letter under cover of one from Virginia. If Mr. Baynton wishes to have an answer conveyed, Mr. Madison offers his service for the purpose. He will have an opportunity in two or three days, probably on sunday or monday. RC ( WHi ). Addressed by JM. A clipped signature has been attached at some later time. Peter Baynton (1754–1821), a former postmaster of...
356From James Madison to Frederick Beasley, 22 December 1824 (Madison Papers)
I have just received your letter of the 13th. on its return from Charlottesville, and wish I could gratify you with all the information it asks. In place of it I can only observe that the System of Polity for the University of Virginia, being not yet finally digested & adopted, I can not venture to say what it will be in its precise form & details. It is probable that instead of a President or...
357From James Madison to Frederick Beasley, 20 November 1825 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. the copy of your little tract on the proofs of the Being & Attributes of God. To do full justice to it, would require not only a more critical attention than I have been able to bestow on it, but a resort to the celebrated work of Dr. Clarke, which I read fifty years ago only, and to that of Dr. Waterland also which I never read. The reasoning that could satisfy such a mind...
358From James Madison to Frederick Beasley, 24 November 1823 (Madison Papers)
I received a few days ago a copy of “A search of truth in the science of the human mind,” for which I perceive I am indebted to your politeness. Other engagements not permitting me at present to read it with the necessary attention, and it being uncertain how long the obstacles to that pleasure may continue, I do not delay the thanks which are due. From the manner in which the work has been...
359James Madison to Frederick Beasley, 22 March 1831 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 17th. and have dropped a few lines to Mr. Clay on the subject of it. I have done so however, more in compliance with your current request, than from a calculation that any thing I could say would add to the weight of communications going from Mr. Southard & Mr. Dickerson, both better acquainted with you, than I could be presumed to be. I thank you, Sir, for your...
360From James Madison to Francis Becker, 12 July 1805 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To Francis Becker. 12 July 1805, Department of State. “The Louisiana Convention not providing for admitting restitution in case of property being irreversibly condemned, the claim you refer to, in your letter of the 6th. inst. [not found], seems to be unprovided for.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 15). 1 p. Becker had two claims against the French government. One was for the...
361From James Madison to John Beckley, 1 October 1796 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 1 October 1796. Acknowledged in Beckley to JM, 15 Oct. 1796 . Encloses a letter for Beckley to forward to James Monroe. Apparently discusses Monroe’s recall as U.S. minister to France and the impending presidential election. Asks Beckley to find a house in Philadelphia for JM to rent during the next session of Congress.
362From James Madison to John Beckley, 22 November 1805 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To John Beckley. 22 November 1805, Department of State. “I have the honor to enclose a certificate of the election of a new member of the House of Representatives for the State of Delaware with the letter of Mr. Robinson in which it was transmitted to me.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 15). 1 p. The new member of the House of Representatives from Delaware was James Madison Broom...
363From James Madison to John Beckley, ca. 14 January 1800 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. Ca. 14 January 1800. Mentioned in Beckley to Tench Coxe, 24 Jan. 1800 ( Papers of Tench Coxe [PHi microfilm ed.], reel 70). Encloses a copy of the Report of 1800. As Beckley explained to Coxe: “I have forwarded to Virginia such a full view of our situation and the necessity of their Assembly acting decidedly on the great questions of a Standing Army , Alien & Sedition laws,...
364From James Madison to John Beckley, 8 November 1804 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
8 November 1804, Department of State. “Mr. Madison presents his compliments to Mr. Beckley and informs him that the articles mentioned in the enclosed letter from Mr. Barnet are now at the Department of state, subject to Mr. B’s, disposal, pursuent to such powers as he may have or obtain in the char[a]cter of Librarian.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 14). 1 p. Isaac Cox Barnet to...
365James Madison to Thomas Bee, 20 June 1828 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. Sir, your letter requesting information as to a particular feature in the University of Virginia. The inclosed copy of its Enactments will furnish that & whatever else relating to the polity of the Institution may be acceptable. In reminding me of your father with whom I was a cotempory member of the Revolutionary Congress, I have an oppy. of expressing as I do wth. pleasure the...
366From James Madison to Benjamin Bell, 22 April 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of Mar: 22. I am very sorry that any difficulties shd. have arisen in the case of the land sold to you by Mrs. Willis & myself. All that I had learnt relating to it, had left me under the impression, that no interfering claims existed that could invalidate our conveyance: and I trust that such will be found to be the case. You will of course take the proper steps for...
367From James Madison to Benjamin Bell and William Tapscott, 19 January 1823 (Madison Papers)
It is so very long since payments were due from both particularly one of you for the land purchased of Mrs. Willis & myself without our having recd. even a line on the subject from either, that you cannot be surprized at being now reminded of your obligations, and called to discharge them. I am not unaware of the circumstances which may have embarrass[ed] pecuniary transactions, but they...
368From James Madison to Benjamin Bell, 22 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
I have but just recd. your letter of the 1st. inst. My niece is disposed to part with the land in question; and I shall acquiesce in the sale on the terms to which you refer. It remains with you therefore to come down & close the bargain. Accept my respects Draft (owned by Mike Minor, Kaufman, Tex., 1981). Letter not found. Benjamin Bell and William Tapscott of Jefferson County, Virginia (now...
369From James Madison to William Bell, 21 May 1804 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
21 May 1804, Department of State. “The omission of the endorsement on the bill which I received in your letter of the 17th. would alone prevent its payment, but its being unaccompanied with vouchers to the account, and Mr. Willis being no longer in office forms another difficulty.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 14). 1 p.
370From James Madison to James R. Pringle and Thomas Bennett, 10 February 1817 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your letter of January 25th, with the Resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, which it Covered. On retiring from the public Service, I shall count among the circumstances grateful to my recollection, this unanimous expression of approbation and regard from the legislature of South Carolina. The period during which the...
371From James Madison to Jeremy Bentham, 8 May 1816 (Madison Papers)
I have a greater debt of apology, I fear, than I can easily discharge, for having so long omitted to answer your letter of 1811. I flatter myself however that you will not do me the injustice to beleive that the failure has proceeded from any insensibility to the importance of its contents, or to the generous motives which dictated it; and as little from a want of respect for the very...
372From James Madison to William Bentley, 8 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 2d. inst: accompanied by a likeness of General Stark. I thank you for both. The latter, in its execution, seems to do so much credit to the talent of your pupil, that I, the more readily, confide in its likeness; and shall place it by the side of others, whose originals are known to have inspired the General with that esteem of which they are worthy. The...
373From James Madison to William Bentley, 28 October 1809 (Madison Papers)
I received in due time your friendly letter of August 12. last. My respect for your sentiments as well as justice to my own, require that I should say, in explanation of my not complying with your considerate hint, that I was restrained by an apprehensiveness, that an expression, at that period, of the gratitude and admiration which I feel in a degree exceeded by no Citizen, for the venerable...
374From James Madison to William Bentley, 28 December 1816 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Crowninshield having made me acquainted with the passage in your letter to him, which speaks with so much personal kindness towards me, and so favorably of my discharge of the public trust which is about to close, I can not forego an expression of the value I put on such sentiments from such a source. The approbation of the wise and the worthy is the recompence which ought to be next to...
375From James Madison to William Bentley, 27 December 1809 (Madison Papers)
In consequence of your favor of the 11th. instant, I have addressed the few lines inclosed, to General Stark. If the possession of this sincere testimony of my esteem be entirely satisfactory, it may perhaps be as well, that it should not be followed by a publication; the sole object being, to contribute in that form, whatever gratification may be afforded him, by learning the sentiments of...
376James Madison to Simon Bernard, 16 July 1831 (Madison Papers)
I have just recd. your letter of the 12 inst. However much you may overrate my title to the sentiments it expresses, it will always be a gratifying recollection, that I had any share in obtaining for the U.S. your invaluable aid in the defensive system now so well matured and so extensively executed. It is with great pleasure, I add Sir that whilst your distinguished talents & indefatigable...
377James Madison to Simon Bernard, 3 August 1831 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to General Bernard and asks the favor of him to take charge of the inclosed letter for General Lafayette RC (ICU) .
378From James Madison to Christian Gynther Bernstorff, 16 September 1804 (Madison Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 2d. June last, accrediting Mr. Pedersen as the Chargé des Affaires of His Danish Majesty. Mr. Olsen having before his departure intimated that this gentleman might be expected to arrive in order to take upon himself that character, he was, through the effect of a courtesy so naturally produced by the friendship existing between the two...
379From James Madison to Divie Bethune, 20 October 1808 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Madison presents his compliments to Mr. Bethune, and in acknowledging the receipt of his letter of the 17th. instant, avails himself with much pleasure of the occasion, to thank Mr. Bethune for the care & attention he paid, as well to the dispatches which he brought from Mr. Pinkney, as to those he carried out for him. DNA : RG 59—DL—Domestic Letters.
380From James Madison to Divie Bethune, 4 April 1808 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Nourse having informed me that you propose to embark in the British Packet for England, and to proceed immediately from Falmouth to London, and wishing to avail myself of so respectable an opportunity, I take the liberty of committing to your special charge the Packets for the Minister of the United States in Great Britain herewith forwarded by Mail. I hope that you will not find the bulk...