To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 30 September 1814
From Mathew Carey
Sept 30 1814
Sir,
For five years & a half I unceasingly strove to induce you to adopt a plain, simple, salutary measure, which wd. have saved your country from external warfare—& from (what now impend) bankruptcy & civil war.1 Never was there a measure more unexceptionable, more indispensibly necessary, or more practicable. It was all in vain. The events I foresaw & foretold, have partly arrived, & the residue are in a state of developement.
My ill success might have discouraged me from any further attempts. But the deep solicitude I feel for the country, & the wish to save it from perdition, makes me obtrude once more.
I believe the introduction of some federalists of great weight of character, purity of intention, & powerful talents into your administration, the sole path to salvation, as tending to unite the Country. Your obt. hble servt
Mathew Carey
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. For Carey’s surviving letters to JM on this topic, see 5:109–10 and n. 1, 148–49, 353–54, 601–3, 614–18, 7:106–8, 315. There is also an undated draft of a similar letter from Carey to JM in the Edward Carey Gardiner Collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, although there is no evidence that JM received a copy of it.