From James Madison to Tristram Dalton, 7 September 1815
To Tristram Dalton
Montpelier Sepr. 7. 1815
Dear Sir
I have recd. your favor accompanied by the two pamphlets.1 I have2 yet been able to look them over but will do so as soon as I conveniently can. The one on Peat, must be interesting.3 I wish sincerely that the discovery of so valuable an article may be realized, and in an adequate extent.
Accept Sir my sincere esteem, and good wishes. Mrs. Madison joins in both, and in best respects to Mrs. Dalton, & to Mr: and Mrs: Deblois.
James Madison
RC (owned by Stephen J. Kule, New York, N.Y., 2002). Addressee not indicated; conjectural addressee supplied based on internal evidence.
1. Dalton’s letter has not been found.
2. JM evidently omitted the word “not” here.
3. JM evidently referred to Robert Rennie’s Essay on the Natural History and Origin of Peat: Abridged for the Massachusetts Agricultural Journal, by the President of the Society (n.p., n.d.); the copy that Dalton sent is now in the Madison Collection, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. It is an offprint of the abridgement that appeared in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal 3 (1815): [281]–313. Rennie’s original text, entitled Essays on the Natural History and Origin of Peat Moss: The Peculiar Qualities of That Substance; The Means of Improving It as a Soil; The Methods of Converting It into a Manure; And the Other Economical Purposes to Which It May Be Made Subservient, was first published in Edinburgh in 1807.