131To James Madison from Edmund Pendleton, 11 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
Tr ( LC : Force Transcripts). I take up the Pen merely to ask you how you do? Having nothing foreign or domestic to entertain you with; I have not even heard a word from the Assembly this two weeks; Yes I have one very unlucky circumstance to mention which tho’ it may seem of little consequence, I fear will have important effects in [the ] future. Our militia who turn’d out with the greatest...
132From James Madison to Joseph Jones, 12 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). The cover sheet bears the penciled note, “returned by Mr. M.” JM probably added this many years later, after retrieving this letter, among others, from Jones’s nephew, James Monroe. Agreeably to your favor of the 2d. instt. which came to hand yesterday I shall send this to Fredericksbg. I am sorry that either your own health or that of your lady should oblige you to...
133From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, [12] December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). Besides Pendleton’s docketing identification, the cover sheet bears the following notes: ( a ) “omit” in JM’s hand, signifying that he decided to exclude the letter from his papers being assembled for publication; ( b ) “cop.,” probably a jotting by William C. Rives’s clerk after transcribing it for inclusion in Madison, Letters (Cong. ed.) [William C. Rives and...
134Motion on Accounts of Carter Braxton, [19 December] 1780 (Madison Papers)
MS ( NA : PCC , No. 36, IV, 521). Written by JM. The motion is endorsed by Charles Thomson, “Mr. Bland[,] Mr. Madison.” On motion of Mr. [James] Madison, seconded by Mr. [Theodorick] Bland, Ordered , That so much of the sd. letter as respects the receiving in specie, at the rate of 75 cont: drs. for 1. of specie into the Continental Treasury be referred to the Board of Treasury & that they be...
135From James Madison to Joseph Jones, 19 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
Printed text ( Madison, Papers [Gilpin ed.] Henry D. Gilpin, ed., The Papers of James Madison (3 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1840). , I, 76–77). The manuscript is now lost. Besides the text below, JM probably added the news about the army mentioned in his letter of the same date to Edmund Pendleton ( q.v. ). Yours of the eighth instant came to hand yesterday. I was sorry to find the Assembly had...
136From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 19 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). You preserve your character for punctuality so well that I always have the pleasure to begin with acknowledging the receipt of a favor from you. That of the 11 instant came to hand yesterday. As the sufferings of your Militia are ascribed to the conduct of their Commanding Officer, I hope the disgust will be only local. A general disgust would be a very serious...
137Expense Account as Delegate in Congress, [20 December] 1780 (Madison Papers)
MS (Virginia State Library). In this instance, unlike on 25 September ( q.v. ) when JM forwarded an expense account to the Virginia Auditors of Public Accounts, he either wrote no covering letter to them or it has been lost. The statement given below covers the quarter from 20 September to 20 December 1780 and is taken from a double-size master sheet on which Madison recorded his debits and...
138Commission of John Laurens and Amendment to His Instructions, [23 December] 1780 (Madison Papers)
MSS ( NA : PCC , No. 25, I, 397, 401–4). The proposed commission is in JM’s hand. Except for a sentence by John Mathews of South Carolina, the instructions were penned by John Sullivan of New Hampshire. They are printed in the Journals of the Continental Congress , XVIII, 1184–88. Congress tabled JM’s proposed amendment. Much of the background and immediate context of the decision by Congress...
139Committee Report on Memorial of New Jersey Legislature, [23 December] 1780 (Madison Papers)
MS ( NA : PCC , No. 41, VII, 64). On 24 November 1780 Congress appointed James Duane, JM, and William C. Houston a committee to report upon a document read in Congress on that day and often called the “New Jersey Remonstrance” ( Journals of the Continental Congress , XVIII, 1087–89; JM to Jones, 21 November 1780 , and n. 6). In this memorial Governor William Livingston in Council and the...
140From James Madison to Edmund Pendleton, 26 December 1780 (Madison Papers)
RC ( LC : Madison Papers). I have your favor of the 18th. inst: inclosing another relating to Capt: C. Taylor with a certificate of his situation, to which I shall pay the necessary attention but cannot undertake to predict certain success. The Danish Declaration with the step taken in consequence by the Ct. of London mentioned in the inclosed are the chief news of this week. There is a report...