2011From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 6 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you Feb. 21. since which I have received yours of the same day. Indeed mine of that date related only to a single article in yours of Jan. 31. and Feb. 7. I do not at all wonder at the condition in which the finances of the US. are found. Ham’s object from the beginning was to throw them into forms which should be utterly undecypherable. I ever said he did not understand their...
2012To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 6 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your’s of covering a letter to John Bringhurst which has been forwarded to him. There has not been time enough yet for an answer. The letter promised to myself, in yours, has not come [to] hand. The delay can be sufficiently accounted for by the irregularities of the Southern Mails, particularly South of Baltimore. The Senate have unanimously ratified the Algerine and Spanish...
2013To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 13 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my last by the last weekly mail, I have seen Mr. Rittenhouse on the subject of the Kitchen Stoves. He says that at Lancaster where they were invented and are best known, two only remain in use. They certainly save fuel; but are so much complicated in their operation, as to require particular care, and are liable to the objection of keeping the Kitchen excessively hot. Mrs. Rittenhouse...
2014From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 21 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly respects to Mr. Madison and asks the favor of him to procure a safe conveyance for the inclosed letter to Colo. Monroe, which is of great importance public and private, as covering papers of consequence. PrC ( DLC ); endorsed by TJ in ink on verso. Enclosure: TJ to Monroe, 21 Mch. 1796 , and enclosures.
2015To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 21 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
At the desire of Mr. de Liancourt, I put into his hands this introduction to your remembrance of him as an acquaintance at Paris. He meditates a visit to the Southern States, and expects to have the pleasure of taking Monticello in his route, either in going or returning. I need add nothing to your knowledge of his respectability and virtues, I shall only say that the impression I have of...
2016From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 27 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 13th. is recieved. I am enchanted with Mr. Gallatin’s speech in Bache’s paper of Mar. 14. It is worthy of being printed at the end of the Federalist, as the only rational commentary on the part of the constitution to which it relates. Not that there may not be objections, and difficult ones, to it, and which I shall be glad to see his answers to: but if they are never answered,...
2017To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 4 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received yours of the 6th. Ult.; also your letters for Monroe, Mazzei and Van Staphorsts ; and shall have a good conveyance for them in two or three days. I am in some doubt however whether it may not be best to detain those for Mazzei and V. untill you can add the information I am now able to furnish you from Dohrman. He has at length closed the business of Mazzei in a just and...
2018To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 11 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my last the inclosed was received from J.B. The sample of rod must wait for a private conveyance. Yours of the 27th. has been duly received. You already know that the call for papers was refused, and reasons assigned more extraordinary a great deal than the refusal. This measure of the Ex. produced two propositions asserting the right of the House to judge of the expediency of Treaties...
2019From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 17 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 4th. came to hand the day before yesterday. I have turned to the Conventional history, and inclose you an exact copy of what is there on the subject you mentioned. I have also turned to my own papers, and send you some things extracted from them which shew that the recollection of the P. has not been accurate when he supposed his own opinion to have been uniformly that declared in...
2020To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 18 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
My last requested your orders relating to Dohrman’s payment to Me for Mazzei; and I impatiently wait for them. Resolutions have passed for carrying into effect, the Spanish, Indian and Algerine Treaties . The British is now depending. I inclose the proposition in which the opponents of it, will unite. According to present calculation, this proposition will be carryed by nearly the same...
2021To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 23 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose another number of the Debates on the Treaty . The subject is still going on in the House, as well as the press. The majority has melted, by changes and absence, to 8 or 9 votes. Whether these will continue firm is more than I can decide. Every possible exertion is made as usual on the other side. A sort of appeal has been made to the people, with an expectation that the mercantile...
2022From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 24 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 11th. is recieved, with the letter from Bringhurst. On consideration of all circumstances, I find that the advantages of taking iron from the manufacturer will be more than countervailed by disadvantages. I give up Sharpless therefore. Lownes I must abandon. Above a month ago I wrote to him for an additional ton of rod, merely to furnish a decent occasion to call for nearly that...
2023To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 1 May 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have your favor of the 17 Apl. covering two Extracts one from your notes, the other from mine. The latter corresponds with the recollection which myself, and other members had expressed; and the former with that of Majr. Butler, and with the Journals of the Senate. The Report of the Committee to which you refer, can not be found, tho’ Mr. B. says he knows one was made. This enquiry has been...
2024To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 9 May 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have your letter on the subject of Mr. Howell and seen the old gentleman who interests himself in it. I think it probable you will find reason to be satisfied with the change you have made in your merchant. I have not yet been able to procure bills on Amsterdam for Van Staphorst. They can be got I am told, but not with so much ease or choice, as on London. I shall not intermit my attention...
2025To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 22 May 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Congress are hurrying through the remnant of business before them, and will probably adjourn about saturday next. Petitions in favor of the Treaty Still come in from distant places. The name of the President and the alarm of war, have had a greater effect, than were apprehended on one side, or expected on the other. A crisis which ought to have been so managed as to fortify the Republican...
2026To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 30 May 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Congress will adjourn the day after to-morrow. News as late as April 8 from London; peace likely to take place between France and England; provisions falling much in price, both in F. and G.B. The moneyed distresses reviving in the latter, and great alarms for a terrible shock to the Banking and Mercantile Houses. MS not found; text reprinted from Madison, Letters, William C. Rives and Philip...
2027To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 5 December 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
It is not possible yet to calculate with any degree of certainty whether you are to be left by the Electors to enjoy the repose to which you are so much attached, or are to be summoned to the arduous trust which depends on their allotment. It is not improbable that Pinkney will step in between the two who have been treated as the principals in the question. It is even suspected that this turn...
2028To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 10 December 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Exitus in dubio is still the Motto to the election. You must reconcile yourself to the secondary as well as the primary station, if that should be your lot. The prevailing idea is that Pinkney will have the greatest number of votes: and I think that Adams will be most likely to stand next. There are other calculations however less favaroble to both. The answer to the President’s speech is in...
2029From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 17 December 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 5th. came to hand last night. The first wish of my heart was that you should have been proposed for the administration of the government. On your declining it I wish any body rather than myself: and there is nothing I so anxiously hope as that my name may come out either second or third. These would be indifferent to me; as the last would leave me at home the whole year, and...
2030To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 19 December 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
The returns from N. Hampshire, Vermont, S.C. and Georga. are still to come in, and leave the event of the Election in some remaining uncertainty. It is but barely possible that Adams may fail of the highest number. It is highly probable, tho’ not absolutely certain, that Pinkney will be third only on the list. You must prepare yourself therefore to be summoned to the place Mr. Adams now fills....
2031To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 25 December 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I can not yet entirely remove the uncertainty in which my last left the election. Unless the Vermont election of which little has of late been said, should contain some fatal vice in it, Mr. Adams may be considered as the President elect. Nothing can deprive him of it but a general run of the votes in Georgia, Tenissee and Kentucky in favor of Mr. Pinkney, which is altogether contrary to the...
2032I. To James Madison, 1 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Dec. 19. has come safely. The event of the election has never been a matter of doubt in my mind. I knew that the Eastern states were disciplined in the schools of their town meetings to sacrifice differences of opinion to the great object of operating in phalanx, and that the more free and moral agency practised in the other states would always make up the supplement of their weight....
2033From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 8 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Dec. 25. is safely recieved. I much fear the issue of the present dispositions of France and Spain. Whether it be in war or in the suppression of our commerce it will be very distressing and our commerce seems to be already sufficiently distressed through the wrongs of the belligerent nations and our own follies. It was impossible the bank and paper-mania should not produce great and...
2034To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 8 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your favor of the 17 ult. The election is not likely to terminate in the equilibrium of votes for which the Constitution has not provided. If the Vermont votes should be valid as is now generally supposed, Mr. Adams will have 71. and you 68. Pinkney being in the rear of both. It is to be hoped that the nicety and in truth the unpropitious casualty, of the choice of Mr. A. will...
2035To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 15 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
The last mail brought me your favor of Jany. 1. inclosing an unsealed one for Mr. A. and submitting to my discretion the eligibility of delivering it. In exercising this delicate trust I have felt no small anxiety, arising by no means however from an apprehension that a free exercise of it could be in collision with your real purpose, but from a want of confidence in myself, and the importance...
2036From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 16 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
The usual accidents of the winter, ice, floods, rains, have prevented the Orange post from coming to Charlottesville the last post-day, so that we have nothing from Philadelphia the last week. I see however by the Richmond papers a probability that the choice of V.P. has fallen on me. I have written the inclosed letter therefore to Mr. Tazewell as a private friend, and have left it open for...
2037From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 22 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 8th. came to hand yesterday. I was not aware of any necessity of going on to Philadelphia immediately, yet I had determined to do it, as a mark of respect to the public, and to do away the doubts which have spread that I should consider the second office as beneath my acceptance. The journey indeed for the month of February is a tremendous undertaking for me, who have not been...
2038To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 22 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received yours of Jany. 8th. You will find by the papers that the communication on French affairs , has been at length made. Being ordered to be printed without being read, I have no direct knowledge of its character. Some of the Senate where it has been read in part, represent it as well fitted to convert into an incurable gangrine, the wound which the friendship between the two...
2039To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 29 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours covering an unsealed letter to Mr. Tazewell came duly to hand, and will be turned to the use you wish. As you take the Philada. Gazette in which the Belligerent answer to Adêts note has been printed in toto, I refer to that for the posture and prospect of things with France. The British party since this overt patronage of their cause, no longer wear the mask. A war with France and an...
2040From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 15th. came to hand yesterday. I am very thankful for the discretion you have exercised over the letter . That has happened to be the case which I knew to be possible, that the honest expressions of my feelings towards Mr. A. might be rendered mal-a-propos from circumstances existing and known at the seat of government, but not seen by me in my retired situation. Mr. A. and myself...