1From John Adams to Rufus King, 22 January 1786 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I was honoured with your Letters of the 4. and 10. Dec r. — The Act of Congress respecting the British Consul General, is wise, and well guarded: Nevertheless I think that We Should not be So inattentive to Ettiquette, as to omit a Proposition for Sending a Minister Plenipotentiary. We give up, a Point, by receiving a Consul in return for a Minister, which, although it may appear of...
2From James Madison to Rufus King, 22 June 1788 (Madison Papers)
We are at length approaching the close of our deliberations on the several parts of the Constitution. The Judiciary Department has been gone over; though perhaps it may receive some additional disquisitions. The attack has apparently been less formidable than I had apprehended. Independently of some particular interests, the objections against it have not been calculated in my opinion to make...
3From George Washington to Rufus King, 29 February 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received the letter with which you were pleased to honor me from Boston, and pray you to accept my thanks for, & congratulations on, the important information it contains. Happy, am I, to see the favorable decision of your Convention upon the proposed Government; not only on acct of its adding an important State to the number of those which have already accepted it, but because it must...
4From John Adams to Rufus King, 23 December 1785 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your kind Letter of the 2 d. of November, and hope that a Correspondence So agreably begun may be prosecuted, to the Benefit of the Country We have the Honour to serve. Although I may be not personally known to you, the Character uniformly given of your Talents, Application, and publick Spirit, leave me no room to doubt, that I Shall derive much necessary...
5From James Madison to Rufus King, 25 June 1788 (Madison Papers)
The final question in our Convention has just been decided in the affirmative by 89 ays 79 noes. Recommendatory amendments will attend the act of ratification; but are yet to be settled. The business was closed with due decorum & solemnity; and an acquiescence of the minority can not be in the least doubted. Some of the leaders as might be imagined have however a keen feeling of their...
6From John Adams to Rufus King, 14 June 1786 (Adams Papers)
I had heard Sometime ago, of your Marriage with the amiable Daughter of my old Friend, M r Alsop, as well as of that of M r Gerry, and of both with the more Pleasure, probably as a good Work of the Same kind, for connecting Massachusetts and New York in the Bands of Love was going on here. Last Sunday under the Right Reverend Sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of st Asaph...
7From James Madison to Rufus King, 13 June 1788 (Madison Papers)
I am tolerably well over the bilious indisposition which confined me at the date of my last. The progress of the Convention is extremely slow; though from the impatience of the members, I think the Session will not be long. The issue of it is more doubtful than was apprehended when I last wrote. The ostensible points of opposition are direct taxation, the imperfect representation in the H. of...
8From James Madison to Rufus King, 23 January 1788 (Madison Papers)
I have this instant recd. your favr. of the 16. and have but a few moments to thank you for it. I have also just recd. a letter from Genl. Washington. It contains nothing very material or new. The Genl. thinks that although there is an uncertainty in the case, the final decision will prove that a large majority in Virga. are in favor of the Constitution. If nine States should precede it seems...
9From John Adams to Rufus King, 14 February 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have inclosed to M r Ramsay an Address to the landed trading and funded Interests of England, which contains Some good Sense, intermixed here and there with a little Folly. M r. Ramsay will be so good as to let you read it and in return you may let him read the inclosed Principle of the Commutation Act. As the Commerce of the United States begins to run to the East Indies, every Thing which...
10From Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, [28 August 1787] (Hamilton Papers)
I wrote to you some days since, that to request you to inform me when there was a prospect of your finishing as I intended to be with you, for certain reasons, before the conclusion. It is whispered here that some late changes in your scheme have taken place which give it a higher tone. Is this the case? I leave town today, to attend a circuit in a neighbouring County, from which I shall...