James Madison Papers
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From James Madison to Henry Colman, 5 March 1817

To Henry Colman

Washington Mar. 5. 1817

J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. Colman1 with his thanks for the “Century Sermon,[”]2 he has been so good as to inclose with his letter of the 21st. Ult.3 Mrs. Madison is equally thankful for the Copy of Mr. Buckminster’s Sermons4 presented to her. Neither of us can at present avail ourselves of the pleasure of perusing the publications: but a very short time will relieve us both from the engagements which deprive us of it.

RC (DLC: Stone Autograph Collection). Docketed by Colman.

1Henry Colman (1785–1849) was a Boston-born, Dartmouth-educated Unitarian minister and writer on religious and agricultural subjects. In 1817 Colman was pastor of the Congregational Church in Dedham, Massachusetts.

2This was probably Nathanael Howe, A Century Sermon Delivered in Hopkinton … December 24, 1815 (Andover, Mass., 1817; Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 41087). JM’s copy is in the Madison Collection, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.

3Colman to JM, 21 Feb. 1817 (DLC).

4Joseph Stevens Buckminster (1784–1812) was sixteen when he received his degree from Harvard College. Descended from a long line of clergymen, he was ordained minister of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1805. Buckminster was a biblical scholar and popular speaker; his sermons were collected and published in 1814, two years after his death from an attack of epilepsy.

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