7921From James Madison to William Bradford, 1 December 1773 (Madison Papers)
I have had the gratification of receiving both your letters, and the Pamphlets sent by Wilkinson. It is a reflection I am naturally led into whenever I write to you that I always have occasion to be returning my thanks for some kindness received without being able to retaliate. Gratitude is the only fund I can pay you out of which I am sensible your generosity accepts as sufficient: but at the...
7922From James Madison to William Bradford, 25 September 1773 (Madison Papers)
I received yours of the 12 August and give you this repeated Testimony of my punctuality. I got your letter to Mr Wallace at the same time much worn and abused. I have given it a new coat & shall forward it as soon as a safe Opportunity serves. Since you first hinted to me your suspence as to the settled business of your life, I have partook of your anxiety & [though it] has been often in my...
7923From James Madison to William Bradford, 5–6 September 1773 (Madison Papers)
If I did not love you too well to scold at you I should begin this with upbraiding your long silence contrary to your express promise and my earnest Solicitations. The Bundle of Pamplets you sent by the Post has miscarried[.] I would not trouble you with sending them again but perhaps if you would enquire of the Post they might still be discovered. I expect this will be handed to you by Mr....
7924Indenture, 16 June 1773—Summary (Madison Papers)
16 June 1773 . JM, James Madison, Sr., Ambrose Madison, and Francis Madison were witnesses to a deed of sale of a farm in Orange County to Henry Gaines by William and Mary Daingerfield. These witnesses, with the exception of James Madison, Sr., also attested a receipt whereby William Daingerfield acknowledged that he had been paid £28 by Gaines for the property. Strangely, £78 is the price...
7925From James Madison to William Bradford, 10 June 1773 (Madison Papers)
I had the pleasure of Mr Wallace’s Company & your letter on Tuesday last. He left me to Day but not without requesting me to make mention of his kind remembrance of you when I should write to you. He professes a warm affection for you and you know the sincerity of his professions. I am much obliged to you for your information concerning my friends. I received a Line or two with yours from Mrss...
7926From James Madison to William Bradford, 28 April 1773 (Madison Papers)
I received your Letter dated March the 1st. about a Week ago and It is not more to obey your demands, than to fulfill my own desires that I give you this early answer. I am glad you disclaim all punctiliousness in our correspondence. For my own part I confess I have not the face to perform ceremony in person and I equally detest it on paper though as Tully says It cannot blush. Friendship like...
7927Commonplace Book, 1759–1772 (Madison Papers)
This manuscript volume is in part a copybook and in part a notebook, all written by JM in his youth with the exception of the final six lines. On the one hand, there are nearly accurate transcriptions of poetry from two magazines, and, on the other, notes upon selections from three fairly difficult books, supplemented by JM’s comments and other interpolations. At the top of the first page of...
7928Notes on a Brief System of Logick, 1766–1772 (Madison Papers)
MS ( LC : Madison Miscellany). One hundred and twenty-two pages of this copybook are filled with writing in JM’s youthful hand. They are preceded by four almost blank pages and followed by fourteen others devoted to the drawings described in the editorial note below. JM’s great-nephew, James Madison Cutts II, gave this manuscript to the Library of Congress in 1881. On the manuscript’s...
7929From James Madison to William Bradford, 9 November 1772 (Madison Papers)
You moralize so prettily that if I were to judge from some parts of your letter of October 13 I should take you for an old Philosopher that had experienced the emptiness of Earthly Happiness. And I am very glad that you have so early seen through the romantic paintings with which the World is sometimes set off by the sprightly imaginations of the Ingenious. You have happily supplied by reading...
7930Collegiate Doggerel, [June 1771–April 1772] (Madison Papers)
Copy by William Bradford in the notebook among his papers in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Filling the first half of this eighty-five page notebook is “Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage to Mecca in Arabia, Volume II,” by Hugh H. Brackenridge and Philip Freneau. This is printed in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , LXVI (1942), 461–78. The doggerel in the remainder of the...
7931From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 9 October 1771 (Madison Papers)
In obedience to your requests I hereby send you an answer to your’s of the 25th. of Sept. which I recieved this morning. My Letter by Dr. Witherspoon who left this place yesterday week contains most of what you desire to be informed of. I am exceedingly rejoiced to hear of the happy deliverance of my Mother & would fain hope your rheumatic pains will not continue much longer. The Bill of...
7932From James Madison to John Boyle, 17 May 1771 (Madison Papers)
I wrote to you not long since by Mr. Armstrong but as it is uncertain whether you have seen him, I take this opportunity by Mr. Wallace to acquaint you with a mistake you made in a piece of Cloth I bought of you last winter, occasioned I believe by your giving me the remnant accidentantly instead of the measured piece. When I carried it to the Taylors I found it to be one whole yard short of...
7933From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 23 July 1770 (Madison Papers)
I reciev’d yours dated June 4th. & have applied to Mr. Hoops as you directed; he says you must suit yourself in paying him, & if you should let him have a bill of Exchange it must be on your own terms: Forty Pounds £40. New Jersey Currency is the Sum I shall have of him before I get home. my frugality has not been able to keep it below that, consistant with my staying here to the best...
7934From James Madison to Richard Paterson, 3 April 1770 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Richard Patterson Please to let the bearer Mr. Wm. Livingston have fifteen Shillings on acct of your Obliged Humble Servant The date was written over by JM. He may have intended it to be “April 1.” On the back of this draft is the endorsement: “Received this 4 of April 1770 of Richd. Paterson the sum of fifeteen shillings on Acct. of James Madison by me. William S. Livingston.”...
7935From James Madison to Richard Paterson, 24 March 1770 (Madison Papers)
Recievd of Mr. Richard Patterson by order of Mr. Adam Hoops twenty two Shillings and six pence on acct. of Mr. Robert Patterson. Richard Paterson’s mercantile establishment in Princeton, situated on Main Street next to the well-known tavern of Jacob Hyer at the sign of Hudibras, appears to have had an important place in the life of the college. Paterson (d. 1781) was the father of William...
7936From James Madison to James Madison, Sr., 30 September 1769 (Madison Papers)
I recieved your letter by Mr. Rosekrans, and wrote an Answer; but as it is probable this will arrive sooner which I now write by Doctor Witherspoon, I shall repeat some circumstances to avoid obscurity. On Wednesday last we had the annual commencement. Eighteen young gentlemen took their Batchelors’ degrees, and a considerable number their Masters Degrees; the Degree of Doctor of Law was...
7937From James Madison to Reverend Thomas Martin, 10 August 1769 (Madison Papers)
I am not a little affected at hearing of your misfortune, but cannot but hope the cure may be so far accomplished as to render your journey not inconvenient. Your kind Advice & friendly cautions are a favour that shall be always gratefully remembered, & I must beg leave to assure you that my happiness, which you and your brother so ardently wish for, will be greatly augmented by both your...
7938Editorial Note: Madison’s Notes for Debates on the General Assessment Bill (Madison Papers)
Once the Revolution began, most Virginians accepted all fundamental breaks with the past save one—the established church. Clearly it was preservation of the old, comforting traditions of the Anglican church and not the institution of established religion per se that interested many men who ordinarily had the most advanced ideas about individual rights. Thus the maintenance of even the most...