1To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 1 August 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have had considerable hesitation about a second trespass upon your time & attention. And nothing but the extreme delicacy & difficulty of the existing state of affairs wd. have induced me. The press, one of the greatest blessings of mankind, when properly conducted, has for four or five years been the greatest curse & scourge of this Country, particularly of the New England section of it....
2To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 12 August 1812 (Madison Papers)
I take up my pen once more, for probably the last time, on the subject of the present crisis. Many persons suppose that the determination to dissolve the Union, which has been formed by the leaders of the federal party in New England, has arisen from the measures of the last and present administration. It is an utter error, & a belief in it has a tendency to lead to ruinous results. To apply...
3To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 24 September 1812 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of the 19th. which I duly recd is before me. I am rejoiced that you, who have so much better opportunities than I have, feel so confident of a favourable issue of the present state of affairs. Altho’ your opinion has allayed my apprehensions in some degree, yet I cannot feel quite so sanguine as you are. I owe it to myself to explain one part of my letters, which you have...
4To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 21 January 1813 (Madison Papers)
I hope & trust, you will believe that I sit down to trespass on you once more, with no small degree of diffidence & reluctance. There is so strong an appearance, at least, of presumption in an obscure individual obtruding his opinions, liable from his situation to great error, on a chief magistrate whose means of information are so much superior, that nothing short of the alarming explosion...
5To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 25 January 1813 (Madison Papers)
Had the associations which I recommended in my last letter, been adopted fo[u]r or five years since, when they were first urged, they could not, I am persuaded, have failed of success. At that period, the spirit of treason, insurrection, & rebellion, was in its cradle, & might easily have been strangled. It was confined to a few persons, part of them probably in the pay of England, and the...