To James Madison from Samuel M. Fitch, 14 July 1815

From Samuel M. Fitch

private

New York City July 14th. 1815

Respected Sir

I hope that the Sacred cause of Democracy will plead my excuse with You for this Liberty.

The writer & Editor of the Enclosed Extract is continued as Judge Advocate on the peace establishment.1

This paper must have escaped the notice of those men or that man whose duty it was to recommend the officers to be continued or “there is something rotten in Denmark.”2

But for my duty I should consider it impertinent to remark to You how watchful the Democrats of the U. States should be of a Deep Game that is playing in this State And is extending itself with all its energies & chicanery into other States. Ambrose Spencer was not appointed to the office of Secretary of State of U. States according to the wishes of Mr. Editor & Judge Advoctate Because I presume that you knew him. The Secretary ought to have known his tool: But I presume that this Extract escaped the notice of the Secretary. We hope to establish a paper in this City that will support principle having no Democratic papers in this State: We should be delighted to have the Editor of the Richmond Enquirer take up his residence with us. His independence Talents and indegrity in a few months would dissipate the deceptions practiced on the honest but deluded yeomanry of our State. We know of no man so capable. With the greatest respect I am your very humble Servant

Samuel M Fitch3
41 Chatham Street
New York

RC (NN). Cover sheet docketed by JM.

1. Fitch enclosed a printed “Extract from an Editorial Article of the National Advocate, dated October 24, 1814” (1 p.), which urged that “a gentleman who has long been the ornament of the bench of our supreme Court,” meaning Ambrose Spencer, be appointed secretary of state. The writer, who credited Spencer with “inflexible Republican principles” and argued that New York should be represented in JM’s cabinet, was National Advocate editor and judge advocate Henry Wheaton (PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (9 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends 8:189 n. 1; Heitman, Historical Register description begins Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903 (2 vols.; 1903; reprint, Baltimore, 1994). description ends , 1:1022).

2. Hamlet (Riverside description begins G. Blakemore Evans, ed., The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston, 1974). description ends ), 1.4.90.

3. Fitch was a New York attorney and notary (Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory [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 31949], 95).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: To James Madison from Samuel M. Fitch, 14 July 1815
Author: Fitch, Samuel M.
Recipient: Madison, James
Date: 14 July 1815

Reference

Cite as: “To James Madison from Samuel M. Fitch, 14 July 1815,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-09-02-0454. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 9, 19 February 1815–12 October 1815, ed. Angela Kreider, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Anne Mandeville Colony. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, pp. 464–465.]