Proposed Constitutional Amendment, [ca. 9 July] 1803

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

[ca. 9 July 1803]

For amendment to the Constitution

Louisiana as ceded by France is made part of the U. States. Congress may make part of the U. S. other adjacent territories which shall be justly acquired.

Congress may sever from the U. S territory not heretofore within the U. States, with consent of a majority of the free males above 21 years, inhabiting such territory1

Ms (DLC). Undated; for conjectural date, see n. 1. Docketed by JM, probably at a later date, “project of J. M.”

1. Madison probably drafted this constitutional amendment in response to one Jefferson wrote after 4 July, when news of the Louisiana treaty reached Washington, and which the president circulated among his cabinet secretaries for comment. Robert Smith and Albert Gallatin both responded on 9 July, and it is likely that Madison did as well. In any event, Jefferson clearly had Madison’s draft by the time he rewrote the amendment in late August; the first line of that draft is taken directly from Madison’s proposed amendment (Ford, Writings of Jefferson description begins Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (10 vols.; New York, 1892–99). description ends , 8:241–49; Malone, Jefferson and His Time description begins Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time (6 vols.; Boston, 1948–81). description ends , 4:314–16; Brant, Madison description begins Irving Brant, James Madison (6 vols.; Indianapolis and New York, 1941–61). description ends , 4:141–45).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: Proposed Constitutional Amendment, [ca. 9 July] 1803
Author: Madison, James
Date: 9 July 1803

Reference

Cite as: “Proposed Constitutional Amendment, [ca. 9 July] 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-05-02-0198. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 5, 16 May–31 October 1803, ed. David B. Mattern, J. C. A. Stagg, Ellen J. Barber, Anne Mandeville Colony, and Bradley J. Daigle. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, p. 156.]