183511Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Redevelopment of Boston’s North End is not a wholly modern phenomenon or problem. In the case which follows, Adams represented two housewrights and two bricklayers in an action of trespass brought by Jacob Emmons, alleging that on 30 April 1767 they “with force and arms . . . broke and entered the plaintiff’s Close” and “did then and there break down and erase to the foundation the brick walls...
183512To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 16 December 1809 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
16 December 1809, Portland. JM’s remarks in his annual message to Congress regarding the militia prompted this letter, which might have been sent to Ezekiel Whitman, the Maine district congressman, but “he might not be so sensible of the importance of the subject as you appear to be.” Every man should attempt to qualify himself for militia duty, but there is an aversion stemming “from the...
183513Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Today we would probably call this action tort for loss of consortium by seduction. In 18th-century England and Massachusetts, the cuckold’s remedy was an action of trespass for an assault on his wife, better known as “criminal conversation,” or just “crim. con.” Adams represented the defendant Little in the Inferior Court, and the testimony recorded in his minute fairly states the story....
183514To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Owen: Bill and Receipt, 8 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : American Philosophical Society Before Franklin sailed from Pennsylvania in November 1764 his son William probably asked him to assume the immediate responsibility for the care and education of William Temple Franklin, the small son of an unidentified mother William had left in England two years before. The two men seem to have agreed that Benjamin would charge to William’s account all...
183515To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 28 October 1812 (Madison Papers)
We have heard today, the capture of another part of our Army, under Gen. Van Ranselear the death of 400 brave men in the field is nothing; but the surrender of one army after another, is Extreamly distressing to the people of this country; they remember with exultation to this day, the surrender of Genl Burgoine and Lord Cornwallis with two considerable british Armeés; and they can not...
183516Madison’s Detatched Memoranda, ca. 31 January 1820 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
This document presents a number of puzzles for the editors of James Madison’s papers. The manuscript is in Madison’s hand and it appears to have been written over the course of a relatively short period of time. The paper is of good quality and of uniform appearance, suggesting that the pages came from a single source. There are numerous emendations, deletions, and additions, most of which are...
183517Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
By the latter part of the 1790s Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had become bitter political opponents. The friendship they had forged as congressional and diplomatic colleagues, fellow revolutionaries, and members of George Washington’s administration did not survive the strain of Jefferson’s victory in the 1800 presidential election. Adams left the nation’s capital just before Jefferson’s...
183518Vergennes’s Response to News of the Preliminaries Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
On the evening before the signing of the Preliminaries, Franklin wrote to inform Vergennes that the preliminary articles had been drawn up and to express the hope that he would soon be able to send him a copy. The news could not have come as a complete shock to the French foreign minister, but he was pleased neither with the content of the articles nor the clandestine manner of their...
183519Jefferson’s Translation of Extracts from Destutt de Tracy’s Reflections on Montesqueiu’s First Twelve Books, [ca. 12 … (Jefferson Papers)
Extracts from the author’s r R eflections on Montesquieu’s 12. first books. ‘I have divided governments into two classes, to wit, those founded on the general rights of man, and those pretending to be founded on the rights of particular individuals. Montesquieu classes governments from the accidental circumstance of the number of men who are the depositories of the public authority: and he...
183520Madison on “The Earth Belongs to the Living” (Jefferson Papers)
I. TEXT AS RECEIVED BY JEFFERSON, 1790 II. TEXT AS REVISED BY MADISON LATE IN LIFE EDITORIAL NOTE In the well-known exchange between Jefferson and Madison on the concept that one generation cannot bind another in perpetuity, both men adhered in substance to the views as first expressed and then later revised the form of this expression (see Vol. 15: 384–99). Madison’s rephrasing, however, took...