1. The enclosure is a newspaper clipping from the Boston Centinel: “The intimation is repeated in the Virginia papers, that Mr. Madison is the reputed writer of the ‘Farmer’s Letters,’ published in the Richmond Whig, in which the Administration is ably defended. We confess we have no proof of the fact of his being the writer of them, but from the well known grateful feelings of Mr. M.—his recollection of the able manner in which Mr. A. vindicated his Administration; and from his patriotic sentiments recorded in that great political Text-Book, ‘The Federalist’ it would not be very extraordinary, did his health and strength permit, to find him engaged not only in condemning the present ‘right or wrong’ Opposition to the National Administration, but manfully supporting it.”

2. In the 15 October 1829 issue of the Richmond Constitutional Whig, the editors referenced “the letters of a Farmer which appeared in this print in the summer and fall of 1827” and noted their mistake in attributing the articles to JM. “We feel it necessary to say a word of defence on the subject of the general ascription of the letters of a Farmer, to Mr. Madison, at the time, which our neighbor [the Richmond Enquirer] has so often imputed to us as an offence. We were the authors of the delusion; but we have this excuse for it, that we ourselves were deluded. We did not know until the third number, who was their author; but from the letter of the third person, who transmitted them to the press, we did really and truly, believe Mr. Madison to be. We had good reason, nay certainty, or the next thing to it, for knowing that the material sentiments coincided with his, and we did hope and think it not improbable, that he had resolved to use some exertion to avert an event which he was believed to deprecate. We were soon undeceived, and so was the whole country. The style, the mention of Mr. Madison himself, letters addressed to him by the Farmer, and eloquent eulogiums passed upon his character, proclaimed the impossibility of his being the author and dispelled the short lived illusion. Where was the necessity of telling the public, what the public knew, that Mr. Madison was not the author? Nevertheless, we frankly say, that at this moment, and at all times since, we should have been better pleased with ourselves, had we, as soon as our own minds were undeceived, dispelled the illusion which we had contributed to produce.”

3. Duff Green (1791–1875), a veteran of the War of 1812, was a prominent Missouri merchant and politician before he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1825 and purchased the United States’ Telegraph, which became the voice of the Andrew Jackson administration. Green remained an influential figure in national politics even after he broke with Jackson and supported Henry Clay in 1832. Green went on to establish and edit newspapers in Baltimore, New York, and Washington and launched a number of industrial enterprises, including the exploitation of coal and iron lands and the building of railroads and canals.