To James Madison from William Boylan, 12 January 1806 (Abstract)
From William Boylan, 12 January 1806 (Abstract)
§ From William Boylan.1 12 January 1806, Raleigh, North Carolina. “Please to pay to the Hon Thomas Kenan the Balance due Mr Abraham Hodge, printer, late of Halifax—for publishing the Laws of Congress of the last Session, and this shall be a discharge.”
RC (DNA: RG 217, First Auditor’s Accounts, no. 17,716). 1 p.; signed by Boylan as Hodge’s executor; certified by Wagner; enclosed in Boylan to North Carolina congressman Thomas Kenan, 12 Jan. 1806 (1 p.), in which Boylan stated: “Mr Wynns writes me that he, yourself & Mr Williams had a talk with Mr Madison on the propriety of continuing the publication of the laws in the Halifax paper, & that Mr M knew nothing to the contrary but that the publication of the laws would be continued in the Halifax paper.” Filed with these letters is a 19 Feb. 1806 account (1 p.; certified by Wagner as correct) for $59.25 owed to Boylan as Hodge’s executor for printing the laws passed by the Eighth Congress, Second Session. Thomas Wynns and Marmaduke Williams were also congressmen from North Carolina.
1. Journalist William Boylan (1777–1861) was born in New Jersey but moved to North Carolina in 1796 to join his uncle Abraham Hodge, publisher of the North-Carolina Minerva, and Fayetteville Advertiser. Over time he acquired three plantations as well as other real estate and was prominent as a public-spirited citizen. A staunch Federalist, Boylan opposed JM during the War of 1812 (Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:205).