To James Madison from Tench Coxe, 6 February 1788
From Tench Coxe
Philada. Feb. 6th. 1788.
Dear Sir
I trouble you with the last No. (3) of the freeman. In the paper N. 1. signed a Pennsylvanian I have opened a regular examination of the state of the opposition here, & shall endeavour to add a refutation of some of the objections of the minority.1 Consolidation I shall of course retouch, & therefore wish any thing you meet on that Subject to be enclosed. No. 44, & 45 of Publius2 are very valuable papers, I thank you much for them.
We are not entirely free from apprehensions about Massachussets, but we think we have solid ground to hope an happy issue. Things in the South are taking a pleasing turn yet no fair Measures should be omitted. I am very respectfully & sincerely yrs.
T. Coxe
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM. Enclosures not found.
1. See Coxe to JM, 23 Jan. 1788 and n. 4. The four numbers of “A Pennsylvanian” were printed in the Pa. Gazette of 6, 13, 20, and 27 Feb. 1788. They were directed against “The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania to Their Constituents,” which first appeared in the Pa. Packet of 18 Dec. 1787 (reprinted in McMaster and Stone, Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, II, 454–82).
2. Nos. 45 and 46 of the edition.