To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 15 October 1804
From James Madison
[on or before 15 Oct. 1804]
Perhaps the language may be a little more effectually guarded agst. the idea of making a sort of Stipulation the title to the appointment. All that can be effected is to strengthen his good dispositions, by his knowing that they were calculated on as a proof of his general merit, & by his committing himself for a perseverance in those dispositions, by conversations and declarations on the subject with friends whom he esteems
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 144:25003); undated; entirely in Madison’s hand; endorsed by TJ as received from the State Department on 15 Oct. and “my lre of Oct. 15. to Gelston” and so recorded in SJL.
Madison was evidently recommending language for TJ’s letter of this day to John M. Gelston, which concerned the possible appointment of William Brown as the collector at New Orleans.