From James Madison to James Monroe, [ca. 25 January 1816–31 March 1816]
To James Monroe
[ca. 25 January–31 March 1816]
On the question of publishing the secret journal & foreign correspondence of the Revolutionary Congs.1 it is not easy to give a satisfactory opinion, without some revisal of both. If a selection is made, the task ought to be executed with great care and without any tincture of partialities of any sort, and would be tedious & dilicate, even with that exemption. If an entire publication be contemplated, the work would be immensely voluminous & costly, and I am not able to say, how far there may or may not be inter woven with the proceedings, indications of party or personal animosities, and improprieties, which might even at this day, have an unpleasant tendency at home, & throw some shade on the growing lustre of the Revolutionary councils in the eyes of the foreign world. The foreign Correspondence if published at full length, besides the immensity of its mass, is still more liable to such considerations. It is probable also that it may contain political or personal facts, relating to foreign Govts or functionaries, of which a publicity might, be deemed indilicate if not injurious in some way2 other. It is to be repeated however, that a full examination of the old documents is necessary to a discreet decision of the question.
RC (DLC: Monroe Papers). Filed at the end of January 1818. Docketed by Monroe: “Mr King of the senate, called on me, on the part of a committee, to request that I would state for the consideration of the President, whether he saw any objection to the publication of the secret journal of the old congress, & of the letters of our ministers in Europe at that period”; and in an unidentified hand, “1816.” Undated; conjectural date range assigned based on Monroe’s docket, the fact that only one of Rufus King’s Senate terms (1813–18) coincided with JM’s presidency, and evidence in n. 1.
1. On 25 Jan. 1816 King was named to a Senate committee charged with reporting on a “memorial of Thos. B. Wait, William S. Wait, and Silas L. Wait, of Boston, proposing to publish an improved edition of the State Papers of the United States, and praying the patronage of Congress.” The committee was also instructed to “inquire into the expediency of publishing documents, which have heretofore been deemed confidential.” On 13 Feb. the Senate passed a bill authorizing the secretary of state to “subscribe for and receive, for the use and disposal of Congress, five hundred copies of the second and improved edition of State papers and public documents, proposed to be printed by T. B. Wait and Sons. …” King’s committee waited until 1 Apr., however, to report their recommendation that certain Senate documents be declassified and included in Wait’s upcoming edition. The report did not mention the journals of the Continental Congress, which were published by Wait in 1820 ( 14th Cong., 1st sess., 93, 132, 1803; The committee to whom was referred the memorial of Thomas B. Wait. In Senate of the United States. … [Washington, D.C., 1816; 39439]; Secret Journals of the Acts and Proceedings of Congress, from the First Meeting Thereof to the Dissolution of the Confederation, … [4 vols.; Boston, 1820–21]).
2. JM apparently omitted “or” here.