To James Madison from John B. Legare and Others, 24 July 1818
From John B. Legare and Others
Charleston 24th July 1818.
Dear Sir,
Be pleased to accept, of the ’76 association, a copy of an Oration delivered by one of its members on the 4t[h] Inst:,1 as a mark of their high regard for your character. The production, herewith transmitted you, will meet, it is believed, your cordial approbation. With unfeigned Respect we are Your Obet. Servants
Jno: B. Legare
A. H. Ohara
Jno: Sommes
Edwd. Simmons
Richd. Osborne
Standing Committee of the ’76 Ass:2
RC (DLC). Addressed by Legare to JM “late President of the U.S. of Ama. Washington.” Cover docketed by JM.
1. Henry Laurens Pinckney, An Oration, Delivered in St. Michael’s Church, Before an Assemblage of the Inhabitants of Charleston, South-Carolina; on the Fourth of July, 1818.… (Charleston, S.C., 1818; 45340). JM’s copy is in the Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
2. The ’76 Association was founded in 1809 by a group of young Jeffersonian Republicans to sponsor orations to be given on the Fourth of July and the fourth of March (David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 [Chapel Hill, N.C., 1997], 225).