1. Carlo Vidua (1785–1830), an Italian count from the Piedmont and an inveterate world traveler, arrived in New York City in April 1825 and spent the next two years traveling in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He had previously traversed Europe and the Mediterranean, 1818–22, and would travel through India and South Asia, beginning in 1827 and ending with his death onboard ship near the Moluccas (Elizabeth Cometti and Valeria Gennaro-Lerda, “The Presidential Tour of Carlo Vidua with Letters on Virginia,” VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. description ends 77 [1969]: 388–91).

Vidua described his visit to Montpelier in a letter to his father: “On the morning of the 11th I went to Montpelier, the residence of Mr. Madison. My visit lasted until the next day because he invited me to dinner, then did not let me leave that night, and would have liked me to remain there some days longer. He is a small, thin old man, but of a kindly and pleasant face; his bearing is very aristocratic, and without assuming the air of importance and dignity befitting one of his station, he displays an indescribable gentleness and charm, which I thought impossible to find in an American. I have heard very few people speak with such precision and, above all, with such fairness. He looked like a strong-minded man, as we say.

“Fortunately Mr. Monroe was at Montpelier visiting his predecessor; he was not feeling at all well, but I succeeded in finding a few minutes to speak with him.

“The moments one passes in company of men of this caliber are precious but usually lost because the presence of other persons and discretion hinders interrogation and reply. Here, instead, we were alone in a country home, I, a foreigner, they, retired from public life, so that the conversation could not have been either more free or more interesting. And since they showed no reserve in answering, I had no fear in questioning, and little by little led the conversation over many and diverse topics of high politics, such as the following ones:

“If the separation of the Spanish colonies has to be regarded as permanent?

“What may one think of the stability of their organization?

“Will they be able to exist in republican form?

“How long is it probable that their own [republic] will last without separating? Or without changing?

“Could the number of sects produce total indifference about religion?

“Will Negro slavery be abolished? When?

“What about the present important change in the financial system in England?

“What would be the effect of transporting the American [type of] government to Europe?

“I lack the time and it would not even be proper for me to write the answers which these statesmen gave me, but I remember them, and I shall tell, or read them to you on my return. Jefferson and Madison, in particular, gave me complete and detailed answers to all my questions; and especially as to the last one I admired how Madison, who had never been in Europe, had a profound understanding of the reasons for which one form of government may be suited for one country and not for another.

“As the war with England was the most important event in Madison’s administration, I put to him many questions—and also objections—regarding it, as many as I could to a man of such age and character; but I was glad I addressed them, because the answers that were elicited were so clear and so well reasoned that they gave me more insight into the cause of that war than everything I had read up to then. In general, Madison’s reflections seemed to me the most profound, the most weighty, denoting a great mind and a good heart. It may be that I feel myself transported with gratitude because, though all of them indicated that they enjoyed my conversation, Mr. Madison was kind enough to speak slowly and clearly in order to allow me to understand, and to pay careful attention to comprehending my English so full of gallicisms; I feel that I speak badly now, but that I spoke worse then. He knows French well and reads it with facility, but, like many Americans, does not speak it” (ibid., 396, 399–400).