To James Madison from Charles J. Ingersoll, 9 November 1827
From Charles J. Ingersoll
Philadelphia 9 November 1827
Dear Sir
I do not submit to your notice the remarks I lately took occasion to make as substantially contained in the Newspaper herewith,1 to shew that I entertain for your character and public life the greatest reverence and regard, but by way of some acknowledgment for the very great pleasure with which I saw your appearance in the letter published to redeem the Constitution from a most alarming perversion in the hands of partisans2—but for your interposition there is no imagining how far party might carry us beyond the old confederation. But I flatter myself that your shield will save us. I most heartily wish that in the presidential contest and that concerning manufactures now dividing the country, a portion of the north-east may take the side of opposition to the present administration and to the protecting policy, and a portion of the south west the side of them both, so as to prevent the dangerous demarcation just threatening to be formed. And without presuming to intrude upon your sentiments concerning men, I was delighted to see you come forth for the constitutionality of measures, which surely their opponents have room enough to question on grounds of policy, without tearing down part of the federal government. From no one living—I might add, or dead—could such an appeal come with equal propriety and effect.
I am still a professional drudge. I wish I were at liberty to write for publication what I think might be published of your conduct of the U States—your administration having been, as I consider it, the most constitutional and the most glorious period of our national existence. I beg to present thro’ you my cordial compliments to Mrs. Madison and to subscribe myself your devoted and obedient servant
C. J. Ingersoll
RC and enclosure (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). Docketed by JM. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. The enclosure is a newspaper clipping describing a dinner given for Georg Friedrich List by the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts in November 1827. The toasts included one by Ingersoll: “The health and happiness of James Madison—The father and guardian of the Constitution.
“Prefaced with nearly the following observations:
“If Washington was the Father of our Country, Mr. Madison is entitled to be considered the Father of that Constitution, by which it has accomplished eminent prosperity and power. Without ever appealing to the passions, but always addressing the reason of his fellow citizens, this illustrious Patriarch, through a long career of public functions, as a member of Congress before the present Constitution, of the Convention which formed it, of Congress afterwards, of the Legislature of Virginia, when his resolutions of 1798 were adopted, as Secretary of State, and as President of the United States, impressed as much, if not more of his mind, than that of any other on our now well defined and established Institutions. During his administration, they underwent their severest trials, and achieved their most signal and enduring triumphs. He took the helm of State in a storm, which ravaged all Christendom, and destroyed many governments. He is the Pilot that weathered the storm. When he retired to voluntary seclusion, he left us in peace, prosperity and glory. While the consummate commander to whom we owe so much, was heroically closing the second struggle for independence, by the most brilliant and masterly victories, Mr. Madison, supported by Mr. Monroe, the late Mr. Dallas, and the present Mr. Rush, sustained and conducted that struggle with a courage, constancy and efficacy as much transcending military prowess and exploit, as the Declaration of Independence does any battle of the Revolution—as mind is superior to matter. You have all no doubt read with the emotions it is calculated to inspire, Mr. Madison’s late letter to the public, by which, as the ever-watchful guardian of the Constitution, he comes forth from his sacred retirement, to condemn the resolutions of the last Legislature of Virginia, which deny the power of Congress to legislate for the promotion of manufactures—the only occasion during a momentous life, protracted to now nearly eighty years, that he has deemed sufficiently urgent to induce such an interposition by him.” A short account of the dinner was published in the Washington, D.C., Daily National Journal, 13 Nov. 1827.
2. See JM to Elijah Fletcher and Richard H. Toler, 10 Oct. 1827, and nn.