YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIFE OF JAMES MADISON

Made in 1837.

JAMES MADISON, AGE 76
Bust by John H. J. Browere
In possession of the Virginia Historical Society at Richmond,
and now published for the first time.

THE LIFE OF
JAMES MADISON

BY

GAILLARD HUNT
Editor of
The Writings of James Madison

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.
1902

Copyright, igoJ, by
Donbleday. Page & Co.
Published, November, igm

HARRY A. GARFIELD, Esq.
"^^EARLT a generation has passed since you and
I as boys used to settle the affairs of state, which
your father with the assistance of mine was trying to
solve. The friendship we formed then time has deep
ened. On my part it is based not only upon our
youthful association, but upon an understanding of your
character and of the purpose you have set before your
self of striving to mitigate, some of the evils in govern
ment which have developed since the Constitution left
the hands of Madison and his coadjutors. And so I
dedicate this book to you as a token of my friendship
and as a tribute to your work.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE

I.

The Amendment to the Bill of Rights .

I

II.

Princeton 

13

III.

Family Influences 

19

IV.

Virginia Finances .....

24

V.

Federal Finances 

32

VI.

The Surrender of the "Back Lands" .

44

VII.

The Mississippi Question

54

VIII.

Virginia Emancipationists

67

IX.

Religious Liberty

77

X.

How the Annapolis Convention was Called

87

XL

The Annapolis Convention

95

XII.

Preparing for the Great Convention

108

XIII.

The Great Convention I ...

116

XIV.

The Great Convention II . . .

127

XV.

Forming the Lines ....

137

XVI.

Madison's Triumph ....

148

XVII.

New York and Virginia ....

156

XVIII.

The Leader of the House

167

XIX.

" Funding and Assumption " .

179

XX.

The Struggle for the Capital .

189

XXI.

The ImpUed Powers ....

201

XXII.

Madison as a Partisan ....

213

XXIII.

The Jay Treaty 

223

XXIV.

The National Gazette ....

235

XXV.

Dolly Pajnie 

241

XXVI.

The Virginia Resolutions

249

XXVII.

The Madison Doctrine and Nullification

259

XXVIII.

The Secretary of State ....

271

XXIX.

Louisiana ......

28s

Vll

viii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

XXX.

The Battle of the Diplomats

XXXI.

The Declaration of War

XXXII.

The War President

XXXIII.

The Gloomy Federalists

XXXIV.

Peace ....

XXXV.

The Retired Statesman .

XXXVI.

Private Life at Montpelier

XXXVII.

The End

PAGE
• 299
• 316
¦ 328
• 340
• 3S3
• 364
• 37S
•383

THE LIFE OF JAMES MADISON

THE
LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
CHAPTER I
THE AMENDMENT TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS
The house of burgesses of Virginia held its last ses
sion May 6, 1776, when forty-five members, as
sembling at Williamsburg, declared that the ancient
constitution of the colony had been subverted by the
King and Parliament of Great Britain. Accordingly,
they disbanded, and the last official evidence of the sub
jection of Virginia to Great Britain disappeared. An
other body met on the same day to inaugurate the new
era of independence. Public opinion had unwillingly
reached the point of desiring separation. It was domi
nated by the wealthy and educated men, and was in con
sequence conservative, and clung to the hope of an amic
able settlement of differences ; but events forced the peo
ple into a position of irrevocable rebellion. The final
circumstances were: September i, 1775, Lord Dunmore,
the royal governor, seized the printing-press of John Holt
because of his seditious articles; October 26, George
Nicholas fired the first shot of the Revolution at one of
Dunmore's tenders sent to destroy the town of Hampton ;
November 7, Dimmore issued his infamous proclamation,
urging "all indented servants, negroes or others," to
secure their freedom by joining in the forcible reduction
of the colony; December 8, Leslie's attack on Woodford
near Norfolk was repulsed; January i, 1776, Norfolk,
the largest city in Virginia, was bombarded and burned.

2 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Added to the grievances which had gone before, these
made reconciHation an impossibility, and the Virginians
who still adhered to the crown were an unimportant
minority. There was no doubt, therefore, that the convention of
May, 1776, which was held, at the invitation of the Con
tinental Congress, to institute a new government, would
do so. The elections of the delegates were spirited,*
but the rivalry between the candidates was rather per
sonal than political, and there was no party in the field
opposed to independence. The result of the elections
was an assemblage, not of young or untried men, but of
the ablest, most experienced, and most trusted men in
the colony. In organizing, Edmund Pendleton, who
had been president of the Convention of the year before,
after Peyton Randolph's death, was chosen to preside
over the new Convention. He was fifty-two years old,
and had held offices of trust for more than twenty years,
being at different times justice of the peace for Caroline
County, a member of the House of Burgesses, president
of the Caroline Court, county lieutenant, member of the
Continental Congress of 1775, and president of the Com
mittee of Safety. These distinctions he had attained,
as he says in a brief autobiography, f "without classical
education, without patrimony, without what is called
the influence of family connection, and without solicita
tion. " His remarkable charm of manner and easy and
graceful eloquence made him a model presiding officer.
Before the convention met he was a Whig, and was sus
pected of British proclivities, but in reality his attitude
was merely that of the most conservative wing of the
patriot party. "When the dispute with Great Britain
arose, " he says, "a redress of grievances and not a revo
lution of government was my wish. In this I was firm
but temperate; and whilst I was endeavoring to raise
*Kate Mason Roland's "Life, Correspondence and Speeches of
George Mason," I, 222.
t MS. in the possession of Erasmus Taylor, Esq., of Orange County,
Virginia.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 3
the spirits of the timid to a general united opposition, by
stating to the uninformed the real merits of the dispute,
I opposed and endeavoured to moderate the violent and
fiery who were for plunging us into rash measures, and
had the happiness to find a majority of the public bodies
confirmed my sentiments, which, I believe, was the cor
ner-stone of our success. "
The master spirit of the Convention was George Mason,
of Gunston Hall, also a man past the meridian of life, and
also untouched by radicalism. Unlike Pendleton, he
avoided public office whenever he could, and had per
formed his first official service in 1775, when he took
Washington's place in the Colonial Convention, upon
Washington's appointment to the command of the Con
tinental Army. He was a sound scholar, especially in
the legislative and political history of England, and until
the Revolution his sympathies were those of an English
man, and liberty meant to him English liberty. He was
free from personal ambition, strong and immovable in
his convictions, forceful and uncompromising in debate.
His personal influence with men of consequence was prob
ably as great as that of any man in Virginia, and the chief
work of the Convention fell to his hands. Patrick Henry
resigned his military command in disgust just in time to
be elected a member, but the Convention was a body with
constructive work before it, and Henry's genius lay not
in that direction. The power he exerted in the proceed
ings of the Convention was not as great as that which had
swept people along with him before, or which he exer
cised afterwards upon successive legislatures of the State.
According to Edmund Randolph, who was one of the
few young members, those of the Convention who were
most in the public eye, beside Mason, Pendleton and
Henry, were James Mercer, Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Richard Henry
Lee, George Wythe, John Blair, and, younger than any
of them, and one of the yotmgest of all the members,
James Madison, Jr., of Orange County. "Until the meet-

4 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ing of this Convention,"* says Randolph, "he was un
known at the metropolis. He was educated at Princeton
College in New Jersey, and had been laborious in his
studies which ranged beyond strict academic limits, but
were of that elementary cast, subservient in their general
principles to any science which he might choose to culti
vate in detail. As a classical scholar he was mature, as
a student of belles lettres, his fancy animated his
judgment ; and his judgment, without damping his fancy,
excluded by the soundness of criticism, every propensity
to tinsel and glitter. . . . His diffidence went
hand in hand with his morals, which repelled vice,
howsoever fashionable. In Convention debate, his
lips were never unsealed except to some member,
who happened to sit near him; and he who had
once partaken of the rich banquet of his remarks, did not
fail to wish daily to sit within the reach of his conversa
tion. It could not be otherwise; for although his age
and the deference which in fewer circles had been paid
to him, were apt to tincture him with pedantry he de
livered himself without affectation upon Grecian, Roman
and English history, from a well digested fund, a sure
presage of eminence. A very sensible foreigner observed
of him, that he never uttered anything which was not
appropriate, and not connected with some general prin
ciple of importance. Even when he commented upon
the dignity with which Pendleton filled the chair, it was
in that philosophic spirit, which looks for personal dig
nity in officers of a republic as well as of a monarchy.
While he thrilled with the ecstasies of Henry's eloquence,
and extolled his skill in commanding the audience, he
detected what might be faulty in his reasoning. Madi
son was enviable in being among the few yotmg men
who were not inflated by early flattery and could con
tent themselves with throwing out in social discourse
jewels which the artifice of a barren mind would have
treasured up for gaudy occasions."
* MS. History of Virginia, in Virginia Historical Society at Richmond.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 5
When Madison was elected to the Convention he was
twenty-five years of age, and he looked younger than he
really was. He was five feet six and a quarter inches tall,*
and his body was thin and delicate. His pale face was
lighted up by a pair of hazel eyes which were ready to
reflect a quiet humour, but his features were irregular
and not handsome, and his countenance bespoke the
suffering of bad health. His hair was light, combed
back and gathered in a small queue behind, tied with a
plain ribbon. He was clothed so soberly that he looked
more like a dissenting divine than the heir of a planter
of large estate, and before his election his neighbours de
clared he was more of a minister than a statesman. This
was the first large assemblage of men in which he had
ever taken part, and he shrank timidly from observation,
and rose only once to offer a motion, which, however, he
did not support with a speech. Randolph's statement
that he was one of the delegates most in the public eye is
doubtless an exaggeration. He was known as the son of
James Madison, lieutenant of Orange County, and prob
ably the most influential man in it, but his own reputa
tion was merely that of a precocious young scholar who
had shown zeal for the Revolutionary cause. He met
the great men of the Convention for the first time, and
did not pretend to rank with them.
The great question before the Convention was an
nounced by the president, when he said that the time
had come when it was necessary to decide whether the
present condition of public affairs could be continued.
On May 15 the answer came in a clarion note, and the
Convention instructed the delegates of Virginia in the
Continental Congress, "to propose to that respectable
body to declare the united colonies free and independent
states, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence
upon the crown or Parliament of Great Britain, and that
they give the assent of this colony to such Declaration,
and to whatever measures may be thought proper and
* Randall's "Jefferson," HI, 262.

6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
necessary by the Congress for forming alliances, and a
confederation of the colonies." It was also resolved
that a committee be appointed to prepare a Declaration
of Rights and Plan of Government for the colony. Who
drew up the instructions is not known. It was an im
pression of Madison's, expressed many years afterwards,
that they originated in a letter from Thomas Jefferson,
then in Philadelphia, to George Wythe; but Edmund
Randolph declared they were drafted by Pendleton and
proposed by Nelson. The point is not important, as
the people had resolved on independence, and resolutions
to that effect would have been offered by one delegate
or another. Charles Patterson and John Cabell, the
delegates from Buckingham County, had these orders
from their constituents: "We instruct you to cause a
total and final separation from Great Britain to take
place as soon as possible; and a constitution to be es
tablished, with a full representation and free and fre
quent elections." The inhabitants of Augusta and
Transylvania and on the rivers Watauga and Holstein
sent similar messages,* and those parts of the colony
which made no specific expressions fully expected the
action that was taken. On the same day with the
passage of the resolutions thirty-two members were ap
pointed a committee to prepare a Declaration of Rights
and Plan of Government. In the first list Madison's
name did not appear, for he did not take his seat till the
i6th, but on that day, upon special motion, he was added.
Two days later, May 18, George Mason arrived, and he
too was added to the committee, and became virtually
its head, and wrote the Declaration of Rights which
preceded the Constitution and was an enunciation of
the principles upon which it was based. These princi
ples were English, — those of Magna Charta, the Petition
of Rights, the Acts of the Long Parliament, and the
doctrines of the Revolution of 1688 as expounded by
?Bancroft's "History of the United States," VIH, 376.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 7
Locke.* But the constitution of society in Virginia
was also English, and some of the members of the com
mittee had an abiding fear of the common people and
a deep-rooted belief in the superior rights of an upper
class. The first clause of the Declaration of Rights,
proclaiming the equal rights of all men to freedom and
independence, met with strenuous opposition, and called
forth numerous amendments from aristocratic members,
Robert Carter Nicholas, especially, expressing the fear
that it might prove the forerunner of civil convulsions.
A number of the suggestions offered to other points in
the Declaration were absorbed by Mason, and their best
features were embodied in his final draft. On Monday,
May 27, Archibald Cary, chairman of the committee,
reported the Declaration to the Convention; it was dis
cussed in committee of the whole, several amendments
were accepted, and June 12 it was adopted by a unani
mous vote. It declared that all men were born equally
free, and with inherent rights of which they could not
divest their posterity — life, liberty, the means of acquir
ing property and pursuing happiness ; that all power was
vested in and derived from the people ; that government
was instituted for the benefit of the people, and when it
failed to fulfil this purpose the people had a right to
change it; that no offices should be hereditary; that
the legislative and executive powers should be distinct
from the judicative, and for the two former there should
be frequent elections; that elections ought to be free;
that there should be no arbitrary power of ' suspending
laws, nor excessive bail ; that no man should be deprived
of his liberty except by law, and trial by jury should be
preserved ; that there should be freedom of the press ; that
standing armies should be avoided, and the military
subordinated to the civil power; and that there should
be free exercise of religion. Such was the Declaration
* See Rives' " Life and Times of James Madison, " I, 1 19 e/ seq.; also
Henry's "Life, Correspondence and Speeches of Patrick Henry, " 1, 405,
et seq.

8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
which preceded the Declaration of Independence by
nearly a month, and which contained within it all the
general principles of the Declaration of Independence.
It has stood at the head of the five Constitutions that
Virginia has had, and either in form or in substance was
embodied in the first Constitutions of New York, Pennsyl
vania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Dela
ware and North Carolina, of the original States, while it
has since been incorporated into the Constitution of
every State of the Union.
The Declaration of Rights having been agreed to, the
Convention proceeded to construct the Constitution
itself, and on June 29 it was finally agreed upon. The
preamble was taken from a plan of government which
Jefferson sent Pendleton by Wythe, who was returning
from Philadelphia, and a few of the other features of
Jefferson's plan were included. The chief draftsman
of the Constitution was, however, Mason; Madison had
no hand in it, nor did he approve of all its provisions, or
of the method of its adoption.
The last section of the Bill of Rights, relating to re
ligious liberty, read as follows:
"Sec. 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe
to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be
directed only by reason and conviction, and therefore
all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience ; and that it is the
mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance,
and charity towards each other."
This was the result of a compromise, and differed
materially from the clause as first introduced by Mason.
It then read: "That Religion, or the duty which we
owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it,
can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by
force or violence; and therefore, that all men should
enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished,
and unrestrained by the magistrates, unless under colour

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 9
of religion any man disturb the peace, the happiness,
or safety of society. And that it is the mutual duty of all
to practise Christian forbearance, love and charity to
wards each other. ' '
The single occasion when Madison's voice was heard
in the Convention was when he offered this amendment :
" That Religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and
the manner of discharging it, being under the direction
of reason and conviction only, not of violence or com
pulsion, all men are equally entitled to the full and free
exercise of it, according to the dictates of conscience;
and therefore that no man or class of men, ought, on
account of religion, to be invested with peculiar emolu
ments or privileges, nor subjected to any penalties or
disabilities, unless under colour of religion, the preserva
tion of equal liberty and the existence of the state be
manifestly endangered."
This was the day of an established church, and in Vir
ginia dissenters were suffered to exist only by favour,
and were often persecuted. The section of the Declara
tion of Rights, as it was adopted, declared the persecu
tions unjust, but took no ground inconsistent with the
existence of a state church. It was preferable to the
original draft, which used the word toleration, thus leav
ing room for the implication of permission of free exercise
of religion, instead of proclaiming it as a right. Madison's
amendment, as he offered it, not only proclaimed this
right, but made a state church or any state interference
with religious matters an impossibility. The bill for
assessments for support of teachers of the Christian
religion, which was afterwards introduced in the As
sembly, and which he and his friends defeated in 1786,
would have been in direct conflict with the proposed
declaration that "no man or class of men, ought, on
account of religion, to be invested with peculiar emolu
ments or privileges," and if Madison's amendment had
been adopted the long struggle over this and kindred
measures would not have occurred. Nor would there

IO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
have been occasion for the famous bill for religious free
dom which Jefferson wrote, and which Madison finally
carried through the Assembly ten years afte his amend
ment to the Declaration of Rights had been shorn of its
far-reaching power. The pith of Jefferson's bill was:
"That no man should be compelled to f equent or sup
port any religious worship, place or ministry, nor shall
be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his
body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of
his religious opinion or belief, " and this was hardly more
than Madison had said.
The proposed amendment was an expression of what
was at the time he offered it the strongest sentiment
James Madison possessed, and it came from a man who
was deeply religious. After finishing^ his course at
Princeton he returned to the plantation in Virginia
much enfeebled by overstudy and not expecting a long
life. His mind was charged with religious inquiry and
his mental life was solitary. The consequent intro
spection in which he indulged was tinctured by the
Presbyterianism under which he had lived at Princeton.
Writing, November 9, 1772, to his college friend, William
Bradford, afterwards Attorney-General of the United
States, concerning expectations of happiness and pros
perity in life, which he said were natural to all men, he
remarked that they were harmless provided they were
not allowed "to intercept our views toward a future
state." We must, he added, always keep a watch on
ourselves, lest while building ideal monuments of re
nown and bhss on earth, "we neglect to have our names
enrolled in the annals of Heaven." He would have
Bradford season his other studies with "a little divinity
now and then, which, like the philosopher's stone in the
hands of a good man, will turn them and every lawful
acquirement into the nature of itself, and make them
more precious than fine gold. "
All of his family surroundings were strongly religious,
His father was vestryman of St. Thomas' parish and a

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON n
lay delegate to the Episcopal Convention of 1776; his
mother was a pious communicant; his second cousin
and friend of the same name, James Madison, who became
president of William and Mary College in 1777 and after
wards Bishop of Virginia, had recently returned from
England, a consecrated Episcopal clergyman. His tutor
before he went to Princeton was an Episcopal clergy
man. Rev. Thomas Martin, who lived in his father's
house, and for whom Madison had a high regard. But
at Princeton he breathed another atmosphere, and he
saw in New Jersey and Pennsylvania a greater degree
of religious freedom than existed in Virginia. Especially
in the section of the State where he lived he saw greater
persecution of dissenters than existed in other portions
of the State. Nevertheless, the dissenters were rapidly
increasing in numbers about him, daily growing stronger
as the established church grew weaker. That such should
be the result was only natural, for the Episcopal Church
in Virginia was steeped in scandal. Quarrels, contests
of authority, expulsions and general demoralization
existed. The livings were so poor that only the lower
order of ministers came from England or Scotland to
fill them. Without instancing the scores of individual
cases in proof of the bad condition, it will be sufficient
to quote the sweeping condemnation of Bishop Meade:
"At no time from its first establishment was the moral
and religious condition of the church in Virginia even
tolerably good."* Madison's contempt for the church
as a state institution knew no bounds. Writing to
Bradford, January 24, 1774, he said: "If the Church
of England had been the established and general re
ligion in all the northern colonies as it has been among
us here, and uninterrupted tranquillity had prevailed
throughout the continent, it is clear to me that slavery
and subjection might and could have been gradually in
sinuated among us. Union of religious sentiment begets
a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments
*" Old Churches and Famihes of Virginia, " by Bishop Meade, II, 351

12 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
tend to great ignorance and corruption; all of which
facilitates the execution of mischievous projects."
Active persecution of the Baptists was in progress
when he wrote, and he had about this time the experi
ence of standing by the jail in Orange and hearing several
Baptist ministers, who had been imprisoned because of
their opinions, preach through the prison bars. And
thus it was that while he was studying theology and
writing erudite notes upon the gospels, and was himself
an attendant at the Episcopal church, he believed that
human liberty was impossible of attainment, unless
legislative interference in concerns of conscience dis
appeared from the face of the earth.
In constructing his amendment, Madison acted alone,
and made no effort to save it from being moulded into
the milder paragraph finally adopted. He must have
realized that he was in advance of his colleagues, for a
majority of them did then favour state control of religion.
There was one Virginian of influence, however, who
would have sided with Madison ; but Thomas Jefferson
was busy in the larger field at Philadelphia. In October,
1776, six months after the Convention adjourned, he
came to Williamsburg to take his seat in the new As
sembly, of which Madison also was a member, and he
and Madison met for the first time. They lived in ad
joining counties, but Jefferson was eight years older
than Madison, and as a successful lawyer and busy man
of affairs, his pathway had not crossed that of the modest
bookworm. In the Assembly their service threw them
together, for both were members of the Committee on
Privileges and Elections. There then began that ex
traordinary friendship which lasted without interrup
tion for fifty years, when Jefferson died. Their strong
personal affection went hand in hand with a mutual ad
miration and general co-operation in public life which
have no parallel in our history. This co-operation, how
ever, did not attain its full proportions until parties
formed after the Constitution of the United States was
adopted.

CHAPTER II
PRINCETON
One REASON why the ruling class in Virginia acted
with such unanimity in the Convention of 1776 and other
crises of the Revolution was that a large proportion of
them had received the same kind of education. This
usually came first from clergymen of the established
church, who added to the scanty subsistence of their
livings by teaching. Happily, these were the better
class of parsons, the others not having the industry or
stability necessary for the task. From this schooling
the regular course was to go to "Their Majesties' Royal
College of Wilham and Mary, " which was one of the four
chief colleges of the colonies, the other three being
Harvard, Yale and Princeton. To call the names of
notable Virginians in the Revolution is almost to call
a roll of graduates of William and Mary. Peyton Ran
dolph, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Archibald
Cary, Paul Carrington, William Cabell, George Wythe,
Thomes Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, James Monroe,
James McClurg, were all William and Mary men. Seven
of the eleven members of the Committee of Correspond
ence appointed March 12, 1773; six out of eleven of the
Committee of Safety appointed by the Virginia Conven
tion of 1775; eleven out of thirty-two of the committee
that drew up the Declaration of Rights, and four of the
seven Virginia members who signed the Declaration of
Independence were from that college. The small pro
portion of well-to-do Virginia boys who went elsewhere
were educated in England or by private tutors, and still
fewer went to the Pennsylvania colleges or to the College
of New Jersey.*
*" William and Mary Quarterly, " VII, i et seq,
13

14 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Among the last-named was James Madison, and his rud
imentary schooling came from a Scotchman who was not a
divine. Donald Robertson kept a school in King and
Queen County, and there the boy was sent at the age of
twelve. He studied the usual classical course, and was
taught Spanish and French besides. These, as he explained
in after life, he learned as dead languages ; and when he
was at Princeton, being called upon to act as interpreter
between a visiting Frenchman and Dr. Witherspoon, he
discovered that, while he was able by hard attention to
pick out a few words that the Frenchman spoke, the
latter was unable to understand a single word of Madi
son's French. He improved his accent afterwards, but
never succeeded in ridding himself of the "Scotch French,"
as he called it, that Robertson had taught him.* From
Robertson's school Madison came under the tuition of
the Rev. Thomas Martin, of New Jersey a graduate of
Princeton of the class of 1762, who was made rector of
St. Thomas' parish in 1767, and who lived with the
Madisons. When the time came for him to go to college, there
were several reasons why William and Mary was not
chosen. The boy's health had always been dehcate,
and Williamsburg was regarded as an unhealthful spot.f
Also, there was unseemly strife at the college between
the board of visitors and the faculty, and the president.
Rev. William Horrocks, was unpopular. It may be,
too, that the general infidelity which was actually rife
at this institution, officially so orthodox, weighed against
it. Princeton was the nearest of the other great colleges,
and the tutor naturally urged his scholar to go there.
He was seventeen years old when he entered the sopho
more class, and he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts
in 1 77 1. He had the advantage of broader surround
ings than would have been possible if he had completed
* This, it is stated upon contemporaneous authority, was one of Mad
ison's favoxirite after-dinner stories. Randall's "Jefferson," 11, 192, «.
t "William and Mary Quarterly," VII, 66.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 15
his education elsewhere in America; for William and
Mary was a local college, and so were Harvard and Yale,
with few students coming from any other colony than
the one in which each was situated. At the College of
New Jersey, on the other hand, every colony was repre
sented among the students ; and while New Jersey had a
few more than any other one colony, she had not a fourth
part of all the students, the actual figures being, when
Madison entered, only nineteen Jerseymen out of eighty-
four students. Of the twelve students who graduated
with Madison, only one, Charles McKnight, afterwards
distinguished in the medical department of the army
of the Revolution, came from New Jersey. Chief among
Madison's companions in his own class were Gunning
Bedford of Delaware, Hugh Henry Brackenridge of
Pennsylvania, and Philip Freneau of New York. In the
class below him was Aaron Burr, and here he met for the
first time Henry Lee, a sophomore when he was a senior.
His intimate associates were serious students — Caleb
Wallace, who was ordained a Presbyterian clergyman
and afterwards became a lawyer and judge of the Su
preme Court of Kentucky; Samuel Stanhope Smith, also
a Presbyterian divine, the first president of Hampden
Sidney College in Virginia and Witherspoon's successor
as president of Princeton ; his brother, John Blair Smith,
also a Presbyterian clergyman, who succeeded to the
presidency of Hampden Sidney; and William Bradford,
who studied divinity but preferred a lawyer's career.
The most important act of Madison's undergraduate
life was the founding of the American Whig Society in
1769, for the purpose of cultivating literature, friend
ship and morality among the members, his associate
founders being Samuel Stanhope Smith, Bradford, John
Beatty, John Henry of Maryland, Nathaniel Irwin,
Wallace, Bedford, Brackenridge, Freneau, and McKnight.
It was a patriot organization and had for its object the
reading of essays and holding of debates, and here, be
hind locked doors and among his friends, Madison had

i6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
his first practice in discussing questions of government
which occupied his chief attention during the rest of his
life. His favourite studies at college were the history of the
free states of antiquity, and all subjects relating to gov
ernment. He was the deepest student in college, and
for several months he spared only three hours out of the
twenty-four for sleep.* Finding his constitution unable
to endure the strain, he relaxed, but allowed himself only
such an amount of sleep as was absolutely necessary to
his health. He became famous for his conversation,
and formed the centre of a circle which the other students
deemed it a privilege to enter. Dr. Witherspoon re
marked to Thomas Jefferson, many years afterwards,
that during Madison's whole college course "he had
never known him to say or do an indiscreet thing. " He
was too diffident to face a public audience, and those
college honours which were given for oratorical achieve
ments were not for him. The contemporaneous account
of the commencement exercises when he graduated
contains this note: "Mr. James Madison was excused
from taking any part in the exercises." The reason
probably was that he was ill at the time.
Having graduated, he remained a year longer to
pursue advanced studies under Witherspoon. The course
was essentially an ecclesiastical one, embracing chiefly
Hebrew and ethics, and was pursued by students who
intended to embrace the ministry as a career. Such an
intention Madison doubtless had, but it was not definitely
formed, and probably did not extend beyond a desire
to sound his own mental and moral suitableness for a
clergyman's life. At any rate, after leaving Princeton
he never recorded any desire nor took any visible steps
towards consummating the logical result of his post
graduate studies, t
* ' ' Eulogium, " by James Barbour, who states that Madison informed
him of this personally.
fSee "Memoir of James Madison, Founder of the American Whig
Society," by Professor Henry Clay Cameron, in "The Centennial Cele
bration of the American Whig Society," Princeton, 187 1.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 17
He left Princeton in 1772 and returned to Virginia.
His nature had expanded in the varied social life of
college and the congenial atmosphere of learning, and
he chafed miserably at home. Probably, if he had been
a free agent, he would have fled from the region of the
established church and domestic slavery to Pennsyl
vania or New Jersey, where conditions were then more
to his liking. Domestic exigencies, however, kept him
at home. Thomas Martin, his old tutor, died in 1770,
and Madison took his place as tutor to his younger
brothers and sisters. Then came the transition period
of the young man's life, when he was solitary and pur
poseless. His religious studies and enfeebled health
darkened his thoughts, and he turned from poetry and
romance, of which he had once been fond, to laborious
reasonings on freedom of the will and elaborate studies
of the Scriptures, The surrounding robust country life
was not for him. The young Virginians of the time
were, as a class, merry, easy livers, loving sports, horse-
racing, cock-fighting, cudgelling and wrestling matches,
fond of big gatherings and heavy feasts with many toasts,
visiting freely through the country-side, making love to
their neighbours' daughters, quarrelling and fighting not
a little, fond of dancing and of the fiddle, which many of
them played; but at the age when Patrick Henry and
Thomas Jefferson were mastering the intricacies of that
instrument Madison's soul was wrapped in deep books
and sombre reflections. He was a youth in years with
out a youth's tastes or mind, and he found few associates.
What was there for him to do in the world ? Life must
have something more in it than the mere reading
of books, roaming through the woods of Orange County,
and imparting knowledge to a few boys and girls. There
was ready for him a planter's life, or he might become a
lawyer ; but before the decision was made came the great
crisis in American affairs, and an unforeseen occupation
opened for him. He wrote the reply of the Orange
Committee, May 9, 1775, to "Captain Patrick Henry

i8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
and the Gentlemen Independents of Hanover," and
desired to enter the army. For this, however, he was
entirely unfitted by reason of his physical deficiencies,
and he occupied himself in recruiting others. Largely
through his father's influence, he was elected a member
of the Virginia Convention of 1776.

CHAPTER III
FAMILY INFLUENCES
In EMBRACING, as he did at the beginning, the patriot
cause, Madison was unhampered by any regrets that
might have come from a living family connection with
England. His second cousin James went to England a
few years before the Revolution to be ordained as a
priest, the voyage being necessary, because Virginia was
under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of London
and had no bishop of her own. He did not remain long,
and formed no strong English ties. He was the only
member of the family who received any part of his edu
cation outside of the colonies. England was not, there
fore, home to the Madisons as it was to so many other
American families. They were purely a colonial family,
almost coeval with the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the
New World, and the record did not extend beyond that.
"Captain Isaac Maddyson, " an artisan, one of the
colonists of 1623, and mentioned in John Smith's history
as a good Indian-fighter, was the first Madison to reach
the New World.* A hundred years later, November 15,
1723, his descendant, Ambrose Madison, f in conjunction
* Mr. Gay in his "Life of Madison, " denies that Isaac Madison was
an ancestor of the Virginia Madisons, but Mr. Rives, whose source of
information was the family tradition, asserts that he was.
t John Madison, ship carpenter, patented lands in 1653 in Gloucester
County; his son John was sheriff of King and Queen County in 1704;
his son was Ambrose, who married Frances Taylor, August 24, 1721,
Zachary Taylor, President of the United States, being her collateral
descendant. Ambrose Madison's third child, Frances, great-aunt of
James Madison, Jr. , married Jacob Hite, who was killed by the Indians,
July, 1776. James Madison and Eleanor Conway had the following
issue: Jaines, born March 16, 1751, died June 28, 1836; Frances, born
June 18, 1753; Ambrose, born January 27, 1755, died October — , 1793,
Catlett, bom February 10, 1758, died March 8, 1758; Nelly Conway,
born February 4, 1760, married Isaac Hite, January 2, 1783; William,
bom May 5, 1762, married Fanny Throckmorton, died July 20, 1843;
Sarah, bom August 27, 1764, married Thomas Macon; Elizabeth, born
February 9, 1768, diedMay 17, 1775; Reuben , bom September 9 , 1 7 7 1 ,
died June — , 1775; Frances Taylor, born October 4, 1774, married
Robert Rose, died October — , 1823. "William and Mary Quarterly,"
IX, 39. Family Bible record of Major Isaac Hite and of the Willis
family of Orange. 19

2 0- LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
with Thomas Chew, patented 4,675 acres of land in that
part of Spottsylvania County which became in 1732 the
county of Orange. Ambrose Madison dying in 1732,
his eldest son James, the father of the subject of this
book, inherited the interest in the land, and by pur
chases at different times acquired the whole of it.* "This
was the estate which came subsequently to be known
as Montpelier, and upon which James Madison, the son,
spent his whole life. As it happened, however, he was
not born there.
He was the eldest child of a young husband and wife
who had ten children in all, seven of whom lived to
maturity, four being sons and three daughters. His
father, James Madison, married Eleanor Rose Conway, Sep
tember 15, 1749, at Port Conway on the Rappahannock
River in King George County. She was seventeen years
old, and he twenty-seven. Her father, Francis Conway,
was the grandson of Edwin Conway of Worcester County,
England, who came to Virginia about 1640; her mother
was Rebecca Catlett, also of English descent, f Imme
diately after the wedding the young couple went to
Orange, and to the wooden house which the bridegroom's
father had built a few years before. It stood on a gentle
slope about half a mile west of the spot where the Mont
pelier house now standing was erected.
About sixteen months after their marriage they jour
neyed back to Port Conway in order that the young wife
might be with her mother during her first confinement.
The route lay first to Fredericksburg by a road follow
ing nearly but not precisely the track of the present road,
and at Fredericksburg they were ferried over the river
and followed the highway which was then the main
stem of travel between North and South. It was a
journey of between fifty and sixty miles and probably
took nearly three days, as progress on wheels was neces
sarily slow, the roads being bad. About a mile from
* MS. records of Orange County, Virginia.
t Hayden's "Virginia Genealogies," 255.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 21
the river and a short distance back from the road stood
Francis Conway's house, and here at midnight, March 16,
1751, Nelly Conway Madison gave birth to a son.* The
house was many years ago razed to the ground, and
nothing now remains to mark the spot but a few bricks
of the cellar, t Twenty-one days after his birth the
baby was christened and given his father's name. The
parish clergyman. Rev. William Davis, officiated, and
the sponsors were John Moore, Jonathan Gibson, Mrs.
Rebecca Moore, and the Misses Judith and Elizabeth
Catlett, all neighbours and relatives of the young mother.
Soon after the christening the journey was made back
to Orange, so the child had no associations with the
spot where he was boni. Between 1756 and 1760, after
the family circle had been enlarged by the birth of two
more children and invaded by its first sorrow in the
death of one of them, a new brick house was completed,
probably the first one built of that material in that part
of the world. It was a plain rectangular structure, with
a hall running through the centre and two rooms on
either side. It still stands, but its identity has been so
moulded into the grander house which was subsequently
added to it, that its orig nal proportions are hardly
discoverable. Thus, for upwards of seventy-five years,
Madison lived under the same roof, and on the same estate
all his life. His grandfather had settled upon it, driv
ing the Indians before him, and it went from father to
son, remaining with the three generations for one hun
dred and thirteen years.
The influence of the father and mother continued with
their first-born during his maturity. The father died
in 1801, when he was seventy-seven years old, after his
son had become Secretary of State ; and the son had run
his course and retired to private life when his mother
*Hayden's "Virginia Genealogies," 261.
t R. H. L. Chichester, judge of King George and Stafford counties,
through the clerk of the cotirt of King George County, E. L. Hunter,
Esq., furnishes this information. It has been confirmed by the per
sonal knowledge of Professor H. C. Cameron of Princeton University.

22 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
died in 1829, in the ninety-eighth year of her age, and
only seven years before his own death. During all
these years they shared the same house. Eleanor, or
as she was commonly called, Nelly Madison was not a
beautiful woman, but her face was strongly marked,
and her son in the latter years of his life bore a striking
resemblance to her in her old age. Although not robust
in youth, her health becaine good in the latter half of
her life. She lived a simple, unostentatious life, sur
rounded by her family and relations, by whom she was
held in great reverence. She was noted for her piety
and was a communicant in the Episcopal Church from
the time of her girlhood, although she was not confirmed
till she was eighty years old ; this, as it happened, being
her first opportunity. The Episcopal Church in Vir
ginia almost disappeared from the face of the earth for
a quarter of a century succeeding the Revolution, and
St. Thomas' parish had no regular rector. Rev. James
Waddel, the famous blind Presbyterian minister, whose
eloquence has been enshrined in one of William Wirt's
most picturesque passages, preached regularly at Belle
Grove church, near Gordonsville, about eight miles from
Montpelier, and at intervals in the Episcopal church
nearer Montpelier, and Mrs. Madison took great delight
in his preaching and attended his ministry whenever
possible. She was thus not a strict sectarian, but for
many years there were hardly any strict Episcopalians
in her part of the State.
Madison's father was a careful planter and patriotic
citizen, accepting his public duties without aspiring to
fame in them. He acted on the revolutionary commit
tee of his county, served as vestryman of his parish and
was county lieutenant. As he was probably the largest
landholder in Orange, and as landholding was the chief
test of consideration, his influence was as great as that
of any other man of his section. He was not a man ol
high education, but, it would appear, possessed as much
learning as the average planter of his time, and in his

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 23
letters which have been preserved he expresses himself
plainly and directly. When his son was born Orange
was a frontier county in Virginia, and did not have a
society as important or wealthy as that of the lower
and river counties. In the State as a whole, therefore,
the Madisons and their numerous connections did not
occupy a position as high as that of many other families,
especially those few that had relatives of consequence
in England; but from a local point of view their place
was at the top, and as the region became more settled
their importance increased.
Primogeniture in Virginia was not abolished by law
until 1785, and the principle of family importance, and
its maintenance through the recognition of the superior
position of the eldest son, did not die with it. The young
James Madison was, accordingly, treated by his parents
as the chief heir to the estate, and immediately after his
return from college became the head of the family, next
to his father, sharing the responsibilities and consider
ation. He was well fitted for the position, for his nature
was already mature and stable, and he sowed no wild
oats.

CHAPTER IV
VIRGINIA FINANCES
The TASTE of public life which Madison had in 1776
was pleasant to him and, the Assembly having adjourned,
he offered himself for re-election to the House of Dele
gates. He wag young and he had not yet secured a firm
hold upon his constituents. He attempted, neverthe
less, to secure their votes, while at the same time he com-
batted one of the election customs to which they were
firmly attached. This was the custom of treating the
voters liberally with rum and punch, a form of corrup
tion which was always practised in colonial elections,
and which George Washington himself had observed
when he was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1758.
But Madison conceived that a new and better order of
things had now begun, and he determined to endeavor
to put a stop to a practice demoralizing to candidates
and voters alike, and to secure his election without
making his supporters tipsy. His motives were com
mendable, but his opponents represented them as spring
ing from a parsimonious spirit and an indifference to
the wishes of the people. He was a rich man's son, and
it was proclaimed that he was not the poor man's friend,
and a successful appeal was made to class prejudice.
His opponent, Charles Porter, treated lavishly and was
elected. A number of Madison's supporters presented
a petition to the House of Delegates, May 16, 1777, say
ing Porter had used bribery and corruption and pray
ing that his seat be declared vacant. It went to a com
mittee, but was allowed to drop.*
The victim of Porter's punch had no occasion to press
* Journal of the House of Delegates. 24

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 25
the petition, for he soon received official recognition from
the General Assembly itself, being elected, November 13,
1777, a member of the Privy Council or Council of State,
and taking his seat January 14,1778. This body consisted
of eight members, chosen by the Assembly from its own
members or from the people at large, and was intended
by the Constitution to be an advisory cabinet for the
Governor. It elected its own president, who acted as
Lieutenant-Governor of the State when the Lieutenant-
Governor was away, and two members were removed
by joint ballot of the Assembly every two years, and were
ineligible for re-election for the next three years, their
places being filled by election by the Assembly. It was con
sidered a body of exceptional dignity, and when Madison
entered it was recruited from the most influential class.
His colleagues were John Page, afterwards Governor,
John Blair, who went to the Federal Convention with
Madison in 1787, David Jameson, of the Revolutionary
army, Thomas Walker, the pioneer and soldier who was
Jefferson's guardian and Washington's friend; B. Dand-
ridge, Nathaniel Harrison and Dudley Digges, — all mem
bers of important families . Madison was'much the young
est member, and his selection was proof that he had made
an unusual impression during his service in the Conven
tion and the Assembly. The Council, however, was not
a field in which an ambitious man had much opportu
nity to extend his reputation. In writing to Jefferson
in 1784 (March 16) Madison described it as a grave for
talent and "objectionable in point of expense."* Of
the eight members seldom more than five or s'x were
present at the meetings. Madison was more assiduous
in attendance than any other member, but he had one
prolonged absence from July 13 to November 7, 1778.
The chief business of the body was the issuing of war
rants for war purposes, arranging the drafts on the
counties, authorizing appointments, and raising troops
and supplies. Jefferson is authority for the statement
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) II, 40.

26 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
that in the meetings of this small body Madison's diffi
dence disappeared and he became accustomed to speak
ing. He acted as interpreter when foreigners communi
cated with the Council until Belini became secretary
and interpreter in June, 1778,* and as he prepared most
of the papers for the Governor's signature, he was termed
the " Secretary of State. "
The most important question with which the Council
had to deal, and the one which furnished the most
valuable training to Madison was that of raising money,
and the Virginia system may be taken as an illustration
of the methods which prevailed in the other States to
a greater or less extent. The problem presented was,
how to recruit and equip armies and pay the expenses
of government, including a proportion of those of the
continental establishment, and yet increase taxes as
little as possible, for, naturally, the people were dis
tressed in their circumstances and would not bear heavy
levies. When such a condition of affairs exists. States
issue paper money, or borrow, or do both, and try tD
meet the crisis of the present without undue solicitude
for the future.
In 1776 the Virginia Assembly provided for the office
of Treasurer, to receive all taxes, and laid special taxes
on carriages, land, licenses, and legal documents, beside
providing for a poll tax.f The payment was to begin
in 1784, and in the meantime, "to suit the distressed
circumstances of the inhabitants" and as " the only ex
pedient" the Treasurer was ordered to borrow upon the
credit of the taxes at an interest of four per cent, per
annum as much money as he could procure, and if he
could not borrow to issue treasury notes up to ;^5oo,ooo.
The notes were to be legal tender for all debts and taxes,
and heavy penalties were laid upon those who should
refuse them, or exchange gold and silver at a premium.
* Journal of the Governor's Council MSS., Virginia State Library.
fHening's Statutes at Large for the dates given in the text contain
the laws cited.

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 27
All the notes were to be redeemable January i, 1790,
and if the taxes should prove to be insufficient for this
purpose the "whole estates, real and personal, of the
inhabitants" of the colony were pledged to make good
the deficiency. This marked the beginning of the Vir
ginia emissions of paper money after the Revolution
began. In May, 1777, the Treasurer was ordered to call
in the outstanding paper, and issue in its place $1,000,000
in notes. Of course, the law forbidding the holding of
coin at a premium had no effect, but it was repeated this
year with heavier penalties, against "the pernicious
artifices of the enemies of American liberty to impair
the credit of the said bills, by raising the nominal value
of gold and silver."
At the October session, 1777, the Assembly recognized
the depreciation of the paper money and the necessity
for a more promising provision for its redemption, and
passed an elaborate and comprehensive tax measure.
The proceeds of the tax were to be applied first to Vir
ginia's quota of the principal and interest of money
borrowed on treasury notes by the Continental Con
gress, and then to the redemption of the State emissions.
To tide over the period till the taxes should begin to be
paid, $1,700,000 of treasury notes could be issued. Prof
iting by the example set by the Legislature, individuals
began to issue bills of credit or notes payable to the
bearer, and a law was passed to prohibit the practice.
In May, 1778, a new emission of $600,000, was author
ized, and in October, $1,700,000 more. These acts
necessarily caused unevenness in the assessment of taxes,
some assessors valuing the lands at their selling price in
gold or silver, others at what they would bring in paper.
At the May, 1779, session they were ordered to assess
on the paper valuation. At the same session ;^ioo,ooo
more of paper money was authorized and the people
were encouraged to pay taxes in wheat, corn, rye, barley,
oats, hemp or tobacco. The act forbidding any person
froiti asking more in coin than in paper for any article

2 8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
was repealed, as causing "many inconveniences and
much injustice." The fact was frankly recognized that
matters could not go on much longer at the present rate
of paper emissions — that there must be found some
basis for them. An additional tax was accordingly laid
in October, 1779, and at the same session an act to pro
vide a fund upon which to borrow money was established.
It laid a tax of thirty pounds of inspected tobacco in
transfer notes upon every tithable person, except free
whites between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years.
Five-eighths of the proceeds were to constitute a fund
upon which the Treasurer was empowered to borrow
not to exceed ;^5,ooo,ooo current money, paying annual
interest. One hundred pounds of inspected tobacco
was to be taken as equal to thirty pounds current money,
and every lender was to receive indented certificates.
The payment of the tax was, however, suspended until
December i, 1780. Another act increased the general
taxation one-half per cent. So far as the general con
dition in both Nation and State was concerned the As
sembly understood it and stated it frankly in the act
passed at the spring session, 1780: "Whereas, the
just and necessary war into which the United States
have been driven, obliged Congress to emit bills of credit
before the several States were sufficiently organized to
enforce the collection of taxes or funds could be estab
lished to support the credit of such bills, by which means
the bills so emitted soon exceeded the sum necessary
for a circulating medium, and consequently depreciated
so as to create an alarming redundance of money, whereby
it is become necessary to reduce the quantity of such
bills ; to call in and destroy the excessive mass of money
now in circulation, and to utter other bills, on funds
which shall ensure the redemption thereof. And, whereas
the certain consequences of not calling in and redeem
ing the money now in circulation in the depreciated
value at which it hath been generally received would
be to encrease the national debt thirty -nine times greater

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 29
than it really is, and consequently subject the good
people of this commonwealth to many years of grievous
and unnecessary taxation" — therefore, a fund was
created and new taxes laid to call in the State's quota
of the $200,000,000 of continental money issued by
Congress and to destroy the State money in circulation.
On the faith of the United States and on the funds of
the State new bills to the amount of $1,666,666 2-3
bearing interest at five per cent, per annum were au
thorized, to be redeemable in coin by December 31, 1786.
The rate of exchange of the old bills for the new was fixed
at forty to one. The efforts to make money out of paper
were not the result of any general delusion or desire to
pay for something with nothing, but were simply the
result of necessity. Another way was tried but without
success. There lived at Colle, a plantation a short distance
from Monticello, a Tuscan scientist named Philip Mazzei,
who, with a small colony of other Italians, came to Vir
ginia to cultivate grapes for wine.* He became an
ardent American and threw himself heart and soul into
the Revolution, and being prolific of schemes he hit upon
one for borrowing money in Italy. He described his
scheme and the situation in the State in a confidential
letter to Richard Henry Lee, one of his friends, dated
March 25, 1 7 7 7 . t " The redundance of the paper money ;
the unavoidable necessity of new emissions ; the success
ful malice of so many villains in depreciating it every
where; the repugnance of the people to the service, art
fully increased, and even suggested by many wander
ing ministers of the Gospel; the daily growing dis
content on account of the great scarcity and exorbitant
prices of several necessaries of life, especially salt, which
is not now to be had on any terms; the reigning mer
cantile spirit, by which it appears, that the making great
fortunes at the expense of public calamities, is now the
* Randall's "Jefferson," I, 235.
tLee MSS., University of Virginia.

30 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
only cherished object, and the possibility, that the
British ministry, either by the strange acquisition of
some degree of prudence, or by fear or compulsion, may
be induced to offer such terms, as might disunite us, give
me the greatest apprehension. I can't help thinking,
that I could probably contribute not a little to remedy
these evils, or lessen their effects, was I sent to Europe
in company with some clevar fellow, such as Mr. Maddi-
son, Mr. Man Page, Dr. McClurg, Dr. Jones, &c."
No "clevar fellow" was sent with him, but soon after
the date of this letter he was commissioned by the Gov
ernor and Council to proceed to the Italian States and
solicit a loan for Virginia. The Grand Duke of Tuscany
or the Genoese would, he thought, lend money, if it was
expended for supplies, etc., in the country of the lender,
his people thereby deriving the benefit of it.* This plan
appears to have commended itself to Madison and the
Governor, and it was arranged that Madison should be
Mazzei' s chief correspondent. On June 13, 1779, when
on the eve of embarking, Mazzei wrote enclosing the
cypher they were to use, and saying he had put his papers
in a bag with a four-poimd ball to throw overboard in
case of capture by the enemy. He set sail and was
captured, and the shot carried his commission and in
structions to the bottom of the sea. After a season of
imprisonment he was released, and went to France to
consult Franklin on the subject of his mission, but
Franklin disapproved strongly of the efforts of individual
States to borrow money, because his own exertions for na
tional loans were thereby interfered with. So he told Maz
zei he had no authority to borrow and Mazzei wrote back
to Virginia for a new commission, but it was never sent.
He went to Florence where he was soon reduced to ex
tremity, was without money, and chafed at his neglect.
He ceased asking for pay and begged only for money
to come back to America. He did not like Italy, and
said he wanted to spend his evenings once more with
* Department of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 31
Blair, and Lomax, and President Madison, of William
and Mary, and their families, and declared there was
more virtue among the ladies of Virginia than among a
whole cargo of European women.* By some means
other than official he succeeded in getting back to his
beloved Virginia, and became a man with a grievance,
and as Franklin had thrown cold water on his mission
he pursued him malignantly. The State had, in truth,
treated him but shabbily, but affairs at home were too
pressing to admit of much consideration for a man who
wanted money in Italy. In fact there was none to send
him, and Lemaire and Schweighausen, two other agents,
who actually bought military supplies in Europe under
Arthur Lee's direction, were no better off for payment
than was Mazzei. t

* Department of State MSS.
t Arthur Lee to Richard Henry Lee. Lee MSS. University of Virginia.

CHAPTER V
FEDERAL FINANCES
After having served two years as a Councillor of
State, Madison was elected a delegate to the Continental
Congress by the General Assembly and took his seat
March 20, 1780. He described the situation as it then
existed in a letter to his father: " Our army threatened
with an immediate alternative of disbanding or living
at free quarters; the public treasury empty; public
credit exhausted, nay the private credit of purchasing
agents employed, I am told, as far as it can bear; Con
gress complaining of the extortion of the people; the
people of the improvidence of Congress; and the army
of both; our affairs requiring the most mature and sys
tematic measures, and the urgency of the occasion ad
mitting only of temporary expedients, and these ex
pedients generating new difficulties; Congress recom
mending plans to the several States for execution, and
the States separately rejudging the expediency of such
plans, whereby the same distrust of concurrent exertions
that has dampened the ardour of patriotic individuals
must produce the same effect among the States them
selves ; an old system of finance discarded as incompetent to
our necessities, an untried and precarious one substituted
and a total stagnation in prospect between the end of
the former and the operation of the latter. These are
the outlines of the picture of our public situation. "
Robert Morris said the authority of Congress was
almost "reduced to a metaphysical idea."* The pay
ments of the several States into the Federal treasury
* Sumner's "The Financier and the Finances of the American Revo
lution, " I, 286. 32

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 33
under the requisitions of Congress were hardly tangible.
The army was kept from starving and total prostra
tion of the Government was prevented by drafts upon
the States for their unpaid requisitions, and the States
met the drafts by fresh outputs of paper money and not
by increased taxation. The State currency was more
worthless than the continental currency. At the close of
the year 1781 Ambler, the Treasurer of Virginia, said the
paper of the State could be reduced to specie at the rate
of 1,000 tor I. The people shuddered at paper and were
wild to get specie, but the few who got it hoarded it and
thus furnished fresh excuse for more paper emissions.*
August 13, 1 781, Madison said the exchange between
the old continental currency and specie was about 135 to
I . Yet there was a good deal of specie in the country in
1780 and 1781. It came from the French army, from
Havana, in exchange for supplies for the Spanish forces
there, and from illicit trade carried on, in spite of legal
prohibition, between Americans and the British. Hardly
any of this specie was in circulation in Virginia, however,
where imported articles cost 100 per cent, more than
they did in Philadelphia.! When the French troops
departed for Virginia in October, 1781, there was joyful
anticipation of an influx of specie in that State, but their
expenditures really brought little relief, for commerce
had almost stopped, and the hard money remained in
the hands of a few fortunate people. Little specie ever
got into the Federal treasury, for Morris wrote to Frank
lin, November 27, 1781, that since June, when he entered
upon the duties of his office, he had not received over
$100,000 in coin. May 11, 1782,! Ambler wrote Madi
son that since he had been Treasurer of Virginia there
had not been ten pounds of specie in the State treasury. §
In a report made by Morris to Congress, August 28, 1781,
*|Edmund Randolph to R. H. Lee, Richmond, September 24, 1785.
Lee MSS. University of Virginia.
t Sumner's "Financier of the American Revolution," I, 99.
tid., I, 97-
§ Department of State MSS.

34 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
he gave the amount of requisitions upon the States,
March i, 1780, as $5,000,000, worth only $401,450 in
specie.* The lamentable condition of affairs was not
due to inability of the people to support the Government,
for the testimony is ample that they could have done so.
As Wilson explained in a speech in Congress, January 27,
1783,1 they were tmwilling to submit to taxation^ which
they had regarded as odious under the old Government,
and which they were now loath to accept when it was
laid in a direct manner instead of indirectly, so that the
payments would not be noticed. There was general
complaint that taxes were too high, and Richard Henry
Lee wrote Madison, November 20, 1784, that it was one
cause of the large emigration then in progress from
Virginia to the more Southern States. He suggested,
as a remedy, that the State debt be funded and taxes
lessened; but the collection of the taxes laid the year
before had been postponed and there was nothing with
which to meet the obhgations of the State. J John
Francis Mercer, a colleague of Madison's in Congress
and generally opposed to him on financial questions,
was disposed to abandon what seemed to be a hopeless
struggle against bankiruptcy. In November, 1784, he
had a conversation with Robert Morris, who told him
that no money came into the treasury, that several of
the States had taken no notice whatsoever of the Con
gressional requisitions, and others declared they could
not understand them. Morris said Virginia was about
the only State that kept the wheels of Government
moving, so Mercer could see no object in continuing to
pay, and thereby merely postponing the inevitable
stoppage of the wheels. §
When Madison entered Congress the continental bills
of credit amounted to $200,000,000. Forty dollars

* Sumner's "Financier of the American Revolution," I, 299.
t " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) I, 328.
t Department of State MSS.
§Id.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 35
paper to one dollar specie was the ratio of exchange
fixed by resolution of March 18, i'78o, but it fluctuated
and was really much higher. This resolution also sub
stituted for these issues not more than $10,000,000 of
new bills payable in specie six years after their date,
in the meantime drawing interest at flve per cent, per
annum. This was virtually an act of bankruptcy, and
before it went into effect the old continental bills de
preciated to 400 to I . It was at this stage that Congress
urged the States to pay their quotas in produce instead
of more worthless paper. Some produce was thus
furnished, but paper was piled on paper and the finances
of the country were in an appalling condition.
The hopes of Congress centred in Europe where
Franklin, Adams and Jay were soliciting loans, but
when Franklin informed Morris that France had granted
an additional 6,000,000 livres it was found that the
whole had been anticipated by bills of exchange, pur
chase of supplies for the army, Beaumarchais ' debt of
2,500,000 livres due in 1782, interest, &c. When the
Secretary of War told Congress in May, 1782, that the
Department of Finance was unable to furnish the means
for supporting the army, Madison said Congress was
shocked but not surprised. Such desperate straits had
the country reached that Morris called upon Congress
to appoint a committee to devise with him measures of
temporary relief. Madison, Osgood and Rutiedge were
appointed January 10, 1783, and after consultation
decided to draw upon the applications for loans in
Europe !* These drafts upon the bank of hope, as Jay
called them, were absolutely necessary to prevent a
complete wreck. Peace negotiations with Great Britain
were in progress at the time and there was deep mortifi
cation at the confessed poverty of the Government of a
country about to be independent. April 8, 1783, the
grand committee composed of one member from each
State, reported the foreign debt as $7,885,085, the
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 306, 307.

36 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
domestic debt as $26,615,290, the total, $36,500,375.*
As a means of ameliorating the conditions, Madison
proposed to Congress to address a formal recommenda
tion to the States to discontinue their paper emissions,
but the proposition met with a cool reception and he
abandoned it. He believed Congress should have power
to coerce recalcitrant States into contributing their
quotas to the expenses of the general government, and
followed Washington's opuiion that Congress, "after
hearing the interests and views of the several States
fairly discussed and explained by their representatives
must dictate and not merely recommend and leave it
to the States to do afterwards as they pleased; which,
as I have observed before, is in many cases to do nothing
at all." This view came to be generally held in Con
gress, but there was a difference of opinion as to whether
the necessary power existed under the Articles of Con
federation, and Madison favoured an amendment grant
ing jurisdiction over the trade and property of contu
macious States. The subject never went beyond the
stage of discussion, for its unpopularity among the ob
jects of it was foreseen.
The Articles of Confederation provided that Federal
taxes should be apportioned among the States accord
ing to the valuation of lands, but Madison, Hamilton
and a majority of the members of Congress believed the
rule to be an impracticable one and impossible of execu
tion without friction, expense and delay. During the
war, at any rate, it was manifestly impossible to put
it into effect, as the country was overrun by the enemy.
Another plan was proposed which Madison advocated
with all his might as a basis of relief. This was the
levying by Congress of an import tax on foreign mer
chandise. A request to the States for the necessary
power was made by Congress, February 3, 1781, and
Virginia acquiesced in June; but later, hearing that all
the other States had not taken similar action, she quali'
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) I, 443-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 37
fied her assent, by instructing the Governor not to make
it operative until the other States should also agree.
Massachusetts at first remonstrated against the propo
sition, Rhode Island absolutely rejected it, and Georgia
failed to take any action. Madison, Fitzsimmons and
Hamilton were appointed a committee to draw up a
reply to the refusal of Rhode Island. Hamilton wrote
it and it met with Madison's full concurrence. It con
tradicted the contention of Rhode Island that an im
port duty would bear hardest on commercial States,
and pointed out that every duty on imports is incor
porated in the price of the commodity, and ultimately
paid by the consumer, with a profit on the duty itself,
as a compensation to the merchant for the advance of
his money. As the merchant was himself a consumer
he too paid his share of the tax. A deputation was ap
pointed to proceed to Rhode Island, lay the reply before
the officers of the State, plead the desperate urgency
of the situation, and ask a reconsideration of the State's
action by the Legislature.
The envoys set out December 22, 1782, and had pro
ceeded half a day's journey when a rumour reached them
that Virginia had wholly repealed the act of assent. If
this were true, as it was, it would be a crushing calamity
and would make an appeal to Rhode Island a waste of
breath. The deputation, therefore, returned to Phila
delphia to learn the truth, and learning it, abandoned
their journey. The Virginia Assembly had several
reasons for its action.* Personal enmity played a part,
for the Lee family was hostile to Robert Morris and
opposed the proposed tax because Morris desired it.
The ill-feeling began in 1776, when Morris by defending
Silas Deane aroused the enmity of Arthur Lee., There
was also a jealous feeling that the State had already con
tributed more than the other States to the Federal ex
penses and should refuse further aids of which she would
probably have to bear an unequal share. Another
*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, 295 n.

38 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
reason was set forth in the preamble to the act of repeal :
"Whereas the permitting any power other than the
General Assembly of this Commonwealth, to levy duties
or taxes upon the citizens of this State within the same,
is injurious to its sovereignty, may prove destructive
of the rights and liberties of the people, and so far as
Congress might exercise the same, is contravening the
spirit of the Confederation in the eighth article thereof,"
etc. If this ground were adhered to there could be no
Federal tax for general revenue.
The functions of a member of the Continental Con
gress were diplomatic and executive. Elected by the
Legislature of his State he was supposed to carry out its
orders implicitly and to apply for instructions, when he
doubted what his orders were. The State Legislature
was the seat of power, and in Virginia, as Edmund
Pendleton said, it was given to " cutting out large,"* and
had a due sense of its own importance. To disobey its
orders, to advocate a measure which it specifically con
demned, was an act of insubordination hitherto un
heard of ; but Madison,without hesitation, and apparently
without fear of the consequences, deliberately put the
resolutions of the Virginia Assembly aside. These
resolutions were formally laid before Congress by Bland,
January 27, 1783, and on January 28, Madison intro
duced a new modelled resolution in favour of providing
general funds. It was: "That it is the opinion of
Congress that the establishment of permanent and ade
quate funds, to operate generally throughout the United
States, is indispensably necessary for doing complete
justice to the creditors of the United States, for restor
ing public credit, and for providing for the future exi
gencies of the war. " The issiie was between those who
favoured increasing Federal power and those who feared
the increase would subvert State power. Alexander
Hamilton made a speech on the day Madison's resolu
tion was brought in, declaring all collectors of Federal
* To R. H. Lee, May 17,1777. Lee MSS. University of Virginia.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 39
taxes should be both appointed and paid by Congress,
because they would then be interested in supporting
the power of the Federal Government. Bland and Lee
and other State rights members smiled when they heard
this, and observed among themselves that he had let out
the secret of the purpose of the proposed measures for
Federal funds. Madison himself afterwards said that
Hamilton's remark was injurious to the cause it was
intended to serve. In Madison's speech in favour of
his resolution he said it was needless to go into proofs of
the necessity of paying the debts, as the idea of erecting
our independence upon the ruins of public faith and
national honour was an abhorrent one. His resolution,
therefore, must be agreed to, unless some one could
show another plan that would accomplish the same
purpose. It was admittedly impossible to pay any part
of the principal of the debts; the question involved was
how to pay the interest. Periodical requisitions on tha
States had proved a failure. If the States themselves
established separate funds they must be founded upon
a final adjustment of accounts between the States and
the United States, and the difficulties, complications, and
delays would be interminable. If the funds were first
in the hands of the several States they might be diverted
from their proper use at any time upon any excuse.
There would also be a perpetual jealousy between the
States as to amounts levied and contributed. A general
fund under the control of Congress obviated all of these
difficulties. It was apparent that unless a general pro
vision were made Pennsylvania would pay her own troops
as she was then threatening to do.* Her example would
be followed by other States, and what then would be
come of the authority of Congress and the Union ? Grave
dangers confronted the Government and it must not be
* The Pennsylvania Legislature, in a memorial presented to Congress
November 20, 1782, expressed a. desire to pay the creditors of the Uni
ted States in the State from the revenues alloted by the State for Federal
uses. Madison, Hamilton and Rutiedge were appointed a committee
to meet and dissuade the committee of the Legislature.

40 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
forgotten that it was the clamours of the army for their
pay and pensions that had brought about the present
crisis. It would not be safe to drive an army to des
peration. It had been objected that the scheme was
subversive of the sovereignty and hberty of the
States [Virginia had said it], but Congress already had
authority over the purse and a requisition for money
was now a law to the States, although it was a law that
was not enforced. The proposed scheme would simply
make it an effective law. He admitted that the States
showed no fondness for the scheme, but insisted it was
gaining in popularity aU the time. As for Virginia's
opposition he was always anxious to follow the behests
of his constituents, but the present considerations pre
vailed over it. A member owed something to the col
lective interests of the whole people. He thought there
were occasions when personal consequences should not
deter a legislator from acting according to the clear
dictates of conscience for the good of the whole; he
thought Virginia would not have repealed the law if she
had had full knowledge and would even yet change her
action.* A reason why Madison wished to obtain a general fund
for the disposal of Congress was that such a ftmd was
necessary in order to pay the National debt, and to pay
the debt was necessary to preserve the Union. If the
Union broke up there were many people who would
favour a return to English allegiance. He thought, too,
that military uprisings were inevitable, unless there was
a settled way of paying the troops. A general fund
would prevent disputes among the States, which were
now dangerously jealous of each other, the Eastem
States thinking they were creditors of the Southern
States. It the confederacy broke up the Eastem States
would be strong at sea; the Southern States would be
opulent and weak. Mutual reprisals would foUow and
the weaker side would caU in foreign aid, and finaUy both
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 333, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 41
sides would be subservient to the wars and politics of
Europe. In a speech on February 21, 1783, he said he
would concur in every arrangement necessary for an
honourable and just fulfilment of public engagements,
but in no measure unnecessarily increasing the power
of Congress, and he had, therefore, no desire to per
petuate the public debt.*
The attitude of the several States toward the project
of providing general funds and strengthening the con
federacy was thus summed up by Madison : New Hamp
shire was in favour, because she wished to be free from
taxation by the States through which her trade passed;
Massachusetts because she was a creditor state and
wished the public debt to be provided for. Rhode Island
should have been in favour, because she was so weak
that the Union was necessary to her protection, but she
was loath to give up the opportunity of taxing her
neighbours which her geographical position afforded her.
Connecticut was interested in anything to enable her
to escape taxation of her commerce by New York and
Rhode Island. In New York many influential citizens
were concerned for provision for the public debt. New
Jersey needed protection against taxation by Pennsyl
vania and New York. In Pennsylvania were many
citizens who had subscribed for the domestic debt of the
United States. Deleware was too weak to stand without
the confederacy to help her. Maryland occupied a
unique position. She had never been the seat of war,
and not many of her citizens were creditors of the United
States. She had, however, a general wish for National
tranquillity. To Virginia the confederacy was necessary
to protect her large commerce against the maritime
supremacy of the Eastem States; but she disliked giv
ing up the privilege of taxing North Carolina. North
Carolina, like Virginia, needed protection against the
maritime power of New England, and also against the
taxing power of Virginia and South Carolina. South
* "Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 382.

42 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Carolina was weak and exposed. She suffered severely
during the war and was a creditor of the United States.
Georgia was weak and rich, and as a frontier State re
quired protection.*
Following the resolution of Madison the committee
on revenue made a report on March 7, reviving the
recommendation of 1781, that the States yield to Con
gress power to levy, for the use of the United States, a
duty of five per cent, ad valorem at the port of importa
tion upon all foreign merchandise with a few exceptions ;
and asking for a like duty on all prizes condemned in
the court of admiralty, and a tax on salt, wines, Hquors,
sugars and teas imported. The taxes were to run for
twenty-five years, and the collectors were to be ap
pointed by the States, and to serve under the orders of
Congress. None of the taxes were to take effect until
all had been agreed to by every State. March 19, Mor
ris reported to Congress that the credit of the United
States was at an end, and that no further aids were to
be expected from Europe, f
Among the most earnest supporters of Madison's reso
lution was Alexander Hamilton, but on the report of the
revenue committee he and Madison parted company,
Hamilton insisting upon direct taxes as the proper way
to secure revenue and the direct appointment of coUec
tors of taxes by Congress. His scheme would have been
the best, but the States never would have adopted it, if
it had passed through Congress. The plan of the reve
nue committee, with some amendments not affecting its
general provisions was adopted by Congress, April 18,
1783, all the States voting for it but New York, which
was divided by Hamilton's vote in the negative, and
Rhode Island, which opposed it.f
It was computed that the amount of the tax would not
exceed $6,000,000 a year, which was not sufficient, and
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 389, n.
t Id., 397, 410.
t Id., I. 453-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 43
left a million and a half of interest on the debt to be
provided for. It was decided to apportion this sum
among the States and leave them to collect it by such
taxes as they chose to impose. The apportionment was
to be based upon population, counting all the whites and
free persons and three-fifths of the slaves. This com
putation emanated from Madison. The Southern mem
bers contended that as a slave was not nearly as pro
ductive as a white man, it was obviously unjust to com
pute him as the same in any scheme of taxation, and
after many tentative ratios were suggested, Madison's
was accepted as the least objectionable.
April 26, 1783, Madison submitted the address to the
States urging the acceptance of the import duty and it
passed unanimously. It set forth the necessities of the
occasion and declared taxes on consumption were least
burdensome, because they were least felt, and that taxes
on consumption of articles of foreign commerce were
"most compatible with the genius of free States." The
whole problem was stated lucidly and simply and an
earnest plea was made for paying the debt (i) to our
ally, (2) to those foreigners who had stood our friend
and trusted us, (3) to the soldiers who had fought for us,
and (4) to our own citizens who had loaned us their
funds.* Two months later Madison's Congressional service
terminated for the time being and he went home. The
impost was finally agreed to by each of the States, at
scattering dates, but it was not until the eve of the Con
stitutional Convention at Philadelphia that all had
taken favourable action.
* " Writings of Madison," II, 454, n.

CHAPTER VI
the surrender of the "back lands"
During nearly the whole period of the Revolution,
until March i, 1781, the American Union existed by
common consent and the general Government performed
its functions without a charter. The Articles of Con
federation were agreed to by Congress, November 15,
1777, but they were not operative until ratified by all
the States, and after the other States had acted favour
ably Maryland continued to withhold her consent and
blocked the way. Her objections were based upon
the ground that the proposed articles confirmed the
existing sovereignty of the States ; and before this could
properly be done those States which had, or claimed to
have, unoccupied Western territory, or "back lands,"
as they were commonly called, should yield them up to
the sovereignty of the United States. Maryland in
dividually had no such lands, and she was jealous of
the overweening power of her richest and largest neigh
bour, Virginia.* On September 6, 1780, Congress ap
pealed to the States to make liberal surrender of the
lands, and to Maryland to authorize her delegates in
Congress to ratify the Articles of Confederation. The
response of Virginia was a liberal one. In making it
she was actuated by a desire to consummate the Union
as a legal fact, and to secure a definite Western boundary
of general recognition chosen by herself. There were
also vexatious questions and obligations connected with
holding the enormous territory she claimed which she
could profitably shift upon the general Government,
thereby relieving herself of the burden of administration.
* Rives, I, 210, et seq.
44

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 45
The plan of cession originated with George Mason,
and as actually adopted by the Assembly of the State
was substantially the same as that outlined by him in
a letter to Joseph Jones, July 27, 1780. It proposed to
surrender the territory west of Pennsylvania and north
of 39° 45' 18" parallel, between eighty and ninety miles
long, and in breadth from east to west the whole distance
between the western boundary of Pennsylvania and the
Mississippi, between three and four hundred miles; also
the country between the Ohio and Mississippi, lying
north of parallel 39° 45' 18". The whole area was about
50,000,000 acres in extent, and comprised all of Vir
ginia's holdings, possessed and claimed, north-west of
the Ohio, and extending thence to the Mississippi and
the Great Lakes. From it the States of Ohio, Indiana
and Wisconsin were afterwards formed. Title to the
lands was asserted by the Virginia Assembly in the
spring of 1779, in an act declaring that all deeds or ces
sions previously made by the Indians to the crown
should vest in the State, and all deeds made by the
Indians for the separate use of any individuals should
be considered void.* The State also claimed title by
conquest. Early in 1777 George Rogers Clark's scheme of con
quering the Illinois country was approved by the Gov
ernor and Council of Virginia, and he was authorized
by the Assembly to raise troops, and promised a liberal
quantity of land for himself and his soldiers if he suc
ceeded in his proposed undertaking. About one hun
dred and eighty men went with him, and after great
hardship and heroic daring, he reduced a large section
of the country and the important posts of Kaskaskia
and Vincennes.
The act of the Virginia Assembly (January 2, 1781),
offering the back lands to Congress, accordingly exacted,
as a condition of the gift, that Clark and his men should
have a quantity of land laid aside for their use. It also
* Rowland's "Life of George Mason, "I, 360, et seq.

46 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
stipulated that the State should be reimbursed for the
expense incurred in conquering and defending the coun
try; that the friendly inhabitants should be protected
in their rights and property ; that the promises of botmty
land for Virginia troops in the Continental army should
be met; that the territory should in due season be laid
off in "Repubhcan States"; that the tmappropriated
lands should constitute "a common fund for the use and
benefit" of all the States, and consequently that aU
deeds from Indians to private persons or companies
should be disregarded. Congress was also to guarantee
to Virginia all her remaining territory after the cession.*
There were three classes in Congress who opposed these
conditions: — first, those who wished to force a larger
cession and thereby restrict the boundaries of the State,
thus crippling its preponderating influence ; second, those
who thought all territory formerly known as crown lands
now belonged of right to all the States equally and not
to any one within whose boundaries it happened to be;
third, those who had an interest, pecuniary or otherwise,
in the land companies.
These companies were the Indiana, Vandalia and
Illinois. In contravention of Virginia law they had
obtained from the Indians for mere trifles titles to more
than 40,000,000 acres of land within the chartered limits
of Virginia. When the question of the cession came
before Congress they threw their influence might and
main against its acceptance, and it was rumoured and
generally believed at the time that some of their stock
was held by members of Congress.
Two States besides Virginia also offered lands, Con
necticut and New York, the former giving up aU claim
to the soil west of New York and as far as the Mississippi,
but reserving political jurisdiction ; the latter giving aU
lands, without reservation, west of a certain boundary
"drawn on the occasion. "f Both cessions covered

* Hening's Statutes at Large, X, 564.
f " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, i

72.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 47
some of the lands claimed by Virginia. New York's
title rested upon treaties with the Six Nations tribe of
Indians, surrendering all the territory claimed by that
tribe and tributary tribes, making a domain of incal
culable extent.
In the autumn of 1781 all the acts of cession and the
memorials which the land companies submitted in sup
port of their claims were referred by Congress to a special
committee for a report. By combining their forces
the interests opposed to Virginia were in the ascendency,
and the committee appointed reflected the views of the
majority, being made up of members from New Hamp
shire, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania, all
but Pennsylvania small States which hoped to ac
complish a restriction of Virginia's western boundary.
The committee called at once for proof of title to the
lands, but this demand the Virginia delegates resented,
holding that the State had already declared itself on
this point, and that the resolution of Congress calling
for the surrender of the lands professed to bury such
discussions.* They also felt the uselessness of arguing
the case before prejudiced men. An endeavour to ob
tain action from Congress prohibiting the committee
from entering into the question of titles met with no
success, but the agents of the land companies appeared
and made their arguments. November 3, 1781, the
committee reported in favour of rejecting the offers of
both Virginia and Connecticut, and declared that "all
the lands ceded, or pretended to be ceded," by Virginia
were a part of the original territory of the Six Nations
and tributary tribes and were now under the government
of New York. Accordingly, they recommended the ac
ceptance of that State's offer. As it embraced the lands
southeast of the Ohio, the western boundary of Virginia
would thus be the Alleghany mountains. The report also
favoured the absolute conflrmation of the Indiana Com
pany's claims, and treated those of the Vandalia and Illinois
*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, i6o, i6i,

48 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Companies as having an equitable basis. Nothing could
have been more obnoxious to the Virginia delegates than
this report ; yet to permit its consideration by Congress
would at this time have resulted in its adoption. Resort
was accordingly had to dilatory tactics, and by adroit par
liamentary manoeuvring Madison succeeded in preventing
its consideration. As it was plain to him that no favour
able action was to be expected from Congress as matters
stood, he turned his attention to the State government,
and wrote to Jefferson, urging him to carefuUy trace
Virginia's title and be prepared to defend it.* In May,
1782, he suggested that the Legislature reconsider its
act of cession and either repeal it or set a Hmit of time
for its acceptance. By thus presenting a bold front
he had no doubt Congress would change its attitude.
In the meantime one of the chief objects of the Act
of Surrender had been accomplished, for Maryland had
given her adhesion to the Articles of Confederation, and
on Thursday, March ist, 1781, they were announced to
the world.
Madison's suggestion that Virginia reconsider or
modify her act of cession, so as to force the hand of
Congress, was not pursued, and in the summer of 1782,
before further action was taken by the State, the Grand
Committee of Congress, composed of a member from
each State, called the attention of Congress to the fact
that if the back lands were at its disposal, they would
furnish an excellent means of raising some of the revenue
so pressingly needed. The debates showed, however,
that at this time Congress was hopelessly split on the
subject, enough States favouring one plan or another
to make it impossible to flnd a majority for any.f There
was danger, therefore, of such delay that the individual
States, having lands, or claiming to have them, would
open land offices and sell land patents without reference
to Federal action, and an already complicated situation
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) , I, 170, et seq.
tid., I, 225.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 49
would thus become still more confused, while the general
Government would be deprived of any benefit from the
lands. In this aspect of affairs Madison became con
vinced that the occasion was one for a compromise, or
both the Federal Government and Virginia would suffer.
It was desirable for the additional reason that the
lands in question were being settled, and the time was
not distant when the inhabitants would be making
demands of their own. Virginia would then lose the
territory and the United States would not gain it. "A
separate government," wrote Madison, "cannot be far
distant, and will be an insuperable barrier to subse
quent profits. If, therefore, the decision of the State
on the claims of companies can be saved, I hope her
other conditions will be relaxed."*
In the autumn of 1782 the New York cession was
brought up by itself with a proposition to accept it
without prejudice to the Virginia and Connecticut propo
sitions ; but the Virginians opposed it, because it would
merely substitute the United States for New York in
the boundary questions then pending, f Six months later
(April, 1783,) Congress received a memorial from Moses
Hazen, Colonel of the 2nd Canadian regiment, "Congress'
own," as it was called, praying that a tract of land on Lake
Erie be allotted for the use of the Canadian soldiers,
who had fought for the American cause. Wilson, of
Pennsylvania, improved the opportunity afforded by
the reading of the memorial to propose that a commit
tee be named to report proper measures to be taken
with respect to the Western lands, as emigration thither
was rapidly increasing. Madison opposed the motion
as inopportune. Efforts were then in full progress to
secure consent of the States to a scheme for raising
general revenue and Wilson's motion, if agreed to, would
arouse jealousy among the States with consequent op-
*" Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 232, 233.
fid., I, 251, n.

so LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
position to Federal measures. Until Congress should
acquire the lands through their cession by the States
no steps to dispose of them could properly be taken,
he said. Pending such acquisitions it was the duty of
the States to suppress irregular settlements. Wilson
replied that there was no need of waiting for action by
the States, as all the territory over which the States had
not actually exercised jurisdiction belonged of right to
the United States. Madison called his attention to
the fact that Pennsylvania had on a former occasion,
in a territorial dispute, contended that exercise of juris
diction was not a proper test of the territorial rights of
the States; but if it were, Virginia had exercised juris
diction over the Illinois territory and other places north
west of the River Ohio. As a matter of fact, he de
clared, the treaty of peace with Great Britain did not
comprehend any territory not already claimed by some
one of the States. He was of opinion that subsequent
action by the States might render any action at the
present time unnecessary.* Alexander Hamilton shared
Wilson's view, that the right to the lands lay with the
United States, but he thought the private claims de
served consideration and moved an amendment in their
favour, June lo, 1783. As the consideration of the
question proceeded, however, these claims were "tacitly
excluded," and the land companies in consequence
opposed the inpending settlement. Yet, it would ap
pear that their interests lay upon the side of a settlement,
for non-action upon their claims would enable them to
ask Congress to consider them later when they would
have only Congress to deal with. At present they
might be sure that Virginia would not recognize their
right to an acre of land, and it was equally certain that
Congress would not extend authority over the Western
territory by use of force against Virginia.
On June 30, 1783, the first step was taken positively
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 444, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 51
pointing to an acceptance of the Virginia cession upon
a compromise. The committee having the matter in
charge reported in favour of that part of the Virginia
conditions providing for the State's re-imbursement
for reducing the British posts at Kaskaskia and Vin
cennes.* At once New Jersey sent a vigorous remon
strance to Congress, calling attention to the claim of
the State made as early as 1778 to a share in the Western
territory, which was the common property of all the
States, and belonged no more to Virginia than it did to
New Jersey. The Virginia conditions of cession were
characterized as "partial, unjust and illiberal. "f The
coalition against Virginia at this time comprised, be
side New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island
and Delaware. Maryland proposed an ingenious sub
stitute for the Virginia offer. With considerable minute
ness it described the territory France had ceded Great
Britain in 1763, and the portion of it ceded to the United
States by Great Britain in the treaty of peace. It was
the United States "as one undivided and independent
nation, with all and every power exercised by the King
of Great Britain" that succeeded to the British title.
Congress was reminded that as early as 1779 Maryland
had instructed her delegates in Congress to maintain
"that a country unsettled at the commencement of
this war, claimed by the British crown, and ceded to it
by the Treaty of Paris, if wrested from the common
enemy, by the blood and treasure of the 13 States,
should be considered as common property, subject to
be parcelled out by Congress into free, convenient and
independent governments, in such manner and at such
times, as the wisdom of that Assembly shall hereafter
direct." Accordingly, Congress was now requested to
appoint a committee to report what territory lay without
the actual boundaries of the individual States, and
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 474, et seq.
t Journals of Congress (Ed. 1800), Vllt, 204-205.

52 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
within those of the United States, and what parcels were
most eligible for one or more independent States, and
to provide for the opening of a land office forthwith.
New Jersey alone voted with Maryland for this prop
osition.* The Virginia proposal was now in the hands of a
friendly committee composed of Rutiedge of South
Carolina, Ellsworth of Connecticut, Bedford of Dela
ware, Gorham of Massachusetts, and Madison. The
report which they submitted reflected the compromise
which' had been arranged under Madison's advice. The
condition that the claims of the land companies be
speciflcally declared void was rejected. The promise
that the ceded territory would be a common fund to be
used for the benefit of all the States was deemed suffi
cient to satisfy this point. The condition that aU of
Virginia's remaining territory be confirmed to her was
also rejected, because it would be obviously unfair for
the United States to thus take the side of one State
against any other State with which she might have a
boundary dispute. If there was no such dispute the
Articles of Confederation presented sufficient security
in the clause which confirmed each State in its sover
eignty; if there was a dispute, the Articles themselves
provided all the legal machinery for settling it. AU the
States voted in favour of accepting the committee's re
port, except New Jersey and Maryland, New Hampshire
being divided.f The action of Congress being referred
back to the State, the Virginia Assembly acted favour
ably, after a hot fight by a vote of fifty-three to forty-
one. Many members were accused of deriving personal
profit from the new arrangement and some of them were
defeated for re-election the following autumn. J On
March i, 1784, the delegates in Congress, Thomas Jeffer
son, S. Hardy and Arthur Lee, signed the deed of cession.
* Joumals of Congress (Ed. 1800) VIII, 254.
tId., VIII, 258.
I Benjamin Hawkins to Madison, Sweet Springs, September 4, i7»4,
Department of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 53
The final consummation thus occurred, as it happened,
after Madison left Congress, but the guiding hand through
out the proceedings had been his, and it was his patience
and tactical skill that prevented defeat, and his advice
that secured a timely compromise and. practical success
for Virginia's conditions.

CHAPTER VII
the MISSISSIPPI question
Intimately connected with the subject of the back
lands and of more vital consequence to the future of
America was the question of the boundary between
the United States and Spanish territory and the right
of navigating the Mississippi River.
By her chartered limits and Clark's conquests, Vir
ginia claimed the territory to the banks of the river,
and the General Assembly by resolution of November 5,
1779, ordered the delegates in Congress to favour the
free navigation of the river to the sea. The question
was, of course, an international one, and involved nego
tiations with Spain by a Power not yet independent.
In June, 1779, Spain and England were virtuaUy at
war, and the opportunity seemed to be ripe for securing
Spain as an ally of the United States. In 1756 she had
lost the Floridas to Great Britain, and by resolution of
September 15, 1779, Congress held out to her the pros
pect of regaining them with America's help, provided
"the United States should enjoy the free navigation of
the River Mississippi into and from the sea." John
Jay, our minister at Madrid, reported that the desired
aUiance was impossible at this price, but Congress agreed
unanimously to adhere to the condition, and October 4,
1780, appointed Madison, SuUivan, of New Hampshire,
and Duane, of New York, a committee to draw up an
instruction to Jay on the subject, a copy of the instruc
tion to be sent to Franklin at Paris. The paper was
prepared by Madison, and October 17 he presented the
completed draft, which Congress accepted without
change. It was the first important State paper to come
54

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 55
from his pen in Congress, and it put him at once in the
front rank of the members, for it is probable that no
other member could have prepared an argument so
faultless and adequate from the American point of view.
It laid down the principle that, as the question of
boundary between Spanish and British territory in
America had been settled by the treaty of 1763 between
Spain and Great Britain, the United States succeeded
to all the benefits Great Britain had derived from the
treaty. The King of England had exercised sover
eignty over his American colonies not because he was
recognized as King by the people of England, but by
the people of America. The territory held in his name
was held for them, and became theirs when they threw
off his yoke and assumed sovereignty themselves. Cer
tain portions of the territory in question were in the
possession of Spain when her relations with England
were broken off, but these were only a few unimportant
places and it could not be successfully contended that
they controlled the surrounding territory. If the right
to the country depended on conquest the United States
had a more extensive claim than Spain, having con
quered all the important posts on the Illinois and Wa
bash and established civil government over the inhabi
tants. It was true Great Britain held parts of the ter
ritory, but these parts were not subject to conquest by
any power other than the United States. To admit
otherwise would be to admit that any part of the United
States captured or to be captured by Great Britain was
subject to such conquest, and New York, Long Island,
and other places in the enemy's hands might be perma
nently severed from the American Union. The most
natural boundary between the United States and Span
ish possessions was the Mississippi, and it was less likely
than any other to become a subject of dispute. As the
sovereignty of the soil was a descendible right, so was
the free navigation of the river, and the fact that Spain
was in possession of both banks at the mouth was neither

56 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
a natural nor an equitable bar to prevent the use of the
river. The usages of nations under such circumstances
gave no further right than the imposition of a moderate
toll on commerce. Vattel was quoted to show that an
innocent passage was due all nations at peace even for
troops through a friendly State, and this applied equally
to water passage. In this case, however, it involved
also a free port at the mouth of the river, as to navigate
the river vessels must be so constructed that they could
not go to sea. Stress was laid upon the material ad
vantages to be derived by Spain if she agreed to Amer
ica's wishes. The Western country would soon be
overspread with people, and in the nature of things
they would for years to come be engaged wholly in ag
ricultural pursuits. Their consumption of foreign man
ufactures would necessarily be large, arid the most
natural channel for exchange of products would be the
Mississippi. If this channel were closed, commerce
would perforce go northward up the rivers having their
sources near the lakes, thence by short portages to the
lakes or rivers flowing into them, thence through the
lakes, down the St. Lawrence to England, instead of
down the Mississippi to the benefit of Spain and France.*
The bold argument advanced in this instruction was
negatived by the fears of America herself. In less than
a year after it was written British military successes in
the South were such that it seemed probable the whole
of South Carolina and Georgia, and even possibly Vir
ginia and North Carolina, would fall into the hands of
the enemy. The armed neutrality of Europe under
Catharine II of Russia began to make itself felt, and
serious fears were entertained that the. allied neutrals
would force a peace between the United States and
Great Britain upon the basis of each beUigerent keep
ing such territory as each actually held — the uti posseditis.
As this would mean a disastrous dismemberment of the
United States a cry arose outside of Congress and within
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 82.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 57
it to abandon the Mississippi for the sake of an alliance
with Spain. A little more than a month after the in
struction to Jay had left, Georgia and South Carolina
moved its reconsideration, and Theodoric Bland, Mad
ison's only colleague at the time, changed front com
pletely, and wrote to Jefferson, then Governor of Vir
ginia, November 22, 1780,* saying he thought the dis
tant prospect of free navigation of the river ought to be
abandoned for the immediate benefit of an alliance and
probable independence. He showed the letter to Madi
son who refused to sign it, but Jefferson transmitted it
to the Assembly, December 5. Madison and Bland sent
a joint letter dated December 13, asking for instructions,
which was laid before the Assembly, f The instructions
were passed January 2 and were: "Every further or
other demand of the said navigation to be ceded, if in
sisting on the same is deemed an impediment to a treaty
with Spain." Fortunately, Jay himself was then op
posed to the abandonment of the American position,
and when the instruction of Congress rescinding that
which Madison had drafted reached him, he stated to
the Spanish Government that the American offer must
be availed of at once, as there was no obligation to re
new it in the future. Spain did not accept, no alliance
was formed, and the Mississippi remained an open ques
tion when Madison's first service in Congress ended.
When Madison took his seat, the law of Virginia did
not permit a delegate to serve more than three years
in any term of six years. Madison's service would,
therefore, have terminated in the autumn of 1782, but
in. May of that year the law of eligibility was repealed,
and he was chosen for a fourth consecutive year, at the
end of which there remained four months when he would
be eligible to serve under the Articles of Confederation,
which established a triennial rotation, but did not go
into effect till the ratification, March i, 1781. It was
* Department of State MSS.
t " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 102, n,

58 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
proposed to re-elect him for this brief period, but he
declined to allow it. He was not, however, popular
with all the members of the House of Delegates, a con
siderable opposition having developed from those who
were habitually jealous of Congressional power' and his
advocacy of it.
The treaty of peace with Great Britain terminated
the desirability of a treaty of alliance with Spain, but in
place of it came a demand from the Eastem States for
a treaty of commerce. Unfortunately, diplomatic ne
gotiations with Spain were rendered difficult by the
terms of the treaty of peace, a secret article of which
provided that, if England should at some future day
gain West Florida from Spain, the Southern boundary
of the United States should extend beyond the line
actually named in the treaty. This secret article be
came known at Madrid almost as soon as it was agreed
upon, and the Spanish Government informed Congress,
June 25, 1784, that Spain would not admit that the
boundary between the United States, Louisiana and the
Floridas had been truly described in the treaty, and
that until a correct description should be given Spain
would maintain her right to the exclusive navigation of
the Mississippi and would not permit American boats
to use the river.
Don Diego Gardoqui presented his credentials as
Minister from Spain July 2, 1785, and John Jay, who
had succeeded Livingston as Secretary of Foreign Af
fairs, was instructed to negotiate a commercial treaty
with him. Gardoqui soon let it be known that he was
commissioned to sign a liberal treaty, provided it did
not touch Spain's right of exclusive use of the Mississippi.
August 25, 1785, Jay was instructed to adhere to the
position originally taken by the United States on this
point, as set forth in the Madison instruction of
October, 1780. It was, of course, apparent to Jay
that an insistance upon this position meant the failure
of the negotiations, and he asked for a committee from

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 59
Congress with which he could secretly consult. Such
a committee he hoped would have a majority of its
members from those States which cared more for com
merce with Spain than for the use of the Mississippi,
and his move was successful, for Monroe was the only
member of the committee who regarded the Mississippi
question as paramount to the commercial question.
The negotiations with Gardoqui, therefore, proceeded
upon a basis of closing the river for twenty-five or thirty
years; and August 3, 1786, Jay laid his plan before Con
gress. Everything pointed to the probability of its
success. Madison was not then in Congress, but his efforts for
the right of free navigation of the river were as active
in Virginia as they had been in Philadelphia. Except
the problem of how to strengthen the Federal Govern
ment there was no subject which interested him so
much. He never doubted that he was right and that
the salvation of the country required that his views
should prevail. Any agreement to close the river, even
for a time, would, he believed, precipitate strife. "An
impolitic and perverse attempt" of Spain to exclude
American boats would, he wrote to Jefferson, August 20,
1784, merely delay the development of the Western
country; and, he added: Spain "can no more finally
stop the cunent of trade down the river than she can
that of the river itself. " He declared that Spain would
not persist in her present attitude if America stood
firm, for right was on the American side. Above New
Orleans, there would soon be a population of millions,
and it was too much to suppose that their interests
could be sacrificed to those of a paltry Spanish town.
Moreover, every argument now used by America for
the freedom of the river Spain had herself employed in
1609 when she contended for the freedom of the river
Scheldt. Furthermore, American trade down the river
would make New Orleans one of the most flourishing
ports in the world and a loyal Spanish city, instead of

6o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
remaining, as it was, a half-French town which hated
Spain for her oppression. It was worth while for Spain
to consider that the friendship of the United States would
be better than the planting of seeds of permanent dis
sension and probable conflict. Spain also must be in
fluenced by public opinion in Europe, which was opposed
to the notion that ownership of the mouth earned with
it the control of the whole length of a river.* "The
use of the Mississippi, " he wrote to Monroe in Congress,!
"is given by nature to our Western country, and no
power on Earth can take it from them." He impressed
his views upon everyone who could influence a favour
able settlement of the subject. During the intimacy
of a journey from Baltimore with Lafayette in Sep
tember, 1784, he imfolded his arguments and told
him that such was the clash of interests between the
United States and Spain that an actual rupture was
imminent, unless France mediated between the two.
If she did not she would, as an ally of Spain, share the
odium of Spain. Lafayette said Spain was such a fool
that allowances should be made for her, and he promised
to write to Vergennes on the subject. He did so; but
after leaving Madison he fell into the hands of the com
mercial party, and when he sailed for France was under
the impression that many people were willing to yield
up the navigation of the Mississippi in return for com
mercial advantages. Madison wrote him a long letter,
March 20, 1785, showing the impossibility of the main
tenance of the Spanish position, and Lafayette lent his
influence in Paris on the side advocated by Madison.
That side, however, was not only losing ground in
Congress, but outside of Congress, and even in Virginia.
Henry Lee, who at this time usually followed Madison's
lead on public questions, failed to do so on this occasion,
voted with the Jay party in Congress, and lost his re-elec
tion to that body in consequence. Washington, aJso,
* " Works of Madison " (Cong. Ed.) , I, 93, et seq.
t January 8, 1785, Id., I, 121,

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON • 6i
thought the navigation of the river not absolutely neces
sary, and that it could be postponed until such time as the
bordering country was more thickly populated. Madi
son's information, however, showed that Lee and Wash
ington were wrong. He had a number of relations
and friends who had emigrated to the Western country
and kept him informed of the trend of Western public
opinion, and he knew that there was grave danger if
the river was surrendered that the pioneers would aban
don the Federal Union as useless to them and seek the
protection of a foreign power. George Muter wrote to
him from Kentucky, Febru.ary 20, 1787: "Our people
are greatly alarmed at the prospect of the navigation
of the Mississippi being given up, and I have not met
with one man who would be willing to give the naviga
tion up, for ever so short a time, on any terms what
soever. " From Pittsburgh, February 21, 1787, John
Campbell wrote: "The minds of all the Western people
are agitated on account of the proposed cession of the
Mississippi navigation to Spain. Every person talks
of it with indignation and reprobates it as a measure
of the greatest Injustice and Despotism, declaring that
if it takes place they will look upon themselves released
from all Federal Obligations and fully at Liberty to
seek alliances & connections wherever they can flnd
them and that the British officers at Detroit have already
been tampering with them. I am apprehensive that
these matters will hasten the Separation of the District
of Kentucky prematurely from the other part of the
State, the Inhabitants of North Carolina to the West
ward of Cumberland mountain being desirous to join
the People of Kentucky in forming one State."*
When the success of the Jay party appeared to be
most probable Madison was in the Virginia Assembly
and the news caused him serious embanassment. As
the champion of extension of Federal power, he had
been telling his colleagues that Congress was attentive
?^Department of State MSS.

62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
to the wants of all parts of the country equally, and
that the interests of the West would be served better
if Congress were granted more authority. The news
from Philadelphia seemed to be a denial of these prom
ises. The jealousy of the influence of the Northem
States in National affairs increased. There were thirty
members of the Assembly from Kentucky, and their
opposition to a Government apparently about to barter
away their interests was to be expected. Many Vir
ginians who had been Federalists heretofore became
lukewarm, and worst of all, Patrick Henry, whose aid
for Federal measures Madison had been hoping to secure,
became cold. The opposition of the Western members
to the project of closing the Mississippi was, however,
the very feeling upon which Madison now worked to
prevent them from leaving his party. He pointed out,
truly enough, that if the right of navigation of the river
should be abandoned by Congress it would be because
the Federal Government was too weak to assert it,
and feared a war for which it was powerless to prepare.
The remedy, therefore, was to do away with the power-
lessness and give real authority to the general Govern
ment. Caught by this reasoning the Kentucky mem
bers supported Madison's resolutions for the Philadel
phia convention, and it was passed November 9, 1786.
In return he wrote a vigorous protest against the con
templated treaty, which was adopted by a unanimous
vote November 29th.*
Soon afterwards Madison sought and secured an
election to the Continental Congress, his chief object
being to continue there his efforts to defeat the pro
jected treaty. In the meantime occurred those cir
cumstances which usually happen to hasten a political
crisis and which no statesmanship can foresee. An
adventurer named Thomas Amis, living in the Western
country, loaded a boat with merchandise and attempted
to go down the Mississippi. On June 6, 1786, he was
* Rives, II, log, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 63
seized and his cargo confiscated by the Spanish authori
ties at Natchez. He was himself released and left to
make his way homeward overland, and as he journeyed
he told his story and it aroused the settlers. When
the inhabitants of the American post at Vincennes
heard it they were so wrought up that they looted the
store of a Spanish merchant in the place by way of re
prisal. Vincennes then being in Virginia tenitory, the
State took measures to protect Spanish interests, and
the affair was reported to Congress in the spring of 1787.
At the same time a memorial was presented from North
Carolina setting forth the seizure of Amis's boat. These
incidents were a practical argument against the possi
bility of stopping emigration to the West, and showed
that if trade down the river were stopped trouble would
follow. They furnished a reason for a call upon the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs for a report upon the con
dition of the negotiations with Spain.
The position of that officer was always a peculiarly
difficult one. He was obhged to report to the full Con
gress whenever called upon and Congress had no stable
policy, but changed his instructions whenever it saw fit.
He could not even be certain of being permitted to
manage the affairs intrusted to him without interference,
for the members of Congress did not hesitate to com
municate directly and without his knowledge with
foreign ministers. Such communication Madison ac
cidentally had with Gardoqui in March, 1787. The
Spaniard attempted to support the position of his Gov
ernment by using the Tagus River as an illustration.
It flowed from Spain through Portugal, but Spain had
never claimed a right to navigate it, deeming the pos
session by Portugal of both banks of the river at its
mouth an undisputed barrier. He was then asked
whether he contended for the same right of Spain to
the Mississippi, where Spain had only five acres of terri
tory at the mouth of the river. He replied that Spain
had more territory than this, but when pressed to specify

64 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
what it was, he could make no definite reply. He
hinted, however, that the consequences would be dan
gerous if Virginia's views prevailed. In order to pla
cate him his attention was called to the recent action
of the Virginia Assembly denouncing the seizure of
Spanish property at Vincennes; and with a view to
alarming him he was told that the feeling in the West
against Spain was becoming bitter and that the in
habitants were even threatening to go over to Great
Britain. The report made by Jay to Congress, April ii, 1787,
was a frank disclosure of the state of his negotiations
with Gardoqui. Repeated conversations with the min
ister had, he said, produced nothing, for the minister
would not yield on the Mississippi question. He would
not even agree to an article clearly implying the right
of the United States to navigate the river, and "ex
pressly forebearing the use during the term of the treaty " ;
but Jay thought he might agree to an article accom
plishing this object by stipulating merely that the river
would not be used by the United States during the term
of the treaty, and observing silence on the question of
right. The abandonment of the navigation while the
treaty should run was an alternative for war, and Con
gress must decide upon one or the other. It was devel
oped also that Jay considered himself empowered by
the votes of seven States to proceed with the negotia
tions upon the basis outlined in his letter.
The division on the subject had generally been that
of the North, which voted for the treaty, against the
South, which voted with Virginia ; but New Jersey and
Pennsylvania had never been permanently on the North
ern side. The Assembly of the former State now sent
positive instructions to the delegates in Congress to
oppose the treaty and the personnel of the Pennsyl
vania delegation changed, a majority going with Vir
ginia. This was a natural development, as part of the
State lay in the Mississippi valley. Rhode Island also

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 65
changed her vote, but from unworthy motives. Judg
ing other States by herself she supposed that the Eastern
States desired to close the river, so as to throw out of
competition in the market for public lands the extensive
Western country. The real reason, however, was sim
ply that the Eastem States desired commerce with
Spain; and they did, undoubtedly, prefer that the Mis-
sisippi should be closed, since if it became a highway
of commerce it would take much of the trade which
otherwise would be forced to the Eastward. This
reason was frankly avowed by Gorham of Massachusetts,
in the course of the debate.
Jay's report being made, Madison moved its reference
to a committee, and the vote on the subject disclosed
the fact that the party in favour of the treaty was prob
ably in the minority. On April 18, he moved that the
negotiations be transferred to Madrid. If this could
be done they would be taken from the hands of Jay
to those of Jefferson, who would be sent as minister.
This motion was a revival of one made by Pinckney of
South Carolina when Madison was not in Congress. Of
course. Jay reported against it with considerable feeling.
Madison also called upon Congress to declare that the
vote of seven States ought not to be regarded as suffi
cient authority upon which to negotiate the treaty.
King, of Massachusetts, showed that there had been
twelve States present when Jay received authority to
negotiate upon the basis of the non-use of the river.
This was true, but it was equally true that the Articles
of Confederation required nine States to assent to a
treaty before it could become effective, and that only
seven States had since been shaping the negotiations.
What would they avail, if it was obvious that their re
sult would be rejected? The object of Madison's
motion was, however, dilatory, and to kill the treaty
by debate. In the midst of the debate an adjournment
was had and the treaty disappeared from view for eigh
teen months. When Madison left New York to go to

66 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Philadelphia to attend the Federal Convention he was
able to announce that the project of shutting the Mis
sissippi "was at an end." And so it was for the time
being, thanks chiefly to Madison. But Jay and his
party had strong arguments on their side. A commer
cial treaty with Spain would have benefited many. Their
mistake was in supposing it would have lessened the
friction between the two Powers, whereas it would really
have increased it, for the Western adventurers would
have broken the treaty.

CHAPTER VIII
VIRGINIA EMANCIPATIONISTS
One reason why Madison held a commanding posi
tion in the Continental Congress was that he was more
assiduous in attendance than most of his associates,
who came and went having regard chiefly to the affairs
of their respective States and their own personal con
venience, and holding the concerns of the Union as of
secondary importance. As he was always on the spot
his influence was naturally greater than theirs. While
his public duties were thus laborious, his private cir
cumstances were trying and his pressing pecuniary em
barrassment caused him incessant worry.
The provision made by Virginia for her delegates in
Congress would have been a liberal one if it had been
paid. At first they were allowed food for their horses
and servants, house rent and fuel, and twenty dollars
for each day of attendance on Congress, and two dollars
for every mile of travel going and coming. To en
courage economy they were required to submit their
household accounts to the State auditors.* At the
May session of the Assembly, 1782, this provision was
repealed, and they were allowed eight dollars a day
specie standard, while in actual attendance. As a
bachelor of unostentatious habits Madison's expenses
were not heavy. He kept but one servant and two
horses, and he had no separate house. But the treasury
of the State could seldom pay him or his colleagues, and
they were compelled to make common cause in their
poverty ; when one received a draft he shared it with the
others. In March, 1783, the State auditors adjusted
* Rives, I, 518, et seq.
67

68 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Madison's accounts and found ;^865 8s. 7,d. due him,*
the whole of which he never received, at any rate while
in Philadelphia. His father sent him money from time
to time, but not enough, and October 8, 1782, he wrote
Edmund Randolph that he then owed about $350. In
his distress he had recourse to two Jew brokers, Cohen
and Haym Salomon. The latter was a native of Poland,
a friend and fellow countryman of Pulaski. He re
fused to receive interest for loans to members of the
Congress and when he died in 1784 his family received
nothing from his estate, f
In the same boarding house with Madison were the
other Virginia delegates, the French minister, Barb6 de
Marbois (also a client of Salomon's),! General James
Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and
a delegate in Congress from New York, and his daughter
Catherine, a beautiful, vivacious girl, just sixteen years
of age. There were several older ladies in the house one
of whom acted, as it would appear, as the friend and
adviser of Miss Floyd.
In those days a girl was accounted to be a woman at
an early age and usually entered society at sixteen, and
Catherine Floyd took her place among the other board
ers as a young lady. Madison thus saw her every day
and one of his few absences from the sittings of Congress
was when he accompanied her and her father from
Philadelphia as far as Brunswick, New Jersey, on their
way to New York early in the spring of 1783. The chief
romance of his life was then taking place, for he and
Catherine were engaged to be married. He was double
her age, and youth lay far behind him, and he was too
old and sedate for a young girl in the first flush of woman
hood. He was her father's friend and contemporary
rather than hers. What did she care that a great career
was predicted for him? She wanted pleasure, ardour,
* Department of State MSS.
t New York Pubhc Library (Lenox) MSS.
tId.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 69
the young life ; not politics, prosy discussion and repose.
Yet the young statesman laid at her feet a treasure
which a tamer, maturer nature would have prized. He
was the soul of honour, reared in surroundings health
ful to moral and mental development, looking at life
through the eyes of a gentleman, chivalrous, high-
minded and pure, and after the habit of men of his .class
he held women in perfect respect and reverence. The
poetic temperament which he had suppressed after he
left Princeton must have revived under the influence of
his passion, and the pleasing prospect was before him
of a riper domestic life than he had thus far known, which
should keep pace with his expanding public usefulness.
Unfortunately the prospect was not pleasing to Catherine
Floyd. She was docile enough for a time, and appeared
to yield to Madison's suit, which her father also urged;
but there was a young clergyman in Philadelphia, who,
report says, "hung round her at the harpsichord," and
made love to her while Madison and her father were
discussing paper money; and when the affairs of a con
tinent were being shaped with Madison as a chief actor
in the Continental Congress, the affairs of his heart and
Catherine Floyd's were being discussed and settled with
the aid of the older woman who belonged to the young
parson's party, in the little boarding house world where
she and Madison lived. She decided in favour of the
younger man, and jilted the Statesman, sending him his
dismissal in a letter sealed with a piece of rye dough.*
It is tradition also that she returned him, at the same
time, his miniature, painted on ivory by C. W. Peale,
in the back of which was set a knot of his hair and hers.
He was not a man to burden his friends with his private
griefs, and of the mortification and distress which this
affair must have caused him he left no record behind.
Jefferson, as a privileged friend, ventured a few words
* The author cannot find any reason for the use of rye dough. A
good account of the jilting of Madison may be found in Gay's "Madi
son," 43, et seq.

70 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of philosophical condolence, but the affair was not one
to call for expressions of sympathy. He took up the
burden of his work in which his interest was so great
and found there the substitute for higher hopes, and the
episode passed, leaving no permanent trace of bitter
ness in the victim.
From the worry of debt and the cheerlessness of the
Philadelphia boarding house Madison escaped early in
December, when he returned to the congenial atmos
phere of his home in Orange County. He had been in
public office for nine years, first in the county, then at
Williamsburg, then at Philadelphia, and his experience
was greater than that of any other Southern public man
of the same age.
The winter of 1783-84 was a severe one and unfavour
able to open air employment, and in the solitude of the
long hours Madison applied himself assiduously to the
study of law. It was then his intention and desire to
practise it as a profession, in order to avoid a planter's
life, and gain a subsistence depending, as he said, "As
little as possible upon the labour of slaves."* His dis
like of slavery was never concealed. From Philadelphia
he wrote his father, September 8, 1783, that his negro
boy Billy, who had run away and been recovered, should
not be sent back to Virginia as he was not a safe com
panion for the other slaves. Accordingly he sold him
in Philadelphia for seven years, the limit permitted by
Pennsylvania law. He was unwilling, he said, to trans
port him and punish him for simply "coveting that
liberty for which we have paid the price of so much
blood and have proclaimed so often to be the right, and
worthy the pursuit of every human being, "f During
the progress of the war, he proposed to Joseph Jones
(November 28, 1780,) to complete the Virginia quota
of troops by liberating and making soldiers of the blacks.
This would be "consonant to the principles of liberty,
* " Writings of Madison " (Htmt) , II, 154-
tid., n, IS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 71
which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for
hberty; and with white officers and a majority of white
soldiers, no imaginable danger could be feared from
themselves, as there certainly could be none from the
effect of the example on those who should remain in
bondage, experience having shown that a freedman
immediately loses all attachment and sympathy with
his former fellow slaves."*
Whatever the merits of the scheme as a measure of
emancipation it was a weak one from a military point
of view, and is one of the few instances where he ven
tured to give military advice. In reply, Jones pointed
out with perfect truth that the plan, if put into effect,
would probably tend to increase the army of the enemy,
who would also be sure to arm the blacks. He added:
"The freedom of these people is a great and desirable
object. To have a clear view of it would be happy for
Virginia; but whenever it is attempted, it must be, I
conceive, by some gradual course, allowing time as they
go off for labourers to take their places, or we shall suffer
exceedingly under the sudden revolution which perhaps
arming them would produce."!
The leading minds in Virginia were in favour of eman
cipation. When Jefferson introduced his digest of laws
for the State in 1779 he intended to add an amendment
providing for the freedom of all blacks after a certain
date and their deportation after a certain age, and his
proposed Constitution for the State, written in 1783,
had an emancipation article. Of his amendment he
wrote in his old age: " But it was found that the public
mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it
bear it even at this day." He regarded the ultimate
freedom of the blacks as certain, and their deportation
as a necessary consequence, as the two races could not
live both free under the same Government. J
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) , I, io6.
¦\ " Letters of Joseph Jones " (Ford), 63, 64.
J Randall's " Life of Jefferson, " I, 227.

72 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
How George Mason felt on the subject may be gath
ered from his speech in the Philadelphia Constitutional
Convention in 1787.
"Slavery discourages arts and manufactures," he
said. "The poor despise labour when performed by
slaves. They prevent the emigration of whites, who
really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce
the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master
of slaves is bom a petty tyrant. They bring the judg
ment of heaven on a country. As nations cannot be
rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be
in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects.
Providence punishes national sins by national calami
ties. He lamented that some of our Eastem brethren
had, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious
traffic."* Edmund Randolph wrote to Madison in 1789 that he
desired to go to Philadelphia to practise law. "For if I
found that I could live there I could emancipate my
slaves, and thus end my days without undergoing any
anxiety about the injustice of holding them, "f
Patrick Henry, who did not think in unusual channels,
is supposed to have introduced, as he certainly approved,
the liberal law permitting the emancipation of slaves
passed at the May session, 1782, of the State Legisla
ture. It recited that application had been made by
people disposed to manumit their slaves for permission
to do so, and it should, therefore, be lawful for any person
by will or other written instrument under his hand and
seal, attested and proved in county court by two wit
nesses, to free any or all of his slaves. The friends of
this law hoped it would be foUowed by a stiU more
liberal provision. f
In November, 1785, a petition was presented to the
House of Delegates in favour of a general manumission.
?Madison Papers (Gilpin), III, 1390.
t Conway's "Life of Edmund Randolph, 125.
t Henry's "Life of Patrick Henry. " II, 174.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 73
It produced no action, of course, but many members
expressed their entire approval of the principle it ex
pressed. So general became the feeling against slave-
holding that a rumour gained currency that the chief
planters intended to rid themselves of their negroes.
Jacob Read, of South Carolina, wrote to Madison, Au
gust 29, 1785, from Congress, where, he said, Madison
was sorely needed: "An opinion prevails in South
Carolina that the principal holders of slaves in your
State wish to divest themselves of that kind of property
and that tolerable good purchases might be made on
good Security being given for payments by instalments
with a regular discharge of the interest.
" Under the impression of this opinion the Honourable
Mr. J. Rutiedge of South Carolina has addressed a letter
to me wishing to become engaged in any purchase I
may be able to make, to make a joint concern. "*
The Quakers in Virginia formed "The Humane or
Abolition Society, " and after the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, Robert Pleasants, the president, wrote
to Madison (June 6, 1791) — "believing thou art a friend
to general liberty" — to ask him to introduce in the
House of Representatives a memorial which had been
prepared against the slave trade. He said he had a
strong desire to see some plan of general emancipation
uitroduced in the State and added: "Knowing the
sentiments of divers slave holders, who are favourable
to the design, I wish to have thy judgment on the pro
priety of a Petition to our assembly for a law declaring
the children of slaves to be bom after the passing such
act, to be free at the usual ages of eighteen and twenty-
one years." A little later he sent the petition to Madi
son, but it was inopportune. t "The public mind would
not yet bear the proposition."
Kentucky was settled chiefly by Virginians, among
whom were many of Madison's friends and several of
* Department of State MSS.
tId.

74 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
his relations. They frequently wrote to him for advice
in the period of their State making, and H. Taylor, his
cousin on his father's side, described the emancipation
sentiment in the Constitutional Convention of 1792 in
a letter from Danville, April 16. "The manumission
of slaves," he said, "was a matter much debated in
the house, some was for its taking place immediately
others for a gradual mode, but Col° Nicholas w'^ not give
up the plan adopted in the Resolve for that purpose, a
considerable number, as well as myself w*^ have been
very glad to have seen a stop put to the ingress of slaves
after a certain period and an immediate prohibition of
any for sale — instead of leaving the matter so much to the
legislature."* The clause which George Nicholas insisted
upon inhibited the Legislature from emancipating slaves
without the consent of the owners, or without paying
the owners, and from preventing immigrants from
bringing their slaves with them, but laws might be
passed permitting owners to emancipate their slaves
and preventing slaves from being brought into the State
as merchandise. That Nicholas should have resisted
the emancipation sentiment in the convention is ex
plicable on the theory that he did not believe the people
of the State would ratify the Constitution if it contained
an emancipation clause.
An extract from a letter from Francis Corbin, a typical
Virginia planter, with many acres, many children and
many slaves, may be quoted here. He was an ardent
patriot and a devoted friend and admirer of Madison,
to whom he wrote from his place, " The Reeds, " June 15,
1797: "The dislike I have had all, my life, to slavery m-
creases as I advance in years. Indeed now I have be
come a married man, and am obliged to be more con
versant with it than I ever was before, I find it to be
intolerable. Reluctant as I shaU.be to leave the Old
Dominion, yet my aversion to slavery wiU conquer aU
* Department of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 75
my native predelictions and cause me to emigrate East
ward. "* He did not go, but died as he had lived, an
owner of slaves.
Among the Madison papers is a half -finished essay he
wrote on "The Influence of Domestic Slavery on Gov
ernment," which shows how clearly he understood the
incompatibility of slavery with democracy: "In pro
portion as slavery prevails in a State, the Government,
however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in
fact. The power lies in a part instead of the whole; in
the hands of property, not of numbers. All the ancient
popular governments were for this reason aristocracies.
The majority were slaves, of the residue a part were in
the country and did not attend the Assemblies, a part
were poor and tho in the city, could not spare the time
to attend. The power was exercised for the most part
by the rich and easy. Aristotle (de rep. lib. 3. cap. 184)
deflnes a citizen or member of the sovereignty to be one
who is sufficiently free from all private cares, to devote
himself exclusively to the service of his country. See
also Anacharsis, vol. 5, p. 28. The Southern States
of America, are, on the same principle, aristocracies.
In Virginia the aristocratic character is increased by
the rule of suffrage requiring a freehold in land, which
excludes nearly half the free inhabitants, and must
exclude a greater proportion as the population increases.
At present the slaves and non-freeholders amount to
nearly 3-4 of the State. The power is therefore in about
1-4. Were the slaves freed and the right of suffrage
extended to all, the operation of the Government might
be very different. The slavery of the Southern States
throws the power much more into the hands of property,
than in the Northern States. Hence the people of
property in the former are much more contented with
their estabhshed Government than the people of prop
erty in the latter, "f
* Department of State MSS.
fid.

76 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
There is something pathetic in the spectacle of these
fine individuals, — ^men hke Corbin, Jones, ilason, Jeffer
son, Randolph and Madison, — and the thousands of
others of their t}-pe, helpless in the folds of this monster
which was crushed seventy years later in the blood of
their descendants. They saw the idleness, shiftlessness
and brutahty that slavery* engendered among their own
race. They felt keenly what a glaring contradiction to
their expressions of love of hberty it presented. They
knew its injustice to the blacks, — that it was, as Mason
said, a ftmdamental sin which carried sure retribution.
And those who knew aU this most thoroughly were the
very ones whose higher quahties slavery did much to
develop. It habituated them to the exercise of authority,
and accustomed them to responsibihty for the welfare
and happiness of many human beings. Their dependents
were so whoUy dependent that they felt caUed upon to
constantly exert their utmost endeavours to faithfuUy
discharge their duties of dominion. And in the domestic
economy the duties that fell to the women were such
as expanded their better natures to an extraordinary
degree, for to them feU the care of the sick and bereaved
and the spiritual welfare of the poor souls whose con
dition never permitted the compassion of the mistress
to sleep.
Madison, hke his associates, found himself the child
of circtimstances and yielded to them almost uncon
sciously. In August, 1784, his father formally deeded
to him a farm of 560 acres, a part of the Montpeher
tract,* but Madison never hved upon it and came into
virtual possession, during his father's life, of Montpelier
itself, and gradually fitted into his father's place as a
planter, accepting the industrial career thus provided
for him with its interests and cares, and imavoidable
accompaniment of slave-holding.
* MS. Orange County records.

CHAPTER IX
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
The Virginia State Assembly elected Madison a mem
ber of the Governor's Council, because he had made his
mark in the State Convention and in the Assembly of
1776, and the Assembly sent him to Congress and kept
him there because it had confidence in him; but the
people of his county had given no sign that they held
him in especial regard, for his election in 1776 had been
accomplished chiefly by the prestige of his father. When
he tried for a re-election, he was beaten by an insig
nificant opponent, who bribed the voters with whiskey.
Therefore, when his law studies were interrupted by
his election, with slight opposition, as a member of the
House of Delegates in April, 1784, it was the first time
since he had risen to prominence that he had fairly stood
before his people and received a pronounced endorse
ment from them. He went to Richmond, where the
State Capitol had been moved from Williamsburg in 1782,
early in May, 1784, having as the chief purpose of his
service to concert measures by which the general Gov
ernment might be strengthened.
The two rival figures in the Legislature were Patrick
Henry and Richard Henry Lee, and they were pitted
against each other in spectacular forensic displays for
which the Virginians had a peculiar weakness.* The
ascendancy over the Legislature was with Henry. At
the session of 1783 the two leaders measured forces in
the contest for the speakership, when John Tyler was
put forward by Henry in opposition to Lee and was elected
by a vote of 61 to 20. At the session of 1784, Lee him-
?Rives, I, 537. 77

78 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
self put Tyler in nomination and thus gracefully avoided
another defeat.* There was less difference, politically,
between Lee and Henry than appeared on the surface.
While Lee was receiving his education in England and
moving on terms of equality with the highest fashion
of London, Henry was idling in backwoods cotmtry
stores ; but the polished aristocrat and the half-educated
man of the people both had in common a craving for popu
larity and applause, which often dominated their actions
as public men. When Madison approached Henry on
the subject of augmenting the power of the Federal Gov
ernment, Henry expressed himself as being strenuously
in favour of it, but he had no plan. Lee, Madison re
ported, could not be depended upon.*
As a matter of fact, both would have been willing to
add to the powers of Congress if, at the same time, noth
ing of the powers of the State should be lost, but it was
obvious that whoever threw his influence on the side of
Congress necessarily threw it against the power of the
State, and his popularity in the State would be sure to
diminish in consequence. Madison's energetic efforts
on the side of Congressional power had raised up a party .
opposed to him in the State Assembly and among his
constituents his position was never impregnable until
after the adoption of the Constitution, when, conditions
being reversed, he found himself opposing an increase
of national authority. It was not, however, the ques
tion of extension of Federal Power that flrst engrossed
Madison's attention when he entered the Legislature,
but the subject of religious freedom which from his
early manhood had aroused in him the fire of passion
as nearly as any subject ever did.
After the separation from Great Britain the Episcopal
Church in Virginia was under a cloud. Its disestablish
ment meant the withdrawal from the clergy of their
means of subsistence, and many of them sympathized
* Journal of the House of Delegates.
*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt) II, 51-52.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 79
with the mother country, prompted so to do by their
own interests. The non-Episcopal clergy, on the other
hand, were of the patriot party and were men of better
character generally than the Episcopalians, and while
the Episcopal churches closed their doors or were un
attended the Baptist and Presbyterian congi'egations
increased.* But religious observances were not as
strictly kept as they had been in the old days, and war,
with its consequent disordered conditions of society,
brought an increase of crime and dishonesty. The
two facts were put together — a decline in church at
tendance and an increase of immorality — and it was
conceived that Legislative interference to help the
churches would operate to improve the moral tone of
the people. This view was held by Washington, Richard
Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Henry Tazewell, John Mar
shall, Joseph Jones, and a large number of representa
tive men, not all of them strong churchmen, but all of
them men who believed that the State should compel
the people to support the churches, f It was not without
a struggle that the older and more conservative planters
gave up all idea of the State maintaining the Episcopal
Church, for it had been, from their infancy, a part of
themselves, and a social as well as a political and religious
institution. When some non-Episcopalians came to
Richmond to urge the Legislature to repeal all acts
giving the Episcopal Church peculiar privileges, they
approached one of these old-school cavaliers who said
"he was clear for giving all a fair chance, that there were
many roads to heaven, and he was in favour of letting
every man take his own way; but he was sure of one
thing, that no gentleman would choose any but the Epis
copal. "J
Petitions against favouring the Episcopal way were
* Edmund Randolph's MS. "History of Virginia." Virginia His
torical Society.
t Rives, I, 602,
j Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," I, 50. The
anecdote was told by Madison himself.

8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
presented soon after Madison took his seat in the Legis
lature by the Baptist and Presbyterian congregations
in order, as they said, that "religious freedom be estab
lished upon the broad basis of perfect political equality. "
The Episcopal Church, however, asked for an act of
incorporation to manage its political affairs, and the
only church incorporation bill brought forward was in
response to this request. It provided, among other
things, that the clergy when once elected by the vestries
should be irremovable otherwise than by sentence of
the convocation, and this, as Madison declared, would
have been tantamount to "re-establishing their inde
pendence of the laity." Even the friends of religious
legislation thought the bill too radical and it would have
been defeated had it not been for Henry's efforts in its
behalf.* Its consideration was postponed till the next
session of the Assembly and the interest it aroused was
cast in the shade by another and broader proposition.
The Assembly did not have a quorum till May 12,
1784, and the first committee appointed, according to
the usual custom, was that on religion, Madison being
made one of the members. Among the petitions con
sidered were a number asking that a general assessment
be levied for the support of the churches. It was reported
favourably, and July i the Assembly adjourned till the
following November.
The question came up again November 17 upon a
resolution "That acts ought to pass for the incorpora
tion of all societies of the Christian religion which may
apply for the same." This passed in the affirmative
by a vote of 62 to 23. Among the minority with Madi
son were Wilson Cary Nicholas, John Taylor of Caro
line, Alexander White and John Breckenridge. The
resolution was followed quickly by one from Patrick
Henry — that "the people of the commonwealth, accord
ing to their respective abilities, ought to pay a moderate
tax or contribution for the support of the Christian re-
* To Jefferson, July 3, 1784, "Works of Madison " (Cong. Ed.), 1, 88.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 8i
ligion, or of some Christian church, or denomination, or
communion of Christians, or of some form of Christian
worship, " which was adopted by a vote of 47 to 32, and
a special committee, with Henry at its head, was ap
pointed to prepare a bill. Petitions favourable to it
poured in, one coming from the United Presbyterian
Church, and only one appearing against it.* Richard
Henry Lee wrote to Madison from Trenton, where he
was attending the session of Congress, (November 26,
1784,) "That he considered the bill a measure necessary
to morality, that avarice was accomplishing the de
struction of religion for want of a legal obligation to
contribute something to its support."! This was the
ground generally taken by the friends of the bill, and
they were, undoubtedly, at this time a large majority
of the Legislature and the people of the State.
Almost alone among the leaders of thought in Vir
ginia, Madison saw the fundamental enor involved in
the proposed legislation. He had endeavoured to make
such legislation impossible eight years before when he
offered his amendment to the Bill of Rights, with the
pregnant words, "And that therefore no man or
class of men, ought, on account of religion to be
invested with peculiar emoluments or privileges.'" His
argument against the bill was one of the most careful
and elaborate ever constructed by him. A skeleton of
it has been preserved, in which the line of thought is
clearly indicated. He began by laying down the broad
proposition that religion was not within the purview
of the civil power — that it was something separate, apart
and precedent to it — that to establish Christianity by
law would lead naturally to a legal establishment of
uniformity of belief, and to penal laws to punish viola
tions of belief, and that the history of religious legisla
tion showed this had always been the tendency. The
true question was not. Is religion necessary to the well-
* Journal of the House of Delegates.
t Dept. of State MSS.

82 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
being of mankuid? but, Is the estabhshment of religion
as a part of the civil administration of the State neces
sary for religion itself ? The natural propensity of man
was toward religion, and the experience of history showed
that religion itself was corrupted, by compulsory State
estabhshment. Mr. Henry had shown how States had
faUen when religion sank into decay, but these downfaUs
had happened in States which had religion estabhshed
as part of their civil policy. Such a general assessment
as the bill contemplated had, however, no paraUel in
history. He instanced the religious freedom of other
States, — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, where religious
freedom was provided by the early constitution granted
her by the proprietaries, Rhode Island, New York and
Delaware. He drew the case of the primitive Christianity,
of the Reformation, and the dissenters formerly in
Virginia, and traced the progress of religious freedom.
Coming to a specific discussion of the measure before
the House he insisted that it was impolitic, as it would
interfere with immigration, which should be untrammelled
by fear of taxation for any spiritual purpose, and it
would for the same reason encourage emigration as an
escape from such taxation. The state of society did not
show a reason for the measure. Recent war and bad
laws were the cause of the disorganized condition, which
was as bad in New England where rehgious legislation
existed as in those States where it did not exist. The
true remedy was to be fotmd in continued peace, the
passage of laws to cherish virtue, regtdar and exemplary
administration of justice, personal example set by indi
viduals, voluntary associations for rehgious purposes,
the formation of which would be encouraged by the de
cisive defeat of the pending measure, thus depriving
them of any hope of artificial suppx)rt, and the educa
tion of the young. He showed what would be the prob
able effect of the measure, if it became a law. As the
assessment was to be for the support of the Christian
rehgion, the courts would be eventually called upon to

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 83
decide what was Christianity — whether it was Trini-
tarianism, Arianism or Socinianism — whether it in
volved salvation by faith or works; and the whole
question of faith, doctrine and creed over which the
world had been convulsed for ages and which was beyond
the ken of any temporal tribunal would be before the
judges. The end would be the definition by the State
of what was orthodoxy and what was heresy. Such a
condition he declared dishonoured Christianity, and he
closed with a panegyric of that religion and an appeal to
the real meaning of that clause of the Declaration of
Rights which had been moulded from his broader amend
ment.* When the assessment bill was nearing its final stages
and its passage appeared to be inevitable it was checked
by the reintroduction of the bill, which had been post
poned from the last session, to incorporate the Episcopal
Church. This time, however, it included the laity in its
provisions and was thus shorn of the chief objectionable
feature that had originally characterized it. Under
these circumstances Madison resolved as a strategic
movement to vote for it. "A negative of the bill," he
wrote to Jefferson, January 9, 1785, "would have doubled
the eagerness and pretexts for a much greater evil, — a
general assessment, — which there is good ground to be
lieve was parried by this partial gratification of its
warmest votaries."! The bill was passed by a vote of
47 to 38, George and Wilson Cary Nicholas being among
those who adhered to the opposition, f
The advocates of religious legislation being placated
by this success, it was proposed to them that the assess
ment bill be postponed, that it be printed and distributed,
and the people invited "to signify their opinion respect
ing the adoption of such a measure to the next session of
the Legislature" — an appeal which was reasonable
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 88.
fid., II, 113.
J Journal of the House of Delegates.

84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
enough and was acceded to because there was every
reason to beheve the reply would be favourable to the bill.
The Assembly adjourned January 5, 1785, and the dis
cussion was transferred to the people.
The Episcopal clergy generally favoured the biU, and
so did the Presbyterian ministers at first, being "as
ready to set up an establishment which is to take them
in as they were to pull down that which shut them out, "
as Madison put it. The Presbyterian laity, however,
did not generally favour the measure, and their influence
was sufficient to finally cause the general convention of
Presbyterians to ask for the Act of Religious Freedom.*
The credit for planning the campaign against the
bill among the people does not belong to Madison, but
to George Nicholas and his brother Wilson Cary Nicholas.
In fact, Madison favoured making no campaign, and
would have had the counties opposed to the bill take no
action against it. On April 22, 1785, George Nicholas
wrote to him from Charlottesville that his brother had
told him of a conversation with Madison on the pro
priety of remonstrating and that Madison had advised
against it. He was afraid this silence would be construed
into assent, as the Assembly had only postponed the
measure till it might know if it were agreeable to the
people. A majority of the counties was in favour of
the measure, but a majority of the people was not,
and this would be denied if it did not appear by
petition. Some petitions were sure to be sent, and he
thought it would help the cause if aU held the same
language. Would Madison, if he agreed with him, draw
up a petition of remonstrance? He was the man best
able to do it. Nicholas would attend to its distribution
in the counties.
To these entreaties Madison yielded, and on July 7
Nicholas wrote to acknowledge the receipt of the re
monstrance not a word of which he could change without
*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 145.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 85
marring it.* It was printed as a broadside by the
Phoenix Press in Alexandria, and copies were sent far
and wide throughout the State, receiving thousands of
signatures; and when the Assembly met in October
the assessment bill was buried beneath the copies of this
paper which came from every comer of the State. It
was written in fifteen paragraphs and was an unanswer
able protest against all religious legislation. It em
bodied the main arguments which Madison had made
in his speech in the Assembly, but the speech had reached
only a few scores of hearers, and the remonstrance
reached thousands and carried conviction to them.
The bill should be defeated, the remonstrance said,
because it was, as the Bill of Rights declared, the right of
every man to exercise his religion according to the dic
tates of conscience, and not according to the dictates of
other men. Religion was, therefore, exempt from the
authority of society at large, and especiaUy from the
creatures of that society, the Legislature. In asserting
a right to embrace that religion which we believe to be
of divine origin, we must accord an equal freedom to
those whose minds have not yet been convinced by the
evidence that has convinced us. The Christian religion
explicitly disavowed a dependence upon the powers of
this world. It flourished without the assistance of human
laws, — in spite of every opposition from them. It
was plain that if it was not invented by human
policy it must have existed before it was estab
lished by human policy. To demand support for
it would be a confession of weakness, and encourage
in those who opposed it a belief that it could not
stand on its own merits. When Christianity shone
with greatest lustre was before it was incorporated as a
civil policy. "Pride and indolence in the clergy, ignor
ance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition,
bigotry, and persecution" had followed church estab-
* Dept. of State MSS. The remonstrance may be found in "The
Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 183.

86 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
lishment. Contentious rivalry among the various Chris
tian sects would be sUre to follow the passage of this
bill, and had already become more vigorous in the dis
cussion of it. If it became a law men would evade it,
and it would thus bring other laws into disrespect.
The success of the remonstrance was extraordinary.
It put the advocates of religious legislation on the de
fensive and made them a helpless minority. From
having been in control a few months before, they were
now the mere shattered remnant of a party.
The bill to assess the people for the support of the
Christian religion sank into the earth beyond the hope
of resurrection, and in place of it appeared one of the
greatest measures that Thomas Jefferson ever wrote —
the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia.
He had drawn it in 1779 as a part of his revised code of
laws for Virginia, but it lay moribund and unnoticed,
till Madison introduced it as a fltting expression of the
change in public opinion which his remonstrance had
brought about. It was passed December 26, 1785,*
and the battle for complete religious liberty in Virginia
was woii.

?Hening's "Stats, at Large," 12, 84.

CHAPTER X
HOW THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION WAS CALLED
Patrick Henry's general expressions in favour of
strengthening the Federal Government were a tolerably
correct reflection of the attitude of the Virginia Assem
bly on the subject. It amounted to an admission that
something should be done, and specific dissent to every
project brought forward to that end. As the session
progressed it became evident that the legislation de
sired by the Federalists could not be secured; even if
it could be what chance of concurrence would it have
from twelve other State Legislatures? The outlook
was gloomy indeed, and impending disaster was only
averted by seizing a succession of circumstances and
turning them to a purpose different from that which
they had been designed to serve. The story of the
manipulation of these occasions is the story of how the
Annapolis Convention was called.
The boundary between Virginia and Maryland was
the Potomac River, and the charter 'of 1732 to Lord
Baltimore defined it as the southern shore.* The Con
stitution of Virginia confirmed this boundary, but re
served the right of the free navigation of the river.
Madison and others feared that this confirmation might
be construed into a total surrender of jurisdiction over
the river, thus leaving Virginia's commerce wholly at
the mercy of such regulations as Maryland might choose
to make. A harmonious agreement on regulations for
the two States was obviously the best remedy for the
threatened evil, and on April 25, 1784, Madison wrote
to Jefferson and asked him to sotmd the Maryland dele-
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 41.
87

88 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
gates in Congress on the subject of the appointment of
commissioners from that State to meet commissioners
from Virginia and draw up joint regulations for the
navigation of the whole river, which should be sub
mitted for approval to the Legislature of each State.
Favourable promises coming from the Maryland leaders,
the Virginia Assembly, on Madison's motion, provided
for a commission on June 28; and he, George Mason,
Edmund Randolph and Alexander Henderson were
named as commissioners, any three of whom should have
power to act.
On December 28, the Assembly, again on Madison's
motion, gave the Virginia commissioners, or any two of
them, authority to unite with the Maryland commis
sioners in representing to the State of Pennsylvania
that it was in contemplation to promote the clearing
of the Potomac River and extend its navigation from
tide water as far upwards as practicable, and open a
convenient road from the head of navigation to the
waters running into the Ohio, and to ask the co-opera
tion of that State in providing convenient regulations
for the use of the route.
Almost simultaneously with the agreement to these
instructions an act was passed incorporating the Poto
mac Company for the purpose of improving the naviga
tion of the river and opening communication with the
Western country,* the terms of incorporation being
the result of General Washington's personal negotiations
with the government of Maryland. He had cherished
the project ever since 1754, when he went as a messenger
for Governor Dunwiddie to the French forces on the
Ohio, and in 1770 he put it into form in a letter to Gov
ernor Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, suggesting that
extending the navigation of the river by partial portage
at its source to the Ohio ought to be taken up as a public
measure, "as a means of becoming the channel of con
veyance of the extensive and valuable trade of a rising
* Hening's "Stats, at Large," II, 510.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 89
empire. "* After the Revolution he urged action by
the Legislature of Virginia in a letter to Governor Ben
jamin Harrison, and his interest in the work on the
river was the keenest he manifested in the intervening
years between the termination of his military service
and his re-entry into public life in a civil capacity.
In the latter part of March, 1786, Mason received
word that two of the Potomac commissioners appointed
by Maryland would soon be at Gunston Hall, on their
way to Alexandria, and would go forward with him to
that town, where a meeting of the commissioners from
both States was to take place. This was the first inti
mation Mason had received of his appointment or of the
meeting.! The other commissioners, having been in
Richmond when the commission was created, were, of
course, cognizant of their appointment, and Henderson,
by some means or other, heard of the time and place of
meeting; but neither Randolph nor Madison received
any notification of the meeting, and they remained at
home in ignorance that it had been called. The fault
was not on the side of Maryland, for the Governor of the
State had written to the Governor of Virginia proposing
the time and place for the meeting of the joint commis
sion, and no objection having been made the Maryland
commissioners presumed the anangements were satis
factory, and set forth on their journey in full confidence
that they would be joined by their Virginia colleagues.
The representation from Maryland was complete, and
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Thomas Stone and Samuel
Chase of that State, with Henderson and Mason from
Virginia, waited for several days in Alexandria for
Madison and Randolph, until Mason concluded that,
like himself, they had not been notified. He decided,
however, to proceed to business, as the Marylanders had
travelled a considerable distance in bad weather, and
* See "Washington's Interest in the Potomac Company," Johns
Hopkins University Studies. Third Series, 8i.
t Mason's Letters to Madison, Dept. of State MSS.

90 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
a failure of the purpose of their journey would be due
to the carelessness of the Virginia officials. General
Washington came to Alexandria whUe the commissioners
were waiting, and showed Mason, who saw it for the first
time, a copy of the Virginia resolution of December 28,
respecting the application to Pennsylvania. As this
gave power to any two of the Virginia commissioners to
act. Mason concluded the resolution of June 28, creating
the commission, conferred the same power, neither he
nor Henderson having a copy of the resolution. They
also believed it covered regulations for Chesapeake Bay
and the Pokomoke River, as the Maryland commission
did.* The supposition was natural for the additional
reason that in 1777 Virginia and Maryland had arranged
for a joint meeting including in its scope the Chesapeake
and Pokomoke, but the meeting never took place, f
In reahty the Virginia resolutions confined the negotia
tions to the Potomac and required at least three com
missioners to act.
It would appear that General Washington conferred
with the commissioners from the start, and for their
own comfort and his convenience they moved from
Alexandria to Mt. Vernon. The prospective extension
of the navigation of the Potomac, in which he was con
cerned, and the regulations to govern the navigation,
were closely allied subjects, and his counsel entered, to a
greater or less extent, in the proceedings of the joint
commission. At Mt. Vernon, therefore, on March 28,
1785, the commissioners entered into a compact con
cerning the jurisdiction over the Rivers Potomac and
Pokomoke and Chesapeake Bay and the navigation
thereof. Freedom of navigation was granted by Vir
ginia to Maryland over Virginia waters, and by Mary
land to Virginia over Maryland waters. There was to
be free trade between the States. Lighthouses, buoys,
etc., on the Potomac and the Bay were to be maintained
* Mason to Madison, August 9, 1785. Dept. of State MSS.
t Scharf's "History of Maryland," II, 529.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 91
at the expense of both States, Virginia paying five parts
and Maryland three parts.* The discussion and ar
rangement of these matters naturally led to broader
subjects of concern to the States, such as the desirability
of uniform export and import duties and regulations of
commerce, as well as currency and rates of exchange,
and a supplementary report on these points was agreed to.
The Mt. Vernon compact came before the Maryland
Legislature and was agreed to November 22, and a final
clause was added proposing that resolutions should be
sent to the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and Delaware,
and that those States be requested to nominate com
missioners to meet commissioners from Maryland and
Virginia, to agree upon uniform trade regulations for
the four States. Pennsylvania and Delaware actuaUy
accepted the invitation, and on February 20, 1786,
Maryland named her commissioners "to meet commis
sioners from the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware,
for the purpose of considering and digesting the most
proper measures for improving the inland navigation of
the Susquehannah River, and the waters communicating
with it, and for effecting a navigable communication
between the Bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, and
also to confer on any other subject which may tend to pro
mote ike commerce and mutual convenience of the said
States." ¦}[ This action came too late, for Virginia had
already passed resolutions of invitation to all the States.
It was tiot a part of the programme of Madison and
his party that a partial uniformity of trade regulations
should be effected by agreement among groups of States.
They wished the uniformity to prevail throughout the
whole country, and to be under the control of the national
Congress. It was to this power that the Virginia legis
lature was unalterably opposed, for it was jealous of
the northem marine and believed that national naviga
tion laws would foster northem shipping interests at
* Scharf's "History of Maryland," II, 531.
t Id., II, S2S, ei se^.

92 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
the expense of southern export and import interests.
Moreover, the Virginia Assembly furnished no exception
to the general rule that no body of men willingly and
deUberately lessens its own power and importance.
The utmost concession that could be wrung from the
reluctant legislators was a proposition to vest the de
sired power in Congress for not more than thirteen years;
but such a partial measure would not be worth urging
upon the other States; and when Madison perceived the
hopelessness of expecting more he took up the proposi
tion passed by Maryland, November 22, and enlarged
it into a request to all the States to appoint commis
sioners "to take into consideration the trade of the United
States; to examine the relative situation and trade of
said States; to consider how far a uniform system in
their commercial regulations may be necessary to their
common interest and permanent harmony; and to re
port to the several States such an act, relative to this
great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them,
wiU enable the United States in Congress effectually to
provide for the same. " Such a convention, it was hoped,
would recommend to the State Legislatures to do what
the Virginia Legislature persisted in refusing to do.
The members of the State government always sus
pected those who had served in the Continental Congress
of leaning too much toward Federal power, and of a
desire to deprive the State governments of their pre
rogatives. They were especially suspicious of Madison,
the avowed champion of schemes to increase the re
sources of the continental establishment. He was fuUy
aware, therefore, that if he introduced the amended
Maryland recommendation it would be prejudiced from
the start, and to avoid this he put it in the hands of
John Tyler, a member of the House of Delegates who
had never performed continental service, and to whom
the suspicion of Federalism did not attach. Tyler in
troduced it and it lay imnoticed upon the table until
January 21, 1786, the last day of the session, when it

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 93
was substituted for the bill giving Congress power over
navigation and commerce. It went through with a
rush and without exciting much notice, the minority
against it being insignificant.* Dr. Walter Jones, St.
George Tucker, Meriwether Smith, George Mason, David
Ross, William Ronald, Edmund Randolph and Madison
were appointed the Virginia delegates to the meeting;
Ronald's name was dropped at his own request. Smith
had been one of the few members opposing the measure, f
Before it was adopted Madison described it in a letter
to Washington, as the natural outcome of the Mt. Vernon
meeting, J and so it was, but it was an outcome entirely
unforeseen by the initiators of the Mt. Vernon meeting.
To increase the power of Congress was Madison's greatest
object at this time. His Potomac resolution of June 28,
1784, had no such purpose, being meant, as appeared
upon its face, merely to secure uniform navigation
regulations with Maryland. When the Maryland Legis
lature proposed to include two other States in the ar
rangement Madison saw his chance and sprang the
proposition to call in all the States. It was a secondary
move, and he would have preferred an act directly giving
Congress power to make commercial regulations.
There were mighty chances against the proposition
for the meeting producing any beneficial results, and
Madison looked with despair upon the prospect. First,
all the other States were asked to agree to send delegates
to the meetmg, and all the States hardly ever agreed
to anything; second, if the meeting did take place it
must agree upon a report to the States, and there was
no reason to expect greater harmony in this assemblage
than there was in the Continental Congress, where dis
cord reigned; third, if a plan should be agreed upon,
under the terms of the call of the meeting every State
must accept it before it could become effective, and it
*" Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 218.
t Id., (Hvint),II, 223.
tu., II, 198.

94 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
seemed preposterous to expect such unanimity from
such antagonistic elements. But affairs were rushing
to a crisis, and it was clear that something must be done
to save the Union from disintegration and America
from disgrace. Far-seeing men began seriously to ap
prehend that soon the people who had won a glorious
victory against Great Britain would fall back under the
yoke of that or some other foreign power. The most dan
gerous and demoralizing inclinations of weak htunan na
ture were becoming more and more in the ascendancy in
the State governments — a tendency to pass laws by which
the fulfilment of contracts might be avoided, to stamp
paper with figures and promises and call it money, to
repudiate debts and avoid the obligations of honest men.
"I saw enough," wrote Madison to Jefferson, March i8,
1786, "during the late Assembly of the influence of the
desperate circumstances of individuals on their public
conduct, to admonish me of the possibility of finding in
the council of some one of the States fit instruments of
foreign machinations."*
To avert the impending calamity would be more diffi
cult in the future. Kentucky was already asking for
admission as a State, and there would be other Western
States to follow and "proportionally impede measures
which required unanimity," as Madison feared.

*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 229-230.

CHAPTER XI
THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION
The resolution proposing the convention, to consider
commercial arrangements was almost the last act of the
session of the Virginia Assembly terminating January 21,
1786. A quorum of the Virginia deputies elected to
the Convention met in Richmond after Madison had left
and proposed Annapolis as the place for the meeting
and the first Monday in September for the date. The
General Assembly when it adjourned had been in session
ninety-seven days, and with the exception of the first
seven days Madison's attendance had been uninter
rupted. Indeed, his capacity for work was mexhausti-
ble, and his labours were never laid aside for pleasure.
The Legislature transacted much business, yet little
of it gave satisfaction to the friends of good government.
The "itch for paper money," as Madison characterized
it, had been only temporarily allayed ; but he took pride
in the fact that "the ambitious hope of making laws for
the human mind" had been "extinguished forever."
The collection of the tax for the year had been post
poned, and it was agreed that when it came to be col
lected tobacco might be accepted in payment instead
of specie. For this method of pajmient Madison voted,
although he disapproved of it ; but he hoped, by allowing
thus much to the soft money party, to prevent them
from pressing the more dangerous measures they had
introduced. The State's quota of $5 1 2 ,000 to the Federal
"Treasury was ordered to be paid for the year 1786 before
May, although the postponement of the tax collections
made it certain that there would not be a penny in the
treasury with which to make the payment. The State
95

96 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
had gained some reputation by paying its quota the year
before, but Madison said, "our conduct this (year) must
stamp us with ignominy."* Yet the Virginia Legisla
ture was no worse than other State Legislatures and
better than some. Madison freely expressed his con
tempt for its proceedings and tendencies. No session,
he declared the day it adjourned, deserved so little
applause. There was, he said later, (March 19,) "both
ignorance and iniquity to combat," and the best way
was "to defeat the designs of the latter by humoring
the prejudices of the former, "f
The session being ended Madison went back to Orange
and found relief from political activity in other studies.
Lesiure, in the sense of idleness, he never knew, for his
hours were always full of activity, and time was never a
weight on his hands. His recreation was merely to
change the field of his mental work. There was awaiting
him at home "a hterary cargo," as he called it, sent by
Jefferson, and he plunged into the boxes of books with
the keen ardour of the true lover of knowledge for its own
sake. Among the volumes were a number of Buffon's
"Histoire Naturelle Generale et Particuli^re, " which he
had not thus far had time to examine, and he now read
them with the care of one to whom natural history was
no new study, for he was familiar with the animal life
of his State. He even proposed to collect the skins of
wild animals in Virginia and have them stuffed, and
hoped to send some animals alive to Paris for European
naturalists to study. He caged a live oppossum with
seven of her young, but they died before he had a chance
to make scientific observations of them. He disputed
Jefferson's statement in his "Notes on Virginia," in
which Buff on agreed, that the fallow and roe deer of
Europe were also natives of America, and declared, as the
result of inquiry from Western travellers, that the com
mon deer seen in Virginia was the only one indigenous
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 219, et seq.
fTo Monroe, Id., II, 233.

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 97
to this country, being found in the Western woods and
as far south as New Orleans. He secured a wounded
monax or woodchuck, noted its temperature, and after
its death recorded its measurements in comparison with
the European marmot, as described by Buffon, and con
cluded they were the same animal. He treated a mole
in the same way, and when a weasel fell into his hands
he compiled an elaborate table of its measurements,
even to the exact size of the conque of the ear and the
nails of each foot, paralleling the figures with the similar
measurements in Buffon of the belette and ermine.*
In these researches he was, of course, an amateur, and
he did not pretend to be more.
He took a like interest in inventions, saw the
first phosphoric matches in 1785 with much curiosity,
and gave two guineas for a newly invented lamp.
He commissioned Jefferson to buy him a curious pocket
compass, not much larger than a watch, such as he had
recently seen. He hoped to find it useful in case of a
pedestrian tour through the Western woods, and for
the same purpose desired a pocket telescope to inspect
objects which he could not approach. He suggested
the making of a walking stick with a microscope and
scale of measurement set in the handle. f In later life
he drew the designs of a chair with a writing desk at
tached to the arm. James Rumsey, who in 1784 in
vented a boat to be propelled by a stream of water
ejected by steam power from the stern, was engaged
as one of the engineers by the Potomac Company when
Madison was active in its affairs, J and Madison knew of
his experiments, and later he knew John Fitch, who in
1788 begged piteously for his assistance to secure gov
ernment patronage of his efforts to build a steamboat. §
He encouraged both Rumsey and Fitch Vidthout, how-
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 239, ei seq.
t Id., II, 134, et seq.
X Records of Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co. MSS.
§ Dept. of State MSS.

98 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ever, piercing the future which their discoveries were
destined to revolutionize.
It was efforts such as these, to assist the progress of
the human race, that principally concerned Madison,
rather than the consummated beauties of nature, but
appreciation of the picturesque was not entirely lacking
in him. He fed upon splendid scenery from infancy,
for the prospect from the little porch, which was all the
house in Orange then boasted, was one of surpassing
beauty, embracing the mighty range of the Blue Ridge
lying across the whole horizon, while aroimd him the
lesser mountains and spreading valleys offered a succes
sion of beautiful prospects. In all of picturesque Vir
ginia there is no part more beautiful than that in which
the Madisons lived. When Madison left home in the
early summer of 1786 to go to New York, instead of
taking the usual and more direct route through Fredericks
burg and the Northem Neck, he crossed the mountains
and went to Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, to
see his relations, and by Harper's Ferry to Lancaster,
Pa., and he then saw Harper's Ferry for the first time.
The day was unfavourable for the clouds hung low, but
he climbed the mountain to see the view, and although
he got drenched in a thunder storm, he was able to form
some idea of the panorama that lay beneath him.*
It was not, however, as an artist that he looked at it;
his eye dwelt rather upon the enrichment of the valley
by the crops in full maturity, and at the rapids of the
Potomac he was principally observant of the progress
of the work undertaken by the Potomac Company in
opening the bed of the river to make navigation feasible.
The works of men and men in their relations to one
another were the great objects of his thoughts, and, of
course, the aboriginal Americans came in for their share.
He was familiar with the different tribes and admired
the eloquence of the chiefs, but of actual contact with the
Indians he had little, not being a pioneer and not being
*" Writings of Madison," (Hunt), II, 257.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 99
of an adventurous spirit. They were a reality to him,
however, for his great aunt's husband, Jacob Hite, was
killed by them in 1776,* and he kept in touch with his
friends in Kentucky, to whom Indian warfare was a
dreadful fact. In the autumn of 1784, when he was
travelling to enlarge his knowledge of the country, at
Baltimore he fell in with the Marquis Lafayette, who
was coming from a visit at Mount Vernon, and accepted
the Marquis's invitation to accompany him to a treaty,
as Indian negotiations were called, with the Oneidas
at Fort Schuyler, near Albany. On the journey he
formed an intimacy with the charming Frenchman and
took the measure of his ability and character. "With
great natural frankness of temper," he wrote, "he
unites much address and very considerable talents. In
his politics he says his three hobby-horses are the alliance
between France and the U. S., the union of the latter
and the manumission of the slaves. The two former
are the dearer to him, as they are connected with his
personal glory. The last does him real honour, as it is
a proof of his humanity. In a word, I take him to be as
amiable a man as can be imagined and as sincere an
American as any Frenchman can be; one whose past
services gratitude obliges us to acknowledge and whose
future friendship prudence requires us to cultivate."
He intimated, too, that when the Marquis had performed
a meritorious act he liked it to be widely known. As
he had influence with the French Government Madison
improved the opportunity to fill him full of the Virginia
position on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi
and the unreasonable attitude of Spain.! It was shortly
after this journey that Washington mentioned to Madi
son the desire of Catharine of Russia to compare the
dialects of the natives of her most northeastern posses
sions with those of the American Indians, with a view
to throwing some light, perhaps, upon the vexed question
* Records of the Hite family.
t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 85. See a«te p. 60.

loo LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of the original habitat of the American race. Madison
fell in with the idea and procured from an Indian student
a vocabulary of the Choctaw and Cherokee dialects
which he gave Washington to send to Russia.*
Of more interest than these investigations were his
reflections on the pressure of population upon the means
of subsistence in a letter to Jefferson written Jtme 19,
1786, twelve years before Malthus's flrst "Essay on the
Principle of Population" was published. Jefferson de
scribed to him a walk he took at Fontainebleau in the
autumn of 1785, when he fell in with a peasant woman
who told him she received, when she was employed, 8
sous a day for wages, which her rent so completely
absorbed that she and her family were often without
bread. Contrasting her, as a representative of the most
numerous class in the community, with the few who
were proprietors of large estates and lived in luxury,
Jefferson asked himself why so many should be obliged
to beg in a country where there was such a large amount
of land kept idle for the pleasure of hunting game. It
seemed to him a violation of natural right, as the earth
was given as a common stock for man to live upon. The
letter was in Jefferson's most philanthropic vein, painting
the same pathetic picture of social injustice which has
moved the hearts of observing men since the world
began. Leading into the theory which is now associated
with the name of Henry George, Jefferson said it was
too soon to say that every man in America who could
find uncultivated land should be at liberty to cultivate
it, paying a moderate rent, but it was not too soon to
provide by every possible means that as few people as
possible should be without a little portion of land, as
the small landholders were the best part of a popula
tion. To these observations Madison replied that the
fact that no such poverty was found in America as ex
isted in Europe was due chiefly to the sparseness of our
population. A certain degree of misery seemed in-
* " Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 320.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON loi
separable from density of population, however much
the laws might favour division of property. Even if
the lands used by the idle rich in Europe were parcelled
out among the poor would there not still remain a large
number of the latter tmrelieved ? No problem in political
economy seemed to him more puzzling than that of
the proper distribution of the inhabitants of a fully
peopled country. Let the lands be apportioned among
them ever so wisely and cultivated ever so carefully,
there must yet be a surplus of people beyond those en
gaged in agricultural and other productive employments,
and to reduce this class was the most necessary reform.
A more equal division of property produced a greater
simplicity in living and a less consumption of superflu
ities. Here he broke off, remarking that he must re
member that he was writing a letter and not a disserta
tion.* Later in life he began an essay on the " Symmetry
of Nature" which dealt with the same subject. The
opening sentence was: "The planetary system, the
greatest portion of the universe as yet brought under
human observation, is regulated by fixed laws, and
presents most demonstrably, a scene of order and pro
portion. " By analogy he concluded that the whole
universe, if it were understood, would exhibit proofs of
the same anangement. In animal life each species has
a general relation to the other. The faculty of multi
plication seemed to be indefinite, yet in all but the human
species nature has established a law of proportion setting
bounds to the reproductive faculty. Among animals
this is maintained by the limited amount of vegetable
subsistence provided and by depredations of carnivorous
beasts upon herbivorous; among carnivorous by the
limited number of herbivorous, by their depredations
upon one another, and of man upon the whole. Man
has certain peculiar characteristics, being a prey to no
other animal and able to multiply the natural supplies
of food. What then is to prevent him from multiply-
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 246, et seq.

102 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ing to an indefinite extent? Would nature permit her
favourite offspring to destroy the whole system of pro
portion ? If this had been the design, why should it not
have been accomplished long ago? Why should there
be on earth anything more than human policy spared
for its own use? The history of the human race could
be traced for several thousand years, yet there was no
evidence that the aggregate population had undergone
any material increase, nor was there proof that any
species of animal or plant was extinct, although the
bones of mammoth animals found recently on the Ohio
came near to being evidence against this proposition.
His conclusion was that when the secret laws of nature
should be more fully understood it would be found that
there was a law of proportion in human life as in
plant and animal life.*
In the intervals of his other work he continued his
study of law, but he now declared he had abandoned his
desire of practising it as a profession. Another way of
securing a competence, as he hoped, was suggested to
him by Monroe, and the two statesmen fell in with the
tide and became in an innocent way speculators in land.
Apparently they made several ventures, but the chief
one was in certain wild lands in the Mohawk region,
near the head waters of the Hudson River. They in
spected the lands and found them as rich as the soil of
Kentucky. Consulting General Washington, who was
regarded as an expert, he said the lands were good, and
intimated that if he had money to spare and was dis
posed to buy land he would buy here. So Monroe and
Madison bought a tract of about i,ooo acres for one
dollar and a half an acre, and confidently expected to
grow rich, because land a little lower down the river
and inhabited sold for eight or ten pounds an acre. But
the preliminary payments Madison was forced to ask
Monroe to meet alone, for he had no ready money. So
certain were the two speculators of making a handsome
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 103
profit that they determined upon a second and larger
purchase in the same locahty and to associate with them
in the scheme their friend Jefferson, not only because
they wished to raise the money they needed upon his
credit, but because they wanted him to share in their
prospective good forttme. There was no reason, Madi
son wrote Jefferson, why Jefferson should not avail
himself of this opportunity to improve his condition.
They proposed to him, therefore, to lend his credit in his
private capacity to raise between 4,000 and 5,000 louis,
Monroe and Madison being sureties, at an interest of
six per cent, per annum. One reason for the cheapness
of the land, Madison explained, was the scarcity of specie,
and there would soon be such a fall in the rate of exchange
that money drawn by bills from Europe now and repaid
in a few years would proba^bly save one year's interest
at least.* Jefferson did not find it feasible to join in
the enterprise, and so far as Madison's share in it went
it was abandoned. It is strange that he should have
gone as far as he did, for his pecuniary affairs were in a
most unsatisfactory state, a condition which appears
to have been habitual with him. He had, as we
have seen, a farm of his own,t but he had the use of
a part of the income from his father's farm besides, and
he assisted in the business management of the whole
estate. In the disordered financial condition of the
country payments were inegular and prices fluctuated
beyond calculation, and the planters were generally
distressed in their circumstances, Madison being no
worse off than most of his neighbours. He wrote to his
brother Ambrose, September 8, 1786, that he could not
obtain the money due for the tobacco he had sold and
that Ambrose must continue to pray their creditors, t
October 5, 1786, he wrote to Monroe declining further
speculations for the present, and thanking him for his
* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 266.
t Ante, p 76.
% "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 269.

I04 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
"very friendly procrastinations of the repayment which
ought long ago to have been made. "* Part of the money
was paid in December.
The great object of Madison's journey north in the
summer of 1786 was not, however, to sell tobacco or look
for cheap lands which would rise in value, but to sound
the leading men at New York, where Congress was sitting,
and at Philadelphia, which was the centre of the conti
nent, on the subject of the Annapolis meeting, j He
found many men in favour of making it a means of
calling a second convention for amending the Articles
of Confederation, but he himself did not believe this was
possible. In fact, he almost despaired of the convention
accomplishing anything, and he was certain that Vir
ginia would take no part in measures to strengthen the
Federal power, if the Federal Congress agreed to a treaty
with Spain shutting up the Mississippi, as it then seemed
probable would be done.
Travelling with one servant Madison arrived in the
Maryland town September 5, and went to the tavern
kept by George Mann, where he remained eleven days.
How he lived is shown by the itemized account of his
landlord for ;£i4 7s. 2d. for board and lodging for himself
and servant and stabling for his two horses. He always
breakfasted at Mr. Mann's, but was charged with dinner
for six days only, having on the other days, it is pre
sumed, dined abroad with his friends. He drank wine,
punch or porter each day, and his servant had grog.
His landlord caUed him "Colonel" Madison, but this
was hardly more than a title of respect in those days, and
was frequently applied to Madison as he grew older. J
When he reached Annapolis he found only two com
missioners present. By September 11, Delaware, New
Jersey, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania were
represented. Although the Maryland Legislature had
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 274.
t Rives, II, 115.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 105
taken the action which led to the calling of the meeting,
it sent no delegates. Daniel Carroll explained to
Madison in March that the Assembly was afraid the
convention, if it acted, would try to weaken the powers
of Congress, where the right to make commercial regu
lations really belonged.* North Carolina sent no dele
gates, because there had been no session of the Legisla
ture since the invitation to the meeting had been re
ceived. South Carolina sent none, because she had re
cently instructed her delegates in Congress to vote for
national regulation of commerce for fifteen years, and
this seemed to be sufficient to show sympathy with the
objects of the meeting. Connecticut took no action,
having a prejudice against conventions and being in a
spiteful mood, because of tariff wars with neighbouring
States. Nobody knew what Georgia had done, the State
being remote from the scene, but in reality she had
done nothing. New Hampshire, Rhode" Island and
Massachusetts had each selected delegates, but they did
not deem it worth while to attend. f The delegates
who were present and constituted the famous Annapolis
Convention were not for the most part men of great
consequence. Tench Coxe was there from Pennsyl
vania, a pigmy beside the great men of his State. He
was afterwards in the Treasury Department and was
a political economist of some ability ; but as a public man
he was quarrelsome, uncertain and petty, and an im
portunate office-seeker. I Benson was Hamilton's ob
scure colleague from New York. New Jersey sent
Abraham Clark, W. C. Houstoun and James Schureman,
but Delaware had two strong men in George Read and
John Dickinson, and Virginia had the strongest delega
tion present in Madison, Edmund Randolph and St.
George Tucker. Meriwether Smith, David Ross and
George Mason, who had also been elected delegates, did
* Dept. of State MSS.
t "Writings of Madison," (Hunt) II, 262.
J Dept. of State MSS. Applications for office.

io6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
not attend. Mason would have been an acquisition
and was earnestly urged to go, but he was kept at home
by an attack of the gout. The veteran of the meeting
was John Dickinson. He had served in the protesting
Congresses of 1765 and 1774, and in the Revolutionary
Congress of 1776, where he wrote the Articles of Con
federation, and in subsequent Congresses. He was
elected to be president of the Convention, but it was
extremely doubtful whether there would be anything
for him to preside over, the representation was so slim.
New Jersey was the only State whose delegates were
empowered to do more than make recommendations for
commercial regulations, and in their commission was
included recommendations for strengthening the Federal
Government. Under the leadership of Hamilton the
Convention decided to disregard its ostensible object,
and merely to issue an address calling for another
convention of delegates from all the States on a broader
scale. His experience in New York had been similar to
Madison's in Virginia. He had advocated the lodging
of the power to make commercial regulations in Con
gress, and when he saw that the opposition in the Legis
lature of his State could not be overcome he had thrown
his weight in favour of the Virginia proposition for the
conference at Annapolis. The address he offered the
conference was the only thing it considered, and its
unanimous adoption was the only result of its three days'
session. The too radical expressions in the draft of the
address were toned down at Randolph's insistence.
Madison advised Hamilton's acquiescence by saying:
"You had better yield to this man, for othei-wise aU
Virginia will be against you,"* Randolph's power in
the State then being at its zenith. The address set
forth the critical situation of affairs and proposed that
the States which the delegates represented "should
concur and use their endeavours to procure the con
currence of the other States, in the appointment of com-
* Morse's " Hamilton," I, 167.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 107
missioners to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday
in May next, to take into consideration the situation of
the United States; to devise such further provisions as
shall appear necessary to render the Constitution of the
Federal Government adequate -to the exigencies of the
Union; and to report such an act for that purpose to
the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed
to by them and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures
of every State, will effectually provide for the same. "*
Having launched this address the Annapolis Con
vention adjourned and the members dispersed. Madi
son had proposed it with small hopes that it would ac
complish anything, and Hamilton had gone to it without
enthusiastic expectations. It failed signaUy of the
purpose for which it was called, and out of that failure
came an unauthorized proposition which brought
about the Convention which framed the Constitution of
the United States, but that Convention had really been
in the mouths of men for some years.

* "Hamilton's Works" (Lodge), I, 319.

CHAPTER XII
PREPARING FOR THE GREAT CONVENTION
To FIND the originator of the project of holding a
convention of delegates from all the States to evolve a
remedy for the obvious defects of the Government
under the Articles of Confederation would be a fruitless
search. That existing conditions could not long con
tinue was self-evident, and many men must have formu
lated plans for a change, the most natural first step
towards which would be a conference of all the parties
in interest. It is of small consequence, therefore, who
first gave expression to a thought which must have been
so common. According to Madison, the first person to
print the suggestion of a convention was Pelatiah Web
ster, "an able but not conspicuous citizen, " in a pam
phlet published in May, 1781 ;* but Alexander Hamilton
made the same suggestion in a private letter to James
Duane, September 3, i78o.t The Legislature of New
York passed resolutions favouring the plan in 1782
and that of Massachusetts in 1785. In 1784 the Presi
dent of Congress, Richard Henry Lee, wrote Madison
that it was common talk among the members. J Madi
son replied December 25, 1784, that he put no confidence
in the continuance of the Union under the present sys
tem, and hoped the convention proposition would not
be prejudiced by an admission that Virginia did not
favour it, although he feared such was the case.§ March
25, 1786, William Grayson, delegate from Virginia,
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 402.
t "Hamilton's Works" (Lodge), I, 203.
t Dept. of State MSS.
§ "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 100.
108

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 109
wrote that many members of the Congress favoured a
convention to revise the Articles of Confederation.*
The initiative could not, however, be expected to
come from the Congress itself. The days of glory of
that extraordinary body were over, and it was now
composed of shifting elements — delegates who came
and went and took an interest only in those matters
that immediately concerned their respective States.
The tone had lowered and the more eminent men of the
country did not seek service in a helpless, disintegrating
body. The contrast between the Congress of 1783,
when Madison's service terminated, and that of 1786,
when the Annapolis meeting took place, was signifi
cant. In 1783 Wilson of Pennsylvania, Charles Car
roll of Maryland, Henry Lee of Virginia, Gerry and
Osgood of Massachusetts, Duane of New York, and
Boudinot of New Jersey, were his associates; now, there
were almost no members of note except Richard Henry
Lee, Gorham of Massachusetts and Charles Pinckney
of South Carolina. Congress prefened, Madison said,
to keep the ship of State afloat "by standing constantly
at the pump, not by stopping the leaks which have
endangered her. "f
It was Alexander Hamilton who saw in the Annapolis
meeting a possible means of stopping the leaks, and
calling the convention which was in the minds of so
many men. The immediate argument was that the
Annapolis meeting was for the purpose of considering
regulations of trade, but these involved indirectly all
other Government regulations, and could not be re
adjusted unless the other parts of the Government were
also readjusted.
The interval between the adjournment at Annapolis
and the meeting at Philadelphia was spent in arousing
public opinion to the necessities of the occasion, and
all the States appointed delegates except Rhode Island.
* Dept. of State MSS.
t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II.

no LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
That State had refused assent to the proposed revenue
system, had taxed her neighbours who were obliged to
use her convenient ports, and was having a debauch
of paper money and repudiation of debts. "Being
conscious of the wickedness of the measures they are
pursuing they are afraid of everything that may become
a control on them," Madison wrote his father, April i,
1787.* So the Constitution was made without Rhode
Island's help.
Edmund Randolph, who, as Governor of Virginia,
was by consent of his colleagues the head of the Virginia
delegation to the convention, wrote|;to Madison, March 27,
1787, proposing that a scheme of government be en
grafted upon the Articles of Confederation, and that
the Virginia delegates draw up some general proposi
tions to be submitted to the Convention. Madison
replied April 8 outlining a plan; but so far as the Ar
ticles of Confederation were concerned he said his ideas
of a reform struck too deeply and involved too syste
matic a change to include their retention. f The plan
he outlined to Randolph he had previously (March 19)$
set forth in a letter to Jefferson, and subsequently (April
i6)§ he laid it before Washington. He said he con
ceived that the individual independence of the States
"was utterly irreconcilable with their aggregate sov
ereignty," but that "a consolidation of the whole into
one simple republic would be as inexpedient as it was un
attainable. " The main points which he thought required
attention were a change in national representation,
giving proportional power to the larger States; that
the National Government should be armed with "posi
tive and complete authority in all cases requiring tmi-
formity, " such as the regulation of trade, including
the right of taxing both exports and imports, "the
* "Writings of Madison'' (Hunt), II, 335.
tId., II, 337-
tId., II, 328.
§Id., II, 344-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON in
flxing the terms and forms of naturalization, &c., &c. ";
that the National Government should have a right of
negative, such as the King of England had enjoyed
before the Revolution, on all State legislation; that
there should be a supreme judiciary having jurisdiction
"in all cases to which foreigners or inhabitants of other
States may be parties," and in admiralty cases; that
the appointment of National officers should vest in the
National Government; that it should have control of
the militia; that there should be two legislative cham
bers, one chosen by the people or the Legislatures, the
other holding for a longer term, the members to go out
by rotation, so as always to leave a large majority of old
members; that there should be a council to revise all
laws passed ; that there should be a National Executive ;
that domestic tranquillity should be guaranteed to the
States; that the National Government should have the
right of coercion over the States ; and that the new Con
stitution should be ratifled by the people of the States,
not by the Legislatures.
Early in 1785 (January 6) George Muter of Kentucky
wrote to Madison propounding some questions that
Caleb Wallace, Madison's old college mate at Princeton,
had suggested on the subject of a Constitution for Ken
tucky,* and August 23, 1785,! Madison replied setting
forth his ideas on the subject of what a State Constitu
tion should be. He thought the Legislature ought
to include a Senate, to give wisdom and steadiness to
legislation. The lower House ought to be expressly
restrained from meddling with religion, abolishing juries,
taking away the right of habeas corpus, forcing a citi
zen to give evidence against himself, controlling the
press, enacting retroactive laws, at least in criminal
cases, abridging the right of suffrage, taking private
property for public use without paying for it, licensing
the importation of slaves, etc. He had formed no final
* Dept. of State MSS.
t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 166.

112 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
opinion whether the Executive should be elected by
the Legislature or the people or should be one man
with a council, or a council simply with a president
primus inter pares. The judges should hold during
good behaviour, and their salaries should not be changed.
The chief courts only ought to be named, giving the
Legislature power to institute the others. Impeach
ment proceedings he would have tried before the Senate,
the Executive and the judiciary. As for the right of
suffrage, to confine it to landholders would exclude
too many citizens; to extend it to all citizens without
regard to property, or even to all who possessed a pit
tance, might throw the power into hands that would
abuse it. A good middle course might be found in broad
qualifications for electors to the popular branch of the
Legislature and a narrower suffrage for the Senate.
This might offend the sense of equity, but he saw no
reason why rights of property which bore the chief
burden of government and were so much the object of
legislation should not be respected as well as personal
rights. For the more numerous chamber he supposed
annual elections would be insisted upon, but many
good statesmen favoured triennial. For the Senate
four or five years might be the period. It seemed un
necessary to prohibit an indefinite re-eligibility. With
regard to the Executive, if the elections were frequent
and by the people there could be no objection to re-
elegibility. If they were infrequent there should be a
temporary or perpetual incapacitation of re-elegibility
to the chief magistracy. This letter in conjunction
with those to Washington, Jefferson and Randolph
may be taken as fairly representing Madison's notions
of what a constitution should be before the Federal
Convention met.
He went into that body armed with a practical
knowledge of the needs of the country gained from
as great experience in its government as any mem
ber possessed; but in theoretical knowledge of govern-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 113
ment he surpassed all his associates. He fully realized
the tremendous issues trembling in the balance, and he
prepared for the convention completely. After his
election as a delegate he arranged his notes carefully.
They were the result of profound study begun twenty
years before at Princeton and continued unremittingly.
He was an omnivorous reader of everything relating
to government, and the limited library resources of
his neighbourhood were substantially increased by his
acquisitions from Paris. His erudition covered the
whole field of experience of mankind in government,
so far as it was applicable to conditions in America.
He prepared before he went to Philadelphia several
memoranda to assist him in the debates as they might
arise. One was on the various confederacies of the
world, Lycian, Achaean and Amphyctionic among the
ancients, and Belgic, Helvetic and Germanic among the
modems.* The Lycian Confederacy was an illustration
of value, because the members voted in proportion to
their pecuniary contributions to the whole government.
The Amphyctionic League offered an illustration of a
general government which had power to declare war
and coerce the cities which were parties to the confed
eracy. The Achffian Confederacy was an example of
perfect equality among its members, each city sending
the same number of deputies to the Senate. The Federal
power could make war, send and receive ambassadors,
etc. The Helvetic Confederacy showed a general diet
of united cantons, two deputies from each, with deci
sions made by a plurality of votes. The particular
cantons had their particular diets for their own affairs,
and were really independent commonwealths, bound
together by a common instrument of government. In
the Belgic Confederacy, on the other hand, there was an
unlimited number of deputies to the central law-making
body, but each province had only a single vote. The
deputies held office for different periods of time, some
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 369.

ii4 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
for six years, some for three, and some for one year.
It was a perpetual union for common defence, and the
federal power could levy import and export duties,
receive and send ambassadors, and attend to all foreign
affairs, the provinces reserving sovereignty within their
respective borders, coining money of equal standard,
and contributing each a quota to the treasury of the Con
federacy. The Germanic Confederacy was interesting, be
cause it had three legislative colleges — the electors, the
provinces and the imperial cities. The chief authorities
upon which this memorandum was based were Monte
squieu's U Esprit des Lois (1784) , Ubbo Emmius, the Dutch
historian, (in Latin), the Code d V Humanity ou Legislation,
by Felice, in thirteen volumes, (1778), the Encyclopcedia
of Political Economy, Plutarch's works, the Encyclopedie
pubhshed under the direction of Diderot and d'Alem-
bert, John Potter's ArchcBologia Grceca, two volumes,
(Oxford, 1688-9), Demosthenes, Grotius' De Jure Belli
et Pads, Raleigh's History of the 'World, Gillies' History
of Greece, Polybe's General History (probably the Paris
edition of 1609), Stanyan's Switzerland, William Coxe's
'Voyages, Dictionnaire de Suisse, Sir William Temple's
Remarks on the United Provinces (1674), Gabriel Bonnot
de Mably (1709-1785), and several others.
A more useful paper than the one on foreign con
federacies was an indictment he prepared against the
existing Government, entitled "Vices of the PoUtical
System of the United States."*
• The counts were: The failure of the States to
comply with Federal requisitions, resulting naturally
from the number and independent authority of the
States; the encroachments of State upon Federal au
thority, as instanced in Georgia's treaties with the In
dians, the unauthorized compacts between Virginia
and Maryland, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and
the raising of troops by Massachusetts; the violations
of the laws of nations and of treaties, the treaty of peace
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 361.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 115
and those with France and HoUand all having been
disregarded; the trespasses of one State upon the rights
of another, illustrated in Virginia's laws restricting
foreign vessels to certain ports, the Maryland and New
York laws restricting their ports to vessels belonging
to their own citizens, the issues of paper money and
commercial regulations; the want of concert in matters
of common concern, as shown in the lack of uniformity
of naturalization laws, diverse laws on the subject of
canals, etc. ; the absence of any guarantee to the States
of protection against internal violence, making it possi
ble that a military minority might at any time oppress
a majority of the people; the want of sanction by the
Federal power to the laws passed by the States, and
inability to coerce recalcitrant States; the difference
in the form of ratification of the Articles of Confederation
by the different States, some having them as a part of
their Constitutions and others as having been sanctioned
only by the Legislatures, thus making them easy of
evasion; the multiplicity of laws, causing a useless and
dangerous "luxuriancy of legislation;" their constant
changing, causing chronic instability, and the incurable
injustice of many of these laws.

CHAPTER XIII
THE GREAT CONVENTION. I.
The proceedings of the Convention were ordered to
be kept secret, so that the members might deliberate
uninfluenced by outside applause or criticism, and the
people were not permitted to take part in shaping the
Convention's work. Of that work Madison imposed
upon himself the task of being the reporter. His object,
as he stated many years afterwards, was to preserve
"the history of a Constitution on which would be staked
the happiness of a people great even in its infancy, and
possibly the cause of liberty throughout the world."
He chose a seat in front of the presiding officer, with
the members to the right and left of him, where he
could hear all that was said, and he took down each
speech on the spot, using abbreviations and a few arbi
trary characters of his own. He wrote out his notes
each day at his lodgings, being aided in his task by a
knowledge of the style of most of the speakers, whom
he had heard speak in the Congress. Franklin's speeches
were nearly all written, and his colleague, Wilson, read
them, Franklin himself being too feeble to stand the
fatigue of delivering them himself. They were handed to
Madison after delivery and copied by him. When he
was writing out Hamilton's chief speech the latter
happened to enter his room and reading it pronounced
it to be conect. Gouvemeur Morris saw Madison's
report of one of his speeches and made no changes in it.
Not a single day of the sittings of the Convention did
Madison miss, and his report was as complete as one
man could make it.* It is a remarkable example of
* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 391.
116

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 117
good reporting and of prolonged concentration upon a
laborious task.
The Convention determined at the outset to go beyond
the purpose for which it was called. The Annapolis
meeting proposed that this purpose should be to render
the Government "adequate to the exigencies of the
Union," and that the conclusions reached should be
reported to Congress and become operative when agreed
to by the Legislatures of all the States. But when
Congress considered the Annapolis programme, it modi-
fled it and appointed May 2 as a day for a meeting of
delegates from the several States, to revise the Articles
of Confederation and recommend to Congress and the
State Leigslatures such provisions as would, when
agreed to by the States, "render the Federal Constitu
tion adequate to the exigencies of Government and the
preservation of the Union."*
With "a manly confidence in their country," as
Madison termed it, the members of the Convention
exceeded their commission and wiped the Articles of
Confederation out of existence, substituting for them a
Constitution which was not to be submitted to the
State Legislatures at all, but was to go into effect when
ratified by the people of nine States. They trusted to
public opinion to support them, being encouraged to do
so by recalling the alacrity with which Virginia's propo
sition for a meeting to consider better trade regulations
had been accepted, and how the delegates to the conse
quent meeting had gone a step further and recom
mended a general convention, to which all the States but
one had sent delegates, f
It was generally agreed that the most radical defect
in the Articles of Confederation lay in the power of the
States to comply with or disregard, as they saw fit, the
recommendations of Congress, and that the most press
ing duty before the Convention was to find a remedy
* Journals of Congress (Ed. iSoo) XII, 14.
t Federalist, No, XL,

II 8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
for this evil.* To do so none of the leaders of the Con
vention wished to erect a complete democracy. The
inclinations of a few members lay in that direction,
but they exerted little influence, for the democratic
sentiment of the country was opposed to holding the
Convention, and had not sought to send its champions
as delegates. The assemblage was looked upon from
the beginning as one of federalists.
In planning the National Congress, therefore, it was
not intended that it should represent population alone,
but wealth also, and the Senate or second chamber,
especially, was designed to represent conservative forces.
John Dickinson of New Jersey thought it should be a
large body, as its influence, "from family weight and
other causes, would be increased thereby."! Elbridge
Geny of Massachusetts, afterwards an ardent member
of Jefferson's party, said it should be so constituted as
to render secure "the commercial and moneyed in
terest. "J Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Caro
lina said it was meant to represent the wealth of the
country. § George Mason suggested that no one be
permitted to serve as a senator who was not possessed
of a certain amount of property.^ Gouvemeur Morris
of Pennsylvania and John Rutiedge of South Carolina
agreed that the representation should be by wealth, not
by numbers. II Abraham Baldwin of Georgia expressed
the same view.** Charles Pinckney went a step further
than Mason and would have had property qualifications
for all the high offices. The President should be worth
at least $100,000 a Federal Judge at least $50,000, and
members of Congress a less amount.ft Pierce Butler
agreed with his colleague Rutiedge that representation
in both Houses should be according to the wealth of
* Madison to W. C. Rives, October 21, 1833. Works (Cong. Ed.)
IV, 313-
t "Madison Papers" (Gilpin) II, 817.
tld.,ll, 819. II Id., II, 1034-1035.
§Id., II, 969. ** Id., II, 998.
Hid., II, 972. ft Id., II, 1283.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 119
the States. It was intended, however, to recognize the
"democratic principle" by basing representation in
the House upon population as "the only security for
the rights of the people, " but Madison also declared
that in America the fairest way of measuring the wealth
of a community was by the number of inhabitants.* In
estimating population it was agreed to count all the
freemen and two-fifths of the slaves, this being the
ratio proposed by Madison in Congress in 1783. The
idea was that slaves partook of the nature of both popu
lation and property. They were estimated as property
in computing the taxable wealth of a community and
they had, under the law, certain limited personal rights, f
As both the Annapolis and Philadelphia meetings
were held at Virginia's initiative her delegates thought
it incumbent upon them to offer the Convention some
plan of government as a starting-point for the debates,
and they spent three weeks, while waiting for a quorum
of delegates to reach Philadelphia, in drawing one up. J
It contained the features of Madison's ideas of govern
ment, as outlined in his letters to Randolph and Wash
ington, but it was Randolph's hand that actually drew
up the resolutions known in the Convention as "the
Virginia plan," and as Governor of the State and a
fluent and persuasive speaker the distinction of pre
senting it to the Convention fell to him. This he did on
May 29, when eight States had assembled, in an exhaus
tive and able speech pointing out the evils of the existing
system and explaining the general principles of the sub
stitute he offered. § It was not expected that this sub
stitute would come forth from the crucible of debate
in the form in which it went in, and the Virginia dele
gates were not themselves bound to adhere to it. It was,
however, not only the point from which the debate
started, but the pivot about which it revolved.
* Gilpin, II, 1074.
fid., II, 1083.
t Rowland's "Life of George Mason," II, loi
§ Gilpin, II, 727, et seq.

I20 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The plan comprised fifteen declaratory resolutions of
principles which ought to be applied in the Government
of the United States:
There should be two branches of the National Legisla-
tmre, the members of the first to be elected every year,
and all the power vested in the old Congress should belong
to the new one, beside the right of legislating wherever
the separate States were not competent, or " the harmony
of the United States" might be "interrupted" by State
legislation. There should be a National Executive, and
a judiciary to consist of one or more supreme tribunals,
and of subordinate tribunals to be instituted by the
Legislature, jurisdiction to extend to piracies and fel
onies on the high seas, captures from an enemy, cases in
which foreigners might be interested, or which respected
the collection of the national revenue, and questions
involving "the national peace and harmony." A re
publican form of government should be guaranteed to
every State, and the proposed articles of union should
be submitted for ratification to assemblies of representa
tives of the people in the several States, especially chosen
for the purpose. These features of the Virginia plan
finally appeared in the Constitution.
But the plan further proposed that the members of
the "second branch of the National Legislature," or
Senate, should be elected by the members of the popular
branch "out of a proper number of persons nominated
by the individual legislatures," and that the National
Legislature should have power to call forth the force of
the United States against any State failing to fulfil its
duties to the Union, and to negative all laws passed by
the several States contravening the articles of union
or any treaty ; also that the. National Executive should
be chosen by the Legislature and- be ineligible for re
election. Provision was made for a Council of Revision
composed of the Executive and "a convenient number"
of the National judiciary, to pass upon all laws coming
from the National Legislature. If the CouncU disap-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 121
proved of any act it was not to become operative, unless
it was passed again by a vote of — members of both
Houses of Congress. Under the same conditions State
legislation not negatived by Congress could be vetoed
by the Council. These features of the Virginia plan did
not appear in the Constitution. Several of them were
especially favoured by Madison, — (i) A representation
in both branches of the Legislature proportioned to the
wealth and population of the respective States; (2) the
right of negative of State acts by the National Congress,
and (3) the Council of Revision to negative improper
laws. As Madison explained in The Federalist (No. XXVII)
the chief opposing forces in the Convention were the
larger States, which wished a participation in the Na
tional Government proportioned to their importance,
and the smaller States, which were tenacious of the
equal representation they enjoyed under the Articles of
Confederation. They fought their battle over the
question of representation in the Senate, the delegates
from the smaller States being a unit in insisting that it
be equal for each State, and asserting positively that
they would sign no instrument of government which
made it otherwise. Luther Martin of Maryland, Gun
ning Bedford of Delaware, a former college mate of
Madison's, who was under positive instructions from
the Legislature of his State to accept no scheme of gov
ernment destroying State equality, Oliver Ellsworth
of Connecticut, and John Dickinson of New Jersey, were
the chief speakers on the side of the smaller States.
In Madison's first speech in the Convention (May 30)
he proclaimed as his central idea that a National Gov
ernment ought to be established and not a "federal one
among sovereign States."* Later, in the course of
debate, he said an equal voice in government by un
equal portions of the people would infuse mortality
into a Constitution which ought to be so constructed as
* Gilpin, II, 752.

122 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
to last forever. He would preserve the State rights
"as carefully as the trial by jury," but the new govern
ment was not to operate upon the States, but upon the
people directly, and equal State representation might
easily come to mean government by the minority.
The smaller States threatened to disrupt the Union,
unless they had their way. What, then, Madison asked,
would be their position ? They would be a prey to the
larger States, who would be under no obligations to
protect them.
On the other side Oliver Ellsworth said he depended
for domestic happiness as much on his State government
as an infant upon its mother for nourishment.* Dickin
son said Madison pushed the small States too far; that
some of their representatives wished for two branches
in the National Legislature and were friends to a strong
National Government, but that they would rather sub
mit to a foreign power than be deprived, in both branches
of the Legislature, of equality of suffrage, and thereby
thrown under the domination of the larger States.!
Bedford coincided in this view, and the members were
shocked to hear in the heat of debate sentiments of
disloyalty to the American Union. J
Madison contended strenuously that there was no real
difference between the interest of the smaller and larger
States. The real opposition of interests lay, he ex
plained, between slave States and free States. He
was so much impressed with this fact that it had occurred
to him as a fair plan to apportion the votes in one House
of Congress according to the number of free inhabi
tants only, and in the other according to the whole
number, counting the slaves as equal to freemen. By
this anangement the South would have the advantage
in one House and the North in the other. T[ The propo
sition met with no favour, for the delegates from the
smaller States believed an adherence to their position
* Gilpin, II, 1014. t Id., II, 1014.
tId., II, 863, n. tld„ 1088.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 123
to be absolutely necessary to their existence. The
question thus became a simple one. It was whether
the Convention should break up or surrender the point
to the smaller States, and the committee that drafted
the compromise in effect recognized this condition of
affairs. To save appearance it was stipulated that
money bills should originate only in the House of Repre
sentatives, but as the right of proposing amendments
was finally given to the Senate this apparent concession
amounted to nothing. The smaller States were not,
however, ungrateful to the larger States, and in return
for the vital point yielded them they voted steadily
afterwards for those propositions which gave increased
power to the General Government.*
If Madison's plan had prevailed the boundaries of
the several States would not have been destroyed and
they would still have had complete control over their
local affairs, but the idea of State sovereignty would
have been killed beyond the hope of resurrection. This
idea, was, however, stronger with the small States than
their desire for the Union.
The concession of equal State representation in the
Senate was the most important of the so-called compro
mises between opposing interests made in the formation
of the Constitution. Another one was effected towards
the end of the Convention's sitting hardly less one
sided, but happily not permanent in its provisions.
This was the bargain by which the slave trade was per
mitted to continue for twenty years for the benefit
chiefly of South Carolina and Georgia, and taxation
upon exports was prohibited for the benefit generally
of the Southern States, in return for the power given
Congress to pass navigation laws by a majority vote,
Vvhich it was supposed would prove profitable to the
Eastem States. Broadly speaking, the interests of the
country were divided into those of the plantation at the
South and of commerce at the North. More minutely,
* Bancroft VIII on Madison's authority.

124 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
the fisheries and West India trade concerned New Eng
land ; New York's interests lay in free trade, as her chief
port was an entrepot; the staples of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey were wheat and flour ; tobacco was the staple
of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina; rice and
indigo were the staples of Georgia and South Carolina.*
It was argued that these different interests would be a
source of oppression to each other if navigation and
trade regulations might be made by a bare majority in
Congress. Accordingly, the draft of the Constitution reported
by the committee on detail August 6 contained an article
providing that no navigation act should be passed by
Congress, except by a two-thirds vote; also that no tax
or duty should be laid on exports, nor upon the importa
tion of such persons as the States chose to admit. f The
last clause would have tied the hands of Congress for
ever so far as regulating or stopping the slave trade
was concerned, leaving the matter wholly within the
control of the separate States. It was obnoxious to both
Southern and Northem members, and strange to say,
the defence of the proposition that the States should
deal with the question came from Eastem men.f
Gouvemeur Morris, seeing the trend of sentiment, said;
"These things may form a bargain among the Southern
and Northem States;" and on August 22 the slave trade
and navigation clauses were both referred to a committee
of one member from each State, Madison being selected
as the member from Virginia.^ He was in favour of
giving Congress the right to tax exports, not only for
revenue but for protective and political purposes. "A
proper regulation," he said, "of exports may, and prob
ably will be necessary hereafter and for the same purposes
as the regulation of imports: viz., for revenue, domestic
manufactures, and projecting equitable regulations from
* C. Pinckney's Speech, Aug, 29, Gilpin III, 1450.
t Gilpin II, 1233.
J Id., Ill, 1389. Hid., Ill, 1396.

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 125
other nations. An embargo may be of absolute neces
sity and can alone be effectuated by the general author
ity. " He also held that navigation and trade regula
tions could properly be made by a majority vote in
Congress and that they would benefit the South as well
as the North.* The disadvantage to the South of a
navigation act lay, he said, in a temporary rise in freights.
It would be followed, however, by an increase in Southern
shipping and the emigration to the South of Northern
seamen and merchants. The agricultural interests would
be powerful enough to prevent an adverse combination
in Congress. New Jersey and Connecticut were really
agricultural States and agricultural industries predom
inated in the interior of all the States. Material ac
cession to agricultural forces might soon be expected
from the West. At any rate a greater maritime
strength would result in a generally increased na
tional, security in the benefits of which all sections would
share. Madison had nothing, therefore, to do with the bar
gain which Morris predicted. The parties to it were
Georgia, South CaroUna and North Carolina, on one
side, and Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hamp
shire on the other, this making a majority of the States,
for Hamilton was the only delegate from New York
and the State had no vote. The committee proposed
that there should be no slave importations after the
year 1800, and the first step in fulfilment of the bargain
came August 25, when it was moved and canied that
the date be extended to 1808. Virginia, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware voted in the negative.
George Mason had already made his noble speech against
the "infernal traffic,"! and Madison said: "Twenty
years will produce all the mischief that can be appre
hended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a
term will be more dishonourable to the American charac-
* Gilpin, III, 1384.
t Id., II, 1390.

126 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ter, than to say nothing about it in the Constitution."*
Concerning the proposition to lay a tax on the import
of slaves, he said he thought it "wrong to admit in the
Constitution the idea that there could be property in
men."! On August 29, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney said that,
considering the "liberal conduct" of the Eastem States
towards South Carolina, he would vote that the com
mercial regulations which the Eastem States desired
might be made by a majority vote in Congress instead
of the two-thirds vote required as the clause then stood.
He aclcnowledged that he had come to Philadelphia
with a prejudice against New England men, but he had
been met by them in such a spirit of accommodation
that his opinion had changed. He found them "as
liberal and candid as any men whatever. "J
So the bargain was completed. Slaves were to be
imported freely for twenty years; there was to be no
possible way, except by amending the Constitution
itself, of preventing the trade. There was to be no tax
ation of exports, and trade and navigation acts could be
passed by a majority vote in Congress. Georgia, South
Carolina and North Carolina cared primarily for slaves,
for in them they thought their wealth lay, and they
wished to increase it by further importations. Their
attachment to slavery was a stronger feeling than was
their opposition to navigation acts. The desire for
navigation acts was, on the other hand, very strong in
New England, and several delegates from that section
declared the Union was not desirable to them unless
they could have national legislation to foster their com
merce. The selfish cupidity of this section thus allied
itself with the perverted morality of South Carolina,
Georgia and North Carolina, and the coalition probably
saved the Constitution from rejection.
* Gilpin, II, 1427. J Id., II, 1451.
t Id.. II, 1430.

CHAPTER XIV
THE GREAT CONVENTION. II.
A NUMBER of the lesser provisions of the Constitution
were incorporated on Madison's motion. These were:
The power of the Federal Government to grant copy
rights and patents for inventions ; to dispose of the public
lands and provide temporary government for them;
to acquire, with the consent of the States, lands for
Federal forts, arsenals, etc., and to regulate intercourse
with the Indians. He was the author of the clause
confening exclusive jurisdiction in Congress over a
seat of Government, when one should be chosen, and of
the article specifying how amendments might be made.*
He was in favour of the election of the President by
popular vote,! and accepted as approximating this end
the intermediate agency of the electoral coUege which
Wilson suggested. J It proved at the first election to be
only a vehicle for registering the public will, and has
never been anything else. Upon Madison's motion a
member of Congress was made ineligible for appoint
ment to an office created, or the emoluments of which
had been increased, during his term of Congressional
service. He assisted in putting the final touches to
the Constitution, being a member of the committee on
style, the last one appointed by the Convention. His
colleagues were Johnson, Hamilton, Gouvemeur Morris
and King. They were selected as the most polished
scholars and the best masters of the English tongue
in the Convention.
The most brilliant man of this galaxy had, however
* Gilpin III, 1353. tld.,ll, 1200.
fid., II, 1148. 127

128 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
little to do with the actual framing of the Constitution.
Alexander Hamilton's title to fame rests upon his par
ticipation in events before and after the Federal Con
vention, for his services in the Convention itself were
not transcendant. There his State presented a sorry
spectacle, for his colleagues, Lansing and Yates, were
anti-federalists, and they left Philadelphia in the middle
of the proceedings and went home to endeavour to pave
the way for unfavourable action in their State against
the frame of government which they forsaw would be
proposed to the people for adoption.* As long as they
remained in the convention they were a living argument
against the acceptability to the people of New York of
Hamilton's ideas of government.
These ideas he brought before the Convention im
mediately after the Paterson, or "Jersey plan," as it
was called, had been presented, and after the Virginia
plan had been under discussion for three weeks. The
Jersey plan was intended to conserve the Articles of
Confederation by making certain additions to them.
The complete sovereignty of the States was to be main
tained and a single Congress was to be continued, but
the General Government was to have revenue from
imposts, stamps and the post office, and there was to
be a plural Executive removable by Congress.!
On June i8 Hamilton presented his plan and made
his great speech. He said he was imfriendly to both
the Virginia and the Jersey plans, but especially to the
latter, for he regarded the success of a new Government
as impossible while the States were left in possession of
their sovereignty. As long as this continued they
pursued their own mterests, and their tendency was to
regain the powers they delegated. Their inhabitants
were more anxious to prevent a dissolution of the State
government, as the State government was a necessity
immediately surrounding them. "All the passions,
* Leake's "Life of John Lamb," 305.
t Gilpin, II, 862, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 129
then, we see, of avarice, ambition, interest, which govern
most individuals, and all public bodies, fall into the
cunent of the States, and do not flow into the stream
of the General Government." He thought the general
power must swallow up the State powers or be swallowed
up by them. He did not mean to shock public opinion
by proposing an extinguishment of the State govern
ments, but they ought to be extinguished. The diffi
culty of securing the best talent to manage the National
Government in a country so large as the United States
was, however, a great problem, and made him almost
despair of a republican government being possible over
so great an extent. The British government was the
best in the world, and he doubted whether anything
short of it would do in America. It seemed to have
been admitted that a good Executive could not be es
tablished on a republican basis. He was aware that
his plan went beyond the ideas of most members. It
could not be adopted out of doors, but neither could
the Virginia plan be adopted at present. He saw signs
that the people were being cured of their fondness for
democracy and that they would in time be unshackled
from their prejudices. He submitted his sketch, there
fore, chiefly as a suggestion of the amendments he would
probably offer to the Virginia plan. His scheme pro
vided for two legislative chambers and a Supreme Execu
tive and judiciary, as in the Virginia plan, but the
Senators and the Supreme Executive were to hold office
during good behaviour, and the Governor of each State
was to be appointed by the General Government. The
Supreme Executive was to have absolute power of
negative of all laws about to be passed, and each Gov
ernor was to have similar power over all laws about to
be passed in his State.* Much of Hamilton's speech
was prophetic, and but little of it was of immediate
application. It commanded the admiration of all,!
* Gilpin, II, 828, et seq.
t Yates' Report, Elliott's Debates, XI.

I30 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
and George Read of Delaware openly expressed his
approbation of the plan, stating that he wished to see
the States wiped out of existence.* Probably Gouv
emeur Morris also agreed with him,! as he held a gov
ernment of the people in contempt; but not a single
speech was made in Hamilton's support.
When the Constitution was finally framed, he said he
did not approve of it generally, but would accept it
as preferable to anarchy. He did not believe it would
prove to be durable, but one element of its durability
he comprehended better than many of his colleagues
did. The article in the Constitution concerning the powers
of the supreme judiciary excited, in the course of the
debate, but little opposition of sentiment, and did not
apparently arouse a deep or widespread interest. The
Virginia plan contemplated a court having a very re
stricted jurisdiction, chiefly, as we have seen, over
admiralty and prize cases, and those involving "the
national peace and harmony;" but the article finally
adopted went many leagues beyond this. In The Fed
eralist (No. LXXVIII) Hamilton said "some perplex
ity ' ' had arisen respecting the right of the Supreme Court
to declare an act of the National Legislature unconsti
tutional. He thought, however, nothing was clearer
than that, every act of delegated authority contrary to
the tenor of the commission was void, and, consequently,
that no act of the Legislature contrary to the Constitu
tion would be valid. It was the business of the court,
therefore, to ignore such an act, whenever, as he ex
plained in a later number (LXXXI), there was "evident
opposition." Luther Martin, the most extreme State
rights man in the Convention, as Hamilton was the
most extreme consolidationist, wrote a letter to the
Legislature of Maryland, June 28, 1788, opposing the
ratification of the Constitution, and stating as one of
the deprivations of State power for which it provided,
* Gilpin, II, 990. t Rives, II, 352.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 131
that the Federal judges could determine whether any
laws were contrary to the Constitution, and the States
would be bound by the decision.* In the Convention
Gouvemeur Morris said: "A law that ought to be
negatived will be set aside in the judiciary department,
and, if that security should fail, will be repealed by a
national law." George Mason, James Wilson and
others held the same opinion. John Francis Mercer, of
Maryland, and John Dickinson, on the other hand,
expressed their disapprobation of the doctrine that
judges had authority to declare a law void. That there
should have been perplexity on the subject was not
strange, for the delegates had no precedent in England
or America to guide them.
The Articles of Confederation! made provision for
a Federal Court of Appeals in admiralty cases, and for
the settlement of disputes between any two States by
the mutual appointment, upon petition, of commissioners
or judges to constitute a court to hear and determine
the question at issue. If the States in interest could
not agree on the judges Congress might select them.
Pennsylvania and Connecticut, in a controversy over
lands on the Susquehanna River, applied for such a
court and the case was the only one ever tried. A
similar court was organized to hear a dispute between
Georgia and South Carolina, and Madison was one of
the judges, but it would appear the case never came to
trial. In Virginia in 1782 Chancellor Wythe, speaking obiter
dictum from the bench, expressed the opinion that the
court had a right to declare void an act of the Assembly
contrary to the Constitution of the State, f In May,
1787, when the Federal Convention was sitting, the
Superior Court of North Carolina so declared a certain
act of the Legislature of that State, this being the first
?Elliott's Debates, I, 380.
t U. S. Reports, 131, appendix by the reporter, J. C. Bancroft Davis.
X Rives, II, 264.

132 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
judgment of the kind under a written Constitution.*
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island had, however,
already made a similar judgment under an unwritten
Constitution, and the judges were removed from office
in consequence.! It was to this case that Madison
refened in the Convention when he said (July 17);
"In Rhode Island the judges who refused to execute an
unconstitutional law were displaced and others substi
tuted, by the Legislature, who would be the willing
instruments of their masters. "
In urging the clause of the Constitution providing
for its adoption by the people and not by the State
Legislatures, he said ratification by the Legislatures
would make it a treaty and a law violating it "might
be respected by the judges as a law, though an unwise
and perfidious one. A law violating a Constitution
established by the people would be considered by the
judges as null and void. " Evidently the remark was
intended to apply to State legislation, for Roger Sherman
in concurring said a law of a State contrary to the Con
stitution would be invalid. In the last stages of the
Convention the judiciary article was moulded into this
form: "The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shaU
extend to all cases arising under the laws passed by the
Legislature of the United States." This was amended
so as to extend the jurisdiction to all cases arising " under
the Constitution and the" laws passed by Congress.
Madison promptly suggested that this went too far —
that the court's jurisdiction ought not to extend "gen
erally to cases arising under the Constitution." It
should be "limited to cases of a judiciary nature. The
right of expounding the Constitution in cases not of this
nature, ought not to be given to that department."
Johnson, of Connecticut, who moved the amendment,
explained that he did not mean to include a general
jurisdiction and the clause was agreed to, "it being
* Coxe on The Judicial Power, 248.
tId., 298.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 133
generally supposed," as Madison reports, "that the
jurisdiction given was constructively limited to cases
of a judiciary nature. " The Dred Scott decision rendered
seventy-five years later, was, as it happened, the first
case in which a Federal statute declared by the Supreme
Court to be unconstitutional did not relate to the judi
ciary.* Madison, as we have seen, earnestly advocated the
granting to Congress of power of negative over State
acts, but this was not inconsistent with granting the
Supreme Court power to declare such acts void. He
wished to provide for some degree of harmony in State
legislation and to avoid the necessity of applying coer
cion to anest the operation of an unconstitutional law
after it had gone into effect. Such extreme measures
would, he said, be considered an act of war by the co
erced State and a dissolution of all existing contracts,
and would involve a disruption of the Union, all of which
would be avoided if unconstitutional laws could be
strangled at birth.
On the other hand he would hardly have advocated,
as he did, the Council of Revision, with some of the
Federal judges as members, to pass upon National legis
lation, if he had seen in his mind's eye the possibility
that when on the bench these members might be called
upon to pronounce, not upon the construction of the
law, but upon the question whether it should not be
stricken from the statute books. It would be an un
natural assumption to say he supposed that a National
law which had gone through the Council of Revision
might be declared void by the judiciary. It must be
remembered, however, that if the judiciary article in
the Constitution did not mean to Madison all that it
subsequently developed into, he was not alone. Some
members doubtless thought the power of declaring a
State law contrary to the Constitution void was lodged
in the Supreme Court, but not the power of so declaring
* Coxe on The Judicial Power, 20.

134 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
an act of Congress; others thought this power also ex
isted; and yet others accepted the article and did not
speculate as to what its effect would be.
Gouvemeur Morris and James WUson were the only
two members who spoke in the Convention oftener
than Madison. Morris exerted an influence over the
proceedings by his fearless criticism of the various propo
sitions offered, but Wilson brought a conservative in
tellect and far-seeing statesmanship to bear upon them,
and much of the credit for the result belongs to him.
As the days and weeks went by, however, and step by
step the Convention got forward towards its goal, the
fact became generally recognized that the first man of
the assemblage was James Madison. William Pierce, a
delegate from Georgia, described him in the notes he
took in the Convention:* "Mr. Maddison is a character
who has long been in public life; but what is very re
markable every Person seems to acknowledge his great
ness. He blends together the profound politician, with
the scholar. In the management of every great ques
tion he evidently took the lead in the Convention, and
tho' he cannot be called an Orator, he is a most agreeable,
eloquent, and convincing speaker. From a spirit of
industry and application which he possesses in a most
eminent degree, he always comes forward the best in
formed Man of any point in debate. The affairs of the
United States, he perhaps has the most conect knowl
edge of, of any Man in the Union. He has been twice a
member of Congress, and was always thought one of
the ablest Members that ever sat in that Council. Mr.
Maddison is about 37 years of age, a Gentleman of great
modesty, — with a remarkably sweet temper. He is
easy and xmreserved among his acquaintances, and
has a most agreeable style of conversation."
He represented the largest, richest, and most influ
ential State in the Union, the one which had led in the
great events culminating in the Convention. In the
?American Historical Review, VII, 331.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 135
progress of debate it became apparent that his distin
guished colleagues. Mason and Randolph, were so strongly
opposed to some of the articles of the Constitution that
they could not be depended upon to advocate its adop
tion. Madison, however, kept the majority of the Vir
ginia delegation with him and spoke for the State. He
was willing to sacrifice some of his opinions in order to
gain a result approximating his desires. He had no
unique scheme of government which he had personally
evolved and to which he was inevocably attached.
He wished to frame a government strong enough to
preserve the Union, to fulfil its obligations, and to
command obedience at home and respect abroad. He
attended to the business before him with untiring devo
tion and was more continuously present at the sittings
of the Convention than any other prominent member.
He was uninfluenced in his course by any selfish motives.
He wished primarily to see a measure drafted that would
stand a fair chance of adoption by the people, and this
feeling fortunately was dominant in the Convention.
The result was a work coming from "men in a world
of men," and not from youthful idealists nor beings of
perfect wisdom. As it was obtained by mutual sacri
fices of individual preferences it was wholly satisfactory
to none, although moderately satisfactory to nearly all.
Pierce Butler said: "We must follow the example of
Solon, who gave the Athenians not the best govern
ment he could devise, but the best they would receive. "
Wilson said that one reason why the Constitution should
be submitted to the people and not the State govern
ments for ratification was that the State governments
would be certain to oppose it.* But the people them
selves knew hardly anything more than State govern
ments and had for the most part only State ideals. Madi
son, Hamilton, Rutiedge and the other great leaders
could look beyond State borders and see a great future
for a new American nation; but how would the people
* Yates.

136 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
generally receive a Constitution that destroyed some
and crippled other of the powers of the States? In
these States centred all the material interests and most
of the sentimental feelings of their inhabitants. As
Story has said, "The wonder, indeed, is not, under such
circumstances, that the Constitution should have en
countered the most ardent opposition, but that it should
ever have been adopted at all by a majority of the States. "

CHAPTER XV
FORMING THE LINES
Madison was now thirty-four years old and was still a
bachelor. His blood flowed temperately, but not coldly,
and in 1786 he was so attentive to some lady whose
identity has been lost that there were rumours that he
was about to be married. General Henry Lee, who
told him he "loved and respected" him, congratulated
him with enthusiasm and expressed the hope that the
condition on which he was about to enter would soften
his political asperities. The report penetrated to Ken
tucky and Caleb Wallace also sent his felicitations.*
How near consummation the affair was, or why it failed,
there is now nothing to show.
As the statesman left youth behind him his health
improved and his body flUed out, but he was not robust
and suffered often from digestive troubles. He still
dressed soberly, but less like a parson than in the earlier
days. He affected, we are told, a springing, rising step,
probably to overcome his defects of stature; and the
somewhat rustic bearing which had maned his manner
in early manhood had disappeared.! Blessed by Heaven
with a ready sense of humour, which official cares did
not destroy, he was a genial companion and enjoyed
personal popularity. His social circle was large and the
best in America, and in it his rank was high, with every
promise of increasing importance in the future. In
his county his neighbours and large family connection
looked up to him with pride; but among the people at
* Dept. of State MSS.
t "Virginia Convention of 1788" (Grigsby) Virginia Historical
Collections, IX, 96.

138 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
large, — ^the crowd that is, — he was not well known and
had no following, for he had none of the showy qualities
of the popular leader. He had the homage of men of
his class, the respect of all good men, the affection of a
chosen few, and the personal hatred of none. It is
probable that his dominant personal sentiment was his
affection for Thomas Jefferson, and in turn Jefferson
treated him with extraordinary confidence and respect. He
was entrusted with the education of Jefferson's nephews
during their uncle's absence and selected their schools.
The library at Monticello was free to him, but that at
Montpelier was growing larger every day, many of the
books being sent over by Jefferson at Madison's request.
Jefferson gave him a watch, and in 1785 urged him to
buy a small farm near Monticello, so that they might
look forward to an uninterrupted companionship. He
begged him to visit him in Paris, but Madison was obliged
to decline. He had in 1783 refused an appointment as
Minister to Spain. His development was, therefore,
unassisted by foreign travel, but he knew Italian, in
which language Mazzei and Bellini usually corresponded
with him, beside the Spanish and French which he had
learned in his childhood.
While the warmest affection and intimacy existed
between Jefferson and Madison they did not co-operate
in public affairs either immediately before, or during,
or immediately after the formation of the constitution
of the United States. The philosopher was enjoying
himself in Paris and following out trains of thought that
sometimes led him to absurd conclusions. He loved
liberty so ardently that he seriously doubted', he wrote,
whether men were not best off without any gov
ernment at all, as some of the Indians lived ; at any rate
he was quite sure that " a little revolution now and then"
was a good thing to have in a free State.* He seemed
oblivious of the cold fact that unless something were
speedily done to save it his country would soon have
* "Writings of Jefferson" (Ford) IV, 362.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 139
no government and a "little revolution" that would
probably tmdo the work of the great Revolution. While
he was indulging his fancy Madison was at work in
earnest. Soon after the Constitution was published there
arose throughout the country a formidable opposition
to its acceptance. It came chiefly from three classes:
first, those who looked upon the Federal authority as
foreign authority that had merely taken the place of
Great Britain and who consequently feared an enlarge
ment of it would lead to oppression; second, those who
were wiUing to give the Federal Government a few ad
ditional powers, but wished a continuance of the Articles
of Confederation, thinking that a more centralized
government would wipe out the State governments;
third, those who wished the Union to break up and
hoped that three or more separate confederacies would
emerge from the wreck, this being the smallest class of
all, and the most silent, for it did not work by direct
arguments. As New York was the Capital, the opposi
tion was most active there, in hope of producing an im
pression on Congress before the Constitution went to
the people. To counteract this opposition, Alexander
Hamilton and John Jay determined to print a series of
papers defending and explaining the Constitution, and
they invited Madison to co-operate. Jay had not been
in the Convention that framed the Constitution, and
Hamilton's views had not prevailed there. Madison,
therefore, had an easier task than either of his associates,
for he had merely to recast arguments already made.
The first papers appeared over the signature "A Citizen
of New York," and were designed for circulation in
that State, but afterwards the pseudonym "Publius"
was adopted, and the papers were intended for the
whole country. Jay falling ill, Hamilton and Madison
wrote nearly all the papers, not in collaboration but
separately, twenty-nine of the eighty-five coming from

I40 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Madison's pen.* The tenth of the series, which was
his first, was on the Union as a safeguard against do
mestic faction. It was followed by his answer to the
allegation that the country was too extensive to exist
as one confederacy; his familiar illustrations that the
cause of the downfall of all previous confederacies was
their lack of cohesion; an exposition of the difficulties
encountered by the Convention and the impossibility
of framing a perfect plan, urging that its virtues be
studied and its defects not magnified; an explanation
that the scheme intended a republic not a democracy;
a defence of the powers of the Convention; a general
view of the powers of the Union; an argument against
the supposition that the Union would be dangerous to
the State governments, in which he stated that if the
sovereignty of the States could not be reconciled with
the happiness of the people the sovereignty of the States
ought to be sacrificed ; an explanation of the distribution
of government powers, and essays on the House and
Senate. As to the representation in the Senate he said
it was a necessary compromise and a lesser evil. He
would have the people contemplate the advantages
that might arise from the clause as it stood, rather than
anticipate the possible mischiefs.
As the papers of The Federalist appeared they were
sent throughout the coimtry and gained many converts,
especially among the most influential class of citizens.
Rev. James Madison, of William and Mary, for ex
ample, one of the most liberal churchmen and scholars
of his day, wrote his cousin soon after the Convention
adjourned that he considered the Constitution "the
chef d'osuvre oi continental wisdom, " but he feared the
institution of a single Executive and Senate, both prob-
* Rives, II, 482, et seq.
Jacob Gideon, Jr., wrote to Madison, Washington, January 19,
18 18, that he intended to print a new edition of The Federalist and
wished to know the name of the author of each number and Madison
returned the edition sent him with the names affixed (Mad. MSS.)
The author has used the Gideon edition.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 141
ably to hold for hfe, would lead to aristocracy and tyr
anny; but a few weeks later (Feb. 9, 1788,) he said
the letters of "Publius" had weU-nigh worked a con
version in him. George Nicholas, who had a minute
knowledge of public opinion in Virginia, distributed
the letters in the disaffected portions of the State, es
pecially in Kentucky; but it required more than The
Federalist to overcome the opposition in that State.*
Of the Virginia delegates to the Philadelphia Con
vention Randolph and Mason refused to sign the
Constitution. Randolph wished to hold himself free
to follow whatever course should seem best and would
not tie his hands. He hoped to secure a second Con
vention to formulate amendments before ratiflcation;
at least this was his attitude when he left Philadelphia.
Mason disapproved of too many features of the Con
stitution to commit himself to support the whole. When
he left Philadelphia there was small prospect that he
would not be in the opposition. Jefferson once spoke
of Randolph as a chameleon constantly changing his
hues, but it would be fairer to say he had a hopelessly
impartial temperament and so easily saw both sides of
a question that he was never quite sure that he was on
the right side. Public affairs were not George Mason's
first interest. He lived on his plantation and knew
little of what went on at Philadelphia or New York.
He failed, therefore, just as Jefferson did, to realize the
dangers impending, and Madison's efforts to arouse
him to a sense of the approaching crisis in 1785 came to
naught. He was not a man whom others could in
fluence. He lived in a little world of which he was the
head and he was accustomed to have his own way. He
did not have it at Philadelphia, and he determined to
try to have it in Virginia. When he first returned he
was reported to have said of the Constitution that he
was willing to take it all rather than lose it all, but
criticisms of his course in refusing to sign it reached his
* Dept. of State MSS.

142 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ears and embittered him. Some of his admirers, too,
encouraged him to believe that he could frame a Con
stitution himself, that he had influence enough to have
it approved by Virginia, and that Virginia was powerful
enough to compel its acceptance by the other States.*
His protest against the Constitution printed in Octo
ber, 1787, in a folio broadside, was the briefest and most
cogent of the papers of the kind emanating from the
anti-federalists.! The absence of a bill of rights, in
sufficient representation in the House, the overwhelm
ing power of the Senate, the absence of a Council of State
as a check upon the President, the too great power of
the President and Congress, the permission of the slave-
trade — these were the chief grounds of his objection.
The measure would, he said, result in a monarchy, or
a conupt and oppressive aristocracy.
There was another man in opposition who wielded a
greater power than Mason. Patrick Henry was selected
as one of the Virginia delegates to the Federal Conven
tion, but declined to go, "being too distressed in his
circumstances. " This was the reason he gave the
Governor, but it was generally suspected that he wished
to be free to oppose or approve the result of the Con
vention's labours, as he saw flt. Up to this time he
was supposed to be of the Federahst party, but he had
never given any real assistance to the efforts made to
strengthen the General Government. He was now
classed by the more ardent Federalists as a disimionist.
Henry Lee wrote in December, 1787, "Henry is the
leader of this band." George Nicholas wrote April 5,
1788, that Henry had become almost avowedly the
enemy of the Union and would oppose any plan to
strengthen it, and that those who then followed him
would leave him if his real designs were known to them.
Rev. John Blair Smith, a Presbyterian minister, presi
dent of Hampden-Sidney College, wrote June 12 that
* George Nicholas to Madison, April j, 1788, Dept. of State MSS.
f Ford's "Essays On the Constitution. "

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 143
Henry had resorted to lower means to poison the minds
of the people against the Constitution than he had ever
exerted before. He had written to Kentucky that
ratification would mean the closing of the Mississippi,
and was busy persuading the people that it would cany
with it church establishment.* Archibald Stewart, a
member of the Assembly, wrote December 21, 1787,
that on every available occasion Henry gave the Con
stitution a side blow.! Edward Carrington, a member of
Congress, reported February 10, 1788, that he had been
travelling in the track of Henry and the people were
disposed to follow him blindly, that he specified no
amendments that he wanted, and it was believed aimed
at dismemberment of the Union. There was danger,
Carrington said, that weak men, no matter what their
views might be before, would be led away by his elo
quence when the Convention to consider ratification
should meet.!
Henry was making the fight of his life. When the ques
tion of providing for the ratification Convention came be
fore the General Assembly, the majority was not hostile to
the Constitution. Henry moved (October 25), that
the Convention should be vested with power to propose
amendments to the Constitution, this being intended as
a quasi-instruction to make amendments the condition
of ratification, but John Marshall offered a substitute
providing "for full and free investigation and discussion"
and this was passed. In a month Henry turned the ma
jority to himself, and November 30 introduced a bill to pay
the expenses of delegates to another constitutional conven
tion if one should be determined upon, and for a delegation
to visit the other States and consult on amendments. To
the tenor of the Federalists this effort to prejudice the
action of the coming Convention was carried by a major
ity of fifteen votes. ^
* Dept. of State MSS.
t To Madison, October 21, 1787, Dept. of State MSS.
X Dept. of State MSS. 1[ Rives, II, 532, et seq.

144 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Richard Henry Lee was also in the opposition. He
was willing to do no more than extend the powers of
Congress under the existing system, and wrote to the
Virginia delegates in this sense when the Philadelphia
Convention met. After it adjourned he planned, as we
shall presently see, to alter it in the Continental Con
gress of which he was a member. A proud, passionate
man, who lived like a petty prince, he received his
tone from no one, as Washington said. Nevertheless,
he loved popularity and courted applause, and it was
hinted that this fact influenced his action.* Fortunately
he decided not to enter the Virginia Convention, being
in bad health, but before it met (October, 1787), he
wrote a series of letters over the signature "The Federal
Farmer," and they had great popularity among the
anti-federalists. William Grayson, also a member of the Continental
Congress, was at flrst barely neutral and then actively
hostile. James Monroe, whose star was slowly rising.
General Nelson, lately Governor, whose star was sinking
in old age, but who still had weight with the people
because of his eminent services in the past, and Benjamin
Hanison, also an ex-Governor, a tough veteran of rugged
power, were among the opponents of the Constitution.
From over the water there came not a word of assistance
to the friends of the measure from the great leader who
had written the Declaration of Independence. On the
contrary he damned it with faint praise and criticism
and desired its ratiflcation without Virginia's assist
ance, having an ill-defined notion that if this were ac
complished the State could subsequently force amend
ments as the price of her ultimate accession to the Union.
Dr. William McClurg, one of the Virginia delegates at
* Benjamin Hawkins, a friend of Madison's, Warrenton, February 14,
17R8, reported the following questions from an ilUterate wheelwright
who had been reading the Constitution and Lee's criticism of it: "Is
Mr. Lee thought to be a great man ? Is he not a proud, passionate
man? Was he one of the Convention ? * * * Is he fond of .popu
larity ? Is he an enemy to General Washington and Doer. Frankhn ?
Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 145
Philadelphia, where he made but two speeches and
always voted with Madison, returned to Richmond in
October and canvassed the state of public opinion with
reference to the Constitution.* When it first reached
the people, he said, nearly everybody liked it ; then they
began to examine it closely and, of course, found flaws
in it. Their chief objections were to the combined
powers of appointment lodged in Senate and President,
the extraordinarv power the latter might exercise over
the House of Representatives, and the power of Congress
over the time and manner of choosing representatives.
To these George Lee Turberville, a member of the As
sembly and a warm Federalist, added as prevailing ob
jections : The absence of a bill of rights, the absence of
a Council of State, the power given the judiciary which
would eventually destroy the State courts, the inhibi
tion of any State from raising revenue by taxing ex
ports, the permission to import slaves for twenty-one
years, and that treaties could be ratified without the
consent of the House of Representatives.! Even the
advocates of the Constitution came to the conclusion
that its ratification would not be possible without a
concession to the widespread desire for amendments.
These, they insisted, however, should be recommended
for adoption in the way prescribed by the Constitution
itself. Shortly after the Federal Convention adjourned
Madison received a letter from Carrington f in Con
gress earnestly requesting him to come to New York
at once, as the Virginia delegation was hopelessly split
and Richard Henry Lee unopposed by Grayson was
concerting measures against the new Constitution.
Carrington for himself confessed that he did not like
every part of it, but said he saw not how he could ever
combine his strength and interests with others without
?McClurg to Madison, Richmond, October 31, 1787. Dept. of
State MSS.
fTo Madison, December 11, 1787. N. Y. Public Library (Lenox)
MSS. $ Dated September 23, 1787. Dept. of State MSS.

146 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
sacrificing some of his personal opinions. Responding
to this appeal Madison hastened to New York and he
and his party succeeded in suppressing the hostility
to the Constitution in Congress and having it referred
for consideration to conventions of the States as the
Federal Convention planned.
His first idea was that it would be more becoming if
those who had framed the Constitution should not attend
the conventions called to ratify or reject it, but he heard
that Mason intended to stand for election in Virginia
and he yielded to the importunate entreaties of his
friends and determined to seek an election himself.
Andrew Shepherd, one of his influential neighbours,
wrote December 22, 1787,* to say there would be no
difficulty in securing the election in Orange county,
but Henry Lee seemed to doubt this, and suggested
that there were several counties in Kentucky which
would be glad to choose him if Orange county did not.!
Archibald Stewart, who had seen Henry change a favour
able to an unfavourable majority in the Assembly,
wrote "for God's sake do not disappoint the anxious
expectations of y'' friends & let me add y"" country!"!
Two delegates were allowed for each county and in
Orange county, beside Madison, Gordon, Parker and
Thonias Barbour were candidates, the two latter being
avowed anti-federalists, who made such an industrious
contest that Madison's friends and his father were
alarmed for the resialt, and wrote to him that the voters
were wavering and his presence was necessary. The
Baptists especially, of whom there were many in the
county, had been influenced by Henry's arguments.!
Madison returned the day before the election and made
but one speech, but he won a number of necessary votes
by good luck. While riding about fifteen miles north
of Montpelier, he stopped to refresh himself and his horse
? N. Y. Pubhc Library (Lenox) MSS.
t December, 1787. Dept. of State MSS.
t Richmond, Nov. 2, 1787. Dept. of State MSS.
Tf Madison to Madison, Orange, January 20, 1788. Dept. of State
MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 147
at a place called Gum Spring, and accidentally fell in with
Rev. Mr. Leland, one of the chief Baptist clergymen of
that section of the State. The conversation immediately
turned upon the new Constitution and Madison and the
parson argued it point by point for some hours, the
final outcome being the parson's conversion and a change
of heart on the part of the Baptist voters. Madison
was elected the next day by a reasonable majority, his
colleague being James Gordon, also a federalist. The
general result of the elections was supposed to be favour
able to the ratification, but definite predictions could
not be made, for the delegates were not pledged and
many had not made up their minds.
General Washington, thinking he could be of more
service to the cause outside, decided not to enter the
Convention. Chancellor Wythe, one of the delegates
at Philadelphia, from which city he had been called
away soon after the Convention met by the illness of
his wife, also lent his influence on the side of the Con
stitution. So did John Blair, a silent delegate at Phila
delphia, but a man of importance in the State, and Dr.
McClurg. So did Edmund Pendleton, now old and
crippled by a fall from his horse, but still among the
most respected of the Virginians, and George Nicholas,
Edward Carrington, Henry Lee and Francis Corbin. Ed
mund Randolph, when he returned from Philadelphia,
was coldly received by his Federalist friends.* As
Governor he laid the Constitution before the General
Assembly and accompanied it with a letter explaining
and excusing his refusal to sign it. Carrington de
clared the letter helped the Federalists, but it was not
until the eve of the Convention that Randolph distinctly
arrayed himself with that party. Mason and his friends
considered him an apostate, and after the ratiflcation
was canied Mason wrote of him (December 18, 1788,) as
the "young A  Id" (Amold).!
?Archibald Stewart to Madison, Richmond, November 2, 1787.
Dept. of State MSS.
t Rowland's "Mason," II, 308.

CHAPTER XVI
MADISON'S TRIUMPH
When the Virginia Convention met the Constitution
had been ratifled by eight States, — Delaware, Pennsyl
vania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachu
setts, (by a bare majority,) Maryland and South Caro
lina. In the New Hampshire Convention there was a
hostile majority, but the Federalists succeeded in ob
taining an adjournment, and there was a meeting in
June for the second time. In New York, also, the
majority was hostile, and Hamilton declared the Con
stitution could not be ratifled unless Virginia took
favourable action. The adoption thus really depended
on Virginia. New Hampshire, it is true, took favour
able action before Virginia did, thus completing the
nine States necessary under the Constitution to put it
into effect, but if Virginia had acted unfavourably,
New York would also have done so, and with North
Carolina's help measures could have been concerted
to cause a reconsideration by some of the States, which
had ratified in the belief that all the other States would
do the same.
The Virginia Convention was called to order the first
Monday in June, 1788, in the State House at Richmond;
but the hall being inadequate to hold comfortably the
170 members and numerous spectators an adjournment
was taken to the "New Academy on Shockoe HiU,"
a building erected by the Chevaher Quesnay for a
French-American University. It stood on the north
side of Broad Street between Twelfth and Thirteenth,
in the square where the monumental church now is.
There was some dispute over the elections from Accomack,
148

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 149
FrankUn, Cumberland and Westmoreland counties, but
it occupied little attention, and on June 4, two days
after the first meeting, the Convention resolved itself
into committee of the whole and proceeded to its main
business.* A week later Henry, in writing to General
John Lamb in New York, said that the parties in the
Convention were almost evenly divided, but that four-
fifths of the people of the State were opposed to the
Constitution.! The latter statement he repeated in de
bate, and it was an exaggeration ; but it is, nevertheless,
true that a direct vote of the people on the Constitution
would probably have been unfavourable to it. The
plan of the opposition in the Convention was to break
dovsm the Constitution by showing its weak spots and
loading it with amendments. The Federalists wished
to debate it article by article, when it could be success
fully defended, and then to agree to recommend amend
ments for the first Congress to take up in the manner
provided by the Constitution itself.
Pendleton was chosen president and Wythe chairman
of the committee of the whole, but this was merely a
recognition of their ability as presiding officers and
meant no preference for their views. J
The leaders of the Federalist forces were Madison,
Pendleton, George Nicholas, John Marshall, Innes,
Henry Lee and Francis Corbin. Their chief opponents
were Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe,
WilUam Grayson, Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler.
It was a battle of the giants, the like of which was never
seen before, but the strongest man among the giants
was the delegate from Orange county, and this because
no other man was so completely armed and so familiar
? "Journal of the Convention of Virginia," Virginia State Library
MSS. t Henry's "Henry," II, 335, et seq.
X "The Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Vir
ginia "(Robertson) Petersburg, 1788, is reproduced in "Elliott's
Debates," Vol. III. Grigsby's "Virginia Convention of 1788," Vir
ginia Historical Collections IX, is an interesting and valuable narrative
account of the proceedings of the Convention and its leading characters.

I50 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
v/ith the methods of attack and defence as he. He
had spent his life preparing for the Philadelphia Con
vention, he had done more than any other member to
frame the plan it submitted, he had aheady spoken
often on every phase of the plan, he had heard every
conceivable argument that could be brought against it
and all the answers, he had defended it point by point
with pen and speech. Mason, who was his chief op
ponent in logical argument, had not given a tenth part
as much attention to the subject as Madison had. More
over, Mason was now opposing some provisions in favour
of which he had argued at Philadelphia, and he lost his
temper, which was a serious handicap. Next to Madi
son, Edmund Randolph and George Nicholas made the
most effective speeches, but Randolph was an object of
easy attack because of his previous vacillation.
In the beginning the debate was allowed to roam at
will over the whole field, and being a contest of decla
mation the chances were favourable to Henry's party;
but after ten days spent in this way the Convention
began on June 14 to consider the Constitution article
by article, and the tide turned. On this day Madison
spoke thirteen times and in the three succeeding days
twenty-two times. The arguments used in this great
debate are now mere cttriosities. Time has shown that
the fears of Mason and Henry were absolutely unfounded.
Mason's arguments were generally such as he had out
lined in his broadside six months before ; but the country
has suffered nothing from the omissions in the Con
stitution which caused him so much concern, the
representation in the House of Representatives has
been found to be adequate and increases sufficiently,
the Senate has developed no tyrannical power, the
Supreme Court acts automaticaUy to keep the necessary
balance of powers, the President created an advisory
councU for himself at the very beginning.
Henry's arguments were general, their chief corner
stone being that the new Government would eventuate

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 151
in consolidation, the obliteration of State lines and loss
of liberty. He would have had the Constitution begin
" We, the States, " etc., instead of " We, the people, " etc.
Ten years later he was telhng the people with perfect
satisfaction that Virginia was to the Union what Carohne
County was to Virginia !
Madison's first great speech was made June 16, 1787,
immediately after a long and elaborate argument by
Randolph. He was in striking contrast to his colleague,
for Randolph was a large man of great personal beauty,
with a full musical voice, a ready flow of richly orna
mented language, and an easy graceful gesticulation.
During the whole time the Convention sat Madison
was ill and feeble, and for two days he was absent from
his seat. When he rose to speak he usually carried his
hat in his hand, as though he had not intended to make a
set speech. His thin voice was hardly audible when
he began and often sank so that it failed to reach the
reporter's desk. He gesticulated but little, and as he
warmed with his argument his body swayed to and fro
with a see-saw motion. So small was he beside the
other delegates who were nearly all large men, that
when he rose to speak he could with difficulty be seen
from all parts of the hall. He usually carried notes of
his speech, written upon slips of paper in a microscopic
hand, and they were a complete skeleton of his argu
ment. He used simple and direct language without any
ornamentation, and he indulged in no verbal flights.
He spoke only for the purpose of explaining, defending
and convincing, and seemed to be indifferent to ap
plause. John Marshall was listening to him and in
after years said, " If convincing is eloquence he was the
most eloquent man I ever heard." An outline of his
first speech will serve as an indication of the others he
made. To quiet the fears that tyranny would follow because
of the powers given government by the Constitution
he declared an examination of history would show that

152 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
abuse of power by the majority trampling on the rights
of the minority had produced turbulence, factions and
consequent despotism more than anything else. He
ridiculed Henry's statement that the country needed no
change, being then in repose, and asked how if this were
so, it happened that deputies from all the States but one
had been sent to the Philadelphia Convention ? Henry's
fear of the provision concerning the militia was un
founded as the new plan only allowed the General Gov
ernment to control it for the specific purposes of executing
the laws, suppressing insunections and repelling inva
sions. As for the dreaded power of raising armies he
wished it were not necessary, but must not the General
Government have power to defend the United States,
if a foreign country should make war against it ? Would
not the knowledge that no such power existed stimulate
foreign countries to fall upon us ? Henry had instanced
Switzerland as a confederacy of independent States
which were happy, but, Madison suggested, if he had
looked a little further he would have found in several
of the cantons the vilest aristocracy that ever existed.
As for amendments, if one State proposed them others
would do so, and they would be hopelessly diverse in
character. He then explained the Constitution. It stood by it
self. In some respects it was Federal ; in others it was
of a consolidated nature; yet it was neither completely.
The parties to it were the people, that is, the people
as composing thirteen sovereignties. If it were com
pletely consolidated a majority of all the people could
ratify it, but a majority had already pronounced for it.
As a matter of fact, however, no State was bound by it
without its own consent. It was intended to be a Gov
ernment estabhshed by the thirteen States, acting by
their people — not by their legislatures. It was in this
regard totally different from the existing Govern
ment, which was derived from the dependent au
thority of the Legislatures of the States. Then, the

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 153
House was elected by the people at large in proportion
to population, but the Senate by the States in their
equal and political capacity. It was thus a complicated
scheme of government, which he hoped would avoid
the evils of consolidation and of confederation as well.
Henry had satirized the powers proposed to be given the
General Government, but he submitted that power to
collect taxes was an absolute necessity, especially in
time of war. That the General Government would
swallow up the State governments seemed an absurdity,
when it was remembered that the representatives must
depend upon the people of the States for their election
and the Senators upon the State Legislatures.
It was during the last week of the Convention that
Henry attempted a trick of great adroitness which
came near being successful. We have seen how before
the meeting he had sedulously spread the report in
Kentucky that the Constitution, if adopted, would
result in the closing of the navigation of the Mississippi.
If the fourteen Kentucky delegates voted against ratifi
cation Henry would cany the day, and they would be
certain to vote against it, if they could be brought to
believe it would result in closing the river. Henry,
therefore, without premonition of his intention made
this argument: "There is no danger of a dismember
ment of our country, unless a Constitution be adopted
which will enable the Government to plant enemies on
our backs. By the confederation, the rights of territory
are secured. No treaty can be made without the con
sent of nine States. While the consent of nine States
is necessary to the cession of territory, you are safe. If
it be put in the power of a less number, you will most
infallibly lose the Mississippi. As long as we can pre
serve our unalienable rights, we are in safety. "This
new Constitution will involve in its operation the loss of
the navigation of that valuable river.
"The honourable gentlemen cannot be ignorant of
the Spanish transactions. A treaty had been nearly

154 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
entered into with Spain to relinquish that navigation.
That relinquishment would inevitably have taken place,
had the consent of seven "States been sufficient. "
He repeated the statement the next day and chal
lenged Madison to say whether or not it was true.. Sev
eral days afterwards (June 12), Madison replied, and
his words had weight, for no one had done so much as
he to keep the navigation of the river free. He showed
how the State had itself once been willing to abandon it
and had been opposed by Northem and Eastem States.
Since the peace matters were somewhat reversed, and
there were some members of Congress from Northem
States who were willing to surrender the right of naviga
tion for a time in return for certain commercial advan
tages. He did not favour this, and he insisted that the
adoption of the Constitution would be favourable to
preserving the right of navigation. Emigration to the
Western country would increase; it would be from the
North as well as from the South and the advocates of
free navigation would be more numerous.
When Henry returned to the charge Madison said
our weakness precluded any treaty, and that he honestly
believed there would be better chances under the new than
the old system. He then made the important disclosure
of the actual state of affairs in Congress. Seven States
were not now disposed to sunender the river. New
Jersey had instructed her delegates not to sunender it,
and Pennsylvania had the same sentiments. A few
days later he brought the matter to a close. "Were I
at liberty, " he said, " I would develop some circumstances
which would convince this house that this project will
never be revived in Congress, and that, therefore, no
danger is to be apprehended. "
Henry denied that he was "scuffling for Kentucky
votes," but his purpose was too apparent, and only
failed because of Madison's bold statement, which led
most of the Kentucky delegates to vote for ratification.
It was carried June 25 by a vote of 89 to 79, the Con-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON iSS
vention having been in session twenty-three days. The
greatest orator of his time, the master who could sway
Virginia audiences as no other man could, who had
become habituated to success with them and had on
this occasion exerted his marvellous powers as he had
never exerted them before, had suffered defeat from a
thin-voiced, feeble scholar who never aroused the enthu
siasm of an audience in his life. Henry neither forgot
it nor forgave it, and we shall presently see how
deeply he resented it.

CHAPTER XVII
NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA
Before the Virginia Convention met, Cyrus Griffin, one
of Madison's correspondents in New York where he was
representing Virginia in Congress, summed up the chances
of adoption of the Constitution, as they appeared to him
(March 14, 1788):
"The adjournment of New Hampshire, the smaU
majority of Massachusetts, a certainty of rejection in
Rhode Island, the formidable opposition in the State of
New York, the convulsions and committee meetings in
Pennsylvania, and above all the antipathy of Virginia to
the system, operating together, I am apprehensive will
prevent the noble fabric from being erected. "*
The friends of ratification in New York hung expect
antly upon the proceedings in Virginia. May 19, 1788,
Hamilton reported to Madison that Clinton was in abso
lute control and "inflexibly obstinate," but his followers
might be shaken if nine States ratifled before New York
acted. Hamilton declared he had positive information
that Clinton had, on several occasions, expressed an
opinion of the "inutility of the union. " It was a matter
of vast importance that Virginia and New York should
keep up "an exact communication," and the instant
Virginia should take decisive action he wished Madison
to send him the news by express, at all possible speed,
changing horses. He would pay all expenses liberally.!
The New York Convention to consider the question of
ratiflcation of the Constitution met at Poughkeepsie,
June 17, 1788. According to Hamilton the Anti-Federal-
? Dept. of State MSS.
tId.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 15 7
ists had a majority of two-thirds in the Convention and
four-sevenths in the State. The leaders were, he believed,
Disunionists, but were afraid to reject the Constitution
at once, as they were not prepared for the crisis. They,
therefore, proposed a long adjournment, till the following
spring or summer, which would give the State a chance
to see how the new government worked. If all went
smoothly New York would come into it; otherwise it
would be easy to finally reject it, as the augmentation
of taxes would be a fatal argument against it.* William
Duer wrote, June 23, 1788: "If you adjourn without
doing anything we will do the same."! The next day
an express arrived at Poughkeepsie conveying inteUigence
of New Hampshire's ratification, and this lent some
encouragement to the Federalists, but Hamilton said
it was " a gleam of hope" only if similar news came from
Virginia. This arrived a few days later, and the pros
pects of the Federalists brightened. The opposition
was unable to agree upon a programme, some being
for amendments as a condition of ratification, and others
for amendments as a condition of staying in the union.
Hamilton asked Madison whether he thought a con
ditional ratification would be acceptable, and Madison
replied that it would not.! A compromise was effected
and ratification was finally forced through with a
clause expressing "full confidence" that certain amend
ments would be accepted and proposing a second con
vention to formulate them. A circular by "unanimous
order" was adopted to be sent to the other States,
inviting their co-operation. North Carolina co-operated
and remained out of the union for more than a year.
Rhode Island also demanded the second convention,
to revise a system which she had never deigned to con
sider. The concurrent efforts of the Federahsts in Vir
ginia and New York saved New York from rejecting the
? Dept. of State MSS.
tId.
Jld.

158 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
constitution, but the efforts of the Anti-Federalists of
the two States, in the opposite direction, nanowly
missed causing unfavourable action in Virginia.
When the New York delegates to the Philadelphia
Convention, Lansing and Yates, returned to their State
in July they formed, with a number of other Anti-Fed
eralists, the Association of Federal Republicans, with
General John Lamb, formerly of the Revolutionary
Army, as chairman, the object being to open cones-
pondence with the leading Anti-Federalists throughout
the country, and concert measures to defeat the ratifi
cation of the Constitution; but although they began
operations before the Constitution had issued forth from
the Convention, a fatal procrastination or extraordi
nary coincidence of accidental delays characterized their
subsequent movements and defeated their purpose.
By the time they began correspondence several States
had ratified the Constitution, and they concentrated
their efforts upon New Hampshire, North Carohna,
and Virginia, their chief strength lying, of course, in New
York, the headquarters.
Their correspondents in Virginia were Henry, Richard
Henry Le,e and Grayson, but letters to them did not
arrive until the convention of ratification had been in
session a week, and it was then too late to send and
receive letters from New York before an adjournment
would take place.*
It will be recalled that before the Convention met
Henry carried a motion in the Assembly to pay the
expenses of a delegation, if one should be deemed ad
visable, to consult with the other States on the subject
of amendments to be proposed to the Constitution. A
copy of this resolution Edmund Randolph, as Governor,
transmitted to Governor Clinton in a letter dated De
cember 27, 1787, but strange to say it did not reach
Chnton tiU March 7, 1788. The Legislature was then
about to adjourn and consequently took no action, and
* See Leake's " Life of General John Lamb, " 305, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON iS9
Clinton replied to Randolph explaining this fact, but
added that the State Convention called for June 17
would be glad to hold communication with Virginia
as to the subject of the letter. If Clinton's letter was
unofficial, then Randolph, who was a supporter of rati
fication when he received it, was not bound to use it.
If it was official his duty was to present it to the Leg
islature by which it could be sent to the Convention. He
took the advice of his council which decided that it was
official. The General Assembly of the State obtained
a quorum June 24, and the letter was laid before it, but
it was unnoticed tiU the following day, after the final
vote in favour of ratification had been taken in the Con
vention. Had it been in Henry's hands before that time
it would have been a powerful, though not necessarily
a successful argument, at any rate for delay. How
Randolph's letter of December 27 was so long in reaching
New York is only explicable on the supposition that it was
the victim of the uncertain mails of the time, not having
been sent by express or private conveyance, the usual
means employed in commtmications of importance.
The Constitution having been adopted by the Con
vention June 26, Henry did not abandon his fight against
it. Soon after the adjournment Madison was re-elected
a member of the Continental Congress by the General
Assembly and departed for New York. Why was this
honour conferred without Henry's opposition by a body
over which he held all-powerful sway ? Perhaps he was
indifferent, perhaps he did not venture to oppose himself
to the strong sentiment in Madison's favour, but rumour
had it that he was actuated by less worthy motives.
"I do verily believe," wrote Turberville to Madison,
November 13, 1788, — "I do verily beheve that Mr.
Henry voted for you to Congress this time with no other
view but to keep you from (your) country until some
more favour'd man, some minion of his or of his party
shaU have had an opportunity to supplant y'' interest." *
* N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS.

i6o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
It is not necessary to believe this, but it was, undoubt
edly, a great convenience to Henry to have Madison out
of the way while he played his game. The opening for
the first move was afforded by the New York circular
inviting co-operation for a second Federal Convention
to propose amendments to the Constitution. George
Nicholas and Marshall were busy practising their pro
fession, Pendleton and Wythe had returned to their
duties on the bench, Henry Lee was wdth Madison in
New York, and Randolph was not regarded with much
fear by the Anti-Federalists or with much confidence by
the Federalists. Corbin alone of the leading Federal
ists in the Convention was in the Legislature, and Henry
had on his side Grayson, Monroe and Harrison. "I am
under painful apprehension," wrote Washington to
Madison, September 21, 1788, "from the single circum
stance of Mr. Henry having the whole game to play
in the Assembly of this State. " It was believed that, as
Randolph had originally favoured a second Convention,
he would be selected to now bring the proposition for
ward. Francis Corbin wrote to Madison, October 21,
1788: "He will injure his political Reputation by his doub
lings and turnings. He is too Machiavellian and not
Machiavellian Enough — I wish, I sincerely wish, he would
be advised and would take advice — ^but this, I fear, is out
of the question. We Virginians are too much accustomed
to solitude and slavery — too much puff'd up with our own
foolish pride and vanity ever to entertain any other idea
than that we alone are wise and all the rest of the world
Fools."* Carrington, writing about the same time, said the
Governor was in favour of the second Convention,
and would come into the Assembly; but he was
mistaken, for Randolph did not come into the
Assembly and under no circumstances would he have
introduced such insidious resolutions as Henry drew up.
? Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i6i
Henry brought thehi in himself on Octobef 27. They
set forth that " Many of the great, essential, and unalien
able rights of freemen, if not cancelled, were rendered
insecure tinder the Constitution," and in order to
quiet the people and prevent "those disorders which must
arise under a government not founded in the confidence of
the people," application should be made to the new
Congress, aS soon as it should assemble, "to call a second
cohVentiort for proposing amendments to it." A sub
stitute providing that Congress should itself be asked to
ptopose the amendments in the regular course was voted
down by 8 5 to 3 9 — more than two to one. Henry, as chair^
man of the committee appointed for the purpose, drew Up
the address to the other States transmitting the resolu
tion and it was adopted by a vote of 72 to 50. Cofbin,
Richard Bland Lee, afterwards a Member of Congress
of some prominence, Zachariah Johnson and Turber
ville led a hopeless minority and realized that they were
overmatched. "Would to Heaven you were here,"
wrote Turberville to Madison the day the resolutions
were introduced ; and later (November 10) he wrote : "It
would glad my very soul to see you in this city before the
session rises — your very presence Would Sink into
nonentity almost — those aspiring assassins who now
triumphing in their calumnies of absent characters, have
belittled themselves even in the estimatiotl of their
adherents."* In the hands of ah Anti-Federalist representation in
the first congress Henry's resolutions could catise the new
Constitution to commit stticide at the Outset, Madison
said. Henry's next move was to endeavour to secure
such a representation.
Edward Carrington paid a visit to Washington in the
autumn of 1788, and reported to Madison (October 19)
that he found the General much alarmed over the prob
ability that Anti-Federahsts would represent the State
in the first Senate. Henry and Richard Henry Lee would
? N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS.

i62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
stand for election, he presumed, and as it would be im
possible to exclude the former, Lee would be carried
through by his influence, "Unless a Federalist very weU
established in the confldence of the people can be opposed.
He is decided in his wishes that you may be brought
forward on this occasion."* Madison's own preference
was for an election to the House, but when Carrington
mentioned this Washington expressed the opinion that
Madison could be more useful in the Senate, as there
would be much depending on that branch unconnected
with the other. Canington himself said (October 22),
that it would be idle to bring forward any other Federal
ist than Madison. The other candidates were Grayson
(in place of Henry who refused to serve) and Richard
Henry Lee, and they were elected by a few votes only,
many delegates who had voted with Henry voting now
for Madison. The vote stood 98 for Lee, 86 for Grayson
and 77 for Madison. Madison's friends declared that his
strength had grown up to the day of the balloting and that
if the election could have been postponed for a few days
longer he would have won.! His defeat was due to the
opposition of one man and that man held the Legislature
in the hollow of his hand. Henry Lee wrote (Alexandria,
November 19, 1788) : " Mr. Henry on the floor exclaimed
against your political character, and pronounced you
unworthy of the confldence of the people in the station of
Senator. That your election would terminate in produc
ing rivulets of blood throughout the land. "J A cruelly
false rumour spread that he advocated a surrender
of the Mississippi ; it originated in a remark of Grayson's
which was misinterpreted. Another false report was
that he was opposed to amendments to the Constitution
under any circumstances, and this was generally believed
because it originated with Henry, although Madison took
?Dept. of State MSS.
t Turberville to Madison, Nov. lo, 1788, N. Y. PubKc Library
(Lenox) MSS.
X Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 163
the trouble to write and contradict it. The day after
the election Theodorick Bland congratulated Lee on his
triumph over the " non-emendatorys. "* Madison's defeat
was taken much to heart by his friends. Henry Lee
wrote that his wife shared his mortification, and Rev.
James Madison said he felt it sensibly. Whatever dis
appointment Madison himself felt he did not disclose,
and it may be doubted whether he ever expected to
succeed, for he had in estimating political probabilities
a perfectly impartial temperament uninfluenced by his
personal desires. Even in the Virginia Convention,
when he was in the thickest of the flght, he was able to
go to his room and write letters to Washington estimating
the chances of ratiflcation as impersonally as if he had
been a mere looker on.
Having defeated him for the Senate, Henry tried to
prevent his election to the House. "The object," wrote
Turberville, November 13, "of the majority of to-day
has been to prevent y'' election in the House of Rep
resentatives as demonstrably as if they had affirmed it —
first, by forming a district (as they supposed) of counties
most tainted by Anti-Federalism in which Orange is
situated — & then by confining the choice of the people
to the residents in the particular districts — Mr. Henry
without argument — or answering a single reason urged
ag* it — launched into a field of Declamation — brought
all the imaginary horrors of the new government upon
us — & carried a decided and large majority with him —
how unfortunate is it for Virginia that you are not on the
floor with us."!
The district thus formed comprised seven counties
besides Orange and the delegates from five of these
had voted against ratification in the recent convention,
while the sixth had divided its vote. There would then,
apparently, be little probability of Madison's election
from his own district, whUe the law for the first time
?Bland to R. H. Lee, Nov. 9, 1788. Lee MSS., University of Va.
t N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS.

i64 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
forbade a candidate from seeking an election in any othet
district than that in which he hved. This was so radical
a departure from the established custom that its con
stitutionality was not believed in, and several other dis
tricts offered to place Madison in nomination. He de
cided, however, to Stand in his own county. James
Monroe was selected as bis opponent. "Let me apprize
you," wrote Carrington, November i8, 1788, "that ydu
are upon no occasion of a public nature to expect favours
from this gentleman."*
The contest was, howevef, a perfectly friendly one.
Madison first met Monroe at Richmond in 1782, and they
served in the Congress together. Until the question of
the adoption of the Constitution arose their political
views had harmonized, and their personal friendship had
become permanent. Monroe's Opposition to the Con
stitution had at first not been pronounced, but he waS
now distinctly of the Anti-Federal party.
That party, however, was not in the ascendancy
throughout the State. The Legislature was a body
to register Henry's will, but the voters were more inde
pendent. Although George Mason thought Monroe
would defeat Madison ^ others who made a closer study of
the situation said the district was probably Federal,
and that Madison could carry it if he conducted an
active campaign in person. Monroe wrote "hundreds of
letters," and Henry's statement that Madison had said
not a letter of the constitution could be altered was freely
repeated to Madison's detriment.! George Nicholas
advised him to issue a statement defining his position
on this subject, but he declined to do it. That he should
be elected was looked upon as all-important by his friends,
as the other States would take his defeat as an indica
tion of hostility to the Constitution on the part of Vif-
ginia. * Dept. of State MSS.
t Turberville to Madison, Dec. 14, 1788, N. V, Pubhc Library (Lehox)
MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 165
Madison reached Virginia in the dead of the winter,
the election being ordered for February 3, and made a
tour of his district addressing the people, he and Monroe
often engaging in joint debate, In his old age he de
scribed one of the meetings to bis friend N. P. Trist :
"We used to meet in days of considerable excitement
and address the people on our respective sides ; but there
never WQS an atotyi of ill-will between us. On one occa
sion we met at a church up here (pointing toward the
Northwest). There was a nest of Dutchmen in that
quarter, who generally went together, and whose vote might
very probably turn the scale. We met there at church,
Service was performed, and then they had music with
two fiddles. They are remarkably fond of music. When
it was all over we addressed these people, and kept
them standing in the snow listening to the discussion
of constitutional subjects. They stood it out very
patiently — seemed to consider it a sort of fight of which
they were required to be spectators. I then had to ride
in the night, twelve miles to quarters ; and got my nose
frost-bitten, of which I bear the mark now (touching
the end of his nose on the left side)."
This injury he used to point to humorously as the scar
of a wound received in battle for his country.
Henry's invention of districting a State for partisan
purposes has since been often imitated. It received the
name of Gerrymander in 1812, when Gilbert Stuart
drew his grotesque map of Massachusetts showing how
the districts were marked off when Elbridge Gerry was
Governor. It failed its inventor, however, miserably,
for Madison was elected over Monroe by a considerable
majority, and seven out of nine of his colleagues were
also Federalists. There was great joy among the friends
of the Constitution, for now it would start fair in the hands
of its friends. Rev. James Madison, in sending his
congratulations and sympathetic encouragement to his
kinsman and namesake, indulged himself in a forecast
of the coming grandeur of the country which had the

i66 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
inspiration of true prophecy. "If they [the laws to be
enacted] sh"^ fortunately, as I trust they will, have the
evident stamp of wisdom and of Justice, they may
gradually eradicate opposition, and then in its stead es
tablish in ye affections of the people, ye strongest attach
ment to ye General Gov*, and perhaps within ye Period
of one Century, ye World may see a Republic com
posed of at least sixty millions of free men — for such wiU
be the Population of America within that Time, pro
vided it continues nearly at ye rate it hath hitherto
observed — The only Chain by which such a multitude
will be bound together is that of wise and just Laws.
May your Beginning promise such a Blessing."
But in the midst of the triumphant tone sounded
by the letters of the Federalists were a number asking
Madison's influence with the new Government to procure
offices for the writers. In the Constitutional Convention
neither he nor any other member foresaw that the un
checked distribution of the lesser offices of Government
would prove a greater and more enduring evil than any
other that the Government under the Constitution
could be called upon to withstand.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LEADER OF THE HOUSE

All the time the Convention was sitting in Philadel
phia framing a new charter of government, the Congress
provided for under the old charter was in session in New
York. Many members were absent, being delegates to
both bodies, but routine business was transacted. The
attendance was so light that the Secretary was ordered
to write to the Governors of the States and ask them
to urge the representatives to attend, as important busi
ness was to be transacted. The report from Philadelphia
might arrive at any moment, but there were fewer mem
bers present every day. Sometimes there was a quorum ;
sometimes only six States were represented, sometimes
only five, sometimes only two.*
On September 28 the report from the Constitutional
Convention was read. It submitted the Constitution
of the United States and requested that it be sent to the
several State Executives to be by them submitted ' 'to a
convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the
people thereof, under the recommendation of its Legis
lature, for their assent and ratification ; and that each con
vention assenting to and ratifying the same, should give
notice thereof in Congress assembled."
If nine States ratified it. Congress was to name a day for
the inauguration of the new Government.
Richard Henry Lee, in the ardour of his opposition,
offered sundry amendments to the Constitution, hoping
that they would be considered by Congress, and those
that were agreed to submitted with the Constitution to the
? Journals of Congress (Ed., 1801) XII, 53, et seq.
167

i68 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
several States. This effort to prejudice and embanass
the verdict in the States was not unexpected, and was
met with so general an opposition that he abandoned it,
the amendments being neither considered nor entered
upon the journal. By a unanimous vote the course
recommended by the Convention was followed,* but
beyond this Congress would not go, and Lee was able
to boast that there was " a bare transmission of the Con
vention plan, without a syllable of approbation, or dis
approbation on the part of Congress."
On October 8 Madison returned from Philadelphia and
took his seat. He foimd the attendance so thin that
he doubted whether there ever would be a quorum again.
February 25 Alexander Hamilton joined him as a mem
ber for a brief period, and they were the only men of note
in the Congress. In the spring both left and Madison
went to Virginia to be present at the elections for the
first House of Representatives. In July he came back.
The congress languished during the summer and the light
of its life feebly flickered in the autumn. November 3
only two members attended. November 15 Cyrus
Griffin of Virginia was the only member present; from
then on a few members would have their names recorded
as present each day. On March 2 Philip Pell of New York
attended alone, and the Congress was dead. It never
adjourned, and had no formal dissolution. The faithful
Secretary, Charles Thomson, wrote the last entry in the
Journal, and he and the forgotten Mr. Pell were the sole
spectators of the end.! People had forgotten that the
Congress still lingered, for attention was concentrated
upon the new Congress called to meet March 4th.
To appreciate the importance of this, the first session
of the first Congress, it is only necessary to reflect upon
the force of precedence in the affairs of men and especially
in government affairs. How the new Government was
started would determine how it would be conducted for
?Journals of Congress (Ed., 1801) XII, no, et seq.
t Id., XIII, 193.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 169
years to come, and its duration would be influenced
by the trend it received in the beginning. Serious
blunders would be costly indeed, for they might cause the
experiment to end quickly or even violently.
The first communication received by the Senate from
the House of Representatives was delivered by Madison,
and stated that the House had agreed that the Senate
should notify the President and Vice-President of their
election. The day before, April 6, the arrival of Rich
ard Henry Lee, Madison's successful rival for Senatorial
honours, had made a quorum.* Yet in the next five years,
until 1794 when the Senate ceased to sit in secret session,
that august chamber was as silent as the grave, exerting
little influence upon the people, and those who served
in it were buried from public sight, while the public
interest was entirely in the House. In preventing Madi
son from being a Senator, Patrick Henry had unwittingly
placed the man whom he dreaded in a position of
real power.
The House had secured a quorum flve days before the
Senate and on April ? named its first committee, that
on rules, with Madison as a member. On April 8 the House
resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on the state
of the Union, and the first member to address the chair
was Madison. His programme for the work of the body
of which he was the undisputed leader included three
things of pressing necessity: to provide revenue with
which to run the Government, to create the necessary
executive machinery, and to submit amendments to the
Constitution which would unite the people in its support
by satisfying the most serious objections which had
been made to it.
The revenue biU which he introduced took as a system
ready at hand, which could be quickly passed, the old
impost measure of 1783, which had already been fully
discussed and generaUy acquiesced in.! It contemplated
* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., i8.
t Rives III, 193, et seq.

I70 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
specific duties on importations of liquors, molasses,
wines, tea, pepper, sugar, cocoa, and coffee, and ad
valorem duties on all other articles. He added to the
bill three paragraphs providing for discriminating ton
nage dues on shipping, — a low rate for ships built and
owned in the United States, a higher rate for ships be
longing to the subjects of Powers with which we had
treaties of commerce and a still higher rate for ships
belonging to the subjects of Powers with which we had
no treaties.
The day after he presented his bill, (April 9), Fitz
simmons of Pennsylvania moved to add a few man
ufactured articles for specific duties, and Hartley of the
same State in supporting his colleague said the object
was to encourage home manufactures, which had sprung
up since 1783 and were rapidly increasing.* To this
encouragement Madison did not object. In the Con
stitutional Convention, in discussing the question of
export duties, he said they might be necessary, "and
for the same purposes as the regulation of imports, viz:
for revenue, domestic manufactures, and providing equit
able regulations from other nations." He now stated
his position more fully on this subject and did not, in
fact, deviate from it afterwards. "I own myself the
friend," he declared, "to a very free system of com
merce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles
are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic ; it is also
a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their
own course, they will generally be directed to those
objects which are the most productive, and this in a
more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the
most enlightened Legislature could point out." There
could be no profit, he said, in a man furnishing himself
with everything he needed; he exchanged with other
men. In the same way town and country exchanged
their products to mutual advantage, and one part of a
country with another, and one nation with another,
? Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 105, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 171
Some manufactures would spring up naturally; there
were others already established with State assistance,
which ought not to be allowed to perish for want of a
continuance of protection under the new Government,
and he was willing to make them an exception to his
general rule. An embargo in time of war was another
exception which required no defence. The argument
that a country should produce everything it needed, so
as to be independent in time of war, was, he thought,
overdrawn. We were now a nation, and could obtain
supplies abroad when we needed them. But a discrim
inating tonnage tax was a different matter, because other
nations discriminated against us, and if we treated all
equally we were in effect discriminating against our own
ships. Incidentally, we should encourage means of
transportation, and enlarge our markets.*
Two days after this speech, April 11, Smith of Mary
land presented a petition from tradesmen, manufac
turers and others in Baltimore, reciting the prevailing
poverty, and praying that duties be laid on all foreign
articles that could be made in this country, so as to give
a preference to American labour.! Several other peti
tions of similar purport followed. Fisher Ames of
Massachusetts introduced into Madison's schedule wool
cards, because they were "manufactured to the eastward
as good and cheap as the imported ones. "J A few-
days later Clymer of Pennsylvania showed how a steel
fumace was in progress in Philadelphia, and with a
little aid from the Legislature had made three hundred
tons of steel in two years and now made two hundred
and thirty tons annuaUy; with further encouragement
it would supply the American market. "If Steel was then
put in the schedule without serious opposition. Theo
dorick Bland, an extreme Anti-Federahst, objected, be-
? Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 210, et seq.
t Id.. IIS,
X Id., 124.
1 Id., 148.

172 LIFE OP JAMES MADISON
cause "then certainly you lay a tax on the whole com
munity, in order to put the money in the pockets of a
few, whenever you burden the importation with a heavy
impost."* He did not raise the Constitutional argument against
protective duties, nor was it hep-rd at this session of Con
gress, although eight of the fifty-nine members had
served in the Constitutional Convention. The debate
finally centred about the items in the schedule laying
a duty on rum and molasses from which rum is made.
Madison desired to avoid an excise tax, which he knew
would be unpopular, and yet indirectly collect it by a
duty on molasses, and a higher duty on rum, of which
a great deal was imported from the West Indies, the
difference in duty being intended as a protection to the
American rum manufacturer.! Massachusetts in par
ticular, and New England generally, vigorously resisted
the proposition. Goodhue of Massachusetts said rum
was a necessity of life among the poorer classes. To
make it Massachusetts imported from 30,000 to 40,000
hogsheads of molasses annually. Ames said the tax
would be paid almost exclusively by Massachusetts.!
April 21 Madison's proposition for discriminating
tonnage dues came up, and he explained its provisions, f
The tax was intended for political purposes primarily ; it
was a revenue measure only incidentally. The com
merce between Great Britain and America was much
greater than that between America and all other coun^
tries. The actual figures as furnished by the Treasury
Department nine months later (December, 1790,) ||
showed that from 17S9 to October, 1790, about 766,000
tons of shipping paid tonnage dues, of which the United
States had, including vessels in the coastwise trade, flve
hundred and eight and eight-tenths thousand and Great
? Annals of Congress, ist Cong., i68.
t Id., 129.
tId., 138.
tId., 181.
II Dept. of State MSS.

htm OP JAMBS MADISON i73
Britain tWO hundred and fifty-five a,nd two-tenthS, the
other nations having an insignificant a,mount, France lead
ing with thirteen and four-tenths . The American tonnage
was thus nearly two-thirds of the whole, the British
nearly one-third, and the rest about one-twentieth.
This made the British six times as great as all
the rest of the foreign tonnage, yet Great Britain utterly
refused to negotiate a commercial treaty with us. An
advantage over Great Britain, Madison agreed, should
be given to those countries with which we had treaties,
notably France; Perhaps Great Britain would then
cOfne to terms. At any rate the deplorably one-sided
conditions in force should be stopped. American ships
were absolutely excluded from British West Indian
ports, and into other British ports they might enter
only if they carried nothing but American products, and
yet British ships entered our ports on an equality with
American ships and might carry the products of the
world. Madison declared he believed in freedom of
commerce, but when it had, by force of circumstances,
fallen into the hands of one country, artificial measures
were necessary to place it where it naturally belonged,
and he wished to see our shipping increase, furnishing
a nursery for seamen and a foundation for an American
navy. Discriminating duties, he declared, were a great
power, which ought to be invoked in the beginning. If
the experiment could be tried without injustice, he
would like to see the importation of West Indian runi
forbidden UntU We should be allowed to carry to the
West Indies, in our oWn vessels, the produce which
necessity obliged the WeSt Indies to take from uS: He
would have the GoV-ernment show the power and the
wiU to injure, and thereby compel foreign nations to
treat US With that respect which our former feebleness
had failed to command. He would tax btandy hghtly
because it came from France, with which nation we had
a treaty, and would prepare for a commercial war with
Great Britain. Otherwise she would shut us out com-

174 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
pletely from her ports and make us tributary to her.
"The produce of this country," he said, "is more neces
sary to the rest of the world than that of other countries
is to America. If we were disposed to hazard the exper
iment of interdicting the intercourse between us and
the Powers not in alliance, we should have overtures
of the most advantageous kind tendered by those na
tions. "*
His theory of government was thus made plain
enough. By a system of commercial retaliation and
reciprocity he would render the probability of war as
remote as possible. He did not succeed in his pro
gramme. The impost measure was passed and became
a law, but the Senate rejected the discriminating ton
nage dues, and the House was compelled to yield in
conference. The revenue bill being out of the way Madison intro
duced resolutions to establish three executive depart
ments of the Government, — Foreign Affairs, Treasury,
and War, — the Secretary of each to be removable by
the President.! The interest of the debate was on the
question of removability. There being no word of
guidance in the Constitution, four theories were ad
vanced: (i) that Congress had the power to confer
the right of removal upon the President, (2) that a re
moval could be accomplished only by impeachment pro
ceedings, (3) that the Senate must advise and consent
to a removal, as it was required to do to an appointment,
and (4) that the President already had the power of
removal. The convention that framed the Constitution
had never considered the question. The founders of
the Government believed that those who filled executive
offices would constitute a set of permanent officials, not
changmg as the President changed. Madison thought
the President should have the power and responsibility
of removals, and that the Senate should have as little
* Annals of Congress, rst Cong., 204, et seq.
t Id., 368, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i75
agency in executive matters as possible. The President
would, he said, be restrained from removing worthy
officials by fear of the public odium he would incur, by
the restriction on filling their places which the Senate
would exert, and by his own impeachability for mis
conduct. An unjust removal would constitute such
misconduct in Madison's opinion.* No one then foresaw
that under the third administration of the Government
the party to which Madison belonged would be clamouring
for the removal from office of those who belonged to the
opposite party, and that no serious obstacles would lie in
the way of the use of the public offices as spoils of party
warfare. Had the framers of the Constitution con
ceived such a condition of affairs to be possible they
would have devised measures to prevent it, and the
opponents of the adoption of the Constitution, if they
had foreseen it, would not have overlooked the omission
in their arguments against the Constitution. The
spoils system was an unthought of evil when Madison
introduced his strengthening amendments to the Con
stitution in the first Congress.
On May 4, Madison gave notice that he would soon
bring up the subject of these amendments,! but when
he introduced them on June 8 there was strong opposi
tion to considering them, until the Government should
be more thoroughly organized. He admitted the rea
sonableness of the objection, so far as it applied to tak
ing action on the amendments, but insisted upon the
importance of putting them before the House and the
people at once. He would have preferred their con
sideration as the first business of Congress, because then
its other measures would have been more generously
supported. He wished to make friends for the new
Govemment, disarm the opposition in North Carolina
* " The Department of State; its History and Functions" (1893)
44,etseq. Madison to Randolph, June 17, 1789, "Works" (Cong. Ed.)
1,476- t Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 247, et seq.

176 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
and Rhode Island, and bring thoBe States into the Union.
Only eleven States had ratified the Constitution, and
five of these — Massachusetts, South Carolma, New Hamp
shire, Virginia and New York — ^had expressed in their
acts of ratification a desire for amendments and a confi
dence that they would be made. North Carolina had
refused to ratify until the amendments were madei Not
only, therefore, was the Union incomplete, but in eVery
State which had ratified the Constitution there Was a
hostile minority and in some States its proportions were
considerable. He himself thought amendments providing
for greater security of rights could be engrafted upon
the Constitution without marring it. AboVe all things
it was necessary that it should have behind it a people
united in its support. Many people, he said, opposed
it because the President had no council, because the
Senate had judicial power in impeachment trials and
was in other respects so powerful, and because generally
the Federal Govemment had taken too much authority
from the States. These objections were ill-founded
and he would not yield to them. In meeting others
which appeared to him to rest upon a Valid foundation
he considered that he would fulfil a tacit promise made
to the ratifying conventions by the friends of the Con
stitution that amendments would be offered. He,
therefore, proposed nine, each one of which he said
was proper in itself, or because there was a wide popular
demand for it. These amendments included the less
radical propositions of the five ratifying States which
had demanded amendments. Two of them Were not
adopted by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States
— that requiring a greater representation in the HoUse,
and that forbidding an increase by any CongrCsS of its
own emoluments. His proposed amendment forbidding
an appeal to the Supreme Court in suits involving less
than a certain sum of money and requiring that a fact
triable by jury, according to common law, should not
be otherwise examined into. Was thrown out by the

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON i77
Senate. His other amendments, guaranteeing religious
freedom, freedom of the press, the right of bearing arms,
trial by jury, etc., freedom from imreasonable search,
from the quartering of troops in time of peace, from
excessive bail, and reserving to the States and the people
powers not granted by the Constitution, were agreed
to by Congress, submitted to the States, and incorpor
ated into the fundamental law.
During the debate on the amendments some members
privately discussed a project for repeahng the Constitu
tion and adopting an improved one, but there were only
a few opponents of the Constitution in Congress, the
real strength of the party lying within the States, where
they were hatching measures to destroy the new system
of govemment before it could well get into operation.
The Virginia Legislature at Patrick Henry's instance
caUed upon the other States to join in demanding a
second convention to consider amendments, and the
day after Madison's notice that he would introduce
amendments to Congress (May 5) Bland presented the
Virginia petition asking for the convention and moved
its reference to the Committee of the Whole. Boudinot
of New Jersey, supported by Madison, raised the point
that, as the Constitution provided that amendments
must originate in Congress or be requested by two-
thirds of the States, the House could not properly con
sider one petition. Bland was forced to acquiesce and
to content himself with simply having the petition en
tered upon the Journal.*
Madison's prompt action in favour of amendments
was received with great favour in Virginia where it re
duced opposition to the Constitution to a single point,
that of the power of laying direct taxes; and Henry Lee
warned Madison that it would not be safe to exercise
this power. Before the amendments were offered the
opposition had been so radical that there were murmur-
ings against Grayson, Bland and other Anti-Federahsts
* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 2515.

178 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
in Congress for permitting anything to be done in ad
vance of the desired amendments.* In North Carolina,
also, the effect was excellent, and gave the needed
strength to the Federalists in the new convention! called
for November, 1789, when the Constitution was ratified
and North Carolina joined the rest of the States, instead
of attracting some of them to leave the Union and join
her, which at one time seemed possible. The appear
ance of the amendments killed beyond hope of resuscita
tion the efforts to secure the second Constitutional Con
vention, ostensibly to improve the work of the first, but
in reality to undo it. Those who favoured it were Patrick
Henry, George Clinton and other opponents of the adop
tion of the Constitution, but New York alone responded
favourably to the Virginia invitation. The Virginia
Legislature of 1790 had as members Edmund Randolph,
Henry Lee and John Marshall, and was no longer a body
to register Patrick Henry's will.| He realized that
the Constitution which he had opposed so bitterly was
now too strongly intrenched to yield to attack. Accord
ingly he left the field to the victors and soon afterwards
changed his own position completely, becoming in the
closing years of his life as extreme a consolidationist as
he had in the trying period of the adoption of the Con
stitution been an advocate of State sovereignty.
? Dept. of State MSS.
t Id., W. R. Davie to Madison, June 10, 1789.
X See Henry's "Life of Patrick Henry."

CHAPTER XIX
"funding and assumption"
August 28, 1789, a memorial and petition from public
creditors in Pennsylvania praying that provision be
made for the public debt was presented to Congress and
refened to a committee of which Madison was chairman.
September 10, he reported that it highly concemed the
honour and integrity of the United States to make an
early provision in favour of the creditors of the Union,
and that the House ought to take the subject up early
at its next session. September 21, the Secretary of the
Treasury was requested to prepare a plan for supporting
the public credit. The next session began January 4,
and on January 14 Alexander Hamilton's great report
was received. It treated the subject exhaustively and
with consummate power. It recommended the funding
of the domestic debt and the acceptance of the certifi
cates of indebtedness issued by the old Govemment from
those who held them, without reference to any equitable
rights in their increased value by those to whom they
had originally been issued and who had parted with
them. The report provided for the assumption by the
Federal Government of the debts contracted by the
States during the Revolutionary War. A weU-funded
national debt was described as a desirable asset to gov
ernment, as it served most of the purposes of money
in exchanges and was an addition to the active capital
of the nation. It had in addition a pohtical virtue as
its tendency was "to cement more closely the Union
of the States."
The debt of the United States comprised the foreign
debt, which with interest amounted to nearly $12,000,-
179

i8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ooo; the liquidated domestic debt, being certificates of
indebtedness for services rendered, money loaned and
supplies furnished during the war, amounting to about
$40,000,000; and the unliquidated domestic debt made
up of Continental bills of credit, which at the rate of
exchange agreed upon by Congress (40 to i) amounted
to $2,000,000 more; the whole debt being about $54,000,-
000. The State debts to be assumed were estimated
at $25,000,000 principal and interest. On the subject
of the foreign debt there was no difference of opinion.
It should be paid according to agreement, and provision
for that purpose was in due season passed by a unani
mous vote. But the question of the domestic debt al
lowed for a wide difference of opinion. The disordered
condition of the national finances had offered a fine field
for speculation, and the certificates issued by the old
Congress had been bought and sold upon a speculative
basis. If Hamilton's plan was adopted these certificates
and the evidences of State indebtedness would be worth
more than they had ever been before, and there was
consequently a rush to buy them from those who, be
cause of their distance from New York, were ignorant
of the prospects of their enhanced value. When Ham
ilton's report came up for debate January 28, Jackson
of Georgia said:
" Since this report has been read in this House a spirit
of havoc, speculation and ruin has arisen, and been
cherished by people who had an access to the informa
tion [by living at the capital] the report contained that
would have made a Hastings blush to have been con
nected with, though long inured to preying on the vitals
of his fellowmen. Three vessels. Sir, have sailed within
a fortnight from this port, freighted for speculation;
they are intended to purchase up the State and other
securities in the hands of the uninformed though honest
citizens of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. "*
There was no denial of the charge. Boudinot ad-
? Annals of Congress, ist. Cong., 1223, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i8i
mitted that "speculation had risen to an alarming
height," and it was believed that some Members of Con
gress were themselves speculating in the probable rise
of the value of certificates. Madison himself, who was
slow to attribute corruption to others, beheved that
such was the case.
On February 1 1 he made a speech defining his position.
He said the domestic debt was a supreme obligation
upon the new Government which took upon itself the full
responsibility for all acts of the old Government. The
only question was to whom the payment was due. There
were the original creditors who had never alienated
their securities, the present holders of these securities,
and the intermediate holders through whose hands the
securities had passed. The last named he would not
consider, as it would be impossible to determine who
they were and how much they had lost; moreover, they
had acquired and parted with the securities on their
own responsibility and gained by the speculation. The
two classes of real concern were the original and the
present holders. The former had never been paid the
value of their service or of the property advanced by
them. The certificates were forced upon them, and
they were compelled to accept them without regard to
their depreciation. We must, however, admit the claims
of the holders of the certificates. But it would ob
viously be unfair to pay both the original and present
holders, so he would pay the present holders the highest
market price and the balance between this amount and
the face value of the certificates he would pay to the
original holders. This was a simple scheme. It would
only be necessary to know who the present holders of
the certificates were, and who were the original holders,
which the office documents would show.
In taking this ground he was compelled to defend
himself against the charge of inconsistency, for in 1783,
in the address to the States on the funding of the debt!
he had rejected any distinction between original and

i82 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
purchasing holders of public securities, but he insisted
that at that time the transfers had been confined to one
hmited class of certificates and that the original holders
had suffered little loss. It was a different proposition
when the transferred certificates were a large proportion
of the whole debt and the loss to the original holders
had been enormous.
Boudinot replied with a few facts which really de
molished Madison's argument. He said that when a
man parted with his certificate he put another
man in his shoes, and there was no reason why the Gov
emment should disown the act of the party himself.
Logically carried out, Madison's plan would compel the
Government to go back and compensate all who had
received Continental money and parted with it for less
than it was now worth. Moreover, the plan was im
possible of execution as the issuing office did not have
all the names of the persons for whom the certificates
were really issued. For convenience they had frequently
been made out in the names of people who got them for
others. Many of them were thus issued in the
names of the clerks in the loan office, and it often
happened that a man going to the loan office carried
money for his neighbours and had the certificates made
in his own name. Boudinot had himself once got $10,000
of certificates in this way for ten different people, and
it all stood in his name.
A few days later Sedgwick pointed out that if the
original holders of the certificates really had an equitable
right in their enhanced value they could sue and recover
in the courts. The reasoning was one-sided and against
Madison, and the funding plan as outlined by Hamilton
was agreed to by a safe majority.
That part of Hamilton's scheme which provided for
Federal assumption of State debts aroused a far deeper
and more acrimonious opposition. The argument in
favour of the measure was : the States had taken up arms
in a common cause in the Revolution and had been

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 183
bound to contribute to the best of their ability. Debts
contracted by an individual State were thus the same
as if contracted by aU. Those States which had been
exposed to the enemy's ravages had been forced to make
greater exertions than the others, and by equal taxation
aU should help to pay. As matters stood, the sources
of revenue of some States were much less than they had
been before the new Govemment was adopted. Mas
sachusetts and South Carolina, for instance, would find
it impossible to pay their debts now that they were
deprived of the right of levying import duties. Every
body admitted that the debts incurred by the States
must be paid, and it could be done more economically
by one government and one set of revenue officers than
by two sets.
The argument against the measure was: the debts
had been incurred by the States wholly upon their own
credit and no more than this stood behind the securities
when they were marketed. If it had been intended
that these separate debts should be assumed by the new
Govemment the Constitution would have so stated, as
it had been done with reference to Continental debts.
A general assumption would be unjust, because the
States which had made effective efforts to provide for
their debts would be obhged to shoulder the burdens
of other States which had made less efforts. An increase
of taxation would be inevitable. As the assumption
was not expected by the creditors it had not been gen
erally demanded. South Carolina being the only State
which had asked for it.* A hst of the debts to be as
sumed showed that half of the aggregate amount came
from Massachusetts, Connecticut and South Carolina.
_ The arguments for and against the assumption con
tinued to be repeated for weeks, and strongest among
the opponents was Madison, who declared his unqualffied
dissent to Hamilton's proposition that a public debt was
a benefit. He thought it was an evU to be got rid of as
soon as possible.
* See Tucker's "Life of Jefferson, " I, 319, et seq.

1 84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
March 1 2 the assumption proposition won in Committee
of the Whole by a majority of five votes only, and was re
ported favourably to the House ; but before the House took
it up on March 23, the new North Carolina members
arrived and were admitted. They voted against the
assumption, and a motion to recommit was carried by
a majority of two votes. The next day the assumption
party succeeded in having the fundmg provision also
recommitted, their object being to keep the two measures
together and help the unpopular assumption scheme by
the less unpopular funding scheme. April 1 2 the assump
tion was defeated by a vote of 21 to 29. Its friends
then resorted to dilatory tactics, and for a time pre
vented the House from going into committee. An
attempt of Roger Sherman to secure acceptance of a
modified form of assumption was defeated, and a biU
was ordered to be brought in providing for the foreign
and domestic debt without it. The new bill was reported
May 6, taken up in Committee of the Whole, May 19, and
after several days' debate Gerry moved as an amend
ment an assumption clause. The assumption had been
accepted once and defeated twice, and it was now thrown
out again, the bill being passed without it June 2. It
had, however, been offered in a separate form the day
before and laid on the table. Among those who were
opposed to the assumption were four members who
deserve to be noticed — Alexander White and Richard
Bland Lee from Virginia, and Daniel Carroll and George
Gale from Maryland. White was the most active of these
opponents and introduced a resolution calling upon the
Secretary of the Treasury to report to Congress the ways
and means by which he expected to provide for the
$25,000,000 of State debts he was so anxious to assume.*
The motion was intended to cause delay or embarrassment
to the assumption party. Madison supported it, but
it was defeated by a tie vote of 25 to 25. White came
from Rappahannock County, through which the Potomac
? Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 1404.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 185
River runs, and his coUeague Lee from Alexandria, the
chief port on the Potomac, while Daniel Carroll came
from the Maryland side of the same river.* Gale was
an obscure member who had apparently no personal inter
est in the river. On July 26, the question of the assump
tion was before the House agam, and Madison, of course,
voted agamst it, but when the vote was announced, it
appeared that White, Lee, CanoU and Gale had voted
with the assumption party, and the measure was carried
by 34 votes to 28. It was by no new argument that
this result had been brought about, nor had their opinions
changed with their votes. Influences had been brought
to bear upon them outside of Congress, and they gained
by changing their votes somethmg they wished for more
than they wished to defeat the assumption proposition.
The opposition to the funding scheme came chiefly
from the South, and there the Federal assumption of
State debts was generaUy disapproved of, except in the
State of South CaroUna, whose debt was so large that
its assumption by the general Govemment was an alter
native for its non-payment. The Legislature accord
ingly instructed the members to vote for the measure,
but the instructions were unnecessary to WUham Smith
and WUham Tudor Tucker, the two members who repre
sented the broad Federahsm then domhiant in South
Carolina, ^danus Burke, the third member, repre
sented the extreme type of Anti-Federahsts, and when
the bUl first came up he promptly expressed his alarm at
"the political consequences" to the State (^vemments
of such a measure, but he changed his attitude the next
day in view of the exigencies of his State.!
In Virginia the funding provision was not generaUy
hked, and the assumption provision was almost univer
sally condemned. Edward Carrington, who had been
* This was Daniel Carroh of Upper Marlboro, who should not be
confounded, as he usually is, with Daniel Carroll of Duddington, whose
lands were embraced in the District of Columbia.
t Annals of Congress, ist Cong.

i86 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
one of Madison's staunchest supporters in favour of the
formation and adoption of the Constitution, and who
was always a strong Federalist, wrote to Madison from
Richmond March 27, 1790, that he did not agree with
him about the payment of certificates. It was a melan
choly truth, he said, that the public rewards with respect
to the public debt had been transferred from those who
had earned them to those who had paid but little for
them. The purchase had often been made "under a
dishonourable conduct, " but between the public and the
original creditors there was no fraud. There was neither
law nor equity for paying to another any part of a claim
which the present possessor openly and fairly acquired.
The soldiers who were the chief sufferers were not now
complaining. The assumption proposition, on the other
hand, Carrington thought, was a wise measure on prin
ciple, but an iniquitous one under actual conditions,
and involved a grievous burden on those States which
had paid part of their debt. Later (April 7), Carring
ton reported that the assumption measure was generally
unsatisfactory. The Anti-Federalists were naturally
opposed to it, and so were many of the Federalists, who
considered it as leading to consolidation. It would
have a bad effect in alienating the people from the Con
stitution. Governor Beverly Randolph wrote, July 12,
1790, that it was thought it would produce "a perfectly
consolidated govemment," and a great ferment would
result. He believed not a single advocate could be
found to support it.* Bland voted in favor of it, having
completely changed his views,! and was liberally cen
sured in the State in consequence. The rest of the
Virginia delegation stood solidly against it. Edmund
Pendleton, Edmund Randolph and James Monroe were
also opposed to it. Rev. James Madison, of WiUiam
and Mary, wrote congratulating Madison on his pro
position concerning the certificates. J Henry Lee thought
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Henry's "Henry," III, 418.
X Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 187
the bill was "abhonent to political wisdom and not
strictly consonant to justice." He was unalterably
opposed to a funding system. National debts gave an
undue control to a moneyed class. Madison's motion
for the payment of certificates was, he said, pleasmg
to the country interests and displeasing to those of the
towns. As the debate progressed Lee became more
pronounced in his views. April 3 he wrote that all of
Patrick Henry's dark predictions about the Constitution
were coming tnie. He would rather see the Union
dissolve than submit .'to "the rule of a fixed insolent
Northem majority." "Is your love for the Constitu
tion," he asked, "so ardent, as to mduce you to adhere
to it, though it should produce ruin to your native coun
try ?"* George Nicholas said the assumption was unjust
and exceeded the power of Congress.
Jefferson arrived too late m New York to take part
in the battle then in progress. Probably on Madison's
representation he was opposed to the bill as it stood, but
he did not take much interest in the pending questions.
" I do not pretend to be very competent to their decision,"
he wrote George Mason, June 15, 1790.! He concluded
that the acceptance of a modified assumption bill was
preferable to the complete loss of a funding measure;
it was certainly preferable to a crash of the Government
which was threatened.!
The Virginia Legislature taking the bill into consid
eration after it had passed presented the first remon
strance of a State against a Federal act. It was written
by Henryf and came from a committee of eleven mem
bers, seven of whom had advocated the ratification of
the Constitution in the convention of 1788, the chairman
bemg Madison's coadjutor, Francis Corbin. || The remon-
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Writings (Ford), V, 184.
X To Thomas Mann Randolph, June 20, 1790, "Writings" (Ford)
V, 186.
Tf Henry's "Henry," II, 456.
II Rives, III, 149, et seq.

1 88 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
strance denoimced the funding act as against good
pohcy, justice and the principles of the Constitution.
The restriction against the redeemabihty of the public
debt would create a moneyed class agamst an agricultural
class and was borrowed from England. The assumption
act was denounced as unjust to the States which had pro
vided for their debts, and especially to Virgmia, which had
"redeemed a large proportion of her debt by the collection
of heavy taxes levied on her citizens," and would now
have an additional burden laid upon her. This measure
also transcended the fairly-interpreted powers of Con
gress under the Constitution. Congress was urged to
modify the funding provision and repeal the assumption
provision. The resolutions coming after Congress had
acted were not entirely approved by the Federahsts in
the State.

CHAPTER XX
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CAPITAL
The Constitution gave authority to Congress to accept
from the State or States ceding it a district not to exceed
ten miles square, to be exclusively under the jurisdiction
of the National Government, for a permanent seat of
Government. The provision came from a resolution
offered in the Convention on August 3 by Madison that
"the Legislature shall at their first assembling determine
on a place at which their future sessions shall be held."
In his speech supporting the resolution Madison said
it would be more important under the new Govemment
than it had been under the old, that the capital be in a
central location, because the new Government would
be more numerous, and as it would exercise many func
tions not now pertaining to the Federal Government
more people would be obliged to resort to the capital
than had hitherto done so. The first Congress under
the Constitution was, therefore, in a measure obliged
to take up the question of locating a new capital as one
of its manifest duties. How the question became in
volved with that of making provision for the pubhc debt,
so that the settlement of the one meant the settlement
of the other, is a story of trading of votes in Congress
and of a bargain struck between Alexander Hamilton
and Thomas Jefferson. The actuating motive of the
voting was a desire to secure sectional advantages, and
this desire was so apparent that it is clear that there
was little of a broad national spirit among the members
of the first Congress. To them neither the assumption
of the State debts nor the choice of a site for the capital
involved any deep principle. The assumption was a
189

190 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
part of Hamilton's carefully laid plan for arranging the
national finances and it was necessary for the completion
of the plan that it be carried. But its most earnest
supporters were Representatives of those States which
would suffer a grievous financial burden if it failed, and
its most earnest opponents were from the States which
would gain if it failed. The Constitutional argument
was not seriously invoked and influenced no votes against
it; it was regarded as a measure of expediency by its
friends and opponents. In the form in which it appeared
it was, however, a new question, whereas the choice of
a permanent site for a capital was an old question which
had been fought over for years.
In the autumn of 1783 mutinous soldiers of the army
hooted at the doors of Congress and demanded their
pay, and as the authorities of Philadelphia were unable
to afford protection the Government fled to Princeton.
This humiliating incident had borne in upon Congress
the necessity of having a home of its own, under its
exclusive jurisdiction, and there then began a struggle
to secure the capital of the United States which continued
with little abatement for the next seven years.
New York offered a tract of land at Kingston. The
Virginia delegates promptly wrote to the Governor of
their State proposing that joint action be taken
by Virginia and Maryland to offer a site on the Potomac
River near Georgetown. The prevailing sentiment was
then, however, in favor of two capitals, and examination
was made of sites near the falls of the Delaware and the
falls of the Potomac. Until buildings should be erected
it was proposed that Congress sit alternately at Trenton
and Annapolis.* Jefferson favoured a floating capital
and in writing to Monroe, June 17, 1785,! said that Con
gress could go to Georgetown from New York and then
somewhere else. The idea of two capitals was soon
? Sumner's " Financiers and Finances of the American Revolution, "
II, 23s, et seq.
t" Writings" (Ford) IV.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 191
abandoned, however, and on December 20, 1784, a
resolution passed in favor of erecting buildings at only
one place. Three days later it was voted to go to New
York for the present, the result being accomplished by
a union of New England and New York members. Feb
ruary 10, 1785, it was agreed to lay out a town for a
permanent residence on the Delaware and commissioners
were appointed for the purpose. They took no steps,
however, but merely ananged for the accommodation of
Congress at New York.
In Virginia there had been a movement in favor of
Williamsburg, and the Rev. James Madison, urged its
consideration upon his kinsman, who, however,
advocated the joint offer of a Potomac site by Virginia
and Maryland, and wrote July, 1783, recommending
that Maryland abandon her efforts for Annapohs. May
10, 1787, a few days before the Constitutional Conven
tion met, Richard Henry Lee offered this resolution in
Congress :
"Whereas, The convenient and due administration
of the Government of the United States requires, that
a permanent situation most central to aU parts of the
Union be estabhshed for holding the sessions of Congress ;
Resolved, That the Board of Treasury take measures for
erecting the necessary public buUdings for the accommo
dation of Congress at Georgetown, on Potowmack River,
so soon as the soU and jurisdiction of the said town are
obtained, and that on the completion of the said build
ings. Congress adjourn their sessions to the said Federal
town. "* Congress declmed by a vote of five States to
four to take the subject up. After the ratification of
the Constitution the idea of starting the new Government
in New York was bitterly opposed by the Virginians.
New York was, Madison said,! too remote to both South
and West. The West was already prejudiced against
the East because of its advocacy of the abandonment
?Journals of Congress (Ed. 1801) XII, 51.
t "Works of Madison" (Cong. Ed.) I, '409, et seq.

192 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of the navigation of the Mississippi. It was being tam
pered with by Spain and must be placated instead of
bemg offended by a choice of the enemy's country for
the new capital. The Southern prejudice against the
East, also, would be fed, and the Anti-Federalists' state
ment that the East would have a preponderating influence
under the new Government would be believed. There
was, he added, another and a highly important reason
against sitting in New York. The first year or two of
the new Government would see all the great anangements
made affecting its tone for all time, and these would be
influenced by its location. Philadelphia was better than
New York. If the new Govemment met in the former
city a deliberate choice of a permanent seat mUght be
made, but Southern and Western members coming all
the way to New York would be apt to vote precipitately
for a change which, he feared, would be to a site north
of the Potomac. He was positive this was the hope of
the advocates of New York. The only chance for the
Potomac was to form a coalition between the Southern
and Eastem States, or secure a delay for a few years,
by which time the growing Western population would
make its voice heard for ' the Potomac. A vigorous
protest against New York was accordingly made in the
last hours of the Congress under the Confederation.*
A motion by Williamson of North Carolina, in favoUr
of some place farther south than New York was lost,
and by one vote Philadelphia shared the same fate. By
the same slender majority Baltimore was selected, but
set aside August i6, and New York substituted. The
argument advanced for New York was simply that the
new Government ought to be free to choose a place of
residence for itself. August 26, Wilmington, Delaware,
was proposed and rejected, Madison voting against it,
but on September 2 he voted for Lancaster, Pa. The
next day he voted against Annapolis, and September 2
seconded Edward Carrmgton's motion for a more central
? Journals of Congress (Ed. 1801) XIII, 62, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 193
point than New York. It became apparent that the
new Govemment would sit in New York or not sit at
all; for while there was a sufficient number of votes to
prevent the selection of that town they could not be
concentrated on any other place. The opposition yielded
and New York was selected. Madison thought the
result fatal to the prospects of the Potomac, and pre
dicted that the site ultimately chosen would not be
farther south than the Delaware or Susquehanna.
When the new Congress met Alexander White of
Virginia laid before it on May 15, 1789, an act passed
by the General Assembly of his State, December 27, 1788,
offering ten miles square of any portion of its tenitory
for a new Federal district. The next day Seney of
Maryland offered a similar act from Maryland, both
States having acted in the hope that the site selected
might include the soil on either side of the Potomac
River.* On August 27, Scott of Pennsylvania offered a reso
lution! that the permanent seat of Congress ought to
be at the tenitorial centre of wealth and population and
convenient to the navigation of the Atlantic, as well
as easy of access to the Western country. J This he
meant as a description of the banks of the Susquehanna,
and September 3, Goodhue of Massachusetts offered
a supplementary resolution in favor of remammg in
New York until removing to that river. It was hoped
to thus secure the support of New York to the Susque
hanna, by leaving the capital at New York longer than
it reasonably had a right to expect. Only the Eastern
States were contented to meet m New York, and it was
conceded that it could not possibly be chosen as the
permanent capital. Any place in the East was out of
the question for geographical reasons, so the Eastern
? "Locating the Capital," Annual Rept. Am. Hist. Assoc'n. 1895,
289. t Rives, III, 50, et seq.
X Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 786.

194 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
members were free to cast their votes as they might
advance their interests in other matters before Congress.
Richard Bland Lee, seconded by Daniel CanoU, offered
a substitute for Goodhue's motion, providing for the
selection of a site most convenient to the Atlantic and
to the Western country. In order to attract the Eastem
members Madison suggested that the adoption of this
motion need not mterfere with the ultimate consideration
of Goodhue's proposition,* but it was in reality intended
to prejudice it, because if it were adopted it would be
shown that the banks of the Potomac was the only site
satisfying the description. Lee's motion was lost by a
vote of two to one, and defeat stared the Potomac party
in the face. A combination had been formed by the
East and Pennsylvania, and Madison declared that the
question had evidently been settled out of doors. His
pleadings for delay — even for a day — m order to present
reasons against choosing the Susquehanna were dis
regarded, the House refusing to postpone the question
by a vote of 27 to 23. Madison declared the Potomac
party faced "a determmed and silent majority." Burke
of South Carohna said: "A league has been formed
between the Northem States and Pennsylvania. " Wads
worth of Connecticut wanted to finish the business.
He said he "must either give his vote now or submit to
more bargammg. He was willing that the whole busi
ness of bargaining should be exposed; he would net
excuse himself; he did not dare to go to the Potomac.
He feared that the whole of New England would consider
the Union destroyed. Smce the matter had been so
prematurely brought on, since members had been forced
and, as it were, dragged by the throat to this business,
he hoped it was now finished, " In an exceedingly angry
mood the House adjourned.
The complaints of the Southern members at the bar-
gaming were due to their chagrin at the failure of their
own efforts to form a coalition. The Eastem and North-
? Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 840, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 195
em members had in the beginning of the session en
deavored to decide on a location, but disagreeing had
made overtures to the South by offering the Susquehanna
if Congress might remain for the present at New York.
If the South would not agree to this they might expect
Trenton to be chosen.* The threat was ineffective
and the South offered the temporary location to Phil
adelphia in return for Pennsylvania's support of the
Potomac for a permanent site. The combmation pro
mised to be effected when there was an unexpected
reunion of Pennsylvania, New York and the East on the
basis of fixing the permanent seat on the Susquehanna.
Discussion was resumed in the House, September 4,
and the question of the central location of the proposed
sites was debated, Madison arguing that the point was
of the utmost consequence because as many people as
possible should be made friendly to the Government
by its proximity to them. He admitted that by the
test of the present population of the country the centre
was on the Susquehanna, but insisted that it was certamly
moving toward the Southwest. He proposed that the
question be nanowed to the Susquehanna or the Potomac,
but the motion was voted down. A few days later he
reiterated the charge that the Southern members were
being "disposed of." Wadsworth replied for the East
em members that they had not bargained until they
were assured bargaining was in progress for the Potomac.
Vining's endeavor to secure consideration of the
Delaware site failed, and so did a motion by the Potomac
party that no place should be chosen except upon the
banks of a river offering unobstructed navigation to
the sea. It was well known that such navigation did
not exist on the Susquehanna and did on the Potomac.
Another dilatory motion by Madison was swept aside,
and September 2 2 the bill providing for the Susquehanna
was passed and went to the Senate. Madison had ex
pressed privately the hope that it would be amended
? Madison to Pendleton, Sept. 14, 1789, "Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 491.

196 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
by that body and his expectations were realized, for
the New York and Pennsylvania combmation was strong
enough to change the place to the eastem side of the
Delaware, so as to mclude Germantown, this being
tantamount to the choice of Philadelphia itself. On
Saturday, September 26, the biU thus amended came
before the House and an effort to postpone its consid
eration was lost. On Monday, when it was on the point
of final passage, Madison called attention to the fact
that no provision was made for the continuance in the
new district of Pennsylvania law, until Congress should
provide some other law. If the omission was not supphed
the new district would be left without any law at all.
The point could not be ignored and the amendment
offered by Madison remedying the evil was agreed to.
This compelled the return of the bill to the Senate, and
the next day Congress adjourned with the bill unpassed.
Madison had saved the rejection of the Potomac site
by a hair's breadth.
Before the members of Congress separated to go to
their homes Madison and Robert Monis had a private
conversation on the subject of the capital, and Morris
held out hopes of a satisfactory arrangement between
Pennsylvania and the South, but Madison was embittered
by the wearisome contest and had little faith that his
party would ultimately wm the victory. He did not
credit the friendly protestations of Monis, who had
been chief of the forces m the Senate opposing the
Potomac site.*
At the next session the first motion on the subject
was made June 10, 1790, when it was proposed that the
next Congress meet at Philadelphia. This was agreed
to by the House, and the resolution was pending in the
Senate, when the funding biU, shom of the assumption
feature, also came up from the House. On June 8, the
Senate rejected Philadelphia as a temporary capital
?Madison to Washington, Nov. 20, 1789, "Works of Madison"
(Cong. Ed.) I, 495-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 197
and took up in its place a bill for a permanent seat of
Govemment, and immediately Ellsworth offered a new
assumption bill. Thereafter the two measures were
kept side by side and played agamst each other. The
Southern and Pennsylvania coalition was effected again.
" " We are sold by the Pennsylvanians," wrote Fisher Ames,
June II, 1790, "and the assumption with it. They
seem to have bargained to prevent the latter, on the
terms of removing to Philadelphia. It becomes necessary
to defeat this corruption."
The House accordingly passed a resolution in favour
of holding the next session at Baltimore, but the Senate
on June 28 passed a substitute bill providing for a
permanent seat of Government on the Potomac River
between the Eastern Branch and Connogocheague
Creek. By a vote of 32 yeas to 29 nays this bill was
agreed to by the House a few days later, and became a
law. Success was thus finally substituted for a succes
sion of failures. The story of how it was accomplished
can best be told in the language of the chief actor.
Thomas Jefferson came back to the United States
from France in December, 1789, and on March 21, 1790,
went to New York, to enter upon the duties of the office
of Secretary of State. He found public affairs in an
alarming state. When the House rejected the assump
tion scheme, so bitter were the feelings of the two parties
that they could not do business together and Congress
adjourned from day to day. If the tension was not
lessened there was danger that the whole fabric of Gov
emment would break. In The Anas Jefferson records
how the situation was relieved:
"Hamilton was in despair. As I was going to the
President's one day I met him m the street. He walked
me backwards and forwards before the President's door
for half an hour. He painted pathetically the temper
into which the Legislature had been wrought, the disgust
of those who were called the Creditor States, the danger
of the secession of their members, and the separation

198 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of the States. He observed that the members of the
Administration ought to act in concert, that tho' this
question was not in my department, yet a common duty
should make it a common concern; that the President
was the centre on which all admimstrative questions
ultimately rested, and that all of us should rally around
him and support with joint efforts measures approved
by him, and that the question having been lost by a
smaU majority only, it was probable that an appeal from
me to the judgment and discretion of some of my friends
might effect a change in the vote, and the machine of
Govemment, now suspended, might be agam set in
motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the
whole subject; not havmg yet informed myself of the
system of finances adopted, I knew not how far this was
a necessary sequence, that tmdoubtedly if its rejection
endangered a dissolution of our Union at this incipient
stage, I should deem that the most unfortunate of con
sequences, to avoid which aU partial and temporary
evUs should be yielded. I proposed to him, however,
to dine with me the next day, and I would invite another
friend or two, bring them mto conference together, and
I thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting
together cooUy, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of
opinion, to form a compromise which was to save the
Umon. The discussion took place. I could take no
part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger
to the circumstances which should govern it. But it
was finaUy agreed that, whatever importance had been
attached to the rejection of this proposition, the preserva
tion of the Union and of concord among the States was
more important, and that therefore it would be better
that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect
which some members should change their votes. But
it was observed that this piU would be pecuharly bitter
to the Southern States, and that some concomitant
measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them.
There had been before propositions to fix the seat of

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 199
Govemment either at PhUadelphia, or at Georgetown
on the Potomac, and it was thought that by gi\Tng it to
Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgeto^\m perma
nently afterwards, this might, as an anodjaie, calm in
some degree the ferment Avhich might be excited by the
other measures alone. So two of the Potomac members
(White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach
almost com'ulsive) agreed to change their votes, and
HamUton undertook to earn- the other point. In doing
this the influence he had estabhshed over the Eastem
members, with the agency of Robert !Morris with those
of the Middle States, efl'ected his side of the engagement,
and so the assumption was passed, and- 20,000,000 of
stock divided among favoured States, and thrown in as
pabulum to the stock-jobbing herd."
Jefferson also relates that he had Hamilton and Mad
ison to dine ¦w'ith him, and that Madison there agreed
that if the assumption bUl came up again he would leave
it to its fate and whUe opposing it would not obstruct
its coming to a vote. Perhaps this conference is a mis
take of recoUection on Jefferson's part ; but if it occurred
it was after the fateful feast when the real bargain was
effected. HamUton performed his part of the contract first.
The act locating the permanent seat of Government
on the Potomac was passed in the middle of July. July
23 the amendment to the funding biU providing for the
assumption of State debts was agreed to by a vote of
32 ayes to 29 nays. It was approved August 4, 1790.
The only Southerners voting for it, except the South
Carolina members, were White and Lee of Virpnia, and
Darnel CarroU and George Gale of ;Mar}-land.
As for the part Madison played in a consummation
so consonant with his desires in one respect and so con
trary to them in another, he had nothing to do with
the main bargain, as the first dinner was necessarily
ananged for without his knowledge. Aiterrrards he
must have known of the agreement reached, and White

2 00 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
and Lee in all probability told him of their intention
to vote for the assumption bill. When it came up he
played an inactive but a highly important part, for he
permitted it to pass without putting in its way any of
those parliamentary obstructions which he could use
so skilfully when it suited him, and which he had so
successfully applied against the bill locating the capital
on the Delaware. A year later when the smoke of battle
had cleared away, Jefferson declared he had been duped
by Hamilton and made his tool in lendmg his aid to the
assumption bill, and that of all the errors of his political
life he regretted this the most.* He was not familiar
with the pending fmancial questions, he said; but Mad
ison was perfectly familiar with them and had been
fightmg against them, and he permitted the consumma
tion of the bargain between Hamilton and Jefferson
because he beheved it to be for the public interest. The
East was determined to have the assumption bill; the
South was determined to have the capital. The bitter
ness of the Southern opposition to the assumption was
taken away by the "concomitant measure," as Jefferson
called it, which gave it the capital, and Madison's cor
respondents wrote from Virginia that public sentiment
in that State had been appeased. In neither section
does it appear that there was serious condemnation of
the manifest trading of votes which had brought about
an accommodation of interests. A good-natured raillery
was mdulged m, but none of those who did the bargaining,
nor even of those who had changed their votes, suffered
in his reputation or received punishment from his con
stituents. * Randall's "Jefferson," II, 78.

CHAPTER XXI

THE IMPLIED POWERS

Not only were the funding and assumption bills
opposed by Madison, but Hamilton's bank bill also.
It came before Congress, February 2, 1791, and was
promptly passed by the Senate. In the Plouse, however,
it met with a well-managed opposition of which Madison
was the body and soul.* In the course of the debate
Elbridge Gerry described him as the original stock from
which all other arguments were grafts. "If the trunk
fell, its appendages must fall also," he said; so the forces
in favour of the bill concentrated their efforts against
him. He thought it undesirable that there should be
one great bank in America, as there was in England
where the object was to concentrate wealth in London.
Such an institution would banish the precious metals
from use, substituting other mediums to perform their
office, and individuals might suffer grievously if there
should ever be a run on the bank. But his chief argu
ment against the bank was that the Constitution did
not warrant its creation. Certain rules should be ob
served in construing that instrument. It could not
properly be so interpreted as to destroy the nature of
the Govemment. When its meaning was clear it must
be interpreted without regard to the consequences which
might foUow; but when its meaning was doubtful the
consequences should be considered. In controversies
over its meaning the intention of the framers was a proper
guide, if it could be ascertained, and concurrent and
contemporary expositions were reasonable evidence of
the intention. In admitting or rejecting constructive
* Annals of Congress, ist Cong. 2d Sess., 1895, et seq.
201

202 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
authority the mcidentality and importance of the author
ity were to be considered, as upon this would depend
the probability or improbability of the authority being
left to implication. Under these rules he could find
no place for the bank. The power to provide for the
"common defence and general welfare" must be under
stood as limited by the particular enumeration of powers
in the Constitution. To understand otherwise would
be to render the enumeration nugatory, and the powers
reserved to the State Govemment would be entirely
superseded. It was enough to point out that the words
were copied from the old Articles of Confederation.
Even if the bank did not interfere with the powers of
the States, it would still be unconstitutional, if Congress
were not given authority by the Constitution to create
it. If a bank might be mcorporated by Congress, so
might anything else be — canal companies, manufac
tories and religious societies for instance. A certain set
of arguments had been used to explam the Constitution
and secure its ratification, and it could not now be ad
ministered by another set. It was idle to say that, if
there was unwarranted exercise of power by Congress
the judges would rectify the mistake. Suppose the
judges also should be guided by motives of expediency ?
He thought the bill "was conder^ned by the silence of
the Constitution; was condemned by the rule of inter
pretation arising out of the Constitution ; was condemned
by its tendency to destroy the main characteristics of
the Constitution; was condemned by the expositions
of the friends of the Constitution, whilst depending
before the public ; was condemned by the apparent inten
tion of the parties which ratified the Constitution; was
condemned by the explanatory amendments proposed
by Congress themselves to the Constitution; and he
hoped it would receive its final condemnation by the
vote of this House."
Ames, Sedgwick, Geny, Boudinot, Vining and Smith
pf South Carolina crowded to the defence of the biU.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 203
They took the ground that "every Govemment from
the instant of its formation has tacitly annexed to its
being the various powers which are essential to the pur
poses for which it was formed. " Ames said : " Congress
may do what is necessary to the end for which the Con
stitution was adopted, provided it is not repugnant to
the natural rights of man, or to those which they have
expressly reserved to themselves, or to the powers which
are assigned to the States. " There then began the
battle over the implied powers of the Constitution and
the general welfare clause which has waged without
intermission ever smce.
The bank biU passed the Plouse by a vote of 39 to 20,
nearly all the Southern members votmg against ¦ it.
Washington doubted seriously whether he ought to
sign it. He complamed in his conversation with Madison
m 1792, of an "unfitness to judge of legal questions and
questions arising out of the Constitution," and this was
doubtless one of the occasions to which he alluded.
Accordmgly, he asked Jefferson and his Attorney-Gen
eral, Randolph, for their opmion and they advised him
against the bill, and Madison, at his request, prepared
a veto message for him to use if he desired. Hamilton,
however, successfuUy replied to the objections and the
bill became law.
At the end of the year (December 5,) Hamilton's
famous report in favor of a protective tariff for the
development of manufactures was laid before Congress,
and a schedule of duties on imports was mtroduced to
take the place of Madison's temporary schedule adopted
at the first session of Congress. On January 21, 1792,
Madison wrote to Pendleton to say he considered Ham-
Uton's reasoning on the general welfare clause to be
subversive of the fundamental principles of the Govem
ment, and "as biddmg defiance to the sense in which
the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advo
cated and adopted. " A few days later a bill was intro
duced for the encouragement of the cod fisheries by

2 04 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
providmg bounties, and he elaborated the arguments
he had used against the bank bill to show that bounties
on exports were unconstitutional.* The effect of the
speech was that the word "bounty" was withdrawn
and "drawback" substituted for it and Madison voted
for the bill thus amended. The principle involved had
not, of course, been altered in the slightest degree by
this change, and Hamilton made the contemptuous
comment that Madison was afraid to vote against the
bill because he saw it was popular and would pass.
Enough has been said to show the irreconcilable
difference between the two parties which had now
formed, the one accepting the Constitution conservatively
with reference to the old conditions, the other using it
to form a mighty programme of radical innovation.
Political conditions had changed and especially in Vir
gmia. When the State stood as an independent entity
under the Articles of Confederation, those who favoured
a stronger Federal Government and those who opposed
it were almost equal in numbers; but the Constitution
had been adopted, and the amendments offered to it by
Madison caused nearly everybody to accept it. Many
former opponents found themselves now in agreement,
and Henry Lee, who had advocated the ratification of
the Constitution so zealously, found himself advocating
the selection for a vacancy in the Senate, caused by the
death of William Grayson, of Patrick Henry, who had
moved heaven and earth to have the Constitution re
jected. It was even proposed by the friends of Madison
to send him to the Senate and force Henry to take Mad
ison's place in the House.! George Mason made over
tures of reconcihation with Madison. "I had no occa
sion" Jefferson wrote to him, Febmary 4, 1791,! "to
sound Mr. Madison on your fears expressed in your letter.
I knew before, as possessing his sentiments fully on that
* Annals of Congress, 2d Cong., 385.
t Dept. of State MSS.
X " Writings " (Lodge) V., 276.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 205
subject, that his value for you was undiminished. I
have always heard him say that though you and he
appeared to differ in your systems, yet you were in truth
nearer together than most persons who were classed
under the same appellation. You may quiet yourself
in the assurance of possessing his complete esteem. " The
following year the great author of the Bill of Rights died,
and there is no doubt that he and Madison were again
in substantial agreement on public questions as they had
been when their struggle for liberty began.
The truth is that when the new Govemment began
operations national feeling did not predominate with
public men and still less with the mass of the people.
There had been no national feeling before the Revolution,
and although it had been called into being by that
momentous struggle it had quickly subsided after the
peace. An agreement to try a new form of Government
could not simultaneously evoke an affection for that
Govemment, or change the habits of men's thoughts.
A Virginian's country was Virginia; next he was a
Southerner; last of all he was an American. The new
Government had been in existence seven months when
Edmund Randolph, a man of far broader patriotism
than most men, wrote to Madison that he thought he
might leave Virginia. It would, he said, be "the course
of expatriation (you see I am not yet a strict American) "*
When the representatives of the States came together
to run the new Govemment they met one another with
some suspicion, and when a number of measures passed
through Congress supposed to favour Northem rather
than Southern interests the Southern States manifested
jealousy and ill-nature. Everybody was over critical
towards the acts of Government. Men who were all-
powerful at home foimd their importance neutralized
by so many other powerful men at the capital, and they
judged severely, because their agency and responsibility
in Govemment were diminished under the new order
?Conway's "Randolph," 130

2o6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of things. "On their estates they were like big ships
in a river, while in London they were the same ships
in the sea," is the quotation invoked by Tucker, Jeffer
son's biographer. Tucker's description of the parties
was drawn from contemporary sources, one of them
bemg Madison, and is especially interesting. One party,
he says, believed that the most imminent danger to the
country was in disunion; and that popular jealousy
when inflamed by ambitious demagogues would with
hold from the general Govemment the power necessary
to insure good order and safety. The other believed
that the danger most to be apprehended was in too close
a union, and that those who most strongly favoured it
wished a consolidated, and even a monarchical, form of
Government.* On May 5, 1792, Madison had a conversation with
Washington on the subject of the latter's retirement,
which he argued would be unwise, and he explained to
him what was the existing political situation. There
were a few men, Madison said, who had been opposed to
the adoption of the Constitution and who still wished to
destroy it, but they had no following. There were
others who were unfriendly to republican Govemment,
and who probably aimed at a gradual approximation
to a mixed monarchy. Public opinion was, however,
so much against them that they would not long retain
a dangerous influence. From this it may be infened
that Madison thought they then had such an influence.
Jefferson records in The Anas that when he came to
New York from France he was shocked at the conversa
tions he heard at dinner parties. "Politics," he says,
"were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over
republican Govemment was evidently the favourite sen
timent. " Even at the present day similar sentiments
may be heard at dinner parties, but they are not taken
seriously. Their importance was exaggerated by Jeffer
son, but there were enough monarchists in the country
? Tucker's "Jefferson," I, 306, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 207
to justify some alarm rather because of what they had
said in the past than of what they did at the present.
The man against whom was levelled the full force
of the accusation of being a monarchist was Alexander
Hamilton, and his record made him dreadfully vulner
able. In the Constitutional Convention he made a
speech, June 18, 1789, in which he said he anticipated
the time when his colleagues would agree with Necker
m thinking the British Constitution the one Govemment
"which unites public strength with individual security."
The House of Lords, he declared, was a "most noble
institution," forming "a permanent barrier against
every pernicious innova,tion, whether attempted on the
part of the Crown or of the Commons. " " The hereditary
mterest of the King was so interwoven with that of the
nation, and his personal emolument so great, that he
was placed above the danger of being corrupted from
abroad, and at the same time was both sufficiently inde
pendent and sufficiently controlled to answer the purpose
of the institution at home. " While the Convention
was sitting, Hamilton wrote to Washington from New
York, July 3, saying that in New Jersey and New York
he had taken pains to find what the public sentiment
was in the matter of Government. "A plam, but sen
sible man" had in conversation with him said the present
Government would not answer, and for it must be sub
stituted "something not very remote from that which
we have lately quitted. " "I am more and more inclined
to believe," said Hamilton, "that former habits of
thinking are regaining their influence with more rapidity
than is generally imagined." He was convinced that
"no motley or feeble measure" would finally receive
public support. The "former habits of thmking" of
the people were those of loyal subjects of a king; the
"motley or feeble measure" then under consideration
in the Convention became the Constitution of the United
States. When Hamilton became an officer of the Govem
ment and offered a plan of finance having for its avowed

2o8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
purpose the strengthenmg of the central power, it was not
unreasonable to attribute to him a desire to shape events
towards the model which he had proclaimed as the best.
Hamilton regarded Madison as a factor necessary to
the success of the new Govemment. He wrote to him,
November 23, 1788, to say he was glad he was going
into the House, where his presence would be needed,
especially as Wilson, King and Gouvemeur Morris would
not be there.* Soon after he became Secretary of the
Treasury he asked him (October 12, 1798,) to aid in
preparing the plan which must be submitted to the next
session of Congress for mcreasing the public revenue
and taking care of the public debt.! Apparently, Mad
ison's reply was not a definite one, and when Hamilton's
plan was offered m Congress, Madison opposed every
feature of it. The disappointment and chagrin of the
Secretary of the Treasury knew no bounds. He un
bosomed himself in a long confidential letter to his friend
Edward Canington, March 26, 1792. "When I accepted
the office I now hold" he said, "it was under full per
suasion, that from similarity of thinking, conspiring
with personal good will, I should have the firm support
of Mr. Madison in the general course of my adminis
tration. Aware of the intrinsic difficulties of the sit
uation, and of the powers of Mr. Madison, I do not
believe I should have accepted under a different sup
position. " Madison had not, he went on, expressed
to him any change in the views he advocated in 1783 on
the subject of the State debts, and during the sitting
of the Constitutional Convention had said he favoured
the assumption. Hamilton had, therefore, told him
he counted on his support for his financial measures
in Congress, but Madison alleged, as a reason for a change
of views, that the recent alienation of the certificates
of debt by the original holders had altered the situation,
and that the assumption he favoured was of State debts
? "Hamilton's Works'' (Lodge) 8, 205.
t Id., 210.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 209
as they existed at the peace, before any of the States
had themselves provided for them. Hamilton believed
his opposition to be sincere, but stories had since been
brought to him that Madison and Jefferson were at the
head of a faction hostUe to him, and that on one occasion
m private conversation Madison had used language un
friendly to him. He was forced to believe this, because
Freneau, who was employed in Jefferson's department
and was a friend of Madison's, had been systematically
defaming him in his newspaper. Therefore Hamilton
had changed his opinion of Madison. His character
was " one of a peculiarly artificial and complicated
kind." Hamilton accused him of having opposed the
motion to request of Hamilton a report on ways and
means to carry out the Western expedition agamst the
Indians, because he knew that if the motion failed Ham
ilton would feel so slighted that he would resign. He
had in debate made insidious insinuations calculated to
give the impression that the public money had been so
applied as to give advantage to speculators. Madison,
Hamilton admitted, had an excuse for his enmity, for
before this Hamilton had declared openly his "deter
mination to consider and treat him as a political enemy. "
As for the cry that there was a monarchical party, Ham
ilton declared by all that was sacred that he did not
favour a monarchy, and that he was affectionately at
tached to a republic. "A very small number of men, " he
said, "indeed may entertain theories less republican than
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, but I am persuaded that
there is not a man among them who would not regard
as both criminal and visionary any attempt to subvert
the republican system of the country. Most of these
men rather fear that it may not justify itself by its fruits,
than feel a predilection for a different form; and their
fears are diminished by the factions and fanatical politics
which they find prevailing among a certain set of gentle
men and threatening to disturb the tranquillity and
order of the Govemment. " The danger to the country

2IO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
lay with those men who fostered the spirit of faction
and anarchy with sinister motives. He did not include
Madison among them, but Thomas Jefferson was "a man
of profound ambition and violent passions. "
Edward Carrington, to whom this letter was written,
was appomted Marshal for the District of Virginia, Sep
tember 26, 1789, and was one of the few Virginia Fed
eralists who did not join the opposition to Hamilton's
measures; yet before Hamilton wrote to him he had
written to Madison, April 20, 1791: "I confess myself
staggered upon the measure of the Bank and wish it
had been let alone. I have read with attention your
reasoning on the subject, and do not think it is refuted
by the arguments on the other side — I am however
unwiUing to be converted to your opinion, being much
prepossessed in favour of Banks, and think if it is uncon
stitutional for the Federal Gov't, to establish institutions
of the kind it is a defect."* It was probably he who
informed Hamilton that the people m Virginia were
almost unanimously against him, for, August 16, 1792,
Hamilton wrote to John Adams: " I have a letter from
a well-informed friend in Virginia who says 'AU the
persons I converse with are prosperous and happy, and
yet most of them, including the friends of the Govem
ment, appear to be much alarmed at a supposed system
of policy tending to subvert the republican Government
of the country.' "
Edmund Pendleton pubhshed observations against
the bank bill. Patrick Henry, who was so prejudiced
against Madison that he generally disagreed with him
on principle and who was soon to turn mto an extreme
consolidationist, wrote the remonstrance of the Virginia
Legislature against the assumption act, and declared
Hamilton's report on manufactures meant " subserviency
of Southern to N  ^n interests."! The State was
almost a unit in its opposition to Hamilton's policy.
? Department of State MSS.
t Henry's " Henry," II, 456.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 211
What was Madison's real belief? He was a self-con
tained man, and the hidden current of his hopes, fears
and ambitions he disclosed to no one, and we must judge
him by what he said and did and by his sunoundings.
He knew Hamilton well, — knew his genius, his force, and
his mflexible devotion to a Government of strongly
centralized power. He knew also that Hamilton's
system was repugnant to a great majority of the people
of America, whose attachments were local or sectional.
In opposing Hamilton Madison secured the favour of
the people of Virginia as he had never secured it before,
and he now stood for the first time upon the firm ground
of a public man who has behind him a constituency prac
tically undivided in its support of him. But his position
was a perfectly natural one, and if base motives of ex
pediency must be attributed to him, because he declined
to follow Hamilton's lead, the same odium must attach
to the former Federalists in Virginia who now acted
with him, as they had before acted with him when they
demanded the Constitutional Convention and the ratifi
cation of its results. Further than this, the same odium
must be visited upon all the former Federalists in the
South who were now the preponderating force
in the Anti-Federal party. It is true this party included
as members those who had opposed the adoption of the
Constitution, but they noW accepted it. At the present
day it is possible for a man who is a member of the Dem
ocratic party to be esteemed, even by those who do not
agree with him, as an honest patriot, and no violent
mental effort should be necessary to attribute political
integrity and patriotic motives to the leaders who
founded the Democratic party more than a century ago.
Did Madison believe the charges levelled by his party
against Hamilton ? How did it happen that he counte
nanced the methods of party warfare which Jefferson
instigated and which no one can now excuse? These
charges and these methods were not Madison's, but no
protest against them came from him, and he must share

212 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
in the censure history pronounces against them. The
truth is that Madison now had a party chief. This
chief neither directed nor suggested Madison's opposition
to Hamilton's consolidation policy, but his political
conduct was now influenced by Jefferson's stronger
personality and extraordinary power of attracting men
to him. To this must be attributed the fact that Mad
ison at this period of his career often found himself in
a position foreign to his former political habits. In the
heat of political conflict men say and even believe things
of their opponents which at calmer times they would not
sanction. This must be remembered in extenuation
of Madison's attitude toward Hamilton. It is a merciful
interpretation which ought to be accepted by the parti
sans of Hamilton, in exchange for like charity extended
towards their own hero, who also sadly needs it.

CHAPTER XXII
MADISON AS A PARTISAN
Washington yielded to the requests of the leaders of
both parties and determined to hold the Presidency for
a second term, but the Anti-Federalists endeavored
to defeat the re-election of John Adams to the Vice-
Presidency. At Hamilton's request* Madison had given
his aid to Adams' first election, and had opposed George
Clinton, whom Patrick Henry favoured and who was
regarded as the arch-conspirator against the Constitution.
Clinton was now, of course, reconciled to the Constitu
tion, and was put forward against Adams, who, it was
alleged, was of aristocratic tendencies.! In reality no
well-informed man believed him to be a real aristocrat,
but he was a Federalist and his party would suffer by
his defeat. John Beckley, clerk of the House of Repre
sentatives, was the active agent of Madison, Monroe and
other Southern leaders in the endeavour to compass
Adams' defeat. He wrote to Madison, October 17, 1792,
from Philadelphia, the letter to be opened by Monroe
if it did not find Madison at Fredericksburg where he
was supposed to be, reporting that he had confened
with Melancthon Smith, who acted for the Republicans
in New York, and an authorized representative of the
party in Pennsylvania, and they had decided to drop
Aaron Bun for the Vice-Presidency and vigorously press
the candidacy of Clinton. It was hoped Henry would
win over North Carolina, and some electoral votes could
even be counted upon from New England. Beckley
spoke bitterly of Hamilton, whom he hated and feared.
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Rives, III, 311, et seq. 213

214 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Hamilton was working against Clinton, he said, but his
zeal would m the end betray him, for Beckley had a clue
to "somethmg far beyond mere suspicion" about him,
which at the proper time he would disclose. Hamilton's
hand, Beckley said, could be seen m the proceedings
of the Virginia Legislature, for he desired the re-election
to the Senate of Richard Henry Lee.* The author of
the letters of the Federal Farmer, who had endeavoured
to strangle the Constitution in the old Congress before
it could reach the people, who had opposed its ratifica
tion bitterly and had been sent by Patrick Henry to the
Senate where he could oppose it in its operation, had
turned Federahst and was now Hamilton's friend.
Beckley said Hamilton worked with "closeted friends,"
and that he was "an extraordinary man, with a com
prehensive eye, a subtle and contriving mmd, and a soul
devoted to his object."
The schemmg of the Virginians was so far successful
that at the Presidential election in 1792 Virginia, which
cast a larger electoral vote than any other State, cast
it solidly for Clmton for Vice-President and carried North
Carolina and Georgia with her, while New York also
voted for him and he had one vote from Pennsylvania.
His total was, however, only fifty votes, while Adams
received seventy-seven.
Madison had become as bitter a partisan as Jefferson
himself, and lUce him he called the Federalists "Mono-
crats" or "Anglicans." He was a party to the schemes
to expose what he called the " mal-administration of the
Treasury," and joined in the cry that money raised to
pay the French loan was being diverted from its purpose
and lodged m the United States bank "to extend spec
ulations and mcrease the profits of that mstitution."
The cruel resolution mtroduced into the House with
Madison's fuU knowledge and approval by his colleague
GUes to mvestigate the Treasury Department, was to
his bhnded eyes "a pretty mteresting scrutiny," for
? Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 215
with some, he said, suspicions were carried very far.*
The truth was that Hamilton had not paid an instal
ment of the French debt, for the very good reason that
he was not sure he could safely do so. The revolutionists
were in control of the Government, but the stability of
their regime was a question of grave doubt, and if he
paid the money to rebels would he not have to pay it over
again if the legitimate Government were restored?
Madison ridiculed this idea. The vain argument, he
said, might be made that the Govemment of France
had not yet arrived at the age of stable maturity, "yet
it must be evident to aU the dispassionate part of man
kind that the revolution was sufficiently established to
insure it against the danger of a retrograde movement. "
When Thomas Jefferson left Paris liberty was the
talk of fashionable French society, to which it meant
little more than did those dinner party conversations
in favour of monarchy which alarmed him so much when
he anived in New York. It was not until the cry for
hberty coming from the great heart of the common
people moved them to action that it became a force, and
when the Bastile fell a passionate sympathy was felt
with the French by many Americans. It seemed to them
that the American Declaration of Independence was
destined soon to become a living truth in the old world
as it was in the new. There appeared to be every moral
reason why America should support the revolutionists
in France, and when war broke out between England
and her allies on the one side and France on the other
it became evident that a strong hand would be needed
in America to check overt acts of hostility to England.
Now, if Madison and Jefferson had had the question to
decide, they would have decided for neutrality, for war
was a hateful thing to them and they spent their lives
searching for the undiscovered secret of how to conduct
a Government on a basis of everlasting peace. Never-
* To Edmtind Randolph, February 23, 1793. "Works" (Cong. Ed.)
I, S7S.

2x6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
theless, the proclamation of neutrality which Washington
issued, April 22, 1793, did not suit them, because it was
not worded as they would have wished it to be. It was
too strong, Madison said, and violated our moral obhga
tions. It declared the disposition of the people to be
one of neutrality, but the President had no right to speak
on this point. The French sentiment was "warmly
right, " and executive politics were now of an "Anglified
complexion."* The coming of Genet, the first Minister from repub
lican France, was looked forward to as offering an oppor
tunity for the people to show their displeasure at the
tone of the proclamation. Madison hoped Genet would
be received in such a way as would counteract the official
coolness manifested towards France, but the enthusiasm
of his greeting and his manner of reciprocating it were
more than Madison or any other leader of the French
party had bargained for. French privateers were fitted
out in American ports, where French prizes also were
brought. Genet being officially informed that these
things could not be permitted, declared he would appeal
from the officers of the Government to which he was
accredited to the people who were the masters of the
officers and superior to them. He was given his pass
ports and those who had heralded his coming with so
many hopes found themselves in a ridiculous position.
There was a large defection from the French party.
"The only antidote for this poison," wrote Madison,
"is to distinguish between the nation and its agent;
between principles and events; and to impress the well-
meaning with the fact that the enemies of France and
Liberty are at work to land them from their honourable
connection with these into the Government of Great
Britain,"! but it was too late, for the poison spread and
with it the bitterness of the French party grew.
It would be easy to bring many incidents to show
* " Works " (Cong. Ed.) I, 584.
t To Jefferson, "Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 596.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 217
that the rancorous enmity of the Federalists towards
the Republicans was as great as that of the Republicans
towards them, but one circumstance will serve as a
sufficient example. The question of the Presidential
succession came up in Congress and a motion that the
office should descend in the event of the death of the
President and Vice-President to the Secretary of State
was voted down, because Jefferson was the Secretary of
State, and it was desired to put a slight upon him. Accu
sations of base partisan motives were bandied about
freely and intruded into almost every debate in Congress,
and even figured in the debate on the bill to naturalize
aliens. When the first Congress met the disposition was to
accord naturalization readily in order to add to the
population and obtain emigrants to the West. Madison
opposed this, saying that brute numbers was not what
was needed, but good citizens. He would not exclude
from American citizenship any man of good fame, but
he would not admit any who would not add to our wealth
and strength.* The utmost that he could accomplish,
however, was an extension of the probationary period
of residence from one year, as it then was, to two years,
with an additional requirement that no one should be
naturalized who was not of "good character." In the
Congress of 1794 he introduced a bill extending the
obligatory period of residence before naturalization to
five years and requiring proof that the apphcant was
a man of good moral character "attached to the Con
stitution of the United States, and well disposed to the
good order and happiness of the same," and a clause
was added requiring him to renounce any title of nobility
he might have had as a foreigner. The last requirement
precipitated a remarkable debate, which turned, as
everything at that time did, upon foreign politics.!
Ames said, "The convention of another nation (France)
? Rives, III, 479, et seq.
t Annals of Congress, 3d Cong., 1032.

2i8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
had indelibly disgraced themselves by legislating upon
trifles, while matters of importance stood by. What
would be the sense of America upon our spending day
after day in debating about such a frivolous thing?"
This taunt Madison answered by the absurdest argument
that ever fell from his lips. No man, he said, could say
how far the revolution in Europe would extend. If it
took place in Great Britain, as he expected it would, the
peerage of that country would flock to the United States.
He would welcome them, but he would not admit them
to citizenship, until they had renotmced their titles.
In the course of the debate Dexter of Massachusetts
declared there was no more reason for the rule proposed
than there would be to hinder His Holiness the Pope
from entering the United States. He went on at some
length to ridicule the tenets of the Catholic Church and
the ranks and titles it observed. It was Madison's old
self, the champion of religious liberty, who rebuked him.
" He did not approve, " he said, " the ridicule attempted to
be thrown out on the Roman Catholics. In their rehgion
there was nothmg inconsistent with the purest repub
licanism. In Switzerland about one-half of the cantons
were of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Some of the
most democratic cantons were so; cantons where every
man gave his vote for a representative. Americans
had no right to ridicule Catholics. They had, many
of them, proved good citizens during the Revolution."*
The Federalists returned to the charge. If one man
must renounce his titles before being admitted to Ameri
can citizenship, they said, why wouldn't it be as just
to compel another under the same circumstances to
renounce membership m a Jacobin club? Agam: you
want to hold us up as aristocrats. Very well, we wiU
hold you up as slave-dealers, and an amendment was
offered that no one owning slaves should be admitted
to citizenship. Nevertheless, the clause requiring the
renunciation of titles of nobility before securing natxiral-
? Annals of Congress, 3d Cong., 1035.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 219
ization was retained in the bill, and the useless pro
vision is a part of the naturalization laws at the present
time. Not even could Hamilton's retirement from the Ad
ministration be accepted by Madison without bitterness.
His last recommendations as Secretary of the Treasury
were "an anogant valedictory report, " and of his return
to the practice of law he said: "It is pompously an
nounced in the newspapers that poverty drives him
back to the Bar for a livelihood. "* Towards Wash
ington, however, Madison's tone of veneration and respect
never changed, although the inevitable course of political
events flnally drifted them far apart.
Their acquaintance began when Madison was in the
Contmental Congress, and their correspondence opened
in the spring of 1783 with a friendly request from Wash
ington that Madison should try to find, if he could, some
place m the peace establishment for Dr. James McHenry,
formerly Washington's military secretary, and afterwards
Secretary of War. They became intimate friends and
Washmgton depended much upon Madison's advice.!
They were coadjutors in the Potomac Company; it was
Madison who helped Washington to see his way clear
to acceptmg service in the Constitutional Convention;
they fought valiantly together to secure the ratification
of the Constitution by Virginia. During the first four
years of his service as President, Washington consulted
Madison on public questions more than he did any
other man outside of the Cabinet circle. He had extra
ordinary confidence in him, and before he accepted the
Presidency confided his fear that an acceptance might
be attributed to motives of personal ambition. Madison
assured him that he was necessary to the safe inaugura
tion of the Govemment, and suggested that he might
manifest his disinterested motives later on by his retire
ment as soon as the Government had been successfully
put in operation.!
?"Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 36.'
t Id., I, 64.
J Id., I, 556.

2 20 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
After three years of service Washington weighed the
question of announcing his determination not to accept
a re-election. In his official family he took Jefferson,
Hamilton, Knox and Randolph into his confidence and
they advised him not to retire. The only other person
he consulted was Madison, who, of course, advised him
as the others had done; but Washington wanted his
opinion on another point. If he should conclude to
retire, how should he announce his intention? Madison
replied that a direct address to the people would be the
most fitting way, and at Washington's request he handed
him on June 21, 1792, a draft of a farewell address.
Washington put it with his papers, and, concluding to
accept a second term, had no occasion to use it, until
five years later when he made it the basis of a part of
his first draft of the immortal Farewell Address.* He
sent his draft to Hamilton, and Hamilton sent him
another draft which he used finally as the framework
of the address. The first paragraph, announcing his
purpose to retire, was substantially as Madison had
written it ; so was the second in which he promised con-
tmued zeal for the welfare of the country. The fifth,
regretting his shortcomings, and the sixth, expressing
gratitude for the honours bestowed upon him, and hope
for the perpetuity of the Constitution were similar to
the Madison draft. The draft also contained expressions
in favor of the Union and the Government which ap
peared in the address in a different form. Everything,
therefore, said in Madison's draft was incorporated in
the address, but his draft contained only nine paragraphs
and the address has fifty; nor can it be claimed that its
striking features are the portion which Madison suggested.
The reason why Washington did not consult him in
preparing the final address was that, at the time he was
drawing it up, Madison no longer enjoyed his confidence
or favour. He retained both, however, for some time
after he prepared the first draft; for when Jefferson
? " Works " (Cong. Ed.) I, 554, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 221
announced, July 31, 1793, his intention of retiring from
the Cabinet, Washington said his first choice for Jeffer
son's successor was Madison, but he knew he would not
serve in an executive office.* At this time, although
Madison's political views and affiliations were well
established, Washington stUl avoided taking sides with
either of the political parties. He was naturally, how
ever, a Federalist, for he had no sympathy with the
idealism of the party which sympathized with the French
revolutionists, and as a practical man of military training
who believed in accomplishing results he thought a
Government ought to be clothed with real authority
and power. After Jefferson's separation from his admin
istration there was no Republican element left, and
consequently no influence to restrain the attacks upon
the measures of Govemment which mcreased in severity.
These attacks Washington took as meant to apply partly
to him, and he broke with the leaders of the opposition.
"With Madison," says Paul Ford,! "the break does not
seem to have come from any positive ill feeling, but
rather an abandonment of intercourse as the differences
of opinion became more pronounced. "
October 24, 1793, at Washington's request, Madison
submitted an opinion on the President's power under
the Constitution to call a meeting of Congress at some
place other than Philadelphia where the yellow fever
was raging ;! and this was the last opinion he ever offered
to Washington. Two years later, (August 10, 1795,)
when the bitter struggle over the Jay treaty was in pro
gress, he told Chancellor Livingston that unsohcited
opinions were no longer desired from him by the execu
tive. | He had either received an intimation to that
effect or inferred it as a natural consequence of his opposi
tion to administration measures. Their personal inter-
? Rives, III, 382, n.
t "The True George Washington," 258.
X "Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 602.
Kid., n, 46.

222 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
course did not wholly cease, but there was an end, ap
parently, to its cordiality which was never resumed,
because Washington died when party conflict was still
raging and when his own feelings on the subject were
embittered. In speaking of him many years after his death Madison
said: " If any erroneous changes took place in his views
of persons and public affairs near the close of his life,
as has been insinuated, they may probablv be accounted
for by circumstances which threw him into an exclusive
communication with men of one party, who took ad
vantage of his retired situation to make impressions
unfavourable to their opponents."* Regard for the
truth compels the statement that Madison probably
referred to an unfavourable impression of himself enter*
tained by Washington; for, as fortune willed it, the last
words spoken by Washington before he took to his bed
with the ailment from which he died were words of con
demnation of Madison uttered with asperity. He was
alone with Tobias Lear, when as Mr. Lear records: "He
requested me to read to him the Debates of the Virginia
Assembly, on the election of a Senator and Governor,
and, on hearing Mr. Madison's observations respecting
Mr. Monroe, he appeared much affected, and spoke with
some degree of asperity on the subject, which I en
deavoured to moderate, as I always did on such
occasions. "
And yet among the men of this period who have
stamped themselves upon our history the two least
associated in the popular mind with extreme partisan
ship are Washington and Madison. It was inevitable,
however, that as Washington's Administration pro
gressed and his policy shaped itself it should arouse
opposition, for the most part sincere and perfectly jus
tifiable. ?Rives, III, 595.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE JAY TREATY
The party feeling during Washington's Administration
attained its highest pomt when the Jay treaty came
before the country, and the denunciation hurled against
the treaty party was not intended to leave the President
untouched. That the public mind should be deeply
stirred on the subject of the treaty was only natural,
for the treatment which the feeblest and most contempt
ible States now receive from the strongest and most
unscrupulous is honourable fairness itself when compared
with the indignities and injuries which Great Britain
inflicted upon the United States from the time of the
treaty of peace until the close of the war of 1812. Our
feebleness compelled us to endure an almost complete
deprivation of international rights, and as long as the
Confederation existed England had as a good reason
for her contemptuous attitude the knowledge that our
flimsy union could not long endure under our system of
Government. When the break up should come she had
every reason to hope that some, if not all, the States
would return to the allegiance which they had held for
a hundred years. When the Constitution was put mto
operation we were mdeed a nation, but one tottering
from very mfancy, and safe to be msulted by a Power
old, relentless and powerful.
Accordingly Great Britain continued to hold the
frontier posts, which, under the terms of the treaty of
peace, she had promised to surrender. In consequence,
the neighbouring Indian tribes were under her jurisdiction
and in a state of hostility to American settlers. The
settlement of the frontier territory was retarded, some
223

2 24 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of the pioneers were killed, and the lives of the others
were in constant jeopardy, while the sovereignty of the
United States was insulted on its own territory. Ameri
can ships under the American flag on the high seas were
searched by British ships. Our sailors were impressed
into the British service, cargoes and ships were seized
and treated as prizes taken from an enemy. Great
Britain closed her West Indian ports to our ships, and
kept the carrying trade of those islands to herself, al
though their principal imports came from the United
States. In the face of these conditions three things could be
done. We could continue to endure what was prac
tically a state of commercial vassalage to Great Britain;
we could go to war, but the outcome would probably
be a failure of the objects of the war, and possibly the
loss of our independence itself; we could retaliate by
withdrawing from England every privilege which she
denied us; we could discriminate against her ships and
products and injure her as she injured us. Retaliation
was not a strong weapon, because it could not touch an
important part of the American grievances. It was
objectionable, too, because to stop trading with your
enemy is to stop your proflts as well as his; but it was
better than war, or continued submission. It was the
policy which Madison had advocated at the first session
of the first Congress.
He revived it in a set of resolutions submitted to Con
gress, January 3, 1794, when the report from Jefferson
on the privileges and restrictions of American commerce
came up,* and his action was greeted with hearty com
mendations. A number of masters of American vessels
detained at Jamaica wrote to thank him and commend
his plan as soon as they heard of it. General Gates
called him the coming man of America, and the Repub
lican Society of Charleston, S. C, passed resolutions
in praise of "citizen Representative Madison."!
? Rives, III, 383, et seq.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 225
In Congress the chief argument against the resolutions
came from Smith of South Carolina, but it was commonly
believed that Hamilton inspired the speech. The strength
of the argument was that retaliation, if carried out,
would cause England to go to war with us, or invoke
even harder commercial measures against us. There
was, therefore, nothing for us to do, but wait until we
were more powerful and could resist. In his reply Mad
ison said we consumed double as much of GreatBritain's
goods as she did of ours, and to make reprisals would
injure her more than it would ourselves. Her manu
factures would not be sold to us, nor our raw material
to her. The idea of war resulting from the policy of
retaliation was ridiculous. It was the same system
of reciprocity which Great Britain practised herself.
He reminded Congress that after the treaty of peace
had been made Pitt had introduced a bill m Parliament
putting trade with America upon a reciprocal basis,
supposing the United States would follow a like course ;
but when Lord Sheffield showed that there was no central
authority m America to regulate commerce, Pitt had
withdrawn his biU. The necessary authority had now
been estabhshed by the Constitution and should be
put to use.
Some members thought Madison's plan too spiritless,
and proposed further negotiations with Great Britain,
and, if they failed, a resort to arms. Madison replied
that negotiations had already failed and that war would
be most impmdent at present. Why not, he asked,
try "commercial weapons"? Great Britain was more
vulnerable in her commerce than she was m her army
and navy. She valued our markets very much more
than she feared our frigates and mihtia.
A test vote in Committee of the Whole showed that
the House favoured the use of the " commercial weapons " ;
but before the question came up in the House the situa
tion was changed by rumours of fresh outrages on Ameri
can commerce by British cruisers. They were soon con-

2 26 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
firmed by the publication of the British instructions
dated Nov. 6, 1793, ^.nd by accounts of seizures and con
demnations under them m the West Indies. Madison
wrote Jefferson on March 12, 1794, that a hundred vessels
had been thus seized, but he underestimated, for the
Annual Register for 1794 reported the number a
few months later at six hundred. The opportunity
was favourable for mtroducing bold measures, and
Sedgwick proposed that a provisional army of 15,000
men be raised to serve three years from the commence
ment of war, if war should be declared, and that the
President be impowered, "to lay an embargo generally,
or particularly, upon ships in the ports of the United
States, for a term not exceeding, at any one time, forty
days." The measure was identified by Madison as
coming from Hamilton, and he said was mtended to
strengthen the power of the central Govemment. When,
however, its military features were dropped he consented
to withdraw his milder proposition, in favour of the more
vigorous retaliation. The House then eliminated the
President's agency m the embargo and declared for one
unmediately for thirty days. Even more drastic meas
ures of retaliaition were mtroduced and were pending,
when Washington announced his intention of sending
a special mission to England. He had a short time
before informed Congress of a slight mitigation of the
British instructions, which offered some hopes of further
relaxations, — "so that," Madison said, "Great Britain
seems to have derived from the verj'' excess of her aggres
sions a title to commit them m a less degree with im
punity. " '''7 V''
On April 16 Jay, then Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, was nominated as Minister to England, and the
plans of retaliation were all dropped by the House in
favour of a substitute offered by Madison, to the effect
that the injuries suffered made it expedient that the
commercial intercourse with Great Britain should be
less extensive than it then was, and, therefore, that after

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 227
November i following, the importation of British
merchandise should be suspended. The House agreed
to this by a vote of 58 to 34, but it was defeated in the
Senate by the casting vote of the President. Nothing
more was attempted and the country waited for the
result of the mission.
Jay canied with him instructions of a positive char
acter. He was to demand compensation for British
spoliations of American commerce and that provisions
should not be considered as contraband of war, except
when an attempt was made to introduce them into a
place actually besieged. He was to msist upon an
immediate sunender of the frontier posts and compen
sation for the negroes carried off m violation of the treaty.
If these matters could be satisfactorily ananged he
might negotiate a commercial treaty on a basis of reci
procity m navigation and trade regulations. If they
could not be ananged he was to sign no treaty, but to
report to his Govemment for further mstructions.
While the country waited for news of the result of
Jay's mission the British outrages continued, and Gov
ernor Simcoe of Upper Canada, invadmg the United
States with three British regiments, built a fort on Ameri
can soU at the rapids of the Miami, and ordered an Ameri
can settler away. Then a part of the conespondence
between Lord GrenviUe, the British ilinister, and Jay
found its way into the newspapers and Jay's tone was
so mild that it caused disgust among the French part}',
especially m the South, where he was aheady unpopular
because of his wiUmgness m 1786 to abandon the Ameri
can right of navigatmg the ]\Iississippi. Madison said
Jay's memorial was humihating, but thought his mission
might succeed, because the mihtary successes of the
French would be apt to make England more concUiatory
than she had been. / -7 -/ 0~
Congress adjoumed March 7, Jand three days later
the treaty arrived, having been signed November 19. The
Senate was convened for June 8 to consider it. Strict

2 28 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
secrecy was enjoined, but, of course, the terms of the
treaty leaked out. Madison had an accurate knowledge
of them by a very simple means. Pierce Butler, the
Senator from South Carolina, wrote to him June 12,*
that he would send him by each post a sheet of the treaty
tUl he should have the whole. Having read it he was
to forward it to Jefferson, who was not to communicate
it to any one. Madison was asked to give Butler the
benefit of his free opinion of the treaty. By a bare
two-thirds the Senate ratified it. The mjunction of
secrecy was not removed, but the pubhc was to be per
mitted to know the substance of the treaty, although
no copy of any part of it was to be given out. Stevens
Thomson Mason, a Senator from Virginia, violated the
mjunction and gave the text of the treaty to a Phila
delphia newspaper, which printed it June 30, only a
day before Washmgton had determmed it should be
made pubhc property. A combination of circumstances
condemned it from the start, but, as we have seen, the
leaders of the opposition knew its provisions before the
pubhc did and had time to plan a campaign.
Nevertheless, the treaty was a bad one, and the utmost
that can be said in its favour is that it was probably the
best obtainable and that it was better than war, and
Jay probably did as weU as any one else could have done
under the circumstances. Concerning the frontier posts
it provided that they must be evacuated by June i, 1796,
but m the treaty of peace their immediate evacuation
was promised. The American contention that free
ships should make free goods was disappomted by a pro
vision that French goods m American bottoms might
be seized by Great Britain. The hst of contraband
goods instead of bemg restricted was enlarged to include
whatever served to equip a vessel, and provisions might
be confiscated, subject to a claim by the owner for their
value to be adjudicated m a British port by a British
court. An equahty of France and England in beUig-
^Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 229
erent rights was rendered impossible, because tmder
our treaty with France British goods m an American
vessel could not be seized. Not a word did the treaty
say about the impressment of American seamen or the
sunender of those already impressed. The West Indian
trade was to be opened only to smaU American vessels
of not more than seventy tons burden, carrying cargoes
from the United States alone. Provision was made
for a commission to determine the amount of indemmty
due the United States for British spoliations, and in
return for this one act of simple justice the United States
was to assume the payment of British debts in America.
The effect of the treaty Madison declared in a letter
to Chancellor Livmgston, August 10, 1795, would be
to "monopolize us to Great Britain," and prevent our
making treaties that would be of advantage to us. The
treaty was evidence that Jay's party was a "British
party, systematically aimmg at an exclusive connection
with the British Govemment, and ready to sacrifice
to that object as well the dearest interests of our com
merce as the most sacred dictates of national honour. "
Livingston replied: "Our disgrace and hUmUiation
have in this instance, greatly exceeded my expectations. "
He thought the treaty abandoned the rights of the United
States and that it was the duty of every weU-wisher
of his country to prevent its ratifications.*
Certainly the people of the country left no doubt that
they did not wish its ratification. Samuel Adams and
other prominent Bostonians united in a town meetmg
to denounce it. In New York Hamilton and his friends
were roughly handled at a public meeting where con
demnatory resolutions were passed. At Philadelphia
a mob burned a copy of the treaty before the British
Legation. Public meetings in almost every town North
and South denounced the treaty, while from the New
York Chamber of Commerce and a few other commercial
bodies came the only words in its favour.
? Dept. of State MSS.

230 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
It was evident that Washington did not relish the
treaty. After he received it he waited three months
before he gave it to the Senate. After its ratification
he held it a long time, in doubt, apparently, whether
to proclaim it or destroy it. The people, it was said,
stood three to one against it, but the Cabinet was three
to one in its favour. It was an Administration measure
and the President shared in the odium it excited. John
Beckley wrote to Madison from Philadelphia, September
IO, 1795 : " You can have no idea how deeply the public
confidence is withdrawing itself from the President, and
with what avidity strictures on his conduct are received ;
sensible of this, his friends are redoubling their efforts
to exalt his name and exaggerate his past services — But
aU in vam, the vital blow aimed at the Independence
& best Interests of his country by the impendmg treaty,
mark him m mdelible characters as the head of a British
faction, and gratitude no longer blinds the public mind. "
When the new Congress met, December 7, 1795, the
Republicans were still in a majority, and Madison was
as usual made chairman of the committee to prepare
an answer to the President's speech. His colleagues
were Sedgwick and Sitgreaves, both Federalists, and
they proposed a clause m the answer expressing the
"undimmished confidence of his fellow-citizens in the
President." Madison objected to this clause in com
mittee, not only because he considered it too strong
under the circumstances, but because he foresaw that
it would be bitterly opposed if it were presented in the
House. He prepared an adroit substitute, which was
adopted: "In contemplating that spectacle of national
happmess which our cotmtry exhibits, and of which you,
sir, have been pleased to make an mterestmg summary,
permit us to acknowledge and declare the very great share
which your zealous and faithful services have contributed
to it, and to express the affectionate attachment which
we feel for your character." There was no mention
in Washington's speech of the treaty, because it had

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 231
not yet been proclahned; but it was a sharp commentary
upon the changed condition of affahs brought about
by party feelmg, that the House of Representatives was
not willing to declare its "undiminished confidence"
in George Washmgton.
The latter part of February he received word of the
ratification of the treaty by Parhament and on the last
day of the month he proclahned it. It had been nego
tiated by an envoy clothed with ftdl powers ; it had been
ratified, with an amendment by the Umted States Senate,
and the amendment had been agreed to by the British
Govemment; the ratifications had been exchanged and
the proclamation now made the treaty law. On ]\Iarch i
the President sent a copy of it to each House of Congress.
In the House it was refened to the Committee of the
Whole and taken up for consideration ilarch 7. The
fight agamst it was led by a new hght m national pohtics.
Edward Livingston had just taken his seat m Congress
for the first time, and at once sprang mto the front rank
among the Republicans of the North. With ready and
forceful argumentative abUity, of radical and fearless
political thought, accomphshed as scholar and jurist,
he seemed destmed to play a conspicuous part upon the
stage for years to come. His first act caUed up the only
serious conffict of authority between the Executive and
the Legislative that occuned during Washington's admin
istration. He moved that the President be requested
to send to the House copies of the mstructions given
Jay when he went to England as Minister and of the
conespondence had with him during the progress of the
negotiations of the treaty, except such papers as any
pending negotiations might render it improper to dis
close. Madison offered an amendment asking only for
"so much of the said papers as, in the judgment of the
President, it may be consistent with the mterests of the
United States at this time to disclose, " but this peaceful
modification was rejected, the Federahsts votmg agamst
it, because they did not approve of any request for papers,

232 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
and a few Republicans joinmg them, because they wanted
the resolution to be as objectionable to the Adminis
tration as possible. The arguments for and against
Livmgston's resolution were mteresting because the
question involved has not yet been defimtely settled
beyond dispute.
The Federalists said a bold attempt was being made
to encroach upon the prerogatives of the President and
the Senate who were the treaty-making power. Treaties
made by them were "the supreme law of the land,"
and the House had nothing to do with the question of
how they were made. It was the duty of Congress to
obey the law and pass such legislation as a treaty required
to cany it into execution.
The Republicans replied that the Constitution vested
in Congress certain prerogatives, among them being
the right to regulate commerce, raise revenue and
appropriate it. The general power of the Executive
and Senate to make treaties could not supersede this
particular authority. Whenever, therefore, a treaty
required Congressional action to make it effective, Con
gress was bound to deliberate before enactmg and to ask
for information to assist its deliberations. The power
to make treaties was not claimed, but the power to carry
them out was insisted upon. The leading advocates
of this view were Livingston, Gallatin, who had recently
taken his seat as a member from Pennsylvania, Samuel
Smith of Maryland, and the Virginia members, Nicholas,
Page and Brent, with Madison to lead them. The other
side had Sedgwick of Massachusetts, Vans Munay of
Maryland, Smith and Harper of South Carolina. After
three weeks' debate the call for the papers was agreed
to March 24 by a vote of 62 to 37. On the 30th the Pres
ident's reply was received, refusing categorically to
comply with the request, because it was an interference
with the rights of the treaty-makmg power, which did
not include the House of Representatives,
"The absolute refusal," wrote Madison, "was as

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 233
unexpected as the tone and tenor of the message are
improper and indelicate."* He attributed its author
ship, of course, to Hamilton.
When the message came before the Committee of the
Whole, Blount of North Carolina offered resolutions,
composed by Madison, briefly reaffirming as the sense
of the House the arguments already made by the Repub
licans. Madison made a long speech in favour of the
resolutions, supposing that they would be debated ;
but when the House met the day after his speech, to
his surprise no arguments were made on the other side
and the resolutions were passed by a vote of 57 to 35.
Six members came in after the vote was taken and asked
that they be added to the majority, but under the rules
this could not be done. April 15, the treaty came up
again, Madison making the chief speech against it and
Ames replying. April 29, the necessary provision for
the execution of the treaty was passed in Committee
of the Whole by the casting vote of Muhlenberg, the
Speaker. One Republican member was absent, another
sick, but Madison noted with dismay that the ranks
of his party were breaking.! The next day, April 30,
the House conflrmed the action of the committee by
a vote of 51 to 48. Ten members who had voted for
Madison's resolutions now voted to put the treaty in
operation. The defeat was a most serious one and
marked a turn of the tide against the Republicans. The
people were back of the majority, for the impression had
got abroad that the House wished to bring about war,
and they raUied to the cry "to follow where Washington
leads. " Strangely enough it was in New England that
this cry was the strongest and in the South where it was
weakest. The only Southern members who changed
their votes were three from Maryland. The Virginia
members stood in sohd anay against the Virginia Pres-
? To Jefferson, April 4, 1796, " Works " (Cong. Ed.) II, 90.
t" Works," (Cong. Ed.) II, 94.

234 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ident. The result was a peculiar one. The House had
reaffirmed its position and then receded from its action.
A situation exceedingly awkward not to say dangerous
had been relieved, and no principle had been settled.

CHAPTER XXIV
THE NATIONAL GAZETTE
The principal newspaper organ of the Anti-Federalists
until Jefferson left the Cabinet was The National Gazette
edited by Philip Freneau and established largely at
Madison's instigation. The chief Federahst organ was
The United States Gazette with John Fenno for editor.
Fenno's prospectus when he moved his paper from New
York to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1790 said:
"At this important crisis, the ideas that flU the mind,
are pregnant with events of the greatest magnitude — to
strengthen and complete the union of the States — to
extend and protect their commerce — to explore and ar
range the national funds — to restore and establish the
public credit — will require the energies of the patriots
and sages of our country. "*
Freneau announced his purpose:
"In this paper the Editor engages to support, as far
as a newspaper can with propriety be supposed to support,
the great principles upon which the American Revolution
was founded, a faithful adherence to which can alone
preserve the blessings of liberty to this extensive empire
— an empire, in which the grand experiment is now mak
ing, whether or not the assertion of certain European
philosophers be true, that a pure republic can never sub
sist for any length of time, except in a very limited extent
of territory."
Hamilton himself sometimes attacked the Anti-Federal
ists over a pseudonym through Fenno's columns, and
Madison wrote a number of unsigned articles for Freneau,
but they were all short philosophical or political dis-
? The National Gazette, November 3, 1790.
23s

236 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
quisitions dealing m no personal abuse. Freneau's tone
was reaUy taken from Jefferson and the object of the
paper was to counteract the effect of The United States
Gazette, which it soon outstripped m abuse and vitup
eration of those with whom it differed.
PhUip Freneau, a New Yorker of Huguenot descent,
was at Princeton wdth ]\ladison, and was one of the most
popular youths of his class. He had m an extraordinary
degree the quahties to make him a success among under
graduates, for he was quick, bright, versatUe and witty.
He could speak easily, he was fuU of enthusiasms, and
he wrote poetry by the yard. As he entered college
m 1 77 1, the same year m which Madison graduated,
there was no opporttmity for prolonged coUege mtknacy
between them, but iladison hked the warm-hearted
ornamental poetaster, probably because he possessed
the very qualities which ]\ladison himself did not have,
or at any rate did not cultivate. Freneau on his side
admired the great scholar and esteemed it a privUege to
form one of his circle, and so the two became devoted
friends for life. From Princeton Freneau went into a
Maryland famUy at Havre de Grace as private tutor and
opened a conespondence with iladison. He described
himself as teachmg aU day and writmg poetry aU mght
and his first letters were enhvened by many impromptu
rhymes.* He had just pubhshed a volume of poems, one
bemg, as he expressed it, "to the Nymph I never saw,"
and another entitled "The American VUlage," which
was "damned by aU good and judicious judges." "It
is now late at mght," he went on, "not an hour ago I
finished a httle poem of about 400 Imes, entitled a Jour
ney to [Maryland. I mtend to write a terrible Satir upon
certam vicious persons of quahty m N. Y. — ^who have
also used me UI — and print it next fall — it shaU contain
5 or 600 Lmes — Sometimes I wrrite pastorals to show
my wit. " He was then five weeks less than twenty-one
years of age and said he was already "stiff with age."
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 237
He was a charmmg fellow, doomed, like others of his kind,
to literature, journalism and material failure. He took
to a seafaring life, lost his privateer The Aurora in the
Revolution, was captured by the British and confined on
one of the prison ships m New York harbour tiU July,
1780.* He afterwards published numerous editions of
his poems, which posterity now reads ¦^¦ith more cmiosity
than admiration, but his contemporaries hked them and
caUed him "The Poet of the Revolution. "
In the summer of 1791 Freneau annotmced to his
friends his purpose of startmg a newspaper in New Jersey,
and Madison and Henry Lee, also a Princeton man and
friend of Freneau's, had httle difficulty in inducing him
to bring his paper to PhUadelphia, and both of them acted
for him m securing subscribers.! Madison had before
this recommended him for emplo^mient in the Govem
ment service and now proposed to Jefferson to appoint
him a translator of French in the State Department.!
It was not supposed that his duties would requu-e more
than a part of his time, for his salary was fixed at $2 50
a year, which was half of the amount paid the regular
clerks in the department. This pittance was, however,
a desirable certamty to accompany the uncertamty of
editing a newspaper, but it cannot justly be caUed a sub
sidy for the editor. The first number of Tlie Gazette
appeared October 31, 1791. It had a four-column page,
and did not differ in make-up from Fenno's paper, except
that it was even worse printed. It came out Monday
and Thursday mommgs, while Fenno's Gazette appeared
on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There was a summarv
of the proceedmgs of Congress, several extracts from
private letters from different parts of the countr^- and
abroad, translations from The Leyden Gazette, official
announcements, a few advertisements, and usuaUy an
? See " Philip Freneau, the Poet of the American Revolution "
t Dept. of State MSS.
t Madison to Edmund Pendleton, September 13, 1792, " Madison's
Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 569.

238 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
essay. One appeared m the first number by C. W. Peale,
the pamter, entitled "An Account of a Person Born a
Negro, or a Very Dark Mulatto Who Afterwards Became
White;" November 17 Thomas Pame had an article on
the mmt, and three days later ]\Iadison had one on " Pop
ulation and Emigration." Thus far the paper was mUd
mannered, although it gave unusual prommence to all
reports emanatmg from the State Department. On
December 8, however, it printed a piece signed "Ameri-
canus, " which attacked some of the Administration's
acts, and this was followed by other communications
of the same tenor, levelled especially against the funding,
assumption and bank laws, and the Secretary of the
Treasury. Side by side with the long articles which
were generally able and well prepared were brief para
graphs by Freneau which were scurrilous without being
clever. Lluch of this literature of vituperation was,
however, in reply to articles of like characteristics on the
other side, and it is only fair to say that Freneau dis
closed no official secrets in his paper and displayed no
facUities for information greater than were at the com
mand of any one not connected with the Govemment.
Of course, when the proper time came Fenno accused
him of being subsidized by Jefferson. "Quere, " he
said, "whether this salary is paid him for translations;
or for pubhcations, the design of which is to vilify" those
to whom the voice of the people has submitted the ad
ministration of our public affairs," etc; to which, in the
issue of July 28, 1792, Freneau replied that the "vUe
sycophant" who thus unjustly accused him received
greater public emoluments than he from the Govemment
printing which was given him in order that he might
"poison the minds of the people:" and so on m the style
since rendered classic by the two editors of EatonswUl.
In September, 1792, Fenno attacked Madison for pat-
ronizmg Freneau, but Madison regarded the charge with
mdifference, and never concealed his agency in bringing
Freneau to Philadelphia. Freneau was appointed trans-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 239
lator, August 16, 1791, a few months before The Gazette
appeared ; he resigned October, 1793, soon after Jefferson's
retirement, and The Gazette stopped pubhcation at the
end of that month. While it lasted Washington dis
liked its attacks upon his administration extremely, and
plainly hinted to Jefferson that he ought to dismiss
Freneau from the service, but he was useful to Jefferson
and was retained. Jefferson declared to Washington in
writing and with great solemnity that beyond furnishing
Freneau with copies of The Leyden Gazette, so that
the pubhc might have good European news, he neither
wrote himself nor prompted others to write a line for The
Gazette,'^ but Jefferson had the talent of inspiring
others to do what he wished done without making a
direct request. But the articles in The Gazette always
spared Washington himself, and there is every reason to
believe that Jefferson and Madison were in the main
satisfied with the result of their effort to establish an
Anti-Federal paper.
When The National Gazette ceased publication its
place was soon filled by a number of party sheets which
far outstripped it in foulness, and the press became
furiously, recklessly violent in tone. " Peter Porcupine"
(Corbett) led for the Federalists . On September 27, 1797,
he thus wrote of a Republican Congressman: "This
is one of the most infamous wretches that ever existed.
He now stands charged with purloining the property of
chUdren, whose father he visited on his death-bed; yet
this man is a member of Congress. " Benjamin Franklin,
the grandfather of Corbett's editorial enemy, Benjamin
Franklin Bache, he alluded to pleasantly as "a crafty
and lecherous old hypocrite." Bache in The Aurora
spoke thus of Corbett: " He has not only condescended
to publish in his own paper, that he is a liar and a scoun
drel, but has contrived to get himself flogged for being
actually both. " Editors frequently engaged in personal
encounters, and certainly they deserved their floggings.
? " Jefferson's Writings " II, io6.

240 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Most of them were foreigners newly arrived in America.
"Peter Porcupine" had recently come from England,
about the same time with Thomas Cooper of The
Reading (Pa.) Advertiser; Callendar of The Richmond
Recorder was a Scotchman; Bache of The Aurora
was, it is true, an American, but upon his death in 1798
his place was taken by William Duane, born as it happened
in America, but spending his life, until he came to Phila
delphia to take part in public affairs, m Ireland, his
parents' country.*
These newspapers were a cause and an effect of partisan
bitterness. Their lurid tones were not too strong for
their readers, and at the same time fanned the flames of
the readers' hate. To quench or subdue a flre so ob
noxious and dangerous was undoubtedly a thmg to be
desired. The chief offenders were m Philadelphia, be
cause it was the capital. The Republicans were strong
in the Middle States and the Federalists were strong in
South Carolina and Maryland. The stronghold for
Federalism was, however. New England, and the strong
hold for Repubhcanism was, broadly speaking, the
South. * Wharton's " State Trials " gives a number of extracts from their
newspapers, 24, n.

CHAPTER XXV
DOLLY PAYNE
It is not strange that the East and South should have
so frequently found themselves m opposition on public
questions, for their industries, products, climate and
traditions were different. Moreover, the leaders of
thought in either section had little personal knowledge of
the other section, and more of them had been to Europe
than had travelled extensively in their own country.
The prejudice of the East agamst the South and of the
South against the East was thus based partly upon ignor
ance. "A human life, I think," says George Eliot, "should
be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may
get the love of tender kinship for the face of earth."
Such a kinship existed for Americans of the time of which
we are writing to an extraordinary degree, for they were
nearly all countrymen. It existed especiaUy for the
Virginians, whose family associations tied them to their
plantations. There their fathers had lived, and there
they expected their sons to live. They constituted a
landed aristocracy, a privileged order which governed
the State.
Fine types of the class were Jefferson, Madison and
Monroe, the two former with splendid inherited farms
of baronial extent, and Monroe bendmg his energies to
the establishment of a simUar estate. It was after the
parties formed in Congress and Jefferson became the
leader of the Repubhcans, that the three Virginians made
a league and became the three musqueteers of American
public life. Henceforth they acted together on aU ques
tions and guarded each other's interests with perfect
241

242 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
watchfulness and faithfulness. Madison and Monroe
put Jefferson's interests as paramount to their own;
Monroe was not the equal of the other two in knowledge
or influence and he was disturbed by jealousy of Madison
when the question of Jefferson's successor in the Pres
idential chair was under consideration, but the regular
co-operation of the three went on, although, of course,
they had never agreed to form an alliance.
It does not appear that Monroe ever went to New
England until he was President and made his famous tour,
and Jefferson and Madison were mature men with well-
settled political convictions, when they took a glimpse of
New England for the first time in a three-weeks' journey,
from May 20 to June 16, 1791, during a recess of Con
gress.* While Congress sat m New York they lived near one
another in Maiden Lane, Jefferson having a house and
Madison boarding with Mrs. Dorothy Ellsworth, the wife
of Mr. Verdine Ellsworth. Most of the members of Con
gress were obliged to put up with nanow accommodations,
but Mrs. Ellsworth's appears to have been a pleasant
place, and her table was popular with members of Con
gress. Madison was on good terms with her, and was
permitted to owe her part of his board when it was in
convenient for him to 'pay it all, and even to borrow from
her and use her as a sort of banker. He kept a servant
and a horse and there is no reason to believe he fared
badly.! It was different when the Govemment moved back
to Philadelphia. Yellow fever had ravaged the city
and people were afraid to live in it, the officers of the
Govemment and members of Congress preferring to live
in Germantown. There Jefferson and Monroe succeeded
in getting one room with two beds in it, and when Madison
came they took him in. They breakfasted at their lodg
ings and dmed at a tavern across the street. They were
? " Jefferson's Writings " (Ford) V, 340.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 243
better accommodated than many others, who found diffi
culty in getting even half beds. When the yellow fever
subsided there was a general movement back to Phila
delphia and a dispersion among the taverns and boarding
houses of that city. A deep gloom hung over the city,
and there were many more vacant rooms to let than there
had been the year before.
Among the boarding houses was one presided over
by a Quakeress widow, Mrs. John Payne, and her daugh
ter, Dolly Payne, whom the yellow fever had also left a
widow, her husband, John Todd, having died October 24,
and her infant son a few weeks before. Into Mrs. Payne's
lodgings was received the Senator from New York, Aaron
Burr. He and Madison had been at Princeton together,
but not of the same set, for Burr was prominent in the
Cliosophic Society, and Madison a founder of the American
Whig Society, and about these two rival organizations
clustered the social life of the college. When they met
in public service membership in the same political party
drew them together, but there is nothing to indicate that
they were ever on terms of friendship. Their natures
were antipathetic to each other. Madison was a genuine
man, of deep learning acquired because he loved it.
There was no false note, no evil tendency, no cynicism or
flippancy in him. His mind was fearless, and he neither
lied to others, nor deceived himself, nor flbbed, nor told
white hes, nor drew the long bow. It is inexplicable that
so inteUigent and straightforward a man should not have
correctly read Aaron Burr, whose character was not very
compHcate;d. He was simply a scoundrel, who held
nothing in respect, because he found nothing to respect
in himseff. He hated Washington, hounded Hamilton
to his death and sneered at Madison. He studied only
for show and was aU tinsel. He gambled with life, re
garding it as a game, and, as it happened, he was the
agent who introduced Madison to life's greatest lottery,
in which Madison drew a prize.
Although a hard-working man, Madison was not a

244 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
recluse. He was a chess player at this time,* and he
liked to mingle in the social life of Philadelphia. He
saw and admired Bun's landlady's daughter, the widow
Todd, and requested an introduction. In arranging for
it Burr's agency in the matter appears to have begun
and ended. Mrs. Todd had already heard of Madison
as "the great little Madison," and she prepared for his
visit with fluttering expectancy. Her husband had
died only a few months before, but, being a Quakeress,
she wore no mourning, and being young m years and
naturally sunny-hearted she took life as she saw it about
her and did not brood over that part of it which lay be
hind her. When she was an old woman she described
herseff to her friend Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith of Wash
ington as foUows: "My family are all Virginians except
myself, who was bom in N. Carolina, whilst my parents
were there on a visit of one year, to an Uncle. Their
families on both sides were among the most respectable,
and they, becoming members of the Society of Friends
soon after their marriage, manumitted their slaves, and
left this State for that of Pennsylvania, bearing with them
their chUdren to be educated in their religion — I believe
my age at that time was ii or 12 years — I was educated
in Philadelphia where I was married to Mr. Todd in 1790
and to Mr. Madison in '94, when I returned with him
to the soil of my Father, and to Washington, where you
have already traced me with the kindness of a sister.
In the year '91, and after the death of my Father, my
Mother received into her house some Gentlemen as
boarders — and in '93 she left Philadelphia to reside with
her daughter Washington — afterwards with my sister
Jackson — and occasionally with me."!
"Her daughter Washmgton" was the wife of General
Washmgton's nephew, George Steptoe Washington, of
Harewood, near Charlestown, West Virginia, and at her
house, September 15, 1794, by Rev. Dr. Balmaine, an
? Dept. of State MSS.
t Family papers of J. Henry Smith, Esq., of Washington.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 245
Episcopal clergyman of Winchester, a connection of
Madison's, Dolly Payne Todd and James Madison were
married after an engagement of about six months. She
was only twenty-six years old and he was forty-three.*
They made the long journey from Harewood to Mont
pelier, and set up their establishment in the old house at
Montpeher, which Madison had enlarged and which was
henceforth their home as weU as the home of Madison's
father and mother.
She participated completely in her husband's hfe and
contributed to the success of his career, for she was
troubled with no doubts about its bemg the one best
suited to him. She liked Philadelphia and Montpeher,
and afterwards Washington. She was fond of the gaiety
of the capital, but she created gaiety in the country. Her
disposition was warm, ardent and impressionable.
Her personality was sympathetic and charming. Al
though she was Quaker bred she was the opposite of a
Quaker in nature, and her bright complexion, healthy
plumpness and ready laughter were Celtic rather than
Philadelphian. She expanded in the congenial social
atmosphere of Virginia and her husband enjoyed an
extraordinary domestic felicity from the hour of his mar
riage to the hour of his death. His own temper was
genial and serene ; he was never irritated and he did not
worry about trifles. He took a keen interest in all the
household arrangements and gave his wife perfect devo
tion. He owed her a great deal and she owed him every
thing. Coming into the country of her husband, where a large
number of the people were his relatives or connections,
and where she was herself an entire stranger, she was in
a family atmosphere which was highly critical, and the
country criticism did not decrease when it was observed
that her establishment was oftener of benefit to her rela
tions than her husband's, and hers were numerous and
* See Mrs. Wilder's ' ' Dolly Madison ' ' for an interesting account of her
life.

246 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
made frequent and long visits to Montpelier, and to the
house in town. But no fault could be found by the
Madisons with Mrs. Madison when they came m contact
with her, for she treated them with a kindness which
compelled their likmg, and even when the querulousness
of great age came upon her husband's old mother she
had nothmg but commendation and affection for her
son's wife. *
Bemg now a married man and graduated from the
army of boarding-house and tavern victims Madison
carried his wffe back to Philadelphia for the session of
Congress in the wmter of 1794-95, and occupied the house
in which Monroe had lived the year before. The next
session he took a house on Spruce Street, between Fourth
and Fifth Streets, belonging to James Gamble. It was
of brick, three stories high, with two rooms on each floor,
beside the kitchen, and there was a good yard and stable.
He paid a rent of ;^2oo a year, and here he remained until
he retired from Congressional service.!
He had earned a rest and wanted to live the life which
he craved above all others, and which he now regarded
as completely satisfying his earthly wants. Dreams of
bucolic felicity with his wife for a companion floated
before him. He would improve Montpelier, indulge his
taste for architecture, and become a scientific farmer.
There would be ample opportunity for reading and pur
suing the non-political mvestigations which interested
him so much. Visitors would come and go and he would
not suffer from dulness. He would throw off the heavy
burden of public care which he had borne for twenty
years. During fourteen years of this time he had striven
mightily to save the country from wreck, and being a
man who looked the facts in the face and did not allow
his desires to govern his beliefs, there had been many
times when he thought his efforts would come to naught.
? In Orange County, Va. , the recollection of Mrs. Madison is still vivid
among members of the county families.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 247
He had lived to see those efforts crowned with a success
the glory of which he fully recognized. And, the Consti
tution having been adopted, the Union having been saved,
a nation having been created, the results of the Revolution
having been made splendid beyond his hopes, he found
himself now one of a faction, engaged in partisan bicker
ing, the victim of injustice and himself unjust, harbouring
the bitterness which party strife engenders. He was
fighting against men who had formerly fought with him
and over issues which were petty beside those of the days
before the Constitution. He did not care for victory
for victory's sake, nor for the applause which it brings.
He was really weary of the fight . As he left Congressional
service March 4, 1797, his friend Jefferson took it up as
Vice-President and President of the Senate.
More than a year before (in February, 1796) as soon as
it became known that Washington would not serve for
a third term, Madison announced to Monroe, who was
in Paris, that the Republicans knew Jefferson was the only
candidate whom they could hope to elect. He was afraid
Jefferson would mar his candidacy by announcing an
unwUlingness to serve,* but no such announcement came,
and when it became doubtful whether Jefferson would be
the President or Vice-President, he wrote to him: " You
must reconcile yourself to the secondary, as well as the
primary station."! When Madison first broached the
subject to Jefferson, the latter replied that he thought
Madison himself ought to be chosen for the Presidency,
but Madison did not deem the subject worth considering,
Jefferson being, as a matter of course, the choice of the
Republicans. Adams was elected by a majority of two votes only.
One elector from Pennsylvania, one from North Carolina,
and one from Virginia voted for him. If the electoral
votes of those States had been cast solidly Jefferson would
have been the President, and there is no doubt that aU
?"Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 83.
, t Id., II, 107.

248 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
three of the States, on a direct vote, would have voted
for him.
During the last session of Congress before his retirement
Madison took httle part m the proceedmgs. His party
was in the mmority, and the House was m control of
extremists, who paid smaU regard to the mmority's feel-
mgs or rights. When the session began, December, 1796,
Washington addressed to it his last speech, but the com
mittee appointed to draft a reply had Fisher Ames as
chairman mstead of Madison, who during his entire
Congressional service had always heretofore occupied
this post of honour. He was placed on the committee,
however, and agreed to the address submitted. It was
his coUeague Giles who made the motion to strike out
the portions of the address which spoke of the wisdom
of the Admmistration and expressed regret at Washing
ton's retirement and moved its recommitment for alter
ation ; and eight of the Virgima members moved to strike
out the clause expressing the hope that Washmgton's
example might be a guide to his successors, Madison,
Nicholas, Page and Claiborne bemg the omy ones who
voted to retam the clause.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS
From his retirement Madison watched the course of
events at Philadelphia with intense and increasing solici
tude. His own party was in the mmority. The pro
ceedings of Genet, the hideous excesses of the French
Revolutionists, and finally the contemptuous treatment
by Talleyxand of the American envoys, Marshall, Pinck
ney and Geny, and his efforts to extract from them a
bribe, combined to force many men out of the Republican
into the Federalist party more from lack of sympathy
with the former than from real sympathy with the latter.
But the Federalists were in power ; they had the President,
the Senate and the House. In the Cabinet the Secretary
of State was the most uncompromising Federalist of all.
John Adams said of Timothy Pickering, after he had
found him out : " Under the simple appearance of a bald
head and straight hair, and under professions of profound
republicanism, he concealed an ardent ambition, envious
of any superior and impatient of obscurity." He was
devoted heart and soul to Alexander Hamilton's interests
and indifferent to the interests and opmions of his chief.
He did not, therefore, share Adams's desire to avaU him
self of the "fine talents and amiable qualities and manners
of Mr. Madison." Adams told Jefferson he would Uke
to appoint Madison one of the envoys to adjust differences
with France, but Jefferson said Madison would not go,
as he had already refused foreign appointments on several
previous occasions. Adams abandoned the idea for the
additional reason that his Cabmet threatened to resign
if Madison were nominated, and the Federahst leaders of
the Senate said they would reject the nomination, if it
249

2 50 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
came before them. Alexander Hamilton, taking a
broader view of pubhc policy than his followers did,
favoured Madison's selection, but no appointment was
offered him, and he would have declined it if it had been
made, for he was perfectly honest in his desire to remain
at home for a time.
The Federalists now had control of the machinery with
which to make laws and determined upon three radical
measures to check the political activity of the aliens who
were in the country and to curb the licentiousness of the
press. The first of these laws was passed June i8, 1798,
and related to the naturalization of aliens. It prescribed
fourteen years as the probationary period of residence
necessary before an alien could be admitted to become
a citizen of the United States. In the debate on the bill
Harper of South Carolina said he thought no foreigner
ought to be admitted to citizenship, and Otis of Mass
achusetts said that none should ever be permitted to hold
office. A few days later, June 25, the Alien act was
passed. It gave the President power to expel from the
United States any alien whose presence he might judge
to be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United
States, or whom he might suspect of treasonable or secret
machinations against the Government. Masters of
vessels were required to report to him all alien passengers
brought by them into the country.
A month later, July 14, the sedition law was passed.
It provided that the printing, writing, or pubhshing of
anything false, scandalous or malicious against the Gov
ernment, President or Congress, or the stirring up of
sedition against them, or the doing of anything to bring
^¦them into contempt, should constitute a criminal offence
punishable with fine and imprisonment. The desire
for these acts originated with the leaders in Congress ;
there was no popular demand for them ; they interpreted
no popular movement ; they underwent no test before the
people before they were enacted. Timothy Pickering
was sorry they did not go further; Fisher Ames refused

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 251
to tmst John Marshall because he did not approve of
them ; John Adams fully approved of them ; so did nearly
aU of the other Federalist leaders.
As for the reception which the laws met among
Republicans it need hardly be stated. All their prog
nostications of evils sure to result from the ascendancy
of the Federalists seemed about to be fulfilled. Jefferson
believed, or fancied he believed, or at any rate tried to
make others believe, that the obnoxious laws were an
experiment to see how much the people would stand and
that if they were submitted to propositions for life tenure
of the Presidency and hereditary succession would follow.
He wrote in this sense "with unwonted excitement,"
as Randall says, to Senator Mason, of Virginia,
September 26, 1789. J. Dawson, a follower of Madison's,
wrote from the House of Representatives, July 5, 1798,
before the sedition law had been passed, that it exceeded
an3^hing that had disgraced the history of any country
pretending to be free. "What is to become of us," he
added, "I cannot tell, but think we are certainly ruined,
if the people do not come forward & exercise their
rights." Madison's own opinion was that a grave crisis in the
liberties of the country had come and that it demanded
concerted action on the part of the Republicans. Accord
ingly, under the lead of Jefferson there was a notable con
sultation between John Taylor of Carolina, the brothers
George and Wilson Cary Nicholas, John Breckinridge^
and Madison, and it was determined to obtam from the
Legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia declaratory resolu
tions against the Federal party's Constitutional tenets
in general and against the Alien and Sedition laws m par
ticular; and to invite the co-operation of the other States
in asking for a repeal of those laws and a declaration that
they were unconstitutional and consequently nuU and
void. It was intended, also, that the declaration should
be a warning to the dominant party that an attempt to
carry out the programme, of which the alien and sedition

2 52 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
laws w^ere supposed to be only a part, would cause a
revolt, peaceful if possible, but violent if necessary.
The resolutions for the Kentucky legislation were
drafted by Jefferson and amended by John Breckmridge,
who mtroduced them m the Kentucky House where
they were adopted by an almost unanimous vote.* Ken
tucky was a border State, fond of fightmg and used to it,
and indisposed to submit to authority when it became
irksome. The Alien and Sedition laws had created a fer
ment among the people and the resolutions were radical
enough to suit them. They declared that the Constitu
tion had been adopted by the States as States who
must be the judges of when the Constitution had
been broken; and that in case of the passage of an un
constitutional law the several States had a right to inter
pose and nullify such a law. The Alien and Sedition
laws were denounced as unconstitutional.
Madison had no hand in preparing the Kentucky resolu
tions and never saw them until after his own resolutions
had been introduced, but there was, of course, an agree
ment beforehand that both Virgima and Kentucky should
say substantially the same thing. Kentucky, however,
went farther than Virginia did, and the time came when
it was harder to explain the Kentucky resolutions than
it was to explain those Madison had written. As Madison
was not in the Legislature at the time, he gave the draft
of his resolutions to John Taylor of Caroline, who sub
mitted it to the House without alteration. Madison was
himself m doubt whether the State Legislatures were
really the proper instruments for dealing with a Con
stitutional question, smce they had not been permitted
to ratify the Constitution, and he had msisted in the
Constitutional Convention that it be not submitted to
them; but they had had a part in it, inasmuch as they
had called the Federal Convention which framed it, and
the State conventions which ratffied it, so he suppressed '
his scruples and used the Legislature of Virginia for his
purpose. ? Warfield's "The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798."

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 253
The Republicans of the State were in the majority, but
there was a vigorous and respectable minority of
Federalists, and the resolutions were adopted in the face
of an ably conducted opposition. The vote was 100 to 63,
and the temper of the Legislature was conservative as
compared with the temper of the Kentucky Legislature.
The draft prepared by Madison declared the Alien and
Sedition laws "unconstitutional, null, void and of no
effect, " but by general agreement the words " null, void, "
etc., although really no more than strengthening repeti
tion, were stricken out as liable to misinterpretation.
This was the only alteration made in Madison's draft.
The resolutions were eight in number. The third said:
"That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily
declare that it views the powers of the Federal Govern
ment as resulting from the compact to which the States are
parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the
instrument constituting that compact; as no further
valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated
in that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, pal
pable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted
by the said compact, the States, who are parties thereto,
have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arrest
ing the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within
their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties
appertaining to them." The fourth resolution expressed
alarm at the spirit manifested in Congress of construing
certain general phrases in the Constitution "so as to
destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumera
tion which necessarily explains and limits the general
phrases; so as to consolidate the States by degrees, into
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency, an inevitable
result of which would be to transform the present repub
lican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at
best, mixed monarchy." The fifth resolution declared
the Alien and Sedition laws "palpable and alarming"
infractions of the Constitution. The Ahen act exercised
power in no place granted in the Constitution, the Sedition

2 54 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
act exercised power expressly forbidden. The sixth
resolution said that as Virginia [Madison himself] had
proposed the amendment to the Constitution confirming
the liberty of the press, it would be unbecoming if she
should show indifference to a violation of the amendment.
Resolution seven said: "That the good people of this
Commonwealth, having ever felt and continuing to feel
the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other
States, the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuat
ing the union of all and the most scrupulous fidelity to
that Constitution, which is the pledge of mutual friend
ship, and the mstrument of mutual happiness, the General
Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions
of the other States, m confidence that they will concur
with this Commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby
declare, that the aforesaid acts are unconstitutional ; and
that the necessary and proper measures will be taken
by each for co-operatmg with this State, in maintaining
unimpaired the authorities, rights, and hberties reserved
to the States respectively, or to the people. " The eighth
resolution provided for sending the resolutions to the
executives of the States for the Legislatures and to the
Senators and Representatives of Virginia m Congress.
On January lo, 1799, the Assembly resolved that the
State would co-operate with the authorities of the general
Govemment in maintaining the "independence. Union,
and Constitution" against all foreign powers, and that
it was a calumny to charge that any party in the State
was under the influence of any foreign power ; that they
beheld " with mdignation " depredations on the commerce
of the country, impressments of seamen, and other insults
by foreign nations ; but that a standing army was unneces
sary and the policy of the United States forbade a war
of aggression; that they would repel invasion at eveiy
hazard, but deplored the evils of war from any other
cause. On January 23 rd was adopted an address to the people
of the State. It was a vigorous arraignment of the Alien

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 255
and Sedition laws. Non-acquiescence in infractions of
the Constitution was, it said, necessary, otherwise there
would be a speedy consolidation, or upon repetition of the
infractions a revolution by the people aroused "in the
majesty of their strength. "
Madison was elected a member of the Legislature in
the fall of 1799. All the Republican members of the
Virginia delegation in the National House of Represen
tatives had united in begging him to return to public life.
They wrote to him from Philadelphia, February 7, 1799:
"While the sentiments we entertain of your Talents,
your experience & your Probity, have made your absence
from the pubhc councils, a subject of our very serious
regret, our Confidence in the justness of your Motives
assures us, that you stand completely justified.
"At the same time the Growth & conduct of the execu
tive Party, since your retirement, have continued more
& more to render the Inaction of republican Principles
& Talents deplorable & injurious.
" Our extreme Solicitude to give energy to those virtues,
in every possible direction, has urged us jointly to address
you. We hope that obstacles to your serving in the
State legislature, may be less imperious, than those by
which you were withdrawn from that of the Union — it is
quite needless to point out to you, the powerful agency of
wise and firm State measures in preserving the general
govemment within the just Limits of the Constitution,
which from the nature of things, it must be ever struggling
to transcend: but our present position enables us to
discover, perhaps more clearly, the perseverance & success
of those struggles. . . .
"We should be wanting in the Social Duties we pro-
fesSj if we dechned to invite you with earnestness, to take
part in the councils of your State.
"Pretensions founded as yours are, can scarcely fail of
success— our utmost aid, if it shall be in any way appli-
able, and our ardent wishes wiU attend you in the ex
periment. "

256 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
This was signed by Walter Jones, John Nicholas, Carter
H. Harrison, Joseph Eggleston, Abraham B. Venable
and Richard Brent.*
The only rephes to the Kentucky and Virgmia resolu
tions ever made were dissentmg resolutions from the
Legislatures of the five New England States and New
York and Delaware, and Madison wrote as a defence a
report explanatory of the Virginia resolutions, which
the Legislature adopted. The Constitution, it said, was,
at the time its adoption was under discussion, constantly
defended by the argument that the powers it did not
express had been withheld from it, and the Twelfth
amendment specfficaUy expressed this. It was a com
pact between the States, meanmg the people composing
the several States m their highest sovereign capacity.
That they had a right to interpose "in case of a deliberate,
palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not
granted by the said compact" seemed plain. "Where
resort can be had to no tribunal superior to the authority
of the parties, the parties themselves must be the rightful
judges, m the last resort, whether the bargain made has
been pursued or violated. " The resolutions, he went on,
proposed such mterposition only when the breach of the
Constitution was deliberate, dangerous, and plain to all
men, and only for the purpose of anestmg the evil of
^ usurpation. It was objected that the judicial authority
should be construed as the sole expositor of the Con
stitution in last resort, but there might be forms of usur
pation that could never be drawn within the control of
the judicial department, and furthermore "if the decision
of the judiciary could be raised above the authority of
the sovereign parties to the Constitution, the decisions of
the other departments, not carried by the forms of the
Constitution before the judiciary, must be equaUy author
itative and final with the decisions of that department. "
The resolutions related to "those great and extraordinary
cases in which aU the forms of the Constitution may prove
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 257
ineffectual against infractions dangerous to the essential
rights of the parties to it. " If the judiciary concurred
in usurpation the subversion of the Govemment was
complete. The resolutions and the report were welcomed by Madi
son's friends: "Your Report upon the Resolutions of
the last assembly, " wrote Rev. James Madison, January 9,
1800, "cannot be too highly estimated by every real
Friend to free & rational Government; & particularly
by those who are most attached to a federal Gov't — You
have really swept the Augean Stable; at least you have
cleansed the Constitution from that Filth which ambition,
avarice & Ignorance were heaping up around it. If the
Doctrine respecting common Law; if the continued Ex
tension of the Powers of the federal Legislature, & federal
executive; if also judicial subserviency to executive
measures; if, too, the mad ambition of forming navies
and standing armies, should prevail; or rather be the
constant end & aim of all federal measures, it would not
require the Spirit of Prophesy to foretell the Result.
One or other of these evils must ensue. The Union will
suffer a convulsive Death; or, we shall enjoy a quitum
servitium, than which I can safely say a thousand times
malo periculosam libertatem."
The Virginia resolutions enunciated doctrines which
Madison had always advocated. One feature of the
Virginia plan which he had unsuccessfuUy advocated in
the Constitutional Convention lodged in the Federal
Congress a right of negative over State laws and in a
council a similar revision power over national laws, to
curb legislative power. In the Federalist (No. XLIV)
he pointed out that the danger of republican governments
was to aggrandize the legislature at the expense of the
other departments of government, and that whenever any
one department encroached upon another there should
be an appeal to the people to declare the full meaning
and enforce the observance of the charter of powers
for "preventing and correcting infractions of the con-

258 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
stitution. " In the first Congress he was alarmed at the
power assumed by Congress. "In tmth, " he wrote,
"the legislative power is of such a nature that it scarcely
can be restrained, either by the Constitution or by itseh;
and if the Federal Govemment should lose its proper
equilibrium within itself, I am persuaded that the effect
will proceed from the encroachments of the Legislative
Department." In 1792 Washington vetoed the act of
Congress apportioning the Representatives among the
several States, because it violated the Constitutional
requirement that the apportionment be by population
and not more than one to every 30,000 of inhabitants;
and in 1794 the Supreme Court declared the act of March
23, 1792, conferring upon United States courts jurisdic-
"''tion over claims for invalid pensions to be unconstitu
tional, because it was an attempt to confer upon the court
power which was not judicial. Both of these checks upon
Congressional power Madison commended as encouraging
signs.* The Supreme Court had not yet, however, as
serted roundly the right to declare an act of Congress,
not concerning the judiciary, unconstitutional, and did
not do so until Marshall rendered his decision in the case of
Marbury vs. Madison in 1803.
?"Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 554-

CHAPTER XXVII
THE MADISON DOCTRINE AND NULLIFICATION
Madison's explanatory report of the Virginia resolu
tions having been given to the world and a solemn protest
against the Alien and Sedition laws having been re
corded by the Kentucky Legislature, the incident passed
into history. John Adams never put the Alien
law into operation, and no trial under the Sedition
law took place in Kentucky ; but in Virginia the wretched
James Thompson Callender was peacefully tried for
printing a scurrilous article against the President and
other Federalists. The judge was Samuel Chase, who
had declared before the trial came off his determination
to root up a reed so rank, and at another of the sedition
trials this judge said he did not see on what authority
the Supreme Court could declare an act of Congress un
constitutional.* When the contest for the Presidency
was being waged in 1800 Chase absented himself from
the bench to stump Maryland for the Federalists, thereby
leaving the court without a quorum; for Ellsworth, the
Chief Justice, was absent as Minister to France. William
Patterson, another judge, tried Matthew Lyon for sedi
tion and showed clearly enough his thorough sympathy
with the obnoxious law.
The Supreme Court was not at this time the calm,
independent body it subsequently became, nor was it
completely aloof from political or administrative affairs.
John Jay, the first Chief Justice, acted as Secretary of
State for nearly six months after his elevation to the
bench. He was stiff Chief Justice when he negotiated
the treaty with England which excited such furious party
?Wharton's "State Trials," 42, et seq.
259

26o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
discussion, and his effigy was frequently burned by those
who did not like his political views. John Rutiedge 's
nomination as Chief Justice was rejected in 1795 by a
Federalist Senate purely on political grounds. For half
the time that Ellsworth was Chief Justice he was absent
from the bench serving as Minister to France, and to fiU
this office meant certam entanglement with political par
ties ; and John Marshall himseff performed the duties of
Secretary of State and Chief Justice at the same time.
It was after Jefferson's election and Marshall's dominance
of the Court began that its separate and superior functions
operated and were recognized.
There is grim humour in the fact that the next time the
Virginia resolutions were invoked was by an assemblage
of New England Federalists. The Hartford Convention
of 1814, called to protest against the measures of James
Madison, President of the United States, used this language
in the course of its report:
"That acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution
are absolutely void is an undeniable position. But in
cases of deliberate, dangerous and palpable infractions of
the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and
liberties of the people, it is not only the right but the duty of
such a State to interpose its authority for their protection in
the manner best calculated to secure that end. When
emergencies occur which are either beyond the reach of
the judicial tribunals or too pressing to admit of the
delay mcident to their forms. States which have no
common umpire must be their own judges and execute
their own decisions."
This adaptation of Madison's words passed with little
notice at the time, the Hartford Convention being almost
universally reprobated as a disloyal assemblage of mal
contents ; but if the malcontents merely threatened dis
union they were no worse than others before and after
them. The truth is that before the question of the right of
secession was definitely settled by the CivU War there
was hardly an important question before Congress that

MFE OF JAMES MADISON 261
did not arouse sectional jealousy and suggestions of dis
union from one side or the other. This cloud was always
threatening m the sky and it assumed its stormiest aspect
in 1828-32 when the Nullification Party formed in South
Carolina. The doctrine advocated by that party, stripped
of its philosophy and compressed into a simple sentence,
was that each State had the right to judge of the constitu
tionality of acts of Congress, and whenever a State should
decide that a Federal law was unconstitutional it had a
right to interpose and nullify the law within its borders.
It is necessary to glance at the nullification movement to
understand what Madison really meant by his resolu
tions of 1798, for his last important writings, when he was
over eighty years of age but still in undisputed possession
of his mental faculties, were a vigourous explanation that
the nullification doctrine was an absurd deduction from
the Virginia declarations he had written.*
These declarations were intended, he said, to solve the
interesting question of what should be done in the event
of controversies involving the partition line between the
powers belonging to the Federal and State Governments.
Manifestly the Supreme Court was the immediate pro
vision, but the ultimate resort was another thing, and
the parties to the compact were the judges in last resort
according to the Virginia resolutions. The South Caro
linians, he explained, charged that the majority was
oppressing the minority through the forms of government,
while the charge against the Alien and Sedition laws was
that they were Government measures which violated the
wiU of the constituents. When the Virginia resolutions
were passed it was asserted by the dominant party that
a State Legislature had no right to interpose even a
legislative declaration against a national law, nor against
an opinion of the Supreme Court. The resolutions were
a protest against this theory. When bad laws were
passed there were three remedies. First, the checks pro
vided in the constitution itself ; second, the baUot ; third,
* Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 204, et seq.

2 62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
an appeal to the power that made the Constitution, and
consequently can explain, alter or unmake it. The
resolutions invoked the third remedy. As the report
adopted by the Legislature in explanation of the resolu
tions showed, they were at most declaratory and usurped
none of the offices of the judiciary. They were an ex
pression of opinion, and asked for concerted action by the
States to secure repeal of the obnoxious laws or an ex
planatory amendment to the Constitution; for it was
an undisputed fact that while the Constitution was made
by the people it was made by them as embodied m several
States. The Virginia resolutions assumed that the
States could mterpose, notwithstanding a decision of the
Supreme Court, as they were the parties to the Constitu
tion and paramount to it. But the resolutions always
used the plural term States, and the interposition con
templated was not to be a single but a concurrent inter
position. A concert of action against a usurpation of
power was the keynote to the movement . There could be
no tribunal above the States, and they must be the ones
to decide when the compact was violated; otherwise
there could be no remedy for tyranny. The resolutions
were an enunciation of first prinicples — of the sovereignty
of the people over their Constitution. A great deal had
been made of the fact that the Virginia Legislature had
passed laws relating to an armoury and the preservation
for members of the Legislature of the right of habeas
corpus proceedmgs, as though they expected to be at
tacked. The Armoury law was, however, passed before
the Alien and Sedition laws, and the Habeas Corpus law
was a general one applicable to other as well as Federal
arrests. South Carolma nullification Madison character
ized as nothmg but " an anomalous conceit. " That any
State could remain a party to the Constitution and nullify
a law of the United States was simply absurd. The Gov
ernment was no mere power of attorney revocable at the
will of one of the parties granting it. No State could at
will secede from its constitutional compact with the other

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 263
States; the others must consent, or there must be "an
abuse of the compact absolving the seceding party from the
obligations imposed by it." No support for nullification,
he said, could be extracted from Jefferson's writings. He
spoke of it as a natural right, not a constitutional right.
The Kentucky resolutions, Madison admitted, were less
guarded than were those of Virginia. He defended them
incidentally, however, and insisted that the term "nullifi
cation" as used in them was meant to apply "to extreme
cases as alone justifying a resort to any forcible relief."
When the nullification doctrine appeared the Virginia
Legislature resolved by a vote almost unanimous that the
Virginia resolutions of 1798 did not support it, and
Madison wrote to Edward Livingston: "The doctrine
of nullification [is] as new to me as it was to you." The
conclusion is inevitable that those public men who were
personally concemed m the movement of 1798 and who
saw the South Carolina doctrine appear in 1828 did not
believe that the former furnished a fair foundation upon
which to build the latter. Thomas Jefferson Randolph,
Jefferson's grandson, wrote to Madison in 1833 to say
that people were trying to connect Jefferson with the new
creed. Randolph had indignantly denied the justice of
this and asked Madison to corroborate him, which Madi
son promptly did.* Thomas H. Benton was in the Sen
ate when Calhounism was first preached in that body.
As a firm Democrat, having Jefferson for his patron
saint and presumably familiar with Jefferson's tenets, he
declared that, although the nullification party had taken
its name from a word used in the Kentucky resolutions,
and used these resolutions to support its arguments, the
creed had really origmated after the enactment of the
tariff of 1828 and was not held by Jefferson.! In 1829,
when Hayne of South Carolina, to support this position!
quoted the Virginia resolutions, Daniel Webster denied
* New York Public Library (Lenox) MSS.
t Benton's " Thirty Years' View," I, 138.

264 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
that they furnished him an argument, and said they were
merely an assertion of a right to dissent from Govemment
measures and of the right of revolution.* Albert Gallatin
was an old man and no longer m public life when the
NuUification Party formed. Thirty years before he had
defended Edward Livingston from censure for an in
flammatory speech against the Alien and Sedition laws
by saying he concuned m thinkmg the people had a right
to resist unconstitutional laws, although an appeal should
flrst be made to the judiciary. He now pronounced
South Carolma' s position to be "outrageous and un
justifiable."! Apparently, also, "nullification" was
hitherto unheard of by him.
Edward Livingston, as Secretary of State under An
drew Jackson, wrote the great proclamation against the
nulhfiers. His authorship is proved, not by the fact
that a draft of the proclamation m his hand was left
by him among his papers,! for such a draft might
have been made by him from Jackson's notes, but by the
identity of the constitutional arguments in the proclama
tion with those employed by Livingston, first in his
speeches m Congress m 1796, and afterward upon his re
turn to public life m 1824. In the interval his views had .
become less radical, and he said he no longer feared as he
had formerly the assumption of undelegated power by
the general govemment, but that his republican senti
ments had undergone no change. In 1796, m opposing
the enactment of the Alien and Sedition laws, he said:
"My opinions, Sir, on this [the constitutional] subject
are explicit and I wish they may be known: they are
that whenever our laws manifestly infringe the Con
stitution under which they are made, the people ought
not to hesitate which they should obey. Thus, Sir, one
of the first effects of measures such as this, if they be not
? Id, I, 140.
t Adams's "Gallatin," 648.
X The papers are in the possession of his kinsman, Carleton Hunt,
LL. D., at Livingston's country seat, Montgomery on the Hudson.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 265
acquiesced in, will be disaffection among the people to
your Government — tumults, violations and recurrence to
first revolutionary principles." Again, in another speech
he said: "Nor could he see how acts made contrary to
the Constitution could be binding upon the people; un
less gentlemen said Congress may act in contravention
to the Constitution," and in replying to a question by
Otis of Massachusetts he said the judges of an infraction
of the Constitution were to be the people of the United
States. The proclamation of 1 8 3 2 said : ' ' The ordinance
[of nullification] is founded, not on the indefeasible right
of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and
too oppressive to be endured." . . . There are two
appeals to an unconstitutional act passed by Congress
— one to the judiciary and the other to the people of the
States." He paraphrased in the proclamation part of a
speech on international improvements made by him in
1824: "The State Governments, although they did not
finally adopt, yet gave it [the Constitution] their previous
assent, without which it would not have been submitted
to the people." Another sentence of the proclamation
must be quoted: "The discovery of this important
feature [the right of nullification] in our Constitution was
reserved for the present day. To the statesmen of South
Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of
that State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it
to practice." There is really nothing in the Virginia reso
lutions that could not have been written by the same
hand which wrote the proclamation.
Madison said that Livingston's speech on "The Foot
Resolutions" delivered in the Senate, March 13, 1830,
shortly before he became Secretary of State, expressed
his views. Livingston said : "It was an attribute of the
sovereignty of the States to watch over the operations
of the General Govemment and protect its citizens from
unconstitutional measures. An act in the opinion of a
State palpably unconstitutional, but affirmed by the
Supreme Court, could be met —

266 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
"By remonstrating against it to Congress.
"By an address to the People in their elective functions
to change or instruct their representatives ;
"By a similar address to the other States, in which they
will have a right to declare that they consider the act as un
constitutional and therefore void;
"By proposing amendments to the Constitution in the
manner pointed out by that instrument ;
"And, finally, if the act be tolerably oppressive, and
they find the General Government persevere in enforcing
it, by a resort to the natural right which every people
have to resist extreme oppression."
Nullification by a single State was, he said, not implied
by any right of sovereignty "not warranted by practice
or contemporaneous exposition, nor implied by the true
construction of the Virginia resolutions of 1898."*
Madison wrote to Henry Clay to say he fully approved
of Clay's speech at Cincinnati, August 3, 1832, in which
Clay said the doctrine of nullification was as new as it
would be alarming, if it were sustained by numbers in
proportion to the zeal and fervid eloquence of its friends.
"I call it a novel doctrine. I am not unaware that at
tempts have been made to support it on the authority of
certain acts of my native and adopted States [Virginia
and Kentucky]. ... At the epoch of 1798-9, I had
just attained my majority, and although I was too young
to share in the public councils of my country, I was ac
quainted with many of the actors of that memorable
period; I knew their views, and formed and freely ex
pressed my own opinions on passing events. The then
administration of the General Government was believed
to entertain views . . . hostile to the existence of the
liberties of this country. The Alien and Sedition laws,
particularly, and other measures, were thought to be the
consequences and proofs of these views. If the adminis
tration had such a purpose, it was feared that the extreme
case, justifying forcible resistance, might arise, but no one
?Htmt's "Life of Edward Livingston," 345.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 267
believed that, in point of fact, it had arrived. No one
contended that a single State possessed the power to
annul the deliberate acts of the whole. . . . The doc
trines of that day, and they are as true at this, were, that
the Federal Government is a limited government; that
it has no powers but the granted powers. Virginia con
tended that in case of a palpable, deliberate and danger
ous exercise of other powers not granted by said compact,
the States, who are parties thereto, have the right to inter
pose for arresting the evil, and for maintaining, within
their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liber
ties appertaining to them. Kentucky declared that the
'several States that framed that instrument, the Federal
Constitution, being sovereign and independent, have the
unquestionable right to judge of its infractions, and a
nullification by those sovereigns of all unauthorized acts,
done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful
remedy.' . . . The power of a single State to annul
an act of the whole has been reserved for the discovery
of some politicians in South Carolina."*
But the politicians of South Carolina had in reality been
discussing for some years academically the question of
whether this right existed, and some of them thought
Virginia had said it existed. The State was Federahst
in 1798, and even approved the Alien and Sedition laws,
and it continued to have a large body of Federalist or Whig
voters for many years afterwards. In 182 1 the publica
tion of Yates's "Minutes of Debates in the Constitutional
Convention" drew forth this comment from The Southern
Patriot and Commercial Advertiser, one of the chief news
papers of Charleston: "Let us be assured of the ground
on which we stand; and whether any member of the
States constituting less than a majority of the people of
the Union have a right to declare the Constitution vio
lated whenever they may conceive their rights infringed.
. . . Let the people resume the power granted when
ever it be abused, but let no single State assume the ex-
* Works of Henry Clay, V, 401.

268 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
travagant pretension of judging of such abuse under the
plea of defending the sovereignty of the States. . . .
A single State, therefore, or any number, comprising less
than a majority of the people of the United States, can
have no right in good faith to release themselves from the
compact by which the whole are bound to submit in cer
tain cases to the decisions of that tribunal [the Supreme
Court]. "If a majority of the people of the Union conceive this
Court tyrannical, let them say so. . . . But untU
this manifestation of popular feeling takes place, we hold
it to be the duty of the minority, whether consisting of
one or more States, to submit in silence, because there can
be no case of flagrant tyranny or wrong."*
John C. Calhoun was then the very man who did not
follow a narrow constitutional construction. "He has,"
said a newspaper defender in 1822, "invariably depre
cated refined [constitutional] subleties and far-fetched
constructions, contending that as the Constitution was
intended for the people, it ought to be construed by the
plain and obvious maxims of common sense. It is to
politicians of a different character that we are indebted
for those technical and lawyer-like refinements which wiU
carry the Constitution in either direction to any extent,
even to the confines of anarchy and rebeUion." This
writer drew a contrast between the views of the public
men of South Carohna and Virginia. "The former look
upon the General Government as the guardian of the
rights of the whole Union, and maintain that whatever
powers it has under the Constitution are essentially su
preme, and that the State Governments cannot interfere
with the exercise of those powers ; the latter conceive that
the General Government can exercise no power that they
may please to think a violation of the sovereignty of the
States . The former believe that when aU the departments
of the General Government have affirmed the constitu-
? Files of South Carolina newspapers in the Charleston Library
Society, Charleston, S. C.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 269
tionality of an act of Congress, no State has a right to
oppose it by penal laws any more than certain other
States had a right to oppose, positively or negatively, the
late war with Great Britain — whereas, the latter contend
that a State, being sovereign, has a right to decide for
herself whether the General Government has exceeded its
power or not, and to refuse to yield obedience to its laws
accordingly." It was the threat of the tariff of 1828 that changed the
tone of public opinion in the State. During the summer
of 1827 the people of the various districts held meetings
and resolved that a tariff having in view the encourage
ment of domestic manufactures was contrary to their free
and chartered rights. "Our national pact is broken,"
they cried, and a large and growing sentiment in favour
of the separation of South Carolina from the Union was
manifested. The Union party of the State sounded the
warning that the project of disunion was not the fantasy
that Northem optimists believed it to be. On July 4, at a
public dinner of the American Revolutionary Society, one
of the toasts was : " The Union of the States — to be pre
served only by mutual concession, not by unequal taxa
tion." A public meeting in the Colleton District of
South Carolina resolved: "That the adhesion of the
State of South Carolina to the Union should depend upon
the unconditional repeal by the present or next Congress
of the tariff laws of 1816, 1824 and 1828, so far as they
confiict with the constitutional rights of our citizens."
"We may charge New England," said the City Gazette of
Charleston, the organ of the Union party, "with having
produced the Hartford Convention, an assemblage of
traitors to their country ! But if we look at home we
may find kindred spirits to the Hartford Conventionists,
who have been and are now both secretly sowing the
seeds of disunion throughout the State, and who are only
waiting a favourable opportunity to sap the foundation
of the Constitution and apply the torch of the incendiary
to the sacred temple of our liberties."

2 70 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The two parties m the State were the Union party and
the NuUffiers, and the former, which until 1832 was proba
bly numericaUy the stronger, regarded the latter as
composed simply of disunionists. "But this everlasting
cant," said the Camden, S. C, Gazette, "of devotion to the
Union, accompanied by a recommendation to do those
acts that must necessarily destroy it, is beyond patient
endurance from a people not absolutely confined m their
own madhouses." Many of the so-called NuUffiers, in-
cludmg some of the leaders of the party, were careless
about their complicated creed and prefened the simplicity
of rebeUion*. Harriet Martineau, who visited Charleston
when the excitement was at its height, said: "If not a
smgle import duty had ever been imposed there would
still have been the contrasts which they cannot endure to
perceive between the thriving States of the North and
their own. Now, when they see the flourishmg villages
of New England, they cry 'we pay for all this.'"! The
contemporaneous hterature of South Carolma at this
time teems with this idea. Why was the State so poor ?
Why were so many of the people in debt? Why was
there no emigration to the State ? A tariff law unequal
m its benefits was a fact visible to them in their suffering,
and they set their teeth in it and worried it, as a dog does
a stick which by itself cannot harm him. They would do
away with it peaceably or forcibly, with or without sepa
ration from the Union, and the Kentucky and Virginia
resolutions they took as a basis upon which to construct
a constitutional argument, but there would have been the
same resistance to the law, and m effect the same rebellion,
if the resolutions had never been written and if Calhoun
had never wrought from them his wonderful doctrine.
? This fact was vouched for to the author in Charleston some years
ago by a distinguished survivor of the Nulhfication period, United
States Judge George S. Bryan, whose source of information was per
sonal knowledge.
¦j- Society in America.

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SECRETARY OP STATE
If Jefferson was strong with the people when he came
so near being elected President in 1 796, he was stronger in
1800, when four years of Federal rule had filled them with
disgust and fear.
That the Republicans should be successful in obtaining
the Government was Madison's ardent wish. He did
not, therefore, object to trials under the Sedition law, for
he knew that its vigourous enforcement would strengthen
his party. Prudence on the part of the Republicans
cooperating with the recklessness of the Federalists would
drive the latter from power. When it became evident
that the selection of the President would devolve upon
the House of Representatives he was alarmed lest
Burr might be smuggled in, but he did not believe
that Adams would lend himself to so contemptible
a scheme. The possibility of the House making no
choice, thus involving an interregnum in the office
of President, was seriously considered, and he concluded
that if it occuned the best course would be for the
two candidates having a majority of the votes to call
Congress together by joint proclamation. While the
election was still pending Jefferson urged him to come
to Washington, but he thought it would be impolitic to
appear on the scene until the question of the Presidency
was settled; and furthermore his father died February 27,
1801, and he was detained at home by private affairs.
He had agreed before the election to accept the chief post
in Jefferson's cabinet, and when it became known that
Jefferson had been elected it was known at the same time
who was to be the Secretary of State.
271

2 72 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The two men were in striking contrast m many par
ticulars. Jefferson was six feet two mches taU, sunny-
faced, loose-jomted, and careless m his apparel. He was a
talkative man and a man of speculative phUosophy, and
he often pursued an idea to conclusions which were
apparently logical enough and yet plamly m violation of
common sense and the experience of mankmd. This
characteristic opened to criticism and ridicule many of
the things he said and wrote, but whatever he did was
more carefully weighed. Being the most conspicuous
man m America, aU that he said was repeated, iladison,
when he was present, used to adroitly moderate the ex
treme views he advanced, and after his death made the
plea that aUowance ought to be made for his unthinking
verbal mdiscretions ; but his enemies found m them good
weapons to use agamst him. He was at the same time a
great pohtical phUosopher and the greatest party leader
our countr}- has ever produced. He gave form and sub
stance to a pohtical philosophy which is imperishable,
and his party stUl appeals to his name wmenever it makes
a new declaration of principles. Among the men of his
time no one had as large a foUowmg as he. The masses
of the people looked upon him as the great apostle of the
equal rights of man, and the educated class saw in him a
scholar and a man of refined breeding. As he was be
loved, so was he hated, mtensely, and against no other
of our pubhc men has there survived so extensive a litera
ture of hatred. His enemies accused him of a hundred
crimes. Because he fled when Tarleton captured Char-
lottesvUle during the Revolution, instead of remaining to
be captured or kUled, he was caUed a coward. Because
he was latitudinarian m his rehgious views, he was de
nounced as an atheist, and the clergy of New England
shook the figure of anti-Christ at their congregations and
told them it was Thomas Jefferson. He was looked upon
as a man of grossly impure private hfe, but the charge
was a common one against Southern planters and was
false. He was beheved to have paid or suborned the

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 273
most scurrilous scandal-breeders of the Republican press,
and the charge had a basis of truth, the fact bemg that he
encouraged them when he found them useful.
So strong was the light in which he stood that Madison
was almost hidden in the shadow, for Madison had done
nothing to startle the world and made no effort to obtrude
himself upon its notice. Yet strangers were impressed
favourably by Madison's simple, courteous manners and
his dignified modesty, and they all admitted the charm
of his conversation. Sir Augustus Foster, the British
Minister, reported to his Government that he was a better
informed man than Jefferson, "and moreover a social,
jovial and good-humoured companion, full of anecdote,
sometimes rather of a loose description, but oftener of a
political and historical interest."* A sense of humour
was not prominent in Jefferson, and if m Madison it
sometimes took a broader tone than propriety now per
mits, it must be remembered that the jests of his day
were not overdelicate ; and the tradition is good that
Washington himself was not averse to hearmg and even
making jokes which Smollett or Fieldmg might have
chronicled. Madison was a more careful talker than
Jefferson and less speculative m thought, and he wrote
with rare purity and directness. This has been attributed
by his biographer, Mr. Rives, to the fact of his havmg been
a student of Addison, but a more reasonable explanation
is that his style reflected his nature, which was not unlike
Addison's in its purity, unaffectedness and scholarly and
humourous bent. He never, however, wrote other than
seriously, and nearly all his letters are nanatives of events.
Jefferson could not make a speech, and Madison was one
of the best speakers of his time. His views of public
policy were carefully formed and he had the constructive
ability which Jefferson lacked. The qualities of leader
ship of Jefferson united with the more practical wisdom
of Madison m forming a remarkable combmation of
talent at the head of the new admmistration.
? Henry Adams's "History of the United States," I, 190.

2 74 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Into the ragged, unbuilt town, whose location on the
banks of the Potomac his exertions had made possible,
came Madison and his wife in the spring of 1801. That
it was to be their place of residence for sixteen eventful
years was a possibility which his mind may have enter
tained, for the people were better satisfied with the new
Govemment than they had been with the old, and one
reason for their satisfaction was that Madison, in whom
all Republicans and many Federahsts had confidence,
was the Secretary of State. His party, if it managed
its conduct skilfully, might retain power for a long time,
and the mantle of his chief would naturally fall upon his
shoulders. The position accorded Madison in the official and social
world of the little capital was second only to the Presi
dent's. The President being a widower, the White House
was presided over only occasionally by one of his daugh
ters, so Mrs. Madison took her place at the head of Wash
ington society. It was a small circle, composed of Gov
ernment officials, a half-dozen diplomats and a few George
town and country families. An unwritten but generally
observed law restricted it to people of polite breeding.
Although the party of the common people was in power,
the leaders were, generally speaking, gentlemen who
selected their associates in private life carefully.
The scale of hving of the Secretary of State was a lavish
one. When he first came to Washington he took a small
house, which in the course of a year he gave up for a more
commodious one next door to his friend. Dr. William
Thornton. It stood on the north side of Bridge Street
(now M Street), west of High Street (now 3 2d Street),
in Georgetown,* and belonged to one Nicholas Voss. He
paid at first $600 a year rental, which was afterwards
reduced to $500, and this was nearly twice as much as
similar accommodations would have cost in Philadelphia.
The house was modest enough, but Madison now branched
? The author is indebted to Hugh T. Taggart, Esq., of Washington,
for this identification.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 275
out into many extravagances, making considerable per-
chases of fine porcelain, plate and glass, and importing
large quantities of fine wines. Hermitage, White Virgin,
White Cotillon, etc., besides olives, olive oil, preserved
fruits and other delicacies. In 1802 he bought a fine
coach, second-hand, made in Philadelphia, paying for it
$510, and an expensive silver-plated harness. He
indulged his taste for good horses, and in partnership
with Thorton owned a race horse, although it does not
appear that they put him on the track. He lived like a
rich man, but his payments were not always made
promptly. Mr. Voss had occasionally to remind him
that his rent was overdue, and sometimes a creditor
politely dunned him, but a number of his friends owed
money to him, and he was never charged with avoiding
his pecuniary obligations. He had, in fact, a considerable
amount of property. He owned a house in Philadelphia
which he rented to Stephen Moylan for $200 a year,* and
by his father's will had absolute control of the Montpelier
tract of 1,800 acres of productive land, and a farm on the
Rapidan River in Culpepper County of 475 acres.! He
had half ownership in a farm of 2 19 acres in Louisa County,
and the whole of the farm adjoining Montpelier, which
his father had given him many years before, besides an
interest in enormous tracts of wild Ohio and Kentucky
lands, which his father had patented. He owned, partly
by purchase of his own and partly by mheritance, a
number of negroes. He had acquired several lots in
Washington and some stock in a few enterprises. His
salary as Secretary of State was $5,000 a year, and of
ready money he had not much in addition, for his
farms absorbed the income they yielded. But in spite
of the fact that he was often embarrassed in paymg
for his open-handed hospitality, the social side of the
life in Washington must have been pleasant, and his wife
made it eminently successful by attaining a general
? Department of State MSS.
! Orange County, Va., MSS. records.

2 76 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
popularity, which she made contributory to her husband's
success. The political side of Washington life presented, es
pecially in the beginning, a vexatious aspect, which must
have sorely taxed the patience of a man unaccustomed as
Madison was to deal with what is known as practical
politics. The Republican party was composed of two
schools — the radicals, who desired to keep the ranks of
the party unbroken by dividing among them the spoils of
office and driving the Federalists out, and the moderates,
who wished to pursue a conciliatory course toward the
Federalists in order to attract to themselves the milder
Federalists. The Federalists had been in control of the
executive branch of the Government during the greater
part of the eight years of Washington's administration
and during the whole of Adams's four years, and it natu
rally fell about, in the absence of any compulsory rule to
prevent it, that the Federalist upper officials had generally
surrounded themselves with Federalist under officials,
and there were few Republicans m appointive offices.
Jefferson's intention when he entered upon the Presidency
was to fill vacancies as they occurred with Republicans
and thus gradually secure to his party an even repre
sentation, but a clamour arose among the Republicans
for quicker methods and he yielded to it. The pressure
did not differ in character from that which greets a new
President at the present day, and was met in the same
accommodating spirit. As second in the administration
and nearest friend to the President, Madison received
many applications for office, but he did not receive as
many as Gallatin, and he did not participate in the dis
tribution of patronage, which was accomplished by the
President himself with the aid of politicians having
knowledge of local political conditions. What the radical
Republicans expected was made plain to Madison. Just
before he came to Washington, William Irvine, of Car
lisle, Pennsylvania, wrote to him :
"Many of us, you and I amongst the first, have been

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 277
some years past vilely traduced, as men who were using
every effort (insidiously, too) to destroy the Government.
. . . They all now, at the present moment, affect
great moderation, speak of conciliation as very desirable,
extoU the President's speech, etc., etc. But mark the
end. They expect and wish conciliation all on one side.
So soon as they find that they and friends are to be dis
missed from office, they will bounce and kick. . . .
On general principles I am persuaded it will be highly m-
jurious to the Republican interest if the changes are not
pretty general. ... If they are not turned out, m
due time, it must and will discourage hereafter the ex
ertions of the Republicans."
The views of the moderate wing of the party are shown
in a letter from Ralph Bowie, York, Pennsylvania,
March 24, 1807. He said the President's inaugural
address had not only been received with general approba
tion by Republicans, but that Federalists were disposed
to welcome it cordially, too. The destruction of party
spirit now lay in the President's power to his everlasting
fame, but it could not be accomplished if there was a
general removal of Federalists from office.
Noah Webster was a fair example of the moderate
Federalists who might have been attracted to the Repub
licans if Federalists were not removed from office. From
New Haven, July 18, 1801, he wrote to Madison, that
although he had been a supporter of Adams, he had de
termined when Jefferson came into the Presidency that
he would sustain him, and had so instructed the three
newspapers he owned. Nothing of a light nature could
have changed his intention. "But the late removals
from office in this & some other States have surprised &
confounded us. We all expected that the chief magis
trate would gratify a number of his friends, & especially
place about himself men in whom he has particular con
fidence, & be assured. Sir, that not a complaint was
uttered, until the appointment of foreigners to the highest
offices. But when we found that the principle was

2 78 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
adopted of making vacancies, especially when it was seen
that the most meritorious officers were dismissed to make
room for characters less meritorious as men & as citizens,
& some of them ignorant, unprmcipled & even contempti
ble: what do you imagme must have been our sen
sations !"*
The specffic allusions were to the appointment of Galla
tin, who was of Swiss nativity, as Secretary of the Treas
ury, and the removal of Elizur Goodrich, a man of high
standing, as Collector of the Port of New Haven, to make
way for Samuel Bishop, an old and mefficient man.
It feU to Madison to deal with the importunities of
CaUender, who conceived that he had claims upon the
admimstration, not only for services performed for the
Repubhcans, but for suffermgs m the Republican cause.
In the Spring of 1800 he had been sentenced to nme
months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of $200 for his
hbel against John Adams. The prosecution being under
a law which Jefferson considered to be unconstitutional,
he was pardoned immediately upon Jefferson's becommg
President. "I discharged," he explained in a letter to
Mrs. Adams (July 22, 1804), "every person under punish
ment or prosecution under the Sedition law, because I
considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity as
absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to
fall down and worship a golden image." A part of the
remission of punishment in this case mcluded the return
to Callender of the fme he had paid. Madison's acquaint
ance with Callender was contemporaneous with Jefferson's
and began when Callender first came mto prommence as a
pohtical writer, and when his productions were generally
regarded with favour by the Republicans. Although
Madison never held him m esteem nor pretended to do so,
CaUender had for Madison greater respect and confidence
than he entertamed for other public men who disguised
their contempt for him. In 1796 (May 28) he wrote to
Madison from Baltimore, saymg he wanted to establish
? Dept. of State MSS. Applications for Office.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 279
himself as a country schoolmaster. He envied the wages
of a journeyman carpenter, he added, and had a wife and
four children to support. He expressed a fear that Madi
son did not have a friendly feeling toward him.* It was
about this time that Jefferson first relieved his distress
by a pecuniary contribution, which with several subse
quent donations from the same source Callender after
ward represented to be a reward for his writings and pur
chase of his pen. Madison, however, neither found him
employment nor sent him alms.
Four years after this incident Jefferson was President
elect, and Callender, who was nearing the end of his term
of imprisonment, received from him assurances, or what
he took to be assurances, that he would be pardoned and
reimbursed the amount of his fine. When he was released
he was in great pecuniary distress and became angry be
cause there was delay in paying back his fine. He began
to threaten at once, and wrote to Madison as "the one
man in whom he reposed perfect confldence," to urge
haste. "Does the President," he said, "reflect upon the
premunire into which he may bring himself by the breach
of an unqualifled or even a volunteer promise ? ... I
will not injure him by supposing that he cares a farthing
for anything which I feel." Jefferson, he went on, should
reflect that his services might be needed again, and he
gave warning that he would not be sacriflced as a "scape
goat to political decorum." He admired Jefferson, he
said, but had been stung to the quick because Jefferson
had snubbed him. He confided this fact to Madison
alone, and added that it was for Jefferson to say
whether it would be safe to quanel with him.!
The only thing that made Callender a man of impor
tance was the fact that he had fallen a victim to the ini
quitous Sedition law. He embodied the principle of
opposition to that law, and the most distinguished lawyers
in Virginia had defended him at his trial. It was easy,
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Dept. of State MSS.

2 8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
therefore, for him to form an exaggerated notion of his
personal importance, and the ill-advised attention paid
to him by Jefferson's friends encouraged his belief.
Monroe especially was overzealous, and seemed to fear
the consequences to Jefferson if the man were cast off.
He saw Callender soon after his threats to Madison, and
Callender complained that no positive orders had been
given to pay him the amount of his fine. Monroe wrote
Madison that Callender wanted twenty-five dollars to
enable him to go to Washmgton, but Monroe persuaded
him to wait a few days, and m the meantime asked the
United States Marshal whether the money to reimburse
his fine could not be got from the State Department.
Bemg answered m the negative, Monroe thought of raising
the money by private subscription, but concluded that
if he did Callender would use the fact to the discredit of
the Executive. Monroe said there was nothing to do but
order the money paid or positively decline to do so. If
the latter course were finally determined upon, then
"some person friendly to the Republican interests, sensi
ble of CaUender' s service & misfortunes, might advance
him the money and take his order on the Govt, for it
when received. The amt. might be raised by subscrip
tion, tho' not easily here, and possibly if Callender knew
nothing of the motive he might be quiet, especially if he
believed the fine if reimbursed wod. never come to him.
. . . Be assured that the President & yrself cannot be
too circumspect m case he comes to Georgetown in yr
conversations with him, for I think nothing more doubt
ful than his future political course. If from charitable
motives either of you advance him money, it merits yr
consideration whether he ought to know from whom it
came . . . if he is not [an honest man] every act of
that kmd will be attributed to improper motives, and
perverted hereafter to the injury of the benefactor."*
Callender came to Washmgton in June and confided
everything to Madison. He would be placated only by
? New York Pubhc Library (Lenox) MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 281
an office, and wanted to be postmaster at Richmond.
The mother of his four children was dead, and he had
fallen in love with a Richmond lady who was in a sphere
above him. "He has flattered himself," Madison wrote
to Monroe, "and probably has been flattered by others,
into a persuasion that the emoluments and reputation of a
post-office would obtain her in marriage." Madison met
the man in no spirit of temporizing, and says he talked
to him plainly. An arrangement was made with the
Treasury Department to pay the fine, but he was sent
back to Richmond without hope of obtaining anything
more.* He at once put his threats into execution, formed
a connection with The Richmond Recorder, and through its
columns poured forth a flood of vituperation and abuse
against Jefferson and the Republicans; and it is a fact
discreditable to the Federalists that they hailed the
slanders of the disappointed blackmailer with encourage
ment. In his mad career he appears to have spared
Madison from any bespattering, although Madison was
the agent chosen to withdraw from him all hope of attain
ing his ambition.
Callender was not the only Republican writer who
thought himself entitled to recognition. William Duane,
of The Aurora, had certainly done a great deal toward
the election of Jefferson, and although the removal of the
capital to Washington had deprived his paper of much
of its prestige, Jefferson's administration owed more to
Duane than it did to any other editor. He, too, had been
tried under the Sedition law, but had escaped punish
ment. His party being now in power, he conceived that
he was entitled to profit from the victory he had helped
to win. As soon as Madison took charge of the State
Department, Duane wrote to him (May 10, 1801) that
while The Aurora had the largest circulation of any paper
in the United States, he was hampered in securing adver
tisements by the hostility of the Custom House, and could
not make a living. He had, therefore, determined to add
* Madison's Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 173.

282 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
to his business a book and stationery shop, and would like
to supply books to the new Library of Congress and
stationery to the State Department. He also suggested
that the Acts passed by Congress, which the Secretary of
State then paid the chief newspapers throughout the
country to print, should be given only to Republican
papers, in order that their emoluments and circulation
might thereby be increased. Later, August 3, 1803, he
complamed that he often needed official mformation to
enable him to refute charges agamst the admmistration
made by the Federalist press, and thought it would be
well if such mformation could be furnished to him and
other Repubhcan editors.* But Duane's theory of
party Govemment was not Madison's and his request
met with no favour. The influence of his paper was on
the wane, and Madison was more mterested m the new
National Intelligencer, which Samuel Harrison Smith
launched m Washmgton when the Jefferson admmistra
tion came in. The unfriendly attitude of Duane toward
]\Iadison some years later may fmd a partial explanation
m his disappomtment at fmding the State Department
of so httle use to him.
That Madison did not believe in allowmg political con
siderations to play a part m the conduct of the business
of his department was shown by the policy he pursued
toward his subordinates. Among the letters received by
Jefferson and turned over to Madison was one from
WiUiam P. Gardner, dated November 20, 1807, makmg
charges agamst Richard Wagner, the chief clerk of the
State Department. Gardner himself had been dismissed
from the Treasury Department by the Adams ad
mmistration because he furnished official mformation
to Repubhcan newspapers, and Jefferson subsequently
appomted him a Consul. "Mr. Wagner," Gardner
wrote, "chief clerk m the office of Mr. Madison,
has m my hearing frequently ridiculed Republicanism,
declaring m the language of Mr. Adams that it
? Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 283
meant anythmg or nothing. He has said that he
never knew a man among the Republicans trustworthy,
of probity or principle. About two years since he
made a Bet with Mr. Jeremiah Pearsal of this city that
Mr. Gallatin in the course of one year from that date would
either be hung or sent out of the country, observing at the
same time that he considered himself perfectly justifled
in making the Bet from the well-known infamy of Mr.
Gallatin' s character. ' ' *
Nevertheless, Madison retained Wagner as chief clerk
for five years, when he voluntarily left the Department,
and John Graham, who had been Secretary of Legation
and charge d'affaires at Madrid from 1801 to 1804, and
who enjoyed Madison's friendship, was appointed in his
place. As there were no assistant secretaries the chief
clerk was the second man in the Department and was in
charge of it whenever the Secretary was absent from
Washington. Only one personal appointment was made by Madison
when he became Secretary of State, and this involved no
disturbance of the existing force. The issuance of patents
for inventions was until 1849 a part of the functions of the
State Department, and to superintend this branch of the
business Madison appointed his friend and neighbour,
William Thornton, the first designer of the Capitol, a man
of scientific education and of uncommon accomplishments.
Thornton's salary was only $1,400 a year, but this was
a little more than the annual fees from patents then
amounted to.
When Madison took charge of the State Department on
May 2, 1 80 1, he found it in a condition of suspended ani
mation. Adams had dismissed Timothy Pickering a year
before, and John Marshall had filled an intenegnmn for
ten months, when Levi Lincoln, the Attorney-General,
took his place temporarily for two months. Except for
his services from 1778 to 1780 as a member of the council of
?"Office-Seeking During Jefferson's Administration" (Hunt).
American Historical Review, January, 1898.

2 84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
the Governor of Virginia, Madison had never held an ex
ecutive office before, but the business part of the State
Department was not then extensive nor difficult to
manage. The whole executive force consisted of nine
men, one of whom was a messenger. The chief clerk
received $1,500 a year and the under clerks from $500 to
$900 each.*
The real task before the Secretary was, of course, the
management of the foreign affairs of the country.
? "The Department of State: History and Functions" (Hunt).

CHAPTER XXIX
LOUISIANA
The foreign relations of the United States involved
important questions with three powers — Great Britain,
France and Spain. With the two former there was the
contention against their colonial system and consequent
complaints and claims, and Spain held Louisiana and the
mouth of the Mississippi River, and the trade of the whole
Western country was at her mercy. The tone adopted
by the administration toward England was, at first, the
reverse of conciliatory. Rufus King, although a Federal
ist, was continued as minister, and full confidence was
placed in him. On July 24, 1801, Madison instructed
him that the two chief grievances which he was to endeav
our to have redressed were "the spoliations of our trade,
and the impressment of our seamen." The property,
Madison said, unlawfully seized by Great Britain amounted
to some millions of dollars. "The imperfect lists of im
pressed seamen which have been obtained by our agents
and reported to this Department swell the number to near
two thousand, more than four-fifths of whom are natives
of the United States, not more than seventy are British
subjects, and more than seventy aliens to both Great
Britain and the United States, and consequently so dis
tinguishable by their language and other signs as to take
away all colour of apology for the outrage." Of those
unjustly impressed, he said, only about a third had been
set at liberty. " But it is proper to be known," he added,
"that the wrongs have made a deep impression on the
American mind, and that if no satisfactory change of
conduct be soon apparent . . . the policy of this
country can scarcely fail to take some shape more reme-
285

286 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
dial than that hitherto given to it." King was to press
for an adjustment of British duties to a real equality with
those of the United States and to lay stress upon the
ability of the United States to retaliate. In an mstruc-
tion of December 22, 1801, Madison said: "Were the
Constitution not a banier to duties on exports, it would
not be very difficult for Congress to provide a remedy of
themselves, by repealing the present discrimination on
imports, and imposing on our exports m British bottoms
precisely the same duty, which her countervailing clause
adds on the importation of them in American bottoms,
into Great Britam."*
The policy was thus a simple one — he would employ
agamst England those "commercial weapons" which he
had urged the first Congress to use, and which would have
been more effective ff the right to levy export duties had
been included among them. The complamt against the
discrimmating duties of England was, however, a com
plamt against a well-established system, which France
as well as England followed, and from which all nations
suffered. England's object was to make all the world
subservient to her maritime strength, and accordmgly
she required her colonies to trade only with her and use
only her ships ; but the system was relaxed in favour of
the United States so far as to permit the West Indies to
keep from starvmg by importing American foodstuffs
and send in return molasses and rum. The tradmg, how
ever, was confined in effect to British bottoms. When
Jefferson's admmistration began England permitted neu
trals to import the products of the French West Indies
and reship them to France. This carrymg trade was
in American hands, and together with other American
shipping employed many seamen, a number of whom
were deserters from British ships who carried papers of
American citizenship fraudulently obtained. The em
banassment suffered by Great Britain in the loss of her
seamen she endeavoured to remedy by sending men-of-
? MSS. Instructions. Dept. of State.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 287
war to overhaul American ships on the high seas, search
their crews for deserters, and take them off regardless of
their citizenship. As Madison showed in his instruc
tion to King, many were taken off who were native
Americans and who were not deserters. But the tone in
which the outrages of Great Britain were resented soon
underwent a change in the face of complications with our
traditional ally of so grave a nature as to force the
Government to look for effective friendship to our tradi
tional enemy.
As Minister to France Jefferson appointed Robert R.
Livingston of New York, one of the leaders of the
Republican party of that State and head of one of its
controlling families. He had seen service under the
Colonial Govemment and in the Continental Congress,
and was Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783,
when he became Chancellor of New York. Jefferson
offered him a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy,
but he declmed. Later he expressed through Madison a
willingness to serve in a diplomatic capacity. He was in
full sympathy with the peaceful aspirations of the ad
ministration, and wrote to Madison, July i, 1 801, to say
that he thought the President's views of neutral rights
might be made to mark a new departure in international
law. "Pedantic compilers" had, he said, put down as
law what were merely the plundering practices of nations
at war, and had given little attention to the peaceful
rights of neutrals. The champion of those rights should
be America. "If a treaty is proposed," he went on,
"that is not to be supported by arms, but by commercial
exclusions, that shall not refer to the present war, and
that shall be open to all nations that chuse to adopt it, I
thmk it cannot fail to meet with sufficient support to es
tablish a new law of nations, and that our administration
will have the glory of saying in the words of the gospel,
' a new Law I give unto you, that you love one another. ' "*
Livingston seemed to think it feasible to propose treat-
? Dept. of State MSS.

288 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ies of this kmd and wanted a commission to negotiate
them; but Madison knew that international intercQurse
was not governed by the Golden Rule, and Livmgston
himself after he got to Paris never thought of supporting
the propositions he made to Talleyrand and Napoleon
by quotations from the Scriptures. The attitude of
Europe toward the United States he described in a letter
to Madison from Paris, January 15, 1802. "We must
calculate," he said, "upon every effort from every mari
time power in Europe to diminish our commerce."
France had excluded us from her African colonies; her
bounties excluded our oil ; her duty on tobacco m foreign
bottoms compelled its transportation from the United
States in French ships. Livingston proposed that Con
gress levy a duty on French articles imported in foreign
ships in retaliation.* These questions were of the same
character as those which distinguished our relations with
England, but they were less important becatfse our com
merce with France was less and there was no inflammg
question of human rights involved.
With Spam our relations turned on one great point — •
the free navigation of the Mississippi. For the sake of a
shadowy alliance durmg the Revolution the South would
have been willing at one time to permit the occlusion of
the River, and after the Revolution the East nanowly
missed accomplishing that result in return for unimpor
tant commercial privileges. Madison, by opposmg flrst
his own section and then the East, had prevented action
when it would have been unfavourable to American in
terests, and the occasion had come in a few years when a
treaty highly satisfactory had peen negotiated. War
was impendmg between Spam and England, and to gam
the friendship of the United States Spain agreed that
American products should be brought down the Mississippi
and deposited free of duty at New Orleans, from which
port they could be transshipped anywhere. If the right
of deposit at New Orleans should ever be changed some
? Dept, of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 289
other point equally desirable was to be provided. This
treaty was negotiated m 1795 by Thomas Pinckney of
South Carolina, on the part of the United States, and the
Prince of Peace on the part of Spain. It came up for
action about the same time with the Jay treaty, and the
unanimous approval it received from Congress and the
people was in sharp contrast with the condemnations
showered upon the treaty with Great Britain. When
Madison became Secretary of State he supposed that
negotiations with Spain would relate chiefly to the sub
ject of this treaty, but secret negotiations were then in
progress in Europe which soon changed the foreign
policy of the American Government, and precipitated
upon it a crisis which no one had thought of as remotely
possible. In August, 1800, it was agreed by Spain to cede Louisi
ana to France, its former owner, and a treaty of cession
followed lafer. The whole affair was transacted in the
dark and no inkling of it reached the ears of the American
Government. September 30, 1800, France and America
completed a treaty of friendship and commerce, and
October i France and Spain completed the treaty by
which Louisiana passed into French hands. The avowed
purpose for which the negotiations for the retrocession
were instituted was expressed by Talleyrand: "Let the
Court of Madrid cede these districts to France, and from
that moment the power of America is bounded by the
limits which it may suit the interests and the tranquillity
of France and Spain to assign her."* With France in
possession the Mississippi would be closed — of that there
could be little doubt.
But no one in America knew that the cession had been
made. The rumour got about gradually, and in June,
1 80 1, Madison instructed Pinckney at Madrid to find out
if it was true. The reports from Livingston on the sub
ject were inconclusive. He anived in Paris December 3,
and was able to write to Madison December 10, that while
? Adams's "History of the United States," I, 356.

290 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
he was disposed to believe the reported cession had taken
place, Talleyrand had assured him nothing was settled.
At this, his first interview with the French Minister,
Livingston hmted that perhaps "both France and Spain
might find a mutual interest in ceding the Floridas to the
United States."* The suggestion, however, met with no
favourable response. From the very begmning, there
fore, it was the policy of the administration to settle the
question by buying territory controlling the mouth of
the river, and there were no vexing fears apparently of a
constitutional question arising to prevent the purchase.
As it became more certain that the cession to France had
actually taken place a great fear fell upon the White
House and State Department lest the cherished hope of
continued peace should be rudely shattered.
Livmgston was instructed April 30, 1802, that the re
ported cession caused painful apprehensions, and must
have an instant effect in changing the relations between
the United States and France. He was to make a friendly
appeal to the French Government to "revise and abandon
the project." Mere neighbourhood was dangerous, but
a possession of the mouth of the Mississippi would be
fatal to the friendly relations of the countries. May 1 1 ,
1802, Pinckney was ordered to press upon the court of
Spain "the repugnance of the United States to it" (the
cession). If it had not taken place Pinckney was to
make every effort to buy New Orleans and the territory
east of the Mississippi. If necessary he might offer as an
inducement a guarantee to Spain of her territory west of
the Mississippi. The idea of finding a way out of the
difficulty by purchase had been formulated in the in
struction of April 30 to Livmgston. He was to find out
the extent of the cession and whether it included the
Floridas as well as New Orleans; and to "endeavour to
ascertain the price at which these, if included in the ces
sion, would be yielded to the United States." When the
cession became a certainty the dread of French occupa-
? MSS. Instructions and Despatches. Department of State.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 291
tion became almost frantic. Would France open the
Mississippi to American trade by selling New Orleans and
other territory on the east bank of the river, or must
America league herself with England to obtain these
necessities ?
No consolation could be extracted from Livingston's
reports. The taking possession of the new country was,
he said, March 24, 1^2, "a darling object with the First
Consul, who sees in it a means to gratify his friends and
to dispose of his enemies." The French people regarded
Louisiana as a paradise, and thought New Orleans would
command the commerce of the whole Western country.
Next month (April 24) he reported that the Floridas were
included in the cession, and that an armament was at that
moment being fitted out to sail for New Orleans, unless
Santo Domingo affairs should prevent it. May 28th he
announced that the personnel of the expedition had been
determined upon. Bernadotte was to command, Colot
to be second in command, Adet the Prefect, and the ex
pedition to sail in September.*
In the autumn of 1802 the Spanish Intendant at New
Orleans suddenly withdrew the right of deposit to
American commerce. A plain violation of the treaty, it
was suspected at once that he had received his orders
from the new master of Louisiana. D' Yrujo, the Spanish
Minister, repudiated the Intendant's action and prom
ised to have it withdrawn, but communication with New
Orleans was so slow that when Madison sent an instruc
tion to Pinckney, May 8, 1803, he said the last news from
New Orleans was of January 20. The withdrawal of the
right of deposit necessarily closed the river, and unless
it were open before the Spring trade began a conflict
seemed unavoidable — begun by the United States to
compel Spain to open the navigation of the river, or by
Spain because the Western people would be sure to at
tempt the navigation and resort to acts of violence if
they found it closed. If Madison was right twenty years
? MSS. Instructions and Despatches. Dept. of State.

292 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
before m saying American trade down the river could no
more be stopped than the cunent of the river itself,
this was more true now when the trade was so large and
had been permitted for so long. "This contmuation of
the obstruction to our trade," Madison wrote Pmckney,
"and the approach of the season for carrying down the
Mississippi the exports of the Western country, have had
the natural effect of mcreasing the Western irritation,
and emboldmg the advocates for an immediate redress
by arms."
Not only were the Western people ready to flght Spain
or France, ff France was now the master, but the British
Mmister was able to report to his Govemment that public
opmion had changed and was friendly to his country.
So friendly was it, mdeed, that an alliance was proposed.
For the United States the question was whether there
should be a war with France single-handed or in alliance
with Great Britain, and on the whole it seemed better
to form the aUiance. Madison accepted it reluctantly.
He told Monroe confidentiaUy (April 20, 1803) that there
was grave doubt m his mmd whether a temporary aban
donment of the right of deposit would not be better than
a British alliance.*
To calm the heated temper of the West it was deter
mined to appomt Monroe as coadjutor Minister to France
and Spam. He was popular m the West, and the people
would believe that under his care no effort would be
spared to preserve their rights. In Livingston they did
not have confidence, because he came from a part of the
country which had voted m Congress to yield up the
navigation of the Mississippi. From a domestic pomt
of view, therefore, Monroe's appomtment was a wise one,
and it was openly avowed to be an alternative or pre
cedent to war with France. The crisis, as Madison told
Pinckney, January 18, 1803, "called for the experiment
of an Extraordinary mission, carrymg with it the weight
attached to such a measure, as well as the advantage of a
? Madison's Works (Cong. Ed.), II, 180.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 293
more thorough knowledge of the views of the Govem
ment and the sensibility of the public, than can be other
wise conveyed."
The instmctions prepared for Livingston and Monroe
jomtly were elaborate and minute. Certain demands
were to be made ; the United States was prepared to go
great lengths to obtam. them; if they could not be got,
England was to be asked to accept us as aUies m a jomt
war, for it was evident that England would soon declare
war on her own account. "The object in view," said
Madison, "is to procure by just and satisfactory anange
ments a cession to the United States of New Orleans,
aU of West and East Florida, or as much thereof as the
actual proprietor can be prevailed on to part with."
The time was ripe for the success of this object. "The
instabUity of the peace of Europe, the attitude taken by
Great Britain, the languishing state of the French finances,
and the absolute necessity of either abandoning the
West India Islands or of sending thither large armaments
at great expense, all contributed at the present crisis to
prepare m the French Govemment a disposition to listen
to an anangement which will at once dry up one source
of foreign controversy and furnish some aid in struggling
with internal embanassments. " In any anangements
which might be made it was to be stipulated that the
Mississippi be kept free for the navigation of France and
the United States. In buymg the desired territory the
President was prepared, if necessary, to pay 50,000,000
livres tournois. If France demanded that her remainmg
American territory be guaranteed to her, the demand
was to be resisted, if possible, but acceded to if found to
be necessary to obtam the object in view. If France
would not cede New Orleans and the Floridas, the United
States would accept less. If France would cede nothmg,
the Envoys were to negotiate for a contmuance of the
right of deposit. If the negotiations failed, an alliance
with England was to be attempted.
April 18, 1803, Madison wrote Livingston, a month

2 94 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
after Monroe had saUed for France: "If the French
Govemment mstead of friendly anangements or views
should be found to mediate hostilities or to have formed
projects which wUl constram the United States to resort
to hostUities, such communications are then to be held
with the British Government as wUl sound its dispositions
and mvite its concurrence m the war. " The terms of the
aUiance were sketched. The United States could not
guarantee contmued possession of such territory as might
be conquered during the war, as this would mvolve us m
England's future wars ; nor would the United States give
England the territory west of the Mississippi, as she
would then have a hold on the river, which would be
displeasmg to the people of the West. To treat for
the aUiance two blank commissions were sent. Monroe's
name was to be mserted as the Envoy, if the negotiations
m France did not make it probable that he would be
persona non grata to England; otherwise, Livmgston was
to have the commission.*
The appomtment of Monroe was, of course, displeasmg
to Livingston, against whom no derehction of duty or
inaptitude m dealing with the French Court could be
charged. His zeal had, m fact, been extraordmary, and
he had succeeded m wmnmg the personal good will of
Napoleon. He endeavoured to convince the French
that Louisiana would prove a useless possession to them.
He obtamed information by one means or another of the
progress of the intended expeditions to take possession,
although aU movements m this direction were carefully
hidden. August 31, 1802, TaUeyrand told him France
intended to take possession before hstenmg to any offers
to purchase. October 28 he reported that the expedi
tion had met with a check. He entered mto unofficial
negotiations with Joseph Bonaparte, who asked him
whether the United States would prefer the Floridas to
Louisiana, and Livmgston replied that "we had no wish
to extend our boundary across the Mississippi. . . .
? MSS. Instructions. Dept. of State.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 295
All we sought was security and not extension of territory."
He bore the suspense and alternate hopes and fears of
his position with calmness and made no blunders. One
day Talleyrand would snub him, and the next the First
Consul would treat him with unusual consideration. At
one time he confidently expected the armament to sail at
any moment, then it was so long delayed that he was en
couraged to hope it would be abandoned. " Do not ab
solutely despair, " he wrote, "tho' you may have no great
reason to hope." February, 1803, he wrote: "I have
proposed to them the relinquishment of New Orleans
and West Florida as far as the River Perdido, together
with all the Territory lying to the north of the Arcansas
under an idea that it was necessary to interpose us be
tween them and Canada as the only means of preventmg
an attack from that quarter. I did not speak of East
Florida, because I found they consider the navigation of
the Gulf as very important. For this I proposed an in
definite sum not wishing to mention any till I should re
ceive your instruction." March 11, 1803, he reported
that he had hinted at the project of making the Island of
New Orleans an independent State under the Govemment
of Spain, France and the United States.
The next day (March 12) he gave an account of Na
poleon's audience with the foreign ministers when he
accosted the British Minister with " I find. Milord, your
nation wants war agam." This scene carried real hope
to Livingston, and a month later, April 11, Talleyrand
asked him whether he wished to have the whole of Louisi
ana. "I told him no," Livmgston reports; "that our
wishes extended only to New Orleans and the Floridas."
Talle3rrand said if they gave New Orleans the rest would
be of little value, and " he wished to know what we would
give for the whole. " Livmgston said he had not thought
of it, but supposed his Govemment would not object to
20,000,000 livres, providing the pendmg claims were paid.
TaUeyrand said this was not enough.*
? MSS. Despatches. Dept. of State.

296 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
News had then anived of Monroe's appointment as
Special Envoy, but his coming was regarded with in
difference by the French Court. The offer to sell Louisi
ana might easily have been delayed for his arrival, but was
made to Livmgston as a person with whom the French
Govemment found it satisfactory to treat. When Liv
mgston received Talleyrand's offer he knew that the game
was over and that the United States had won, but he did
not appreciate the magnitude of the value of the winnings.
"I would rather," he wrote Madison, "have confined
our views to smaller objects & I think if we succeed it
would be good policy to exchange the West bank of
the district with Spam for the Floridas, reserving New
Orleans. "*
As Napoleon did not wait for Monroe, neither did Liv
ingston, for events in France were movmg with lightning
rapidity. The day after Talleyrand asked Livmgston
ff he would buy Louisiana orders were given to stop
vessels from sailing from French ports and war with Eng
land was practically existent.
The following day Monroe arrived, and that evening
he dined with Livingston. While they were at dinner
Livingston happened to glance through the window and
noticed Barbe de Marbois, the Minister of the Treasury,
strolling in the garden. He sent a young relation, who
was one of the company at dinner, to ask him to come in,
but Marbois sent back word that he would return later
and went away. While the gentlemen were over their
coffee he joined them, and presently went with Livingston
into an adjommg room, where he remarked that as the
place was not appropriate for confidential conversation,
he would be glad if Livingston would call upon him that
night before eleven o'clock. Livingston's guests hav
ing departed, he kept the appointment, and in Marbois's
house, close upon the hour of midnight, they discussed
the terms of the sale of Louisiana. Marbois was a well-
chosen agent, for he was familiar with America, having
*Id.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 297
been Minister there during the Revolution, and was on
good terms with Livingston and Madison, being a feUow-
lodger with Madison when he had his love affair with
Catherine Floyd. The subsequent negotiations were
detail and in them Monroe assisted. That he had had
nothing to do with the more important negotiations was
not Livingston's fault. Talleyrand might have waited
for him, but did not, and Marbois might have asked him
to come to his house with Livingston, but failed to do so.
Livingston could not safely delay his answer to Talley
rand or refuse singly a confidential conference with
Marbois. Although Monroe participated in a final con
summation which he had done nothmg to produce, his
mission had served no useful purpose in France. As it
happened, he was able to give Livingston no essential
assistance, all the more important steps havmg been
taken before his arrival. The offer to sell the whole ter
ritory followed Livingston's repeated offers to buy a part
of it, and would hardly have come if these offers had not
been so pressingly made. Napoleon had a war with Eng
land on his hands, and if he occupied Louisiana would
have the United States to fight too. He had failed to
reduce Santo Domingo, and it had absorbed much treasure
and many soldiers. He needed for his commg struggle
with England every livre and every soldier he could get.
In abandonmg his original intentions with respect to
Louisiana, he could boast that he had received "sixty
millions [of livers] for an occupation that will not perhaps
last a day." He should have added that he had given
nothing for Louisiana, as he had not kept the bargain by
which it passed over to him, and that m selling it to the
United States he had violated his formal promise to Spain
that he would never alienate it.
The stupendous purchase that Napoleon thrust upon
Livingston and Monroe they accepted without authority,
but the Govemment upheld them at once. "You were
justified, " Madison wrote to them, "by the solid reasons
which you give for it, and I am charged by the President

298 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
to express to you his entire approval of your so
doing. "This approbation is in no respect precluded by the
silence of your commission and instructions. When these
were made out, the object of the most sanguine was
limited to the establishment of the Mississippi as our
boundary." The commission, he said, had been created
to meet an extraordinary crisis, which "consisted of the
state of things produced by the breach of our deposit at
New Orleans, the situation of the French Islands, par
ticularly the important Island of St. Domingo; the dis
tress of the French finances, the unsettled posture of
Europe, the increasing jealousy between Great Britain
and France, and the known aversion of the former to see
the mouth of the Mississippi m the hands of the latter."*
Thus had come the end of the long struggle for the free
navigation of the Mississippi begun by Madison in 1782.
He thought Livingston had been precipitate m hunying
the negotiations without Monroe, but this was an opinion
springing from the partiality of friendship.
The acquisition of Louisiana was the only completed
act of Madison's term as Secretary of State. Other ques
tions with foreign nations which fell to his management
did not reach their most mteresting stage untU he himself
became President.
* MSS, Instructions, Dept, of State.

CHAPTER XXX
THE BATTLE OF THE DIPLOMATS
On March 4, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as
President of the United States. Ten thousand strangers
came to Washington to see the pageant. The retiring
President and his successor rode in a carriage, escorted
by the cavalry of Washington and Georgetown, from the
White House to the Capitol, where in the newly com
pleted hall of the House of Representatives Madison read
his inaugural address in a voice so low that few could hear
him. To pay a tribute to American manufactures, he
was clothed in a suit of dark-brown cloth made from the
wool of Merino sheep bred by Robert R. Livingston at
his country seat, Clermont, on the Hudson River, the
wool being carded, spun and woven in his house by his
daughter, Elizabeth Stevens Livingston, the wife of her
cousin, Edward P. Livingston.* The oath of office
was administered by Chief Justice Marshall, and the new
President returned to Taylor's Hotel, where he reviewed
the military and held a reception.
In the evening, at Long's Hotel in Georgetown, oc
cuned the first inauguration ball ever held. Foreign
ministers, officials and citizens crowded the rooms to the
number of four hundred. Mrs. Madison was dressed
elaborately in yellow velvet, with pearls and a turban on
her head. Her husband wore a black suit, as he nearly
always did. The most conspicuous figure in the room
was Jefferson, and the guests noticed the contrast be
tween the glowing good humour of the retiring President's
face and the dark clouds of care which hung over the new
President, for Jefferson was in high spirits, laughing,
? Dept. of State MSS. 299

300 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
joking and tellmg anecdotes, and Madison was worn with
fatigue and oppressed by a sense of heavy responsibUity.*
Washington Irvmg came to Washington to seek an office
at this time and his humour played about the President
and his wffe, whom he described m a famihar letter:
"Mrs. Madison is a fme, portly, buxom dame, who has a
smile and a pleasant word for everybody. Her sisters,
Mrs. Cutts and Mrs. Washmgton, are like two merry wives
of Wmdsor ; but as to Jemmy Madison — ah ! poor Jemmy !
he is but a withered little apple-John."
The White House was to have for the next eight years
a career such as it had not known before, for Mrs. Adams
had been there but httle and Jefferson had no wffe. It
was newly and handsomely furnished tmder the super
vision of Latrobe soon after the Madisons moved m ; the
doors were always open and it became the centre of Wash
mgton Iffe. A bountfful table was spread and the impor
tations of foreign wmes were a large item of expense.
Two fme coaches were bought, one for $928 and the other
for $1,500, a stable of fine horses was kept, and the
President rode a Kentucky thoroughbred, named
"Speculator," with a long pedigree.
Long before Jefferson's administration closed it was
known that Madison would be his successor. Jefferson
had no visible agency m naming him, and repelled
energetically a suggestion to the contrary. But he had
written to Madison, December 28, 1795, before he became
a candidate for the Presidency himseff, that he must not
retire from public Iffe "unless to a more splendid and
more efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you;
I hope, I may say, I shall rejoice to see you." Holdmg
these views, and having Madison nearest to him for the
eight years of his presidency, no word from him was neces
sary to make it plain whom he would wish for a successor.
His conespondence reveals no desire that Monroe should
be made President. He found it necessary, however, to
assure Monroe that he was not mterfering in the contest
* "Harper's Weekly," March 4, 1897.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 301
between him and Madison for the presidency, as he re
garded them both as the two principal pillars on which his
happiness rested. Monroe, however, was not m good
humour, and the three musketeers were not working
together when the chief retired from public life.
When Monroe was Minister to England in 1806, William
Pmkney, of Maryland, was named as joint envoy with
him, and Monroe's pride was wounded, just as Living
ston's had been when Monroe was made his associate at
Paris. Monroe and Pinkney then negotiated and signed
a treaty with Great Britain. Their mstructions had re
quired them to obtain: (i) the abandonment of the right
and practice of impressing American seamen, (2) a resto
ration of the right to trade with enemies' colonies, (3) an
indemnity for recent captures and confiscations by Great
Britain. The treaty, however, abandoned each one of
these requirements, and was less advantageous to the
United States than even the Jay treaty had been. It
was signed December i, 1806, but before it arrived in the
United States, Madison warned Monroe that it would be
rejected if it excluded the essential points of the instruc
tions. It was, accordmgly, not even sent to the Senate
to consider, but suppressed by the Executive. Madison
tried to mitigate Monroe's mortification. " The President
and all of us," he wrote March 20, 1807, "are fully im
pressed with the difficulties which your negotiation had
to contend with, as well as with the faithfuffiess and
abihty with which it was supported." He added that
they were ready to suppose that if they had been in his
place they would have done as he did, and were certam
that if he were in their place he would act as they were
acting.* Monroe was pressed to stay and reopen nego
tiations, but he came home with a grievance. It was easy
to charge that a trap had been laid for him ; that he had
been sent on a mission which was bound to fail, so that in
failing he would cease to be a rival candidate for the presi
dency ; but it was also charged on the opposite side that
? Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 404-

302 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
he had negotiated a treaty favouring England with the
hope of winning Federalist votes.
At any rate, Monroe became a candidate for the presi
dency and attracted no Federalist votes. He was chosen
as leader by John Randolph of Roanoke and a few dis
affected Repubhcans who followed Randolph. Jefferson
and Madison had not long been preserved from being
quarrelled with by Randolph. He declared that Madison
had told him he was willing to buy peace with Spain by
paying tribute to France. Madison also favoured a com
promise in the Yazoo claims, and Randolph's opposition
to the claims was a passion. Therefore, Randolph called
Madison a mere closet philosopher and a weak and timid
statesman, and when the congressional caucus nominated
Madison for the Presidency, Randolph and about sixteen
others protested. The party of Tertium Quids was then
organized, and in Virgmia a convention was called which
nominated Monroe against Madison, but when it became
apparent that Monroe would receive few votes in Vir
ginia and none in other States, Randolph's followers gen
erally deserted him and voted for Madison.
General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Caro
lina was nominated by the Federalists, but m the elec
toral college Madison received 122 votes to Pinckney's 47.
The position which he occupied when he came to the
presidency, was in many respects a fortunate one. He
was acceptable to the Republicans because he belonged
to the same school as Jefferson, and being a less radical
partisan than Jefferson was not violently opposed by the
anti-Jefferson party. Some optimists, like Henry Lee,
held out to him the elusive prospect of uniting parties ;
but he had no hope of doing so, knowing that the Federal
ists could not be placated. He was fortunate, too, in that
he inherited his office and owed no debts in consequence
of havmg attained it. The offices were already filled with
adherents of his own party, and only as vacancies occurred
in the natural order of events would he be called upon to
exercise his appointing power. Even a few Federalists

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 303
were not afraid to write to him on this subject. "You
are," wrote one from Georgia, August 24, 1809, " (as from
a retrospect I would believe) in reality only what your
predecessors only professed to be, a Federal-Repubhcan.
. . . It has, I believe, been granted on all sides,
that so far as compatible with Gen'l W.'s engagements
with or duty towards his compatriots in arms, he was im
partial and just in his distribution of patronage, but not
without a semblance of truth, has it been alleged, that his
two successors were too much involved in the vortex of
party spirit to follow his glorious example."* Madison
did not, as a fact, appoint Federalists to office, but there
was no office brokerage, no scramble for place, and a far
higher tone prevailed in the executive departments than
had characterized Jefferson's administration.
Madison mtended to continue Jefferson's policy, which
was indeed equally his own, but he was hampered from
the beginning by a weak cabinet. To find some one who
could take his place as Secretary of State and be to him
what he had been to Jefferson was an impossibility, for
Monroe, who would have come nearest to filling the re
quirements, was in bad humour and smarting under the
preference shown for Madison over himself. Albert Gal
latin, therefore, except Madison the only conspicuously
efficient man in the old cabinet, was his choice for Secre
tary of State, but the President was warned by Wilson
Cary Nicholas before the inauguration that the Senate
would not confirm Gallatin's nomination.! The preju
dice against him because of his foreign birth was never
overcome and there was a faction of Republicans always
working against him. Robert Smith had been appointed
Secretary of the Navy by Jefferson in 1801. He was a
member of a wealthy and influential Maryland family,
and his brother Samuel Smith was a Senator from that
State. He was of consequence only because of his friends,
but Jefferson's pohcy had included the reduction of the
? "Early Office Seeldng." — N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 26, 1898.
t Henry Adams, V, 5.

304 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
naval estabhshment, and Smith had proved equal to the
task of admmistering the affairs of a department of
diminishing importance. It was suggested that Robert
Smith's brother, the Senator, who was of the anti-GaUatin
faction, could be induced to vote for the conflrmation of
GaUatin as Secretary of State, ff Robert Smith were
named for the Treasury Department, but GaUatm would
not agree to this anangement because he knew Smith
would prove mcompetent to perform the duties of the
Treasury Department and that GaUatm himself would be
obliged to perform them for him. Under these circum
stances Smith was appointed Secretary of State, and
Madison continued to do the work of that office in
addition to his labours as President.
Thus, to start with, he had to manage foreign affairs
an admittedly mefficient man, whom he had appomted
for political considerations, and who consequently felt
his allegiance due to the friends who had forced him on
the President rather than to the President himseff. For
Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, formerly Governor
of South Carolina, a man without national reputation or
following, was selected, and for Secretary of War, Dr.
WiUiam Eustis, of Massachusetts, a respectable man who
had seen service as a surgeon m the Revolutionary War.
Csesar A. Rodney was contmued as Attorney General.
The cabinet was factious as weU as weak, for Smith and
GaUatm were bitter enemies.
After the mauguration resolutions from public meetings
m all sections of the country came to the President
assuring him of loyal support and of wUlmgness to ac
cept further burdens from the government if they should
be necessary. By many people it was believed that these
burdens would soon include a war. General Henry Lee,
who had long smce parted company with Madison m
politics but who remamed steadfast in his friendship, told
him m 1807 (July 19) that he considered war inevitable,
and others declared that the time had come for caUing

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 305
upon the States to furnish their quotas of troops.* But
at the outset of his term Madison enjoyed a diplomatic
triumph which for a time confirmed his faith in peaceable
commercial retaliation as an effective substitute for arms.
The war between France and England, begun in 1803,
which hastened a settlement of the Mississippi question
so advantageous to the United States, soon developed
measures of hostility between the belligerents which
affected the United States vitally, and precipitated it into
war with England, while straining to the breaking point
its amicable relations with France. The first of these
measures was taken by the British government. May 16,
1806, by an order in council declaring the whole coast of
Europe, from the Elbe in Germany to Brest in France, a
distace of 800 miles, in a state of blockade. In January,
1807, another order was issued forbidding neutrals from
engaging in the coasting trade between ports hostile to
Great Britain. November 17, 1807, another order pro
hibited all neutral trade with France or her allies except
through Great Britain. These were the famous "British
Orders in Council."
Following Great Britain's lead, on November 21, 1806,
from the "Imperial Camp at Berlin," Napoleon issued a
decree declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade,
forbidding all correspondence or trade with them, and
defining as contraband all Enghsh products or manu
factures. December 1 7, 1807, from his "Palace at Milan,"
he decreed that every vessel which should submit to be
searched by British cruisers, or pay any tax or license to
the British Government, or be bound to or from any
British port, should be denationalized and sequestered.
These were the "Berlin and Milan Decrees," and about the
Orders in Council and the French decrees waged the battle
of the diplomats. So far as the Orders in Council were
concerned, Madison and a friendly British Minister de
termined to make them no longer a subject of contention.
David Montague Erskine, the British Minister when
? Dept. of State MSS.

3o6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Madison was inaugurated, was a protege of Charles James
Fox, was married to an American, and in his person repre
sented everything that was conciliatory to America.
He came to the new administration early m April with
the proposition that if Madison would withdraw the de
mand for Admiral Berkeley's court martial for the attack
on the Chesapeake he would agree to the other demands
of the United States in satisfaction for the Chesapeake
outrage. This was accepted; but the letter of with
drawal declared that, while the President forebore to in
sist on the punishment, he still thought its infliction would
have been a just and useful example, "due from his
Britannic majesty to his own honour." This question
out of the way, Erskine next offered a repeal of the British
Orders in Council in exchange for a proclamation by the
President renewing intercourse with Great Britain. This
was, of course, accepted, and simultaneously the procla
mation and the promise of the British Minister that the
Orders in Council would be repealed were given to the
public. In making the arrangement, Erskine had ex
ceeded his instructions, under which he could promise a
repeal of the orders only if America withdrew all restric
tions on British commerce, and at the same time re
nounced all pretensions to a colonial trade in time of war
which she might not enjoy in time of peace. The United
States must also recognize the right of Great Britain to
capture American vessels attempting to trade with any
foreign power acting under the French decrees. As
such trade was forbidden by American law, this pro
vision amounted to an agreement that Great Britain
should execute American law. Although Erskme had
been authorized to show his mstructions to the American
govemment, he had not done so, and Madison assumed
he was acting within his instructions when he made his
anangement. It would have been an unheard of pro
ceeding ff Madison had refused an agreement fair to the
United States on the ground that the envoy offering it
was exceedmg his authority.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 307
The proclamation having been issued, the government
and people of the United States lived in a fool's paradise
for three months. A thousand ships sailed from American
ports. The triumph of the policy illustrated in the em
bargo and non-intercourse acts was loudly proclaimed,
and tribute was paid not only to Madison's success but
to Jefferson's wisdom in inaugurating a policy which had
resulted so satisfactorily. No one doubted that the
Erskine agreement was a permanent fact.
When the rejoicmg was still in full progress came a
sudden dash to all hopes, and rage and despair were
suddenly substituted. The whole Erskine agreement was
repudiated by the British Government, Erskine was re
called and a new minister appointed in his place.* That
the new minister could have any acceptable propositions
to make was not to be expected. He was himself ill chosen
if conciliation was intended, for Francis James Jackson
was widely known and detested in Europe and America
as the agent whom the British Government had chosen
to demand the sunender of Denmark's fleet in 1807, and
in default of the surrender to order the wanton bom
bardment of the city of Copenhagen ; and in consequence
of his fulfillment of his mission to the utmost extent of its
horrors he became known as "Copenhagen Jackson."
He came to Washington loaded with instmctions which
meant the failure of his mission or the degradation of the
United States. The basis of these instructions involved
a direct charge of bad faith against the administra
tion, for he was not only to disavow Ersklne's agreement,
but to give as one reason for the disavowal that the Amer
ican government had known when the agreement was
made that Erskine had exceeded his instructions in mak
ing it, and that the President had issued his proclamation
and published the terms of the agreement in the belief
that the British Government would thus be forced to
stand by the unauthorized acts of its agent. Jackson
was instructed to enter complaint against the government
? Dept. of State MSS.

3o8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
of the United States for having made the arrangement
under the circumstances. He might settle the Chesa
peake affair only ff the United States made a written
acknowledgment that the interdict against British ships
had been annulled. The Orders in Council could be re
pealed only upon the express prohibition of all trade be
tween the United States and France, or countries under
the French decrees as long as those decrees continued in
force. But as if this was not enough, Jackson received
the final instruction that he was not to press for any
settlement of difficulties, as a settlement was not now as
important as it had been. If the United States made
any proposals he was to refer them to his Government
and await further instructions, and it must be under
stood that Great Britain insisted upon her right to pro
hibit neutral trade with her enemy. The United States
could make a treaty acknowledging it, or leave it to be
regulated by British orders in council.*
Madison was at Montpelier when the news of Ersklne's
disavowal came, and Gallatin sent him the news and
urged him to return to Washington, which he did August
9, remaining only for a few days, during which the procla
mation reviving the non-intercourse act against Great
Britain was prepared and signed. A month later (Sep
tember 5) Jackson arrived, but Madison did not hasten
his return to Washington to meet him, feeling that the
disagreeable business before him need not be hunied.
The confident minister met the President October i. He
found him "a plain and rather mean-looking little man,
of great simplicity of manners, and an inveterate enemy
to form and ceremony." After the formal exchange of
greetmgs he was invited to take a seat, and was much
amused presently when a negro entered the room bearmg
a tray with punch and cake. Jackson had been enter
tained in European palaces and sneeringly contrasted
their ceremony with his homely entertainment at the
White House. A short time afterwards he dined with
? Henry Adams, V, 99, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 309
the President and was pleased at the deference shown
him, for he was asked to hand Mrs. Madison in to dinner,
and in this he saw a sign of concession because his prede
cessor. Merry, had been denied the distinction of pre
cedence. . He next had two important official interviews
with the Secretary of State, at the second of which the
fact was extracted from him that he had no propositions
to offer in place of those of Erskine, which had been dis
avowed. The following day he received a formal note
from Smith saying that further communications between
them must take the form of writing. Upon objecting to
this he was told that it was not meant to apply to minor
official intercourse, but to important matters of which the
record must be kept beyond the possibility of future mis
understanding. In reality, Madison could not trust Smith
to conduct personal interviews skilfully, and as he ex
pected to quanel with Jackson he wished to control the
contest. Jackson continued in bad humour and made
the charge that Ersklne's lack of power to make the con
cessions he had agreed to had been known to the American
government. At first Madison did not reply to this
imputation, but insisted that when a government dis
avows the acts of its agent it owes the other government
affected an explanation ; that the United States was bound
to assume the adequacy of Ersklne's powers, and that
it still stood ready to accept any honourable settlement
of the questions disturbing the relations of the two coun
tries. In reply Jackson repeated that Madison had known
the exact import of Ersklne's instructions. Madison
then demanded that before proceeding further Jackson
should show precisely what his powers were, and closed
with this sentence concerning knowledge of Ersklne's
instructions :
"After the explicit and peremptory asseveration that
this government had no such knowledge, and that with
such a knowledge no such anangement would have been
entered into, the view which you have again presented
of the subject makes it my duty tO apprise you that such

3IO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
insinuations are inadmissible in the intercourse of a
foreign minister with a government that understands
what it owes to itself."
Jackson's answer being mere reiteration, on Novem
ber 8 he was informed that no further communications
would be received from him. Thus terminated Jack
son's encounter with the "plain and rather mean-looking
little man." The defeated minister sought consolation
among the Federahsts, who generally upheld his course.
In Baltimore he received much social attention, in New
York still more, but in Boston he was given an ovation,
and a public dinner was held m his honour, at which
Senator Timothy Pickering offered this toast : "The
world's lost hope — Britain's fast-anchored isle."
But if " Britain's fast-anchored isle" was determined to
reduce the United States to the condition of a colony and
leave it an independent nation only in name, France was
equally determined to disregard its rights. There was,
however, always this to be said: The original sin
against neutrals, as Madison expressed it, lay with Great
Britain, and her aggressions were far in excess of those
of France. December 21, 1808, in response to a Senate
resolution, Madison made a list of acts, decrees, orders
and proclamations of foreign governments affecting
neutral rights of commerce. From 1792 to 1808 there
had been eighteen of such acts by France, three by Spain,
and thirty-one by Great Britain. Moreover, the spolia
tions of Great Britain were harder to bear because our
commerce with her was larger than that with all other
countries combined.
When news of Ersklne's agreement reached Paris it
was proposed by Napoleon to modify the French decrees
in a way favourable to American interests,* but as soon
as Erskme's disavowal was known it became certain that
unless America resisted British pretensions she must
expect continued oppression from France. The only
neutral in the world was then the United States — all the
? Henry Adams, V, 139, et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 311
other nations were involved in the convulsive struggle
between England and France, and the United States was
being ground between both nations. March 23, 1810,
Napoleon issued the Rambouillet decree, providmg for
the confiscation of American ships in France, Holland and
Italy. Between April, 1809, and April, 1810, according
to .the report of the American Consul at Paris, fifty-seven
American ships were seized in France, fffty-four m the
ports of Spain, twenty-eight in Naples, eleven in Holland,
making one hundred and thirty-four in all, valued at more
than a million dollars. In point of fact, from now on
Napoleon regarded American ships as English ships and
subject to the same treatment. He mitigated his decree,
however, so far as to treat as French ships those carrying
licenses issued by French Consuls, permitting them to
enter French ports and clear with French cargoes. Of
Napoleon's policy Madison said: "The confiscations by
Bonaparte comprise robbery, theft and breach of trust,
and exceed in turpitude any of his enormities not wastmg
human blood." Confiscation of American property
and imprisonments of American seamen were the charac
teristics of Napoleon's policy. The repeal May i, 1810,
by Congress of the non-intercourse act left it to the Presi
dent, in case either Great Britain or France should repeal
her measures against the United States, to prohibit by
proclamation all intercourse with the comitry not mak
ing such a repeal. Upon information of this act France
held out the promise that if England would revoke her
orders or the United States would cause England to
respect her rights the French decrees would be repealed.
Madison had instructed Armstrong that in addition
France must agree to compensate the United States for
spoliations committed, but this condition was not
pressed, and in August Armstrong wrote to Pinkney at
London that the French decrees had been withdrawn.
The information had been officially conveyed to him in a
note from the Due de Cadore, French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, August 5, 18 10, and by way of England the news

312 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
reached Washington. The President believed it. It
was authentic mformation conveyed through authentic
channels; but no new French decree repealing the old
decrees appeared to confirm it.
Under ordinary circumstances, in dealing with a
nation of ordmary honesty an act stated as this repeal
was stated would be accepted without doubt, but the
times were not ordinary and Napoleon's definition
of . diplomacy was the art of lying. Nevertheless,
the administration believed in the repeal and it
wished to do so. Basing his action upon it, Madison
began at once the last effort at peaceable coercion of
Great Britain by issuing his proclamation reviving the
law of non-intercourse with that power. He believed
that the effect would be to so cripple her that she would
have to make terms, or herself begin a war to compel the
United States to renew commercial intercourse with her.
The proclamation was issued November 2, and said:
" It has been officially made known to this govemment
that the said edicts of France have been so revoked as
that they ceased, on the first day of the present month,
to violate the neutral commerce of the United States."
Simultaneously, a circular was issued by Gallatin to the
various ports of the United States announcing that com
mercial mtercourse with Great Britain would cease Feb
ruary 2, 1811.
Were the decrees actually repealed ? A new Minister,
Serurier, came from France, but he had nothing to say,
except that the word of the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs must not be doubted. He was mstructed by
Napoleon to say that the United States would receive
every kind of aid and privilege from France if it decided
to maintain the neutrality of its flag — that Napoleon
would even not oppose the acquisition of the Floridas by
the United States. In France Jonathan Russell, the
American Charge, was informed that ships really American
would not be harmed — that the difficulty was to tell
American and English ships apart. These fair words

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 313
were taken to mean that the decrees had been repealed.
It was expedient to accept them in that sense.
When Pinkney withdrew from London he demanded
the repeal of the British orders on the theory that the
French decrees had been repealed, but Great Britain
rephed that he was wrong in his facts. Simultaneously
with his departure Augustus G. Foster was sent as British
Minister to the United States. Nothmg really was hoped
from his mission, except to gam time by further negotia
tion, for he had no concessions to offer. But in the mean
time (May 16, 181 1) the long-standing Chesapeake affair
was rendered unimportant in the controversy, not by ex
change of notes, but by exchange of shots between the
American frigate "The President," under John Rodgers,
and the British ship "The Little Belt." War had not
been declared, and there can be no doubt that the first
shot was fired by the British ship, but it is also a fact that
she was beaten by the American ship. Madison viewed
the incident without alarm: "The occurrence between
Rodgers and the British ship of war," he wrote to Jeffer
son, June 7, 181 1,* " not unlikely to bring on repetitions,
will probably end in an open rupture or a better under
standing, as the calculations of the British Government
may prompt or dissuade from war." It was when war
was about to be declared that news came of fresh outrages
by France and proof positive that France was acting
under her decrees even if she had repealed them. Macon,
of North Carolina, said "the devil himself could not tell
which government, England or France, is the most
wicked."! By a law of August 26, 1794, "I'an 1" de la Republique
Frangoise, " Danton signing the act, Madison had been
made a citizen of France. The honour intended was
somewhat marred by the ignorance of the French As
sembly of small facts, for the act was for " N. Maddison"
and included in it "Jean Hamilton," presumably Alex-
? Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 512.
f Henry Adams, VI, 196.

314 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
ander Hamilton, whose sympathy with the French
Revolution was not apparent.* The French Republic
had, however, intended to record an obligation to leading
lights in American public life, but the sense of obligation
did not descend to Napoleon, and he treated the United
States and his fellow citizen Madison as though they were
enemies instead of friends. Thus with both France and
England the United States stood in a hostile attitude,
and with Spain, too, our relations were soon inamicable,
but as it happened through our own acts.
February 24, 1804, Congress passed a law extending
customs regulations over the new territory bought from
France, and authorized the President, whenever he
should deem it expedient to do so, to make the bay
and river Mobile to Pensacola a separate district and
appoint the necessary customs officers. This was known
as the Mobile act, and it excited such an indignant
protest from Yrujo, the Spanish Minister, that Jefferson,
in issuing his proclamation defining the new districts,
did not extend authority over the territory claimed by
Spam. Five years later the population, which had been
increasing in parts of the new territory, became uneasy,
held conventions, and part of them issued a declaration
of independence and caused John Rhea, their newly
elected president, to ask for annexation to the United
States ; but Madison refused to recognize the revolutionary
government, because the territory in question belonged,
as he contended, to the United States. The opportunity
of rendering the claim impregnable could not be resisted,
and October 27, 18 10, Madison issued a proclamation
ordering the governor of Orleans Territory to take pos
session of the district. The proclamation stated that
failure to occupy it before had not been due to any
distrust of the title, as the laws passed on the subject had
shown, but in confidence that discussion and negotiation
would give possession later. The confusion now exist-
? The original act is in the possession of F. D. Magtdre, Esq., of
Washington.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 315
ent in the territory by the late uprising forced immediate
action; but even now "in the hands of the United States
it will not cease to be a subject of fair and friendly nego
tiations and adjustment." This was a bold stroke, but
beneath the casuistry of the proclamation could be seen
the determination of the President to take the territory,
because he deemed its possession by the United States to
be necessary for the protection of the Mississippi. Spain
was powerless to retahate, for she was beset on all sides —
by her revolting colonies in America and by France and
England in Europe.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE DECLARATION OF WAR

In March, 1829, when Henry Clay was the most con
spicuous figure in American public life, he dined one
Sunday with his political opponent, Samuel Harrison
Smith, and the two fell to discussing the relative merits as
statesmen of Madison and Jefferson. "Mr. Clay," says
Mrs. Smith m an account of the dinner which she wrote to
her son, "preferred Madison, and pronounced him after
Washington our greatest Statesman & first political
writer. He thought Jefferson had most genius — Madison,
most judgment & common sense — Jefferson a visionary
& theorist, often betrayed by his enthusiasm into rash &
imprudent & impracticable measures — Madison, cool,
dispassionate — practical, safe. "*
It is not probable that Clay, who was an honourable
man, would have used such language about Madison, if
he himself had known that Madison was a man so am
bitious and so weak that he was willing to buy a renomi-
nation to the presidency by plunging his country into an
iniquitous war. Yet the Federalists charged that this
was the very thing that Madison did, and that Clay sold
the nomination for the war.
It was when news of more French outrages upon Ameri
can commerce came, early in the summer of 181 2, that,
according to the story, Madison was visited by a committee
of Republican leaders of the House of Representatives,
with Henry Clay at the head, and informed that he must
send a war message to Congress or the caucus of Repubh
can members soon to be held would nominate some one
? Family papers of J. Henley Smith, Esq., of Washington.
316

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 317
else for the presidency. He sent the message and re
ceived the nomination.
Mr. Henry Adams, in his Iffe of Albert Gallatin,* gives
all the proof of this charge that the Federalists could
produce, and pronounces it unfounded. It appears that
James Fisk, a member of Congress from Vermont, de
clared he was himself a member of the committee which
sold the nomination, but Henry Clay, who was the alleged
head of the committee, pronounced the story untrue, and
so did his friends. Timothy Pickering, to whom, of
course, the charge, if true, would have been effective
ammunition with which to damage his enemies, wrote to
Abraham Shepherd, February 12, 18 14: "At the last
session, Mr. Hanson, noticing the manner m which the
war was produced, in addressing Clay, the Speaker, spoke
to this effect: 'You know, sir, that the President was
coerced into the measure; that a committee called upon
him and told him that if he did not recommend a declara
tion of war he would lose his election. And then he
sent his message recommending the declaration.'
"Now, my dear sir, I learn from Mr. Hanson that
Colonel Thomas Worthington, Senator, on his way home
to Ohio, gave you the above information, and mentioned
the names of Henry Clay, Felix Grundy, and some other
or others who composed the committee. This is a very
important fact, and I pray you will do me the favour to
recollect and state to me all the information you possess
on the subject ¦ at what time and from whom you received
it." Shepherd replied February 20. He said Senator Worth
ington had visited him for two days early m April, 181 2,
and had insisted in conversation that war was inevitable,
but that Bayard would first be sent to England to make
a last effort to prevent it ; that Madison had consented to
send Bayard; that he, Worthington, had had frequent
conversations with Bayard and Madison on the subject,
and that Shepherd could rely upon it that the measure
? P. 456, et seq.

3x8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
would be adopted. After war had been declared, Worth
ington again stopped for a night with Shepherd and ex
pressed his mortiflcation that the mission had never been
appointed. "He said," proceeds Shepherd, "as soon as
he returned to the city (Washington) from my house he was
informed of what had taken place by a set of hot-headed,
violent men, and he immediately waited on Mr. Madison
to know the cause. Mr. Madison told him that his
friends had waited on him and said if he did send Mr.
Bayard to England they would forsake him and be op
posed to him, and he was compelled to comply, or bound
to comply, with their wishes. I then asked General
Worthington who were those hot-headed, violent men.
He said Mr. Clay was the principal. I cannot positively
say, but think Grundy was mentioned with Clay . . .
I did not ask him how he got the information. As I
understood the business, a caucus was held and Mr. Clay
and others appointed, and waited on the President in
the absence of Worthington, which will ascertain when
this business took place."
Pickering, if he pursued his investigation, found noth
ing further to support Hanson's charge, for he allowed
the matter to drop. Shepherd's letter merely showed
that the President had at one stage contemplated a flnal
mission to England, although Worthington himself be
lieved it would be useless, and that the President told
him the leaders of the party would not support him m
sending his mission.
George Bancroft, the historian, visited Madison in
March, 1836, and at the time made this memorandum of a
conversation with him :
"Madison was a friend of peace. But he told me 'that
the British left no option; that war was made neces
sary; that under the circumstances of the negotiations
with England war was unavoidable. ' He further said, ¦
'he knew the unprepared state of the country, but he
esteemed it necessary to throw forward the flag of the

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 319
country, sure that the people would press onward and
defend it.'"
The truth is that a war message was the only kind that
Madison could send, for his commercial weapons had
failed and the resources of diplomacy were exhausted.
Any one who follows the intricacies of the diplomatic
contest before the war message will find in the manage
ment of the case of the United States strength and ca
pacity. Here the President was a master, and untU Mon
roe succeeded Smith he worked without aid, writing all
the papers which Smith signed as Secretary of State.
Outside of the cabinet room Smith criticized these papers,
and his brother in the Senate opposed and defeated the
administration's bill for restricting commerce m 1810.
As both members of the family were engaged m com
merce, Madison believed their opposition was governed
by their pecuniary interests. It became evident, there
fore, that Smith must be dismissed, but Albert Gallatin
hastened the cabinet crisis by writing Madison a letter in
March, i8ii, in which he resigned, pointing out the in
harmonious condition of the cabinet and the injurious
effect on the administration.* Madison refused to ac
cept Gallatin's resignation, and caused Richard Brent,
Senator from Virginia, to communicate with Monroe and
find out if he would accept Smith's place. A favourable
reply being received,! Madison dismissed Smith. The
conversation in which he did so was a peculiar one. No
hint of what was impending was conveyed to Smith, nor
was anything done to soften the blow. With fatal good
temper Madison told him he was aware of his opposition
to measures which in cabinet councU he appeared to ap
prove, that he was incompetent, that Madison himself
had been obliged to do his work, that the business of his
department was conducted carelessly and grave blunders
had resulted. Out of consideration for appearances,
? Adams's "Gallatin," 434.
t Monroe to Brent, March 18, 1811, Monroe's Writings (Hamilton),
V, 178.

320 LIFE OP JAMES MADISON
however, he was willing to appoint him Minister to Russia.
Smith made a feeble denial of disloyalty and said he would
prefer to be Minister to England or Judge of the Supreme
Court, but Madison said he had other views as to those
places, and that, besides. Smith could not be confirmed
by the Senate for the Supreme bench, because he had not
practised law for a long time and had lost his standing
before the Senate. When Smith endeavoured again to
deny the'charge of disloyalty, Madison alluded specifically
to the defeat of the non-intercourse bill, and added sig
nificantly that he could not find the motive for the op
position to that measure, unless he looked more deeply
into human nature than he cared to do.* The president
did not spare him, but he took the reproaches and insults
heaped upon him tamely and at first intended to accept
the mission offered him. Later, hearing it was said that
it was only thrown as a sop to get rid of him, which was
the truth, his pride revolted and he declined. He went
into active opposition, printed an attack on Madison,
and his family and friends became personal and political
enemies of Madison's. One charge they made which
Madison could not answer. He and Smith had been
colleagues for nearly eight years in Jefferson's cabinet and
Madison knew Smith's capacities as an official perfectly
well. How did it happen, then, that he appointed to the
most important office under him an incompetent man?
He had, in fact, paid a costly price for the support of a
faction and had not received the support.
On April I, 1811, James Monroe took charge of the
State Department, and any notion he may have had of
changing the government's policy vanished before the
Madison policy, which he found firmly entrenched and of
which he himself became the instrument. Although that
policy meant war, the government was not prepared.
The army was disorganized, the navy was on a peace
basis, the treasury was nearly empty, the non-intercourse
act of 1809 having taken from it an important part of its
, ? Memorandum of Conversation; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 495 et seq.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 321
revenue. January 3, 1810, the President recommended
the enlistment for a short term of twenty thousand men
and that the subject of a navy be taken up by Congress.
The non-intercourse act of 1809 was to expire by its terms
with this session of Congress (1810), and a bill drawn up
by Gallatin and approved by Madison was offered m its
place. It provided that American ports should be closed
to all British and French vessels, public and private, but
British and French merchandise might be imported
directly from the place of origin in American ships. This
bill was introduced by Macon in the House and passed.
It was the administration bill which Samuel Smith op
posed and defeated in the Senate. The contest between
the two houses terminated in a compromise by which the
non-intercourse law was repealed, but the President was
authorized, in case either Great Britain or France should
repeal its measures against the United States, to revive
by proclamation the non-intercourse law against the
country not making the repeal. The avoidance of re
sponsibility by relegating to the President functions
which Congress should itself have performed was merely
an evidence of the extraordinary inefficiency of that body.
Madison said that the restoration of commerce would
create a revulsion of feeling in favour of commercial re
strictions, and he still pinned his faith to them. To
Pinkney in London he wrote May 23, 18 10: "At the
next meeting of Congress it will be found, according to
present appearances, that instead of an adjustment with
either of the belligerents, there is an increased obstinacy
in both ; and that the inconveniences of the embargo and
non-intercourse have been exchanged for the greater
sacrifices, as well as disgrace, resulting from a submission
to the predatory systems in force. It will not be wonder
ful, therefore, if the passive spirit which marked the late
session of Congress should at the next meeting be reversed to
the opposite point ;more especially as the tone of the nation
has never been as low as that of its Representatives."*
? Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 476.

32 2 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The toi^e of the Representatives was then deplorably
low. There was not in the whole Congress a leader of
power, and the Presifient did not furnish the inspiration
whicji the Congress lacked. His message qf Novpniber
29, 1809, was a palm, uninipassioned presentation, in
which he told Congress it must decide on the alternatives
before it. But Congress was so torn by contending fac
tions, each weak in itseff, that it could decide on npthing.
It proposed to decrease thp expenditure for the arrny apd
navy. It rejected unanimously the motion for an increase
of taxation made by Eppes of Virginia. The charter of
the Bank of thp United States was to expire !)y limitation
Marpli 1 1, 181 J, and Congress failed tp pa^s the bill for a
new bank, although l\fadison was known to favour it,
and the bank had been the ijiaipstay of !he treasury-
The new Congress was surnmoned to rneet in Novem
ber, a month earher than the regular tirne. It comprised
a new generation of men, just entering on the public stage
to keep the public gaze for years to coine. Henry Clay,
John C. Calhoun, Lang4on Cheves, Felbc Grundy, Richard
M. Jobnson, and a few others, cpnstitutcjd tlie lea4er§ of
what were known as "the young war Republipans."
They approached the impending crisis untramrnelled by
participation in the old controversies upon which the
existing parties were formed, and- for the tinie being stood
together for a broad nationalism. One thing especially
they stood for was action. War was practically existent-
New York was blockaded; American ships were seizpd
by British ships ; American sailors were inipressed.
The famous war message of Jtme i, 1^12, was npt thp
first suggestion of war n^a^e by tfie President to Congrps^.
In his message of January 3, iSip, when hp asked for a
volunteer force of twenty thousand men, he said they
were "to be enhsted for a short period and held in a state
of organization and readiness for aptual service a% til?
shortest warning.
" I sutiinit to the consideration of Congress, pioreoyer,
the expediency of such a classification anci organization

UW. OF JAMES MADISQN 323
of the rnilitia as will best insure prompt and snpcessive
aids fi-om that source, adequate for emergencies which
may call for tliem/'*
In his third annual message (November 5, 181 1) Jie
said: "With this evidence of hostile inflexibility (of
Great Britain) in trampling on rights which po indepen
dent nation can relinquish. Congress wiU feel the duty of
putting the Umted States into an armour and an attitude
demanded by the crisis, and conresponding with tlie
national spiiit and expectations.
''I repomnaend, accordingly, that adequate provision
be made for fllling the ranks and prolonging the enlist
ments of the regular troops; for an auxiliary fprce to be
engaged for a more limited term ; for the acpeptanpe of a
volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardour may court a par
ticipation in urgent services; for detachments as tbey
may be wanted of other portions of the militia, and for-
such a preparation of the great body as wiU proportion its
usefulness to its intrinsic capacities."!
This was not glowing language, but the President would
not have used it if he had desired to restrain a Congress
led by hot-headed men. He did not speak lightly, and
he meant to go to war. As he explained in a letter to the
South Carolina Legislature, December 20, 18 13: ''When
finally and formally assured by the British government
that its hostile measures wQuld not be revoked, no alter
native was left to the United States but inetrievable
degradation, or the lesser calamity of a resort to arms."!
Before this he wrote John Nicholas, April 2, 1813 : "It
had become impossible to avoid, or even delay, war at a
moment when we were not prepared for it, and when it
was certain that effective preparations would not take
place whilst the question of war was undecided- . . .
The calculations of the Executive were, that it would be
best to open the war with a force of a kind and amount
? "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 478.
t Id., 562.
f Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 579.

324 I>IFE OF JAMES MADISON
that would be soon procured, and that might strike an
important blow before the enemy, who was known to dis
believe the approach of such an event, could be rein
forced."* On March 23, 181 2, Serurier wrote to his government
that Monroe had told him a few days before that within
a week the President had intended to propose an embargo,
to be followed by a declaration of war, but that their plans
had been upset by news of the French outrages.! Never
theless, when Foster called on Monroe he got no satis
faction, and April i the recommendation for the embargo
went in. It was carried for sixty days by a vote of
seventy to forty in the House ; in the Senate, by a vote of
twenty to thirteen, it was extended to ninety days, thus
making it more a measure of negotiation than of war.
The majority in Congress was obviously too small for the
union necessary for war purposes.
In May, 181 2, "The Hornet," sloop of war, anived
bearing news from England, and members of Congress
thronged the State Department to hear if she had brought
news of any concessions. On the contrary. Great Britain
reasserted that her orders in council would not be re
scinded against America even if France excepted America
from her decrees.
On June i the expected war message went in. It was
a paper of ability and strength. The question of im
pressment, which had for some time been in abeyance
pending the discussion of other grievances, was now
put first in the order of grievances against Great
Britain, followed by a statement of the harassment of
our coasts, the holding up of entering and returning com
merce, the plundering of our commerce from "pretended
blockades, without the practicability of applying one."
The President said, also, illegal seizures had been made
by France and outrages perpetrated on our vessels
and citizens; but, he added, " I abstain at this time from
? Id., 579.
t Henry Adams, VI, 194-195.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 325
recommending to the consideration of Congress definite
measures with respect to that nation."
Two days after the message was received Calhoun
brought in his report in favour of war, and June 4 it was
adopted in the House by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-
nine. On June 18 it went through the Senate by a vote
of nineteen to thirteen. The next day the President's
proclamation was issued and he visited the War and Navy
Departments, a thing he had never done before, "stimu
lating everything," as a private letter declared, "in a
manner worthy of a little commander-in-chief, with his
little round hat and huge cockade."*
In truth he was not an inspiring figure to lead in war.
The hour had come but the man was wanting. Not a
scholar in governments ancient and modem, not an unim-
passioned writer of careful messages, but a robust
leader to rally the people and unite them to fight
was what the time needed, and what it did not find in
Madison. Nor was the emergency met by the Congress which
declared war. The President had asked for an increase
in the army, and he was given more troops than he asked
for, but no increase of taxation was imposed, and the pay
offered the soldiers was absurdly small. The War De
partment comprised beyond the Secretary not a dozen
clerks and was impotent to meet the emergency. A
request for two assistant secretaries of war was voted
down, because Eustis was thought to be incompetent
and his dismissal was desired. The militia force was in
creased, but authority to use it outside of the United
States was not given. Of the preliminary military
measures Madison sarcastically observed to Jefferson
(February 7, 181 2) "With a view to enable the Executive
to step at once into Canada, they have provided, after
two months' delay, for a regular force requiring twelve
to raise it, and after three months' for a volunteer
* Richard Rush to Benjamin Rush, June 20, 1812, Qu. Henry
Adams, VI, 229.

325 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
force; on tertris iiot likely to raise it dt all for that
object."* Before wM,t- was declared the President seriously
thought of fighting both France dnd Great Britain. It
might, he thought, hasten a peace with either poWer arid
a settlehifent of the qhestion involved. On the other hand
it would close all Europe to our ships and thus rendfer
them ilSeleiss, and the belligerents might choose to !)ro-
long tiie War indefinitely in their oWn interests. Hfe
had no confidence that a war With both parties Would
attract the Federalists, as they were set in thfeir dfetei--
mination to make capital otit of all the difficulties of the
adihinistfatioh. MohroC waS not disposed to agi-de to
this estimate Of the opposition. "We have been so long
dealing in the small Way of embargoes, non-interCohrsei
and nbn-importation with menaces, etc., that the British
Government had not believed us," he said. He thought
We Would have internal quiet if We opCtted Oui- ports, and
that we should " Trade and fight and fight and trade;"
Madisbn's renominatiort for the presidency was effected
May 1 8; a ihonth before War Was declared, by a ttnanihiotis
vote and without visible opposition in the caucus, tut
De Witt Clinton was put in nomination by a Convention
in New York, and the Federalists supported him, his plan
being to attract to himseff all elements of Opposition,
howevef itfecbnCilable they might be the one to the
Other. He stood for nothing, therefore, except oppbsition.
Of Clinton's ambition to be President Madison had been
warned by Morgan Lewis, May 12, l8it. When he wtbte
that Clinton, who Was then Mdybr of the city of New
York and Lieutenant-Governor of the State, intended to
be Governor nCxt and then go to Washington, ff he could;
that he Was bitteriy opposed to Madison, who had made
a mistake in permitting Clihtonians to hold tke offices.
Cluitoh had been actively Stirring tip strife and discon
tent over the distribution of patronage.! Nevertheless,
? Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 526.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 327
Clinton, a Republican, received in the electoral college
the votes of the Federalist States, all of New England, ex
cept Vermont, voting for him, together with New York,
New Jersey and Delaware. Maryland gave him five
votes and six to Madison. Madison received 128 votes and
Chnton 89, but in the Corigfe&sional elestions the Federal
ist gains were considerable, there being twice as many
Federalists fetiii-ned for the fbUrteenth Cbffgfess aS there
had been for the thirteenth.

CHAPTER XXXII
THE WAR PRESIDENT
From the very beginning the conduct of the war
was a failure. August 15 Hull surrendered at De
troit and Fort Dearborn was also destroyed, thus
giving Great Britain control of the lakes in the
West. These disasters were attributed in part to
the inefficiency of the War Department, but the Presi
dent did not escape censure. The Secretary of the Navy
was believed to be as incompetent as the Secretary of
War, and Dearborn, the commanding general of the
army, was an old man, who enjoyed no one's confidence
save Madison's. Monroe said he was "advanced in years,
infirm, and had given no proof of activity or military
talent during the year" (181 2). In the cabinet Monroe
was the only one who enjoyed the confidence of the people
and brought their force to the support of the administra
tion. Gallatin was a far abler man than Monroe and was
devoted to Madison's interests, but his enemies were
implacable and in Congress opposed every measure he
suggested. Monroe had seen service as a captain in the
Revolution and had mihtary aspirations. Seeing the
sad plight into which the army had fallen, he volunteered
to take the field, and a way was sought to put him in com
mand of the army. Early in December, 181 2, Eustis
retired as Secretary of War, he himself recognizing that
public opinion demanded his sacrifice. December 14
Monroe was made Secretary of War pro tempore. Such
a concentration of power in the hands of the two Vir
ginians caused general complaint, especially among Re
pubhcans in New York, so Monroe was put back in the
State Department, and at the same time the project of his
328

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 329
taking the field was definitely abandoned on account of
the difficulties in the way.
General John Armstrong, of New York, lately Minister
to France, was selected as Secretary of War, and entered
upon his duties January 14, 1813. The objections to him
were fatal to his usefulness. Long diplomatic service
in which his ability was conspicuous had not fitted him
for duty as an executive officer when quick decision and
action were needed. He was an indolent man and energy
was needed, and he was a member of the Clinton faction
in New York and loyal co-operation in the cabinet was
essential. He was unpopular in the West, and his nomi
nation was confirmed by a majority of three votes only
both Kentucky Senators voting against him; and Ken
tucky under Henry Clay's leadership was the most en
thusiastic State in the Union in support of the war. Mon
roe, Gallatin and Jones, the new Secretary of the Navy,
all distrusted Armstrong. Paul Hamilton resigned as
Secretary of the Navy, probably on a hint from Madison,
soon after Eustis left, and January 12, 1813, William
Jones, of Pennsylvania, took his place. He had seen
some sea service, was a merchant and had been a member
of Congress. His ability was respectable but his career
had been a negative one. Here were changes in the chief
places in the cabinet at a critical time, and a reorganiza
tion of the executive departments. Of the original
cabinet Gallatin alone remained.
When Congress met in November, 181 2, the President
put the state of the country before it and the pictm-e was
not a pleasing one. He recited as one of the "incidents
to the measures of the war" "the refusal of the Governors
of Massachusetts and Connecticut to furnish the required
detachments of militia toward the defense of the maritime
frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and un
fortunate exposition of the provisions of the Constitu
tion relating to the mUitia . . . It is obvious that
if the authority of the United States to call into service
and command the militia for the public defense can be

33o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
thus frustrated, even In a state of declared war and,
of course, tmder apprehensions of invasion preceding war,
they are not one nation for the purpose moSt of all re
quiring it, and that the public safety may have no other
resource than in those large and permanent mihtafy
establishments which are forbidden by the principles of
our free govefnment, and against the necessity of which
the militia Were meant to be a constitutional bulwark;"
But the President offered no suggestion for stopping so
grave a defiance of federal authority. He told of his
instructions to Jonathan Russell, who remained as charge
at London, to agree to an armistice on condition that
impressments should stop, and of England's refusal.
Opportunity for a reconsideration would, he Said; be
kept open, but "it would be unwise to relax our measures
in ahy respect oh a presumption of such a fesult;"*
Officially the President put the best aspect possible on
the state of affairs. Personally he did not deceive him
self about the prevailing feeling of discontent. "I have
not been unaware," he wrote to William Wirt, Septem
ber 30, 1 813, " of the disappointment and discontent gain
ing ground with respect to the war on Canada, br of the
use to which they were turned against the administration.
I have not been less aware that success alone Would put
an end to them. This is the test by which pUbhc opinion
decides more or less in all cases, and most of all, perhaps,
in that of mUitary events where there is the least oppor
tunity of judging by any other. No stimulus, therefore,
has been wanting to the exertions necessary to render oUf
arms successful in the quarter where they have failed.
"How far these exertiohs will prevail remains to be
seen; and how far past failure is to be ascribed to the
difficulties incident to the first stages of a war Commenced
as the present necessarily was ; to the personal f aUlts of
those entrusted with command ; to the course pursued by
the National Legislature; or to mismanagements by the
Executive Department, must be left to those whb wiU
* "Mfessagfes and Pdpets of the Presidents," I, 514, et seq.

Lt^E 6P JAMEiS MADISON 331
decide impartially, and on fuller information tllaU may
nbW exist."*
He explained what lie had hoped to do. By taking
advantage of the belief in Great Britain that the United
States would hot go to war, he had Intended to open
hostilities by quickly raising an afmy on short enlist
ments and reducing Canada from Montreal Upwards before
tlie enemy could make preparations to defend it. Con
gress had given him too big an army, had offered too little
bbUnty and pay for its quick recruiting, had itself delayed
too much, had refused to put the War Department on ah
effective basis, ahd the administration's plans had failed.
The blame for the most shameful instance of the failure
of plans in tlie course of the war could not, however, be
laid at the door of Congress, but fell upon his own imme
diate SUbof dinates, acting and failing to act tmder his own
eye. On the night Of August 22, 1814, he received this
hurried note from Monroe, who was busying himself in
inspecting the military defenses Of Washmgton :
"The enemy are advancing Six miles on the road to
the Wood-Yafd and Our troops retiring. Our troops
were on the march to meet them, but too small a body to
engage. General Winder prbpbses to retire until he can
collect them in a body. *rhe enemy are in full march for
Washington. Have the materials prepared to destroy
the bridges. "James MonroE:
" Tuesday, 9 o'clock."
At a cabinet meeting on July i the possibility of an
attack on the capital was fully discussed and plans for its
defense were drawn up and entrusted to the Secretary of
War to be canied outj General William H. Winder, of
Maryland) brother of Levin Winder, Govemor of the
State; being selected as the military commander. These
plans would have proved adequate for their purpose, but
they were never carried out, becaUse Armstrong did not
believe Washington woUld be attacked. About the
middle of August it became known that Admiral Cock-
* Works (Cong. Ed.), ll, S73i ei seq.

332 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
bum had arrived in Chesapeake Bay and was proceeding
up the Patuxent River, and the city of Washington fell
into a panic. The evening of August 22 the President,
accompanied by his cabmet, rode out to see the troops
under Winder, which were encamped ten miles from
Bladensburg, and the next morning before nine o'clock
they passed him in review. That day the records of the
State and War Departments were taken first to an old
mUl on the Virginia side of the Potomac near Chain Bridge
about six miles above Washington, and then to Lees-
burg.* The President remained with the troops the
23 d, and in the evening went back to the White House,
where, about nine o'clock, he received a discouraging
report from General Winder in person. Early the next
morning, having read a note from Winder to Armstrong
saying he needed counsel, he repaired to headquarters.
Meeting Armstrong there he authorized him to go to the
troops and give such assistance and counsel to General
Winder as occasion required.! He then intended to him
self remain on the field, for he remarked to Campbell, the
Secretary of the Treasury, that any conflict in orders
could be settled by constUting him " as he would not him
self be far distant." Shortly before ten o'clock Winder
started for Bladensburg, and a little while afterwards the
President followed with the troops. Before doing so
Campbell had given him a pair of pistols, which he put in
his holsters. He and Attorney-General Rush were riding
briskly towards Bladensburg, and had nearly gone into
the British lmes, when a volunteer scout told them of
their danger, and they turned into an orchard, where they
joined Monroe and Armstrong. WhUe there the troops
about them were fired on and retreated. The President
then said to Monroe and Armstrong that "it would now
be proper for us to retire to the rear, leaving the military
movements to military men," and about two o'clock in
* Horatio King's Account, "Magazine of American History," Nov.,
1885. t Madison's "Memorandum," Works (Cong. Ed.), Ill, 423.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 333
the aftemoon he and Attorney-General Rush started for
Washington. As he rode slowly back the stream of flying
militiamen and civilians poured by him and around iiim,
and about three o'clock in the aftemoon he reached the
White House. Before six o'clock he crossed the Potomac
in a boat, and taking a carriage on the Virginia shore,
along with Jones, Rush and one or two others, went west
ward about ten miles and passed the night at a house a
few miles above the Little Falls. The next morning,
August 25, he joined his wife at the inn six miles farther
away, and about twenty miles distant from where the
British actually were. He remained here all day and
part of the night, and was insulted by some of the fugi
tives, who thought him responsible for their misfortunes.
In the dead of the night a report came that the enemy
was approaching, and the President and his wife parted,
he going to a little hovel deeper in the woods, where he
spent the rest of the night. The next day, August 26,
he crossed the river and went to Montgomery Court House
in Maryland, and hearing that Winder had gone to Balti
more, followed him for ten miles to Brookville, where he
passed the night . August 2 7 , receiving word from Monroe
that the British had evacuated Washington, he sent notes
to his cabinet officers to join him there, and he himself
reached the city about five o'clock that evening. The
enemy's squadron was still battering the forts below Alex
andria, and his frigates could be seen off Alexandria until
August 31. The President found lodging with his sister-
in-law, Mrs. Anna Cutts, in her house on F Street, a
block away from the Treasury Department, and after
staying there about a month moved into Col. John
Tayloe's Octagon House, a handsome residence which
the ingenious Thornton had designed.
He had been absent from the city for three days.
When he left he had instructed his cabinet to meet him
at Fredericktown, Maryland, and had been unable to
notify Armstrong of his change of plans, so Armstrong
was not with him when he returned, and Winder was at

334 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
Baltimore. In tl;e emergency he instructed Monroe to
assume charge of the War Department and the military
defenses. Throughout the catastrophe MbWoe was the
only one who had been of practical use to him- He was
now the only one whom the mihtary would obey, for they
mutinously announced they would take no orders from
Armstrong. That iUstaned official returned to Washington at one
o'clock August 29, and the same evening the President
called upon him and tbld him the military had petjeUed
against i^im, apd added that he himself was an object of
suspicion. He snggestpd, therefore, that Armstrong
permit some one else to remain in charge of the defenses
of the city. Armstrong replied with indignation that he
mnst have all his anthority or none, Madispn WPUl4
not then accept his fesignatipn, saying he did not wish to
go so far, but it was agreed that Armstrong should leave
the city the following morning, whicb he 414, ail4 ffom
Baltimore resigned,* making public at the sanie time the
circumstances which prompted him to dP so. On Sep
tember 3, before his resignation had reached Washington,
the President gave Momoe a commission as Secretary pf
Wai" Pro tefnpore, ds-ting it August 31, September 25,
Monroe demanded a permanent commission! and received
it September 27. Madison made PQ pretense tp military
knowledge and put himself ip the hands of the only pPfSQH
near him who had such knpwledgPr Armstrong con
tended that he had been forced out by intrigue in order
that Monroe might have his place. ^ It was true that those
who complaiiied most loudly of Armstrong wished Monrqe
to succeed him, but after the fall Pf Washington no power
could have kept Armstrong at the hpad of the War Depart
ment, a fact which the President made clear to him at
their interview.
The President escaped with light censure fp? this
supreme disaster of the war. His own sin was in trilSting
* Madison's Memorandum, Works (Cong. Ed.) Ill, 425.
t "Monroe's Writings" (Hamilton) V, 293.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISQN 335
others to attend to their duties. A great deal bf ridicule
was visited Upon him for his flight from the city, but the
circumstances did not wanant it. From the beginning
to the end of this humiliating incident his conduct was
dignifled and showed no personal trepidation. He was
not thinking of his safety, but of the disgrace which had
come upon his country and his administration by the
capture of the undefended capital.
One point in which the conduct of the war was weakest
he could, however, charge primarily to Congress. Jn
1 81 1 Gallatin's report showed ap excess of receipts over
expenditures for the year before, but the ensuing year
he estimated that there would be a deficiency of over
$i,Qoo,oQQ. IJe recommended that a loan of $1,200,000
be contracted and that taxes be increased. The lafter
alternative was refused, and at the end of October, 181 2,
Gallatin reported that a loan of $20,000,000 would be
necessary to meet the expenses of the year 181 3. The
treasury was on the verge of collapse, but Congress left
the tax bills untouched and authorized a loan of $16,000,-
000 and an issue of $5,000,000 of treasury notes. April
I, 18 13, the treasury was empty when John Jacob Astor
came to its rehef with the aid of Stephen Girard and
David Parish. Although the $16,000,000 was to be bor
rowed at seven per cent, for the first thirteen years and
six per cent, thereafter, only about $4,000,000 of popular
subscriptions were offered. A national bank as an
agency to assist the government in borrowing was
earnestly desired by Gallatin, and in 18 14 the Ways and
Means Committee of the House reported a bill to mcor-
porate one with a capital of $30,000,000, but it came tp
nothing, and a loan of $25,000,000 and an issue of $5,000,-
000 interest-bearing treasury notes were ordered, and the
President was given authority to issue $5,000,000 addi
tional notes, if he could not borrow the full amount of the
loan. In the mi4st of these pompUc.ations GaUatin went
abroad and Jones took his place temporarily, but after a

336 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
service of ten months Jones informed Madison that he
could not continue his double service, the labour of the
Treasury Department being too exacting. Gallatin's
service abroad was then made definite. Alexander J.
Dallas, of Pennsylvania, whom the President wished to
nominate as his successor, would have been rejected by
the Senate as Madison ascertained, so he offered the place
to Richard Rush, then Comptroller of the Treasury, but
Rush declined. Finally, February 8, 1814, he sent in the
name of George W. Campbell, a Senator from Tennessee,
and he was commissioned the foUowmg day. He had
been a consistent supporter of the administration, but he
was possessed of no conspicuous characteristics to inspire
behef that he could overcome a desperate financial situa
tion. In May, 18 14, he attempted to float a loan, and
received offers for $13,000,000 on hard terms, and an
additional offer of Jacob Barker, a private banker in New
York, to take $5,000,000 of the bonds was accepted,
although Barker's abUity to carry out his contract was
doubted. Barker afterwards declared that there was an
understanding between him and CampbeU that $300,000
of the bonds were to be paid in London, the stock being
sent by Campbell to the govemment bankers in that cit}i
to be sold, but that Campbell changed his mind and
Barker's plans were embanassed in consequence. Barker
faffed to keep his contract, and twenty-nine separate
suits were afterwards brought against him by the United
States.* On May 22, 18 14, CampbeU reported to the President
that the funds on hand would last two months longer.
Astor, he said, proposed two methods for floating the loan,
one being to negotiate in Europe through an agent, the
other to make an anangement with Astor and his friends,
who, Campbell presumed, did the negotiating on their
own account. He said then that he was apprehensive
Barker would have difficulty in paying his installments.
In July he attempted a second loan of $6,000,000, and
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 337
could seU only $2,500,000 of bonds at eighty. As the ex
penses of the government must be met he suggested the
issue of treasury notes. A month later Washington was
sacked and the banks of PhUadelphia and Baltimore
suspended specie payments, and were soon followed by
all the banks throughout the country, except in New
England. CampbeU's statement of national bankmptcy
was his last message. He resigned, and Alexander J.
Dallas succeeded him October 6, 1814, the Senate having
withdrawn its objection to him in view of the emergency.
For 1815 the revenue was estimated at $18,200,000, not
half enough for the running expenses of the Government,
and there was $18,627,000 of outstanding treasury notes.
March 3, 181 5, a loan to absorb these was authorized, but
Dallas rejected the bids made on the ground that they were
too low. Soon after he came into office, October 17,
1 8 14, he wrote to Eppes, Chairman of the House Com
mittee on Ways and Means, recommending the establish
ment of a United States bank, and by a vote of sbcty-six
to forty the House resolved that such an assistance to
the treasury ought to be created, but no agreement could
be reached on any of the bills introduced, until at the last
moment a bill drawn by Daniel Webster was carried.
It authorized the creation of the bank, but without
obligation to lend to the government, and Madison
vetoed it, chiefly for that reason. More tax bills were
passed at this session and $10,000,000 of treasury notes
were issued. At the next session a new bank bill was
under discussion when the treaty of Ghent arrived and
postponed discussion, but a year later, on January 8,
1 816, Calhoun reported a bill to incorporate the bank
for twenty years with a capital of $35,000,000, and
this bill became law April 10, 1816. Hardly any of
the Federalists supported it and hardly any of the
Republicans opposed it. Henry Clay, who had voted
against a similar bill in 18 11, completely changed front,
and James Madison, who had opposed the bill creating
the flrst bank of the United States in 1791, put his name

338 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
to the bill of 1816 and made it law. He had already
stated his attitude on the subject in his veto message of
January 30, 181 5. "Waiving the question of the con
stitutional authority of the Legislature," he said, "to
establish an incorporated bank as being precluded in my
judgment by repeated recognitions under varied circum
stances of the validity of such an institution in acts of the
legislative, executive and judicial branches of the gov
emment, accompanied by indications, in different modes,
of a concunence of the general will of the nation," he was
now ready to approve a bank bill, as he regarded as
settled the question of its constitutionality.* John
Randolph attributed Madison's signing the bill to the
weakness of old age, but Madison always insisted it was
due to the necessities of the occasion. The chief opposi
tion to the bill had not come from strict constructionists,
but from the state banks, which refused to cooperate with
the treasury or to assist it. After the bank was author
ized Dallas wrote to Madison, August 31, 18 16, to con
gratulate him on the flnancial prospect.
"The national bank," he said, "grows in the public
confldence. I believe its immediate uses will be as' great
as was anticipated by its most strenuous advocates.
Under a prudent and skifful director acting in concert
with the govemment, it will restore the national cur
rency, and destroy the artiflcial differences of exchange.
But I look with peculiar pleasure to the establishment,
as furnishing a machinery to frustrate the usurpations
of the state banks, and to retrieve the constitutional
powers of the Govemment over the coin and currency
of the nation."!
When Dallas retired from the Treasury Department
three months later, Madison wrote to GaUatin, who was
serving as Minister to France, and offered him his old
post again, but Gallatin prefened to remain abroad, and
William H. Crawford was appointed.
* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 555.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 339
The record of the cabinet was singular. Robert Smith,
the first Secretary of State, was a failure and was dis
missed. Eustis, the first Secretary of War, broke down
in the face of emergency and was forced to resign, and his
successor, John Armstrong, was sent precipitately away
from Washington in 1 814. Paul Hamilton, the Secretary
of the Navy, was forced out of office when Eustis was, and
for the same reason. George W. Campbell, Madison's
third Secretary of the Treasury, resigned because he could
not cope with the difficulties of his position. Monroe's
service at the head of the State Department was inter
rupted by four assignments to act as Secretary of
War. Walter Jones served as Secretary of the Navy and
of the Treasury for nearly a year. Dallas remained in the
Treasury for only two years, during which time he also
acted as Secretary of War for two weeks. William H.
Crawford, who was appointed Secretary of War August i,
1 81 5, served for a little more than a year when he was
transferred to the Treasury Department. Jefferson's
Secretaries of State, War, the Treasury and the Navy
went through practically the whole of his two terms with
him ; Adams changed the Secretaries of State, the Treas
ury and War once; Monroe completed his eight years of
the Presidency with hardly a break in his cabinet. Madi
son's administration fell in more critical times than the
administration of Adams, Jefferson or Monroe, but his
task would have been an easier one and the credit of his
administration would have been greater, ff he had sur
rounded himself with a compact body of able men, de
voted to his interests and expert in their management of
public affairs, instead of having strange faces about the
cabinet table, and coadjutors who were inexperienced
and even disloyal. In his long pubhc career he had never,
until he became President, had the duty of selecting and
commanding men. Plis concern had been rather with
public measures, and when he was called upon to choose
the instruments for their execution he was too old to
acquire the quality of choosing them well.

CHAPTER XXXIII
THE GLOOMY FEDERALISTS
As the war progressed, that Madison was in secret
alliance with Napoleon was extensively believed. In
writing to Col. David Humphreys, March 23, 1813,
Madison expressed surprise that any one should believe so
absurd a story, and pointed to his own and Jefferson's
messages, and his recent instructions to Barlow, limiting
his negotiations in France to the subjects of indemnity
and commerce. "With such strong presumptions and
decisive proofs before the public it is impossible," he
said, "that a purpose in this government of allying itself
with that of France can be seriously believed by any
intelligent individual not in a temper to reject a witness
even from the dead."* Those who believed this charge
had during the diplomatic contest preceding the war
generally sided with England, and, according to Henry
Lee, did not beheve that Madison wished to accommo
date matters with that country. The situation in Wash
ington was so uncertain and had been so prolonged that
not even the Republicans themselves thought war was
really coming. Many of them wrote to Madison and
implored him not to enter into it, giving as one reason
that it would injure his political fortunes. Governor
John S. Barbour, his neighbour, asked him in strict con
fidence, March 30, 1812, to tell him whether or not there
was to be war. If it was really impending he wished to
put Virginia in a state of defence; if not, he did not wish
to alarm the people by unnecessary preparations. El
bridge Gerry, then completing his term as Republican
Govemor of Massachusetts, wrote two weeks later (April
* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 560. 340

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 341
12), that he was doing his best to forestall the disloyal
spirit in his State. He had appointed three division com
manders and three brigadiers of State troops who were
firm friends of the national govemment. Others ap
pointed by him were of different politics, because he could
not find competent Republicans, but they would do their
duty, he thought, and their superior officers would con
trol them. May 19, he wrote that the strength of the
opposition was increasing with delay and that war would
be a check. "By war we shall be purified as by fire,"
he said. When war came his hopes were not realized.
July 13, he reported that Govemor Strong, his successor,
was removing Republican militia officers and filling their
places with Federalists. If the British attacked there
was grave danger. The Republicans would be to blame if
they stood "with folded arms to leave it in the power of
such a disaffected executive to deliver up our fortresses to
the enemy; to enable those who may be disposed to
rebel to unite with our foes; to aid them in making a
diversion of our western army and to subject the State to
be overawed by a fear of traitors."
St. George Tucker, WUliamsburg, July 27, 18 12, gave
Madison the Southern opinion of Massachusetts Federal
ists: "I am mortified to observe," he said, "the probable
predominance of a faction in Boston whose designs have
long been suspected by me, and whose present determina
tion seems to be either to rule or to dissolve the union."
Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, said that in his opinion
(January, 181 2), the Federalist newspapers were to blame
for the Federalists' attitude. "The mass of Federalists,"
he said, "are as good citizens as ever existed. They are,
however, made tools of by men who have the very worst
views. They have been led on step by step, through
fraud and misrepresentation, till they have arrived at
the verge of civil war." The Federahst papers were,
in fact, distributed free in parts of New England, the con
sequence being that the people saw no others, being un
wiUing to pay for them. But according to Carey there

342 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
was yet another reason for a disunion spirit. It was
fostered, he said, by men who hoped to attain higher
offices in the prospective confederacies than they could
attain under the union.* These men had, however, been
busy with their schemes for many years. In 1804 Tim
othy Pickering deliberately proposed a Northem secession
to his friends of the Essex Junto. They decided against
it as impracticable, and not a good remedy for existing
evils, but they made no pretense of attachment to the
union.! Pickering, Griswold and others plotted with Anthony
Meny, the British minister, as early as January, 1804,
for dismemberment, and, of course, Meny reported the
facts to his government.! His successors had similar
reports to make, and the French minister sent information
of the spirit of disunion to Paris. These reports had their
effect in the conduct observed towards the United States
by England and France. Tuneau, the predecessor of
Serurier, reported to his govemment, March 19, 1809:
"I had informed your Excellency of the disunion pro
jects shown by some of the Northern States," and a month
later (April 20) he said the separation of New England
was openly talked of, and that it was to be canied out
under British protection.^
That such a scheme was in contemplation Madison be
lieved and endeavoured to prove in 1811 by the purchase
for $50,000 of the papers of John Henry, formerly secret
agent in the United States of Sir James Craig, Governor
of Canada. These papers did not, however, establish a
conspiracy. They showed the discontent in New Eng
land and that the British government had maintained
a secret agent there, but the names of those with whom
he had had dealings were lacking and no overt acts against
the government were proved. One object of the pur-
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Henry Adams, II, 160-161.
tW. II, 391-
if Hetity Adams, V, 34, 36.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 343
chase, Monroe told the French minister, was to arouse
the war spirit of the country, but the effect in this di
rection was insignificant, and the feeling against the
Federalists needed no increasing.
When the war measures came before Congress the
leading Federalists voted for them. Some of them told
the British minister, with whom they were on friendly and
confidential terms, that they hoped for a short war which
would throw out of power the Madison administration.
On February i two of them called on Foster and gave
advice as to the best course for his country to follow.
Under no circumstances, they said, should England ac
cede to Madison's demands. A short war would be bene
ficial to England. "In short," reported Foster to his
government, "they seemed to think that Great Britain
could by management bring the United States into any
connection with her that she pleased."*
Secretary Eustis reported in 181 2 a conversation with
one John Wait, "a gloomy Federalist from Boston."
" 'Then, Mr. Wait, they will separate from the union.'
" 'O no, sir, they cling to the union.'
" 'But they have said it and will do it.'
" 'No, unless they see commerce entirely destroyed
and themselves ruined — ^unless the laws are unconstitu
tional.' " 'And they, the minority, are to be the judges !' "
Here the conversation was interrupted. Eustis said
Mr. Wait was a perfect representative of the Massachu
setts Federahsts.!
When Ersklne's agreement was made the Federahsts
were reconciled, as peace with Great Britain seemed as
sured, and John Henry went home because there was
nothing for him to do. When the short-lived supposed
security terminated the Federalist determination to find
an escape from Virginia supremacy revived with vigour.
"Nearly all the New Englanders," says Henry Adams, "on
* Henry Adams, VI, 172, et seq.
t Dept. of State MSS.

344 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
the contrary, looked to ultimate disunion as a con
servative necessity."
After the war began Madison was informed that in Ver
mont the success of American arms was necessary to save
the State from passing over to the control of the Federal
ists and that a disaster to American arms would cause
disaffection to the union.*
Govemor Strong of Massachusetts, on June 26, pro
claimed a public fast for a war declared "against the na
tion from which we are descended, and which for many
generations has been the bulwark of the religion we pro
fess." The Supreme Court of the State declared that the
determination of the question whether the constitutional
exigency existed for calling the State militia into the
service of the United States belonged to the Govemor
and not to the President. When Congress authorized a
loan of $11,000,000 from New England, where there was
the greatest amount of capital, only $1,000,000 was
subscribed. The agents for the loan in Boston were
obliged to advertise that the names of subscribers would
not be made pubhc, and the Federalist papers advised
all people against taking up the government's bonds.!
In Providence, when the news came that war had been
declared, the bells of the meeting houses tolled as for a
funeral. Many of the shops were closed and flags were
flown at half mast. Christopher EUery, who reported
these facts to Madison, said that many Federalists hoped
to hear of British success in the war.!
In Connecticut, Republicans said the legislature was a
treasonable body, but that one-third of the citizens would
defend the government. March 13, 1809, the Repub
licans at Litchfleld passed resolutions which show the
opinion in which the Federalists were held :
"When, too," they said, "combining with these impend
ing dangers from abroad, we find among our own citizens,
*ld.t Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 388.
X Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 345
in our own councils, men so miserably misled and so
unhappily forgetful of the rights and duties of Americans
as to haU, in unison with the multiplied agents and in
cendiaries of a foreign court, who have found a resting
place in the bosom of our country, that nation as a pro
tecting shield which above all others has outraged the
rights of mankind," etc.*
Before the war began the prospects in New England
were painted in dark colours by a number of well-
informed people. Benjamin Stoddart said, January 18,
1809: "To me it is and always has been as clear as
noonday's sun that further perseverance in this embargo
would produce open and effectual resistance to the laws
of the union."!
Undoubtedly the embargo harmed the political for
tunes of the Republicans. In New York it threw out of
employment seamen, shipwrights, rope and sailmakers,
riggers, calkers, draymen and 'longshoremen. It was
computed by Morgan Lewis that of seamen there were
in New York City nearly 4,000, and they were an active
force in politics against the administration and proposed
to elect De Witt Clinton to the presidency.
Robert R. Livingston said the reports of distress from
the embargo were much exaggerated. The check to
commerce had come at a most opportune moment.
"We have," he wrote, "stopped full-handed; we have a
capital [with] which we can long remain unemployed.
It must then find that occupation in manufactures which
it can no longer find in commerce, and when once in
vested in them it cannot be easily withdrawn, even on the
return of peace . . .
"I hear with contempt the exaggerated accounts of the
distress of the country. I have just traveled through
that in which it was said chiefly to exist. I have been
to Boston by the way of Hartford. I returned by another
*Id.
X Reported to Madison by Commodore Thomas Tingey, Dept. of
State MSS.

346 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
route. I have also been to almost the northeastern town
of Vermont, traveling thro Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. Never have I, at any time, witnessed more
ease and comfort than I have seen in the whole of this
extensive journey."*
New England was more prosperous than any other part
of the country. John Lowell said in 1814 that the banks
were at their wits' end to lend their capital. A few
made secret loans to the United States, but others
bought British government bills at more than twenty per
cent, discount rather than assist their own govemment.
Even when war was in progress officers in the army com
plained that military reverses were pointed to by Federal
ist officers as an evidence of Republican incapacity, and
that they constantly criticized Madison and his whole
administration. It became a question whether they
ought not to be removed for disloyalty.
There were mass meetings, protests and pulpit oratory
against the war, and some people thought it their duty
to tell Madison how much they disapproved of it. A
man eighty-nine years old wrote from Woodstock,
Conn., November 23, 18 14, that it was a "cruel, unneces
sary, unjust war, esteemed so by thousands of the good
people of the United States, and the expenses of it too
heavy and grievous to be borne."!
Josiah Quincy was one of the most earnest of the op
ponents. It was he who in 1811, when the bill to admit
Louisiana into the union of the States was pending in the
House, said:
"If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is
virtually a dissolution of this Union ; that it will free the
States from their moral obligation ; and, as it will be the
right, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare
for a separation — amicably if they can, violently if they
must." When prospects of peace first appeared he wrote to
* Dept. of State MSS.
t Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 347
Senator Outerbridge Horsey of Delaware, June 18, 1813:
"In relation to the Russian mediation, I have but little
faith . . . However, I am of those who are willing
to wait for the disclosures of time. And though I be
heve little in peace, yet should it come I am perfectly con
vinced that it is owing to other circumstances than any
thing contained in the authorities of our cabinet. Had
I less belief that Mr. Bayard desired the appointment, I
should have more confidence in his judgment concerning
the event . . . And in the meanwhile French suc
cesses or French defeats will settle the vibrations of our
policy, unless the refusal of supply or despair of loans
should make a quicker result inevitable."*
Although the Federalists did not feel towards Madi
son the same degree of personal animosity which they had
felt towards Jefferson, they said in effect, "as Mr. Madison
has declared war, let Mr. Madison carry it on," and many
of them indulged in robust abuse of him,! denouncing
him as a "miscreant," etc. They professed to believe
that he should resign. The Boston Gazette said: "Do
the Democrats think that a Madison, whose highest am
bition is to balance a sentence and round a period, that
the rhetorician who once glimmered in harmless debate
in times of peace, can now balance the conflicting parties
of our country, or direct the energies of a powerful na
tion?" The Baltimore Federal Gazette published a letter
from Washington dated January 15, 181 5, saying Madison
would be called on to resign, and the Federal Republican
said there was no hope of preserving the Union unless he
resigned or was removed from office. This was just be
fore the battle of New Orleans, and before the news
of the Treaty of Ghent had been received.! Naturally
after those events no further suggestions of Madison's
resignation were made.
* Family papers of the late Outerbridge Horsey, Esq., of Need-
wood, Md.
t Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 370, «.
X Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 416, et seq.

348 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The discontent and disloyalty of the Federalists found
their supreme culmination in the Hartford Convention
of 1 814. Randall, in his life of Jefferson, gives a fair esti
mate of those who attended and favoured it :
"They were rich men, indignant at the stoppage of their
gains by commercial restrictions and war — colonists
in spirit, who hke Talmadge thought a war against
England was a war against religion and order — aristoc-
crats dreaming of the restoration of those pahny days
when political wisdom and rights sprung from hair-powder
and shoe-buckles — sectional fanatics, unwilling to have
the 'moral and religious' people of New England form
part of any political compact which they could not con
trol — politicians who were keen consolidationists when
they were the Ins at Washington, but who regarded their
own banishment from the theatre of national politics as a
procedure which demanded the formation of a 'confed
eracy' which would better appreciate their capacities for
govemment. But even among the latter class, by far
the most dangerous one, ran the conservatism of personal
character, of caste, and of the cautious New England
mind. There was not among the members one hopeless
enough to be desperate, depraved enough to delight in
blood and disorder, or warm enough in temperament to
become a dangerous enthusiast."*
The discontented leaders undoubtedly looked forward
to the formation of a New England confederacy. Picker
ing wrote July 4, 1813: "On the contrary, I believe an
immediate separation would be a blessing to the 'good
old thirteen states,' as John Randolph once called them."
John Lowell, who was the tnaker of literature to spread
Pickering's plans, published a pamphlet this year en
titled "Thoughts in Answer to a Question Respecting
the Division of the States; by a Massachusetts Farmer."
The year before, July 21, 181 2, a public meeting in Essex
County adopted resolutions proposed by Pickering,
favouring a State convention to concert measures in
* RandaU's "Jefferson," III, 418.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 349
opposition to the administration, but it failed of accept
ance in Boston because of the intrepid opposition of
Samuel Dexter, himself a Federalist, but one of a con
siderable number who refused to follow the popular tide
into the gulf of disloyalty.*
In the General Court of Massachusetts, the committee
having under consideration the resolutions of the county
meetings reported, February 18, 18 14:
"Whenever the national compact is violated and the
citizens of this State are oppressed by cruel and un
authorized laws, the Legislature is bound to interpose its
power and wrest from the oppressor his victim.
"This is the spirit of our Union, and thus it has been
explained by the very man who now sets at defiance all
the principles of his early political life." Accordingly,
they proposed a convention of the States to amend the
Constitution. "This," they said, "was the mode pro
posed by Mr. Madison [in The Federalist, No. 46] in
answer to objections made as to the tendency of the
general government to usurp that of the States."
A convention of the States was, of course, not an
objectionable suggestion, but nothing that Madison had
ever said could be so twisted as to sanction the first sen
tence of the report. The Legislature did not adopt the
report, but referred the whole question to the next Legis
lature in order that the sense of the people might in the
meantime be taken on it. The action of the ensuing
Legislature must, therefore, be accepted as a conect index
of public opinion in Massachusetts. After Washington
had been sacked by the British, when the treasury was in
desperate straits for funds knd New England believed
that the collapse of the national government was impend
ing, the Massachusetts Legislature pronounced, October
8, 1814, in favour of seizing the Federal revenue collected
in the State and using it for the State's defense, and
sanctioned the holding of a convention of New England
States. The vote was three to one in favour of the con-
* Henry Adams, VIII, 4, et seq.

350 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
vention, and after protesting against the action taken
the minority withdrew. October 19, twelve delegates to
the convention were chosen. The Connecticut Legisla
ture fell into line and named Hartford as the place and
December 15 as the time for a meeting to devise "such
measures for the safety and weffare of these States as may
consist with our obligations as members of the National
Union," — ^this language being intended to draw a dis
tinction between the Union and the Constitution. The
Legislature of Rhode Island also appointed delegates, and
these were the only three States giving official sanction
to the convention. Vermont declined to name delegates,
but when the meeting took place one county sent a mem
ber. New Hampshire had a Republican Executive
Council which stood in the way of the Legislature's desire
to name delegates, but two were sent by popular meet
ings. After the convention had been decided upon, but
before it was held, the elections to the national House of
Representatives took place, resulting in the return of
thirty-nine Federalists and two Republicans from New
England. Popular approval of Federalism had in
creased, for in the preceding Congress there had been
thirty Federalists and eleven Republicans.
The Hartford convention was really composed of the
less radical element of the Federalists, and could have
gone much further than it did with the certainty of re
ceiving popular support. It comprised only twenty-six
members in all, and George Cabot of Massachusetts, who
was chosen president, was determined to restrain it
within temperate bounds. Harrison Gray Otis, it is pre
sumed, drew up the report which it adopted, and which
was the only result of its labours given to the public, the
sessions and proceedings being guarded with inviolate
secrecy. The report said that the time for a change was
at hand ; that a severance of the union of the States could
not be justified, especially in time of war, except upon
grounds of absolute necessity ; but that it was the duty of
the State to interpose its authority to protect its citizens

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 351
from infractions of the Constitution by the general gov
ernment. Therefore, State laws should be passed to pro
tect the militia and citizens from conscription or drafts
by the Federal govemment, and an arrangement should
be made authorizing the States to assume their own
defense and retain for the purpose a part of the Federal
taxes collected in their borders. Until the result of an
application for this purpose to the general government
should be made known, it was recommended that there
be no further proceedings, but if the application failed
another convention was to be called. The report was
approved by the Massachusetts and Connecticut Legis
latures and delegates were appointed, with Harrison Gray
Otis at their head, to proceed to Washington to ask
the contemplated arrangements.
October 17 William Wirt called on Madison at the
Octagon House before the Hartford convention had been
determined upon. He described him as looking shattered
and heartbroken, his mind and heart full of the New Eng
land sedition.* The fact that the capital had been
wrecked by a foreign foe seemed not to concern him so
much as the solicitude he felt for the integrity of the frame
of government he had done so much to erect. A month
later (November 25) he wrote to Wilson Cary Nicholas:
"You are not mistaken in viewing the conduct of the
Eastern States as the source of our greatest difficulties in
canying on the war ; as it certainly is the greatest ff not
the sole inducement to the enemy to persevere in it. The
greater part of the people in that quarter have been brought
by their leaders, aided by their priests, under a delusion
scarcely exceeded by that recorded in the period of witch
craft ; and the leaders themselves are becoming daily more
desperate in the use they make of it. Their object is
power. If they could obtain it by menaces, their efforts
would stop there. These failing, they are ready to go
every length for which they can train their followers.
Without foreign cooperation, revolt and separation wUl
* Kennedy's "Life of Wirt," I, 339, Qu. Henry Adams, VIII, 231.

352 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
hardly be risked; and what the effect of so profligate an
experiment would be, first, on misguided partisans, and
next on those remaining faithful to the nation, who are
respectable for their consistency and even for their num
bers, is for conjecture only."*
After the convention had done its work, Monroe spoke
the administration's views when he said:
"They cannot dismember the Union, or league with
the enemy, as I trust and believe, & they cannot now
retreat without disgrace. I hope that the leaders will soon
take rank in society with Burr & others of that stamp."!
But no such serious ignominy was theirs. The com
missioners regularly named by their States in accordance
with the recommendation of the convention, started for
Washington about the time the battle of New Orleans
was fought, and the news of that battle and of the treaty
of peace reached Washington in advance of their coming.
In the universal rejoicing their existence was almost
forgotten, and they did not invite public notice, but
quietly went home without presenting themselves to
the President. The New York National Advocate adver
tised for tidings of some unfortunate gentlemen who had
started for Washington from the Hartford convention,
but who had missed their way and it was feared had been
drowned,! and other newspapers noticed them with
similar raillery.
Thus terminated the only movement looking to a dis
memberment of the Union made by a combination of
States before the Southern secession movement. The
President knew of its existence from the beginning, but he
never believed it would result in disunion. He did noth
ing to stop it, feehng himself powerless, and being, more
over, unwilling to abandon the restrictions of trade for
political purposes, which was a part of his system, and
which brought the discontent in New England to a crisis.
* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 593, S94.
¦j- Writings of Monroe (Hamilton) V, 306.
X Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 417.

CHAPTER XXXIV
PEACE
While the charge of the Federalists that Madison was
in league with France in making war against Great Britain
was absurd, his relations to that power were nevertheless
peculiar, and required at least an appearance of belief in
her good faith towards the United States ; and the conse
quence of this necessity soon put him in an extraordinary
position. The immediate basis for his demand for the repeal of
the British orders in council was that the French decrees
had been repealed. He was assured of their repeal again
and again, yet there was evidence before his eyes that
they were being enforced against American shipping.
In 1811 Joel Barlow was sent as Minister to France. He
had lived there for many years and his personal familiarity
with French official life made him hope to unravel the
entanglement into which the two countries had become
involved ; but no one could be said to meet Napoleon on
even terms in a diplomatic contest, because his methods
were without example and his moves could not be antici
pated even by the imagination. When, in May, 181 2,
Barlow asked for the hundredth time for proof of the re
peal of the decrees, the Due de Bassano, Minister for For
eign Affairs, put into his hands an imperial decree dated
April 28, 181 1, declaring the Berlin decree non-existent
against American vessels after November i, 1810. No
one had ever seen this paper before, for the very good
reason that it had only been written and signed a few
days before Barlow saw it. What could Madison do in
the face of such methods? Simultaneously with the
production of this bogus decree came reports of the
353

354 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
most reckless enforcement of the decree it purported to
repeal, and Barlow was instructed again to demand in
demnity. The reply of France was merely to invent
tricks for delay. Bassano had followed Napoleon on his
way into Russia as far as Wilna, and he requested Barlow
to come to him for further negotiation. Being of an ad
venturous turn. Barlow left Paris at the end of October
and arrived at Wilna November i8, when Napoleon
was in full retreat from Moscow. He abandoned his
army December 5, and started for Paris, and the court
at Wilna disbanded. On the way back to Paris Barlow
contracted inflammation of the lungs from exposure and
died at the village of Zarnovitch, near Cracow, in
Poland, December 24, 18 12.
The false decree of April, 181 1, purported to have been
issued because of Madison's proclamation of non-inter
course with Great Britain, and the basis of the non-inter
course proclamation dated November 2, 18 10, had been
that the Berlin decree was repealed. The President was
thus put in a false position, and his indignation was in
tense. The conduct of the French government would, he
said, be " an everlasting reproach to it. " If he could only
get through his war with England he would be able to deal
with France. Then, he said, "the full tide of indignation
with which the public mind here is boiling will be directed
against France, if not obviated by a due reparation of her
wrongs. War will be called for by the nation una voce. "*
He instructed Barlow to be prepared to retire from his
mission on sudden notice. Yet the victory of Russia and
England over Napoleon was likely to affect America un
favourably, as England would be unlikely to hsten to
American demands-. The situation resolved itself into
this : Napoleon's supremacy was necessary to the Ameri
can policy against England, while it steadily tended to a
break between America and France.
Fortunately there was one country whose interest
was on the American side in her war with Great Britain.
* To Barlow, August 11, 18 14; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 540, S4i-

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 355
Russia herself feared England only less than she did
France and foresaw in British triumph over America in
creasing difficulties for herself. The friendship of the
Czar Alexander for America was partly a personal senti
ment, but his offer of mediation between England and
America, made in March, 1813, was, as Madison said,
"with the collateral view, there is reason to believe, of de
riving advantage from the nevitral interference with Brit
ish monopoly in the trade with her."* "We are en
couraged," he said in another letter, April 2, 18 13, "by
the known friendship of the Emperor Alexander to this
country ; and by the probability that the greater affinity
between the Baltic and American ideas of maritime law
than between those of the former and of Great Britain,
will render his interposition as favourable as will be con
sistent with the character assumed by him. "!
Negotiations for the Russian mediation had begun as
early as September, 181 2, through the American Envoy,
John Quincy Adams. The offer reached Washington
March 8, and was accepted at once, although it was
not known whether Great Britain would agree. It was
decided to name two additional Envoys to be asso
ciated with Adams in the negotiations, and to help in
uniting the country. James A. Bayard, a Federalist, was
named as one of them. Gallatin, at his own request,
was named as the other. There was precedent for the
employment on a foreign mission of one in the
domestic service, as Chief Justice Jay had served as
Minister to England and Chief Justice Ellsworth as
Minister to France.
Before Gallatin and Bayard arrived in St. Petersburg,
July 21, 1813, it was known to the Russian government
that Great Britain had declined to accept Russian media
tion, but the refusal was not accepted as flnal and the
Envoys were kept in idleness awaiting developments.
The British government preferred direct negotiation to
* To Jefferson, March lo, 1813; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 559.
t To John Nicholas; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 563.

356 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
the association of a third party whose sympathies were
not with her, and November 4, 1813, Lord Castlereagh
wrote to Monroe proposing the reopening of negotia
tions. Gallatin and Bayard were accordingly authorized
to go to London.
There the war was as unpopular in the beginning as it
was in America. England had never supposed the United
States would fight, and public opinion was unprepared
to support the unexpected war. Spencer Percival, the
Prime Minister, was assassinated May 11, 1812, after
Madison's preliminary war message had gone in to Con
gress, and Percival's successor. Lord Liverpool, suspended
the obnoxious orders in council June 17, the day before
Congress declared war. This suspension had been brought
about by the evident approach of war, and was the first
success scored by the United States.
The letter of Lord Castlereagh to Monroe proposed
Gothenburg as a proper place for negotiating, and on
January 14 the President nominated as United States
Commissioners Adams, Bayard, Henry Clay and Jonathan
Russell. A few weeks later, February 8, he nominated
Gallatin, simultaneously filling Gallatin's place as Sec
retary of the Treasury, and thus compelling the con
firmation which had been refused before on the ground
that Gallatin could not properly hold a foreign mission
and be Secretary of the Treasury at the same time. The
commission was so constituted as to give each section
of the country a representative in hopes of having united
acquiescence in their action.
But while commissioners had been appointed there was
no armistice, and the war went on, Gallatin and Bayard
remaining in London till June 21. In the spring Clay came
over with the commissioners' instructions, he being the only
member of the commission not already in Europe, and the
place of meeting was changed from Gothenburg to Ghent,
the latter being a more convenient place. The British
commissioners chosen to meet those of the United States
were Lord Gambler, Henry Goulbum and William Adams.

LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 357
None of them enjoyed a wide reputation, and in ability
none was in the same class with the Americans. Both
commissions were armed with instructions to adhere to
which meant the failure of the negotiations. The Ameri
cans were ordered to insist upon an abandonment by
Great Britain of impressment. "If this encroachment of
Great Britain is not provided against," said Monroe, "the
United States have appealed to arms in vain. If your
efforts to accomplish it should fail, all further negotiations
will cease, and you will return home without delay."
The British commissioners, on the other hand, were
to offer the state of possession as the basis of the territorial
anangement to revive peace. This would have meant
the loss to the United States of half of Maine, the northern
part of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and
other points. The American instructions included a
demand for "the upper parts and even the whole of
Canada," and anangements about rights of blockade,
contraband of war, the maritime rights of neutrals, and
fishery rights As early as February 14, 18 14, William
H. Crawford, whose knowledge of popular wishes in the
United States was exceptionally good, told Madison
that any peace which did not include the cession to the
United States of Upper Canada would be unfavourably
received by the administration's friends in the interior
and western parts of the country, and even on the
seaboard the people would not be satisfied with less.*
But the extravagant position assumed by each power
underwent a change as the negotiations progressed. The
most fundamental modification was that in the instruc
tion of June 2 7 to the American commissioners, author
izing them to abandon the impressment question as a
sine qua non of acceptance of a treaty. The reasons
given were simple. Owing to the peace in Europe Great
Britain might now throw her whole force against America,
and according to Bayard and Gallatin's despatches from
London the month before, "the popular exultation, in
* Dept. of State MSS.

358 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
consequence of the success against France," demanded
strong prosecution of the war against the United States.*
Moreover, as long as the peace in Europe lasted it was
not probable that the right of impressment would be
claimed. This reasoning applied equally to the question
of blockade and neutral rights. While the negotiations
were progressing news was received of the failure of the
British expedition against Baltimore, of Drummond's
defeat at Fort Erie, and of Prevost's retreat from Northern
New York. The uti posseditis became in consequence a
poor basis for claim of tenitory on the part of the British
govemment, and was abandoned for the status quo ante
bellum. The meetings of the two commissions began August 8,
at the Hotel des Pays Bas, and afterwards were held
alternately at the British and American commissioners'
residences, being finally signed, December 28, at the
house of the American commissioners, at the corner of the
Rue de Champs and Rue Toulons.!
The original antagonistic conditions upon which peace
could be arranged having been withdrawn by the govern
ments of both countries, there remained nothing for the
commissioners to do but to draw up a treaty agreeing to the
one thing that both countries insisted upon having, and
peace was really the only thing arranged for in the treaty.
It comprised eleven articles. They provided for restora
tion on either side of territory conquered during the war ;
return of all property, records and slaves taken; the
mutual surrender of prisoners of war; joint commissions
to be appointed to decide upon boundaries and disputed
ownership of islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. Neither
impressments, nor blockades, nor violations of neutral
rights were even hinted at, but with peace in Europe
none of these things existed. The misfortunes of the
United States had arisen from the measures of France
and England against one another. Now that these
* Monroe's Instructions, Monroe's Writings (Hamilton) V, 371.
t "Magazine of American History," November, 1888.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 359
measures were withdrawn the United States was fighting
for abstract principles, and not against actual oppressions.
She could well afford to leave the former to a future set
tlement. To continue the struggle with her own people
disunited and dissatisfied and England free to hurl its
undivided power on her shores, would have been an act of
madness. Peace having been declared, congratulatory addresses
poured in upon the President and he was given credit for
closing the war with honour. So long had the people been
distracted with contention and strife that from sheer ex
haustion they became amiable. A great wave of pros
perity and general contentment swept over the land.
The Federahsts were deserted, dwindled to a little band
of men who were out of joint with the times, and soon to
be called a Federalist became an opprobrious epithet.
And in the midst of this sunshine and good-humour,
James Madison retired from pubhc life. His shortcom
ings as President were for the time forgotten, and in the
calm of the closing months of his administration the people
saw again the man of blameless life, the well-balanced
scholar and the conservative statesman whom they had
elected to the Presidency eight years before.
In his inaugural address he had laid down the principles
which were to govern his administration :
"To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all
nations having conespondent dispositions; to maintain
sincere neutrality towards belligerent nations; to prefer
in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable accom
modation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal
to arms; to foster a spirit of independence too just to
invade the rights of others, too proud to sunender our
own." No one could truthfully say he had not lived up
to this declaration, for in spite of his persistence in the
behef that commercial retaliation was a good instrument
to use against unfriendly nations, he never pretended that
by this or any other means yet discovered could war be

36o LIFE OP JAMES MADISON
elhninated as a last resort of a nation whose rights were
persistently trampled upon.
"To support the Constitution, which is the cement of
the Union, as weU in its limitations as in its authorities;
to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the
States and to the people as equally incorporated with
and essential to the success of the general system." The
bank biU intrenched upon the limitations of the constitu
tion, according to his doctrine, but he signed it, because
he believed it to be a necessity, and because he regarded
the constitutional question involved as having been set
tled against him by the action of the three branches of
the govemment. His last message to Congress (March
3, 1817) was, however, a veto of the biU "for constructing
roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water
courses, in order to facilitate, promote and give security
to internal commerce among the several States." The
powers of Congress were, he said, specified and enu
merated in the constitution and did not include a right
to appropriate money for internal improvements. The
general defense and general welfare clause could not be
stretched to cover such schemes, excellent as they were
in themselves.*
"To avoid the slightest interference with the rights of
conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted
from civil jurisdiction." On February 21, 181 1, he
vetoed an act of Congress "Incorporating the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the Dis
trict of Columbia," because it "exceeded the rightful
authority to which governments are limited by the essen
tial distinction between civil rights and religious func
tions," and violated the article of the Constitution which
declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting a
religious establishment." "The Bill," he said, "vests
in the said incorporated church an authority to provide
for the support of the poor and the education of poor
children of the same, an authority which, being altogether
* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 584.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 361
superfluous if the provision is to be made the result of
pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious
societies as such a legal agency in carrying into effect a
public and civil duty." February 28, 181 1, he vetoed a
bill for the relief of certain individuals and the Baptist
Church at Salem Meeting House in Mississippi Territory,
" because the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the
United States for the use of said Baptist Church com
prises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of
funds of the United States for the use and support of
religious societies" contrary to the Constitution.*
"To liberate the public resources by an honourable
discharge of the public debts ; to keep within the requisite
limits a standing military force, always remembering that
an armed and trained militia is the flrmest bulwark of
republics — that without standing armies their liberty
can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe." This
expressed an aspiration which war had dashed, but in his
last annual message he was able to announce that the
receipts of the treasury exceeded the expenditures by
about nine million dollars, and that there could be an
early extinction of the debt.
"To promote by authorized means improvements
friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external
as well as internal commerce ; to favor in like manner the
advancement of science and the diffusion of information
as the best aliment to true liberty." He saw the manu
factures of the country given an impulse by the non-
intercourse laws which they could not have acquired in
fifty years of natural development, and he approved in
1816 a more thoroughly protective tariff bill than had
yet been enacted. But a national university so much
desired by him and others no steps were taken to estab
lish, although in his last message he renewed his recom
mendation for one.
"To cany on the benevolent plans which have been
so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aborig-
* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 490.

362 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
inal neighbours from the degradation and wretchedness of
savage life to a participation of the improvements which
the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civi
lized state." This was a creditable wish, but the civihza
tion of the Indians was a task beyond his powers.
His purposes, as he announced them when he was inaug
urated, were thus not fully accomphshed, but as nearly
realized as he could have reasonably expected they would
be. In his last annual message (March 3, 181 6) he spoke
his words of fareweU with the same modesty and absence
of vainglory which always distinguished him.
"The period of my retiring from the public service
being at little distance," he said, "I shaU find no occasion
more proper than the present for expressing to my feUow-
citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and
kind support which I have received from them. My
grateful recollection of these distinguished marks of their
favourable regard can never cease, and with the conscious
ness that if I have not served my country with greater
ability I have served it with a sincere devotion, wiU ac
company me as a source of unfailing gratification.
"Happily, I shall cany with me from the public theatre
other sources which those who love their country most
will best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with
tranquillity and prosperity at home and with peace and
respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that
the American people have reached in safety and success
their fortieth year as an independent nation; that for
nearly an entire generation they have had experience of
their present Constitution, the offspring of their undis
turbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they
have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well as
prosperous circumstances ; to contain in its combination
of the federal and elective principles a reconcilement of
public strength and individual liberty, of national power
for the defense of national rights with a security against
wars of injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 363
fundamental provision which subjects all questions of
war to the will of the nation itself, which is to pay its
costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar
felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is
found to be so capable without losing its vital energies of
expanding itself over a spacious territory with the increase
and expansion of the community for whose benefit it was
established. "And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying
spectacle that I shall read in the character of the American
people . . . sure presages that the destined career of
my cotmtry will exhibit a government pursuing the pub
lic good as its sole object; ... a government which
avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other nations,
and repels them from its own; . . . and which,
while it refines its domestic code from every ingredient
not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and
the sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to
reason and by its liberal examples to infuse into the law
which governs the civilized world a spirit which may
diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities of
war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of
peace; a government, in a word, whose conduct within
and without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions
— that of promoting peace on earth and good will to men.
"These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my
days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my
beloved country, and a perpetuity of the institutions
under which it is enjoyed."

CHAPTER XXXV
THE RETIRED STATESMAN
Having seen Monroe take the oath of office, March 4,
181 7, Madison departed for Montpelier, never again
to hold Federal office. He continued the example
set by his predecessors in the presidency, and pre
served the dignity of his retirement carefully, keep
ing entirely aloof from participation in political affairs,
and refusing to lend his influence in favour of
any man's candidacy for office. Soon after he re
turned to Montpelier he had printed a form of letter,
which he sent to office-seekers who solicited his recom
mendation.* It stated that his personal relations with
the President were such that he would not embanass
him by asking favours, and that he had determined to
refuse to recommend any appointments.
When the wave of Jackson enthusiasm was at its height
he resisted a concerted effort to extract from him some
assistance to the party opposed to Jackson. It was
confidently believed that he was in sympathy with that
party, and the anti-Jackson convention at Richmond
determined to put him at the head of its list of nominations
of presidential electors, Monroe being also named. James
Barbour, formerly Governor of Virginia, and a number
of others importuned him to accept, Barbour declaring
that by doing so he would decide the election,! but he
would not yield ; and when he and Monroe were nominated
in spite of their refusal, they declined positively to serve.
With Jackson's conduct of the presidential office he had
no sympathy, and he did not conceal the fact from his
* "Early Office Seeking," — N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 26, 1898.
t Dept. of State MSS. 364

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 365
friends, although he resolutely refused to put it in the
form of a pubhc statement. He was not troubled by
fears that Jackson's methods would be an example for a
successor to follow. "That a series of them [Presidents
of the United States] should do so," he said, "with the
support of the people, is a possibility opposed to a moral
certainty."* When it was arranged to hold a convention in 1829 to
make a new constitution for Virginia, he felt obliged to
accept an election as a delegate from his county. He had
advocated such a convention when he was in the Legislat
ure nearly fifty years before. His chief objections to the
constitution of 1776 were that it was passed before the
Declaration of Independence was made, and consequently
when the power of forming a permanent State govern
ment did not exist, and that it had never been submitted
to the people for their ratification. The proposition for
a second convention could not then be carried, mainly
because Patrick Henry was opposed to it, and the consti
tution continued in use for fifty years. Before going to
the convention of 1829, Monroe, who was also elected a
delegate, proposed that Madison be chosen for president,
with a vice-president to perform the active duties of the
position,! hut Madison would not agree, and when the
convention met himself put Monroe in nomination, and
he was elected without opposition. Madison was seventy-
eight years old and quite infirm in health, but his mental
faculties were unimpaired. The Governor of the State,
William B. Giles, sent him and Mrs. Madison a pressing
invitation to be his guests while the convention was in
session, but they refused to embarrass him, and stayed
at a Mr. Duvall's.! Every deference was shown to Madi
son in the convention and he accepted a fair share of
labour on the committees. He made a speech Decem
ber 2. The official report says: "The members rushed
*To Edward Coles, October 15, 1834. Wotks (Cong. Ed.) IV, 366.
t Dept. of State MSS.
Xld.

366 LIFE OP JAMES MADISON
from their seats and crowded about him."* Among
them was John Randolph of Roanoke, who held his hand
to his ear to catch what was said, but soon dropped it
with a gesture of despair, for Madison spoke in so low a
tone that none but those in close proximity could hear
him. The question upon which the convention divided
was that of the ratio of representation in the legislature
and whether or not slaves should be counted in estimating
population. If they were not counted the part of the
State where they were most numerous would not be pro
tected against burdensome taxation of slave property.
Madison spoke in favour of reckoning slaves at three-
fifths of their number, the proportion which he had in
troduced into the Federal Constitution. "It is due to
justice," he said; "due to humanity; due to truth; to the
sympathies of our nature ; in fine, to our character as a
people, both abroad and at home, that they should be
considered, as much as possible, in the light of human
beings, and not as mere property. As such they are acted
upon by our laws, and have an interest in our laws, they
may be considered as making a part, though a degraded
part, of the families to which they belong." If they were
white, he added, like European serfs, this position would
not be denied them. "But the mere circumstance of
complexion cannot deprive them of the character of men."
The proportion which he recommended was finally ac
cepted by the convention, but in its proceedings Madison,
mindful of the weight of years, did not attempt a dominant
part, and the side he voted on was often in the minority.
Indeed, on one occasion upon a minor motion he voted
Aye when every other member of the convention voted
No.! In the years immediately preceding and foUowing the
convention came to him the deep rumble of the storm
in South Carolina over the nullification question. He
heard in it the most ominous warning against the safety
* Proceedings and Debates of the Va. State Convention, 537.
X Journal of the Convention, 118.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 367
of the Constitution that had arisen since its ratification,
and he threw himself into the breach, as we have seen
in a former chapter of this book, to protest that there
was no connection between this destructive doctrine and
his protest against the ahen and sedition laws in 1798.
He gave such sympathy and assistance as he could to the
Union party of South Carolina, and among his corre
spondents was one of the most valiant leaders of that
party, Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston. He realized
the full import and effect of the nullification propaganda.
To Edward Coles he said, August 29, 1834: "NuUifica
tion has the effect of putting powder under the Constitu
tion and Union, and a match in the hand of every party
to blow them up at pleasure ; and for its progress, hearken
to the tone in which it is now preached ; cast your eye on
its menacing increasing minorities in most of the South
ern States without a decrease in any one of them. Look
at Virginia herself, and read in the Gazettes, and in the pro
ceedings of popular meetings, the figure which the anarch
ical principle now makes, in contrast with the scouting
reception given to it but a short time ago.
"It is not probable that this offspring of the discon
tents of South Carolina will ever approach success in a ma
jority of the States. But a susceptibility of the con
tagion in the Southern States is visible, and the danger
is not to be concealed that the sympathies arising from
known causes, and the inculcated impression of a perma
nent incompatibility of interests between the South and
the North, may put it in the power of popular leaders
aspiring to the highest stations, and despairing of suc
cess on the Federal theatre, to unite the South, on some
critical occasion, in a course that will end in creating a
new theatre of great though inferior extent. In pur
suing this course, the first and most obvious course is
nullification; the next secession; and the last, a farewell
separation."* Public labours of a non-political character Madison
* Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 357, 358.

368 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
accepted to a limited extent. The year before his death
he was elected president of the Washington National
Monument Society to succeed Chief Justice Marshall and
accepted the post as a purely honourary one. His con
nection with the University of Virginia was, however,
his chief active employment after his retirement. In
the founding of that institution he was the devoted
assistant of Jefferson. November 14, 1794, Bishop
James Madison wrote to tell him that two years
before Jefferson had broached the scheme of establishing
a State university in some central position "upon a liberal
& extensive plan." When Jefferson retired temporarily
from public life he suggested that Madison might come
into the Legislature and further the scheme. " Will you
give us your aid," said the Bishop, "in perfecting the
plan?" Madison replied that the plan was Jefferson's,
and he thought ought to wait on Jefferson, so it was
agreed to permit it to sleep.* It was evident from Bishop
Madison's letters that he hoped himself to become the
head of the faculty of the new university, but he died in
1 81 2 before anything tangible towards estabhshing it had
been accomphshed.
The Albemarle Academy was chartered, but got no
further, and from the project came in 181 6 Central Col
lege, with Jefferson at the head of the board of visitors
and Madison a member. Two years later both were of
the commission that formed from Central College the Uni
versity of Virginia, and Madison was elected on the first
board of visitors, continuing on every subsequent board,
until on Jefferson's death in 1826 he succeeded him as
Rector. This office, concemed directly with the manage
ment of the University even in minute details, he fiUed
actively until his feebleness became so great that he could
not go out.! In his wiU he bequeathed to the university
his library, and it remained a noble monument to his in-
* William and Mary College Quarterly, July, 1902.
f "Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia," Bureau of
Education Circular, 1888.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 369
terest in the University until it was swept away by the
fatal fire of 1895.
Upon Charles CanoU's death in 1833, Madison was
elected President of the Colonization Society, and al
though he did not accept he had hopes that it might
succeed in its object. In 1831 (December 28) he wrote:
"Many circumstances of the present moment seem to
concur in brightening the prospects of the Society, and
cherishing the hope that the time will come when the
dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our country,
and filled so many with despair, will be gradually re
moved, and by means consistent with justice, peace, and
the general satisfaction; thus giving to our country the
full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to the world
the full benefit of its great example."*
In an old age rendered bright by optimism slavery
was the one dark shadow that hung over him. Harriet
Martineau visited him about the time of his election to
the Presidency of the Colonization Society. " I will only
mention," she says, "that the finest of his characteristics
appeared to me to be his inexhaustible faith ; faith that a
well-founded commonwealth may, as our motto declares,
be immortal ; not only because the people, its constituency,
never die, but because the principles of justice in which
such a commonwealth originates never die out of the
people's heart and mind. This faith shone brightly
through the whole of Mr. Madison's conversation except
on one subject. With regard to slavery he owned him
self almost in despair. He had been quite so till the in
stitution of the Colonization Society."!
Harriet Martineau wrote a full account of her visit to
Montpelier for the gratification of "the strong interest felt
in England about this virtuous statesman." When she
saw him he was eighty-three years old, and so disabled by
rheumatism that he lived in one room. He rose before
nine o'clock and sat in his easy chair till ten at night. He
* To R. R. Gurley. Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 213.
t "Retrospect of Western Travel," I, 191, et seq.

370 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
complained of one ear being deaf and that his eyesight
was not good. He could, however, hear ordinary con
versation, and could read perfectly well. He sat in his
chair with a pillow behind him, dressed in a black silk
dressing-gown, with gray worsted gloves on his hands to
keep them warm, and a gray and white cap on his head,
because he was bald. His voice was clear and his manner
lively and playful. His teeth were still good, and Miss
Martineau says he had "an uncommonly pleasant coun
tenance." His energy is illustrated from the fact that
he maintained through Miss Martineau's ear-trumpet an
animated conversation almost continuously for the three
days of her visit. " He talked more on the subject of
slavery than on any other," she says, "acknowledging
without limitation or hesitation all the evils with which
it had ever been charged." He " admitted the great and
various difficulties attending the scheme [of colonization]
and recurred to the expression that he was only ' less in
despair than formerly about slavery.' " The conversa
tion ranged over a wide field. He spoke of Malthus, and
said Franklin and two others had anticipated him in
comparing the rates of increase of population and food,
but that Malthus had been the first to draw out the doc
trine. As we have seen, Madison himself had touched
upon it some years before Malthus wrote. He spoke in
favour of international copyright, " and wished that Eng
lish authors should be protected from piracy in the United
States without delay." He recurred to the subject of
religious liberty in the United States, and " declared him
self perfectly satisfied that there is in the United States a
far more ample and equal provision for pastors, and of
religious instruction for the people, than could have been
secured by a religious establishment of any kind; and
that one of the greatest services which his country wiU
be hereafter perceived to have rendered to the world, wiU
be the having proved that religion is the more cared for
the more unreservedly it is committed to the affections
of the people."

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 371
Miss Martineau was introduced to the Madisons in a
friendly letter from Josiah Quincy, then President of
Harvard College. One of the most pleasing features of
• the Montpelier life was the revival of old friendships and
the mellowed tone cast by time over past political en
mities. Charles Pinckney wrote from Charlestown, Sep
tember 2, 1820: "Within a few days it will be 33 years
the day we dined together on signing the Constitution —
what changes have taken place since & in my opinion
one of the worst to us is that we are so much older than
we were then, for in spite of all that the divines and phi
losophers may tell us I am honest enough to confess that
I think old age is not the most comfortable state in the
world." He had, he said, often said this to Franklin,
who had agreed with him and remarked " 'that it had
been a good world to him & his life a successful one &
that he should like to live it over again.' "*
In 1824 there was a resumption of the friendly relations
with Edward Livingston which had been interrupted for
many years. "Mr. Livingston," Monroe wrote, "inti
mated to me some time since, his desire to hold with you
and Mr. Jefferson, the same relation which he held in 1 798,
& that I could communicate that sentiment to you on his
part, & apprize him of the result. ' ' Livingston's overtures
were willingly accepted, and Madison encouraged him
thereafter in his political and scientific career.!
The old contemporaries were dying off and the great
triumvirate was broken by Jefferson's death in 1826.
February 1 7 he wrote a long letter to Madison about the
University and his private affairs, which were in a distress
ing condition : " But why afflict you with these details ? "
he said. " Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened
by communication with a friend. The friendship which
has subsisted between us, now haff a century, and the
harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have
been sources of constant happiness to me through that
* Dept. of State MSS.
ild.

372 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of atten
tions to the University, or beyond the bourne of life itself,
as I soon must, it is a comfort to have that institution
under your care, and an assurance that it will not be
wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe
that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course
we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity,
the blessings of seff-government, which we had assisted
too in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld
a system of administration conducted with a single and
steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those
committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never
know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been
devoted. To myseff you have been a pillar of support
through life. Take care of me when dead, and be assured
that I shall leave with you my last affections."
On July 2 Jefferson conversed for the last time. The
weffare of the University was in his thoughts, and he ex
pressed confidence that Madison would carry on the work.*
The next day he was unconscious, and he died on July 4.
Five years later, on the same great anniversary, Monroe
died. His last letter to Madison was dated April 11,
1 83 1. He described his plans, which compelled his leav
ing Virginia and going to live in New York, where his
daughters were settled. ' ' I deeply regret, ' ' he said, ' ' that
there is no prospect of our ever meeting again, since so
long have we been connected and in the most friendly
intercourse, in public & private life, that a final separa
tion is among the most distressing incidents which could
occur. . . I beg you to assure Mrs. Madison that I
never can forget the friendly relation which has existed
between her & my family. It often reminds me of
incidents of the most interesting character. My daughter,
Mrs. Hay, will live with me, who with the whole family
here unite in affectionate regards to both of you."
On June 30 came a letter from Alexander Hamilton,
Jr., saying that Monroe was dying, and July 7 Tench
* Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," II, 495.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 373
Ringgold wrote that in his last illness he had often spoken
of Madison and their friendship of forty years and his
great regret "that he should leave this world without
beholding you."* From the friendly offlces of Alexander
Hamilton's son on this occasion it would seem that his
father left no legacy of bitterness towards Madison,
but this had been shown some years before by a cordial
letter from Mrs. Hamilton asking a favour of Madison.
During his retirement there was no abatement in the
reading or writing, and he was regarded by hterary men as
their patron. From them he received many books, some
of which he read and all of which he politely acknowl
edged. His literary taste was versatile, but the variety
of productions offered to it was excessive. F. R. Hassler
sent his popular exposition of the system of the universe
and his elements of geometry; Richard Emmon's "Fre-
donaid," a long poem, reached him through the poet's
brother; John Finch sent his essay on "The Boundaries
of Empires"; John A. Graham, "Graham's Junius";
Weems, whose "Life of Washington" was then (1819) in
its twenty-first edition, begged his acceptance of his " Life
of Marion" ; Mary Randolph sent him a copy of the second
edition of her cookery book and asked his opinion of it.
From George Ticknor came the "Memoir of Lafayette"
which the Marquis had himself corrected; Matthew
Carey rained economic pamphlets upon him ; and George
Tucker, as a neighbour and friend, consulted him freely
in his literary work. In 1831, he was invited by the
American Peace Society to serve on a committee in con
junction with John Marshall, John C. Calhoun, William
Wirt and Joseph Story to award a prize for the best
essay on "A Congress of Nations for the Amicable Ad
justment of National Disputes and for the Promotion of
Universal Peace without Recourse to Arms," but he de
clined the labour. He received countless reports and
proceedings of political, educational, charitable, scientific,
agricultural and learned societies ; he took a real interest
* Dept. of State MSS.

374 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
in the literary work of some of his conespondents — in
Edward Livingston's Criminal Code; in R. H. Lee's Hfe
of his grandfather of the same name, Madison's old op
ponent; in Wheaton's "Life of William Pinkney," and
Saunderson's "Lives of the 'Signers.' " Noah Webster
begged his patronage of his new dictionary in 1826, and
explained to him the extent and nature of his researches
in preparing it. Gales and Seaton of the National
Intelligencer occasionaUy wrote to him in confidence, ask
ing him to settle some controversy involving the pohtics
of the past, but he was disposed to avoid everything
tending to involve him in disputation, although he
freely gave .such information as he had to those who were
engaged in legitimate historical work. One of these was
Jonathan Elhot, to whom he loaned the printed ac
counts he had coUected of the proceedings of the con
ventions in the various States caUed to consider the
question of ratffying the Constitution. So far as his own
speeches were concerned in the Virginia Convention of
1788, whUe he was not thoroughly satisfied with Robert
son's report, he was wUling to let it pass as in the main
SubstantiaUy conect. Jared Sparks came to him in
1827, fresh from his examination of the Washington
papers at Mount Vernon, and he loaned him such of
Washington's letters as he desired to use. He assisted
Sparks also in preparing the "Diplomatic Correspond
ence of the American Revolution" and the "Lffe and
Letters of Gouvemeur Morris." He wrote many letters
himself, some of them long ones, several sketches
on the theory of the govemment of the United States,
and in the last year of his life a long refutation of the
doctrine of nulhfication. The most important hterary
labour of his declining years was the anangement of his
notes of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which he
designed for posthumous publication, making, however,
few alterations in the report as he had taken it down.

CHAPTER XXXVI
PRIVATE LIFE AT MONTPELIER*
Although Madison was a man of public affairs and of
books, he was a careful and progressive farmer and took
a practical interest in agriculture. Through Robert R.
Livingston, who first introduced them in America and
regarded them with much favour, he was induced to raise
those Merino sheep from the wool of which his inaugural
coat had been made, and he sold their wool and exchanged
them with his neighbours in order that the breed might
be tested. Pie sold hams, bacon, tongues, barrels of beef
and pork. He took great interest in his garden, and
through Latrobe procured a great variety of cabbage and
other garden seeds. He was fond of experimenting and
assisted the experiments of others. To Isaac Coffin, a
Virginian who had moved to England, he sent a pair of
wild turkeys, receiving as a return some English pheasants,
which he liberated in the woods of Montpelier. He was
a horse breeder on a moderate scale, kept a stallion, and
paid part of the bill for medical attendance of his family
physician with the horse's services. He experimented
with mules for a time, receiving ten from Kentucky
through his cousin, James Taylor.
The main source of income from his farms was from
tobacco. This for many years he shipped to his agent at
Liverpool, James Maury, but the last ten years of his life
he found it more advantageous to sell it in Richmond,
John A. Lay being his agent and the Farmers' Bank his
depository. In May, 1825, Lay deposited to his credit
* In the latter part of his life Madison spelled Montpeher with two
"I's," the more correct way, as the name was derived from Montpellier
in France; but he did not so spell it during his earlier years, and the
spelhng with one "1" has always maintained in Virginia.
375

376 LIFE OF JAMES. MADISON
for tobacco sold, $787.56; m June, $597.80; in July,
$548.11; and in August, $213.90. These figures would
indicate a considerable sum in gross receipts from the
crop, but the actual profit was probably not haff as much.
In the last ten years of his hfe he was unable to himself
actively superintend his estate on account of his failing
health, and decreased his farming activity. He reahzed
also that this industry, like all others, was cursed by
slavery. Francis Corbin wrote to him October 10, 181 9:
"I think slavery is working its own cure. Under the
best management, with daily vexation and never-ending
violence to our feelings, it does not afford us two per ct.
upon our capital, and often brings us into debt. . . .
You have now had experience enough, my dear sir, as a
practical Farmer, to be convinced, I suspect, that my
opinion, namely, that farming and slavery are incom
patible" [is correct].*
The social duties of his position in the country he per
formed with enjoyment. Of his visitors he said that some
were bounties and others taxes, but there were enough of
the former to counteract the disagreeableness of the latter.
His house was well adapted for receiving guests, having
become by successive unprovements more than merely a
comfortable residence. The chief enlargements were
made in 1809, upon designs drawn by William Thornton,
who made the first accepted plans of the Capitol at Wash
ington, and Latrobe lent his assistance in further improve
ments, which included the addition of the wings. The
result was simplicity, but symmetry of proportion and
faultlessness of taste. In the basement there were two
kitchens, one being for his mother's establishment, which
during her hfe was entirely separate from the rest of the
household, several large wine cellars, and rooms for a few
household servants. On the first floor were the rooms
his mother occupied — ^parlour, dining-room, and two bed
rooms, — the large drawing-room, his own study, a small
room adjoining, where his secretary had his desk, the
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 377
dining-room, and library. On the second floor were
eight large bedrooms. After hia mother's death in 1820
the rooms which she had occupied became four additional
bedrooms, making in regular use twenty-two rooms,
besides the servants' quarters, which were entirely sep
arate from the house. The principal living rooms of the
house were profusely ornamented with pictures and busts,
one being commonly known as "the statuary room."
Only a few of the ornaments need be enumerated. In
the vestibule from which opened the drawing-room was
an engraving of the Descent from the Cross, a print of
Charles II of England, a group of Venus and Psyche,
a pastoral piece, and a landscape by Teniers; in the
drawing-room was a portrait and bust of Washington, a
portrait of Jefferson, bust of Paul Jones, busts of Homer
and Socrates, engravings of the Falls of Niagara, Raph
ael's La Belle Jardiniere, Love Chained, the Death of
Montgomery, the Battle of Bunker Hill, a marble bust of
Joel Barlow, a portrait on ivory of the Empress Josephine,
and a miniature wax profile of Madison's mother by Vala-
perto, beside several portraits of Madison and his wife.
In the dining-room was a portrait of Louis XVIII after
the drawing by Isabey, and a Chinese drawing of Con
fucius. In addition to these he bought in 18 19 from the artist,
G. CardeUi, busts of Jefferson, Monroe and Adams, and
in that year CardeUi made busts of himself and his wife.
John H. Browere made their busts in 1827, James B.
Longacre made his sketch of Madison in 1833, and in the
same year A. P. Durand painted him for George P. Morris,
of the Mirror. He had already been painted by Gilbert
Stewart and his friend Charles WUson Peale. The great
est work of art in the house was the life-sized marble me
dallion bust of Madison which hung in the vestibule. It
had been made in 1792 by Giuseppe Ceracchi, the ill-
starred Italian sculptor, who was guillotined in 1801 for
complicity in the plot to murder Napoleon. Being a born
revolutionist, he came to Philadelphia when Madison was

378 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
in the Continental Congress, and made busts of Hamilton,
Washington and others. He contemplated creating an
elaborate monument commemorative of the Revolution,
and under Madison's encouragement issued a circular
asking for subscriptions to defray the expense, but sud
denly conceiving that his patrons wanted to get rid of
him, he went back to Italy, leaving behind him drafts
upon Washington and others for payment for the busts
he had given them.*
The taste shown by Madison in the architecture of his
house and the ornamentation of the rooms had a further
illustration in the planning of the grounds. About a
hundred yards west of the house he laid out before his
retirement a large tenaced garden in the form of a horse
shoe, intended, according to local tradition, to have a
general resemblance to the Hall of the House of Repre
sentatives. North of the house he planted an avenue of
pines leading to a circular coUonade above an ice-house.
This was built in 1809, and was the first ice-house con
structed in that part of Virginia. The country people
would not believe that ice could be kept all summer, and
to convince his incredulous overseer, Edward Brockman,
Madison promised him ice for a mint julep on July 4
in return for a Christmas turkey. In front of the house
lay a stretch of meadow fringed by the deep forest, and
about twelve miles distant the main range of the Blue
Ridge Mountains rises in the heavens. Surrounding the
sides and back of the house was a sweep of lawn dotted
with large forest trees and a few smaller trees of rarer
variety which Madison set out.
Those who had the privilege of resorting to Montpelier
were charmed with the beauty of the park, the elegance
of the house and the grandeur of the mountain view,
but better than all of these, they found in the master of
the place a perfect host. The serenity of his temper was
never disturbed, and only two instances have been dis-
* Madison to George Tucker, April 30, 1830. Works (Cong. Ed.)
IV, 71,

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 379
covered of guests who were displeased with the treatment
they received. One of these was his cousin, Zachary
Taylor, afterward President of the United States, who dined
at Montpelier when Madison was President, and being then
a junior offlcer in the army, seized the occasion to ask a
favour. He was told that public favours were not granted
for private or family reasons, and being offended at the
rebuff, left the house ahead of his party without bidding
his host good-bye. The other instance was that of a broth
er-in-law who took offense at some fancied slight one
evening and sent a challenge to mortal combat by a small
coloured boy early in the morning; but Madison burned
the note and made no answer.
In the current of domestic life which ran so smoothly
there was one element which caused uneasiness. John
Payne Todd, Mrs. Madison's son by her first marriage,
was a mere infant when she married Madison, and was
treated by him as a son. Never severe with any one,
the step-father probably erred on the side of too great
indulgence towards his wife's child. The boy was sent
to a French seminary in Baltimore, went abroad with Clay
when the Treaty of Ghent was negotiated, and basked in
the favours of society, which came to him easily because
of his mother's position and of his own adaptability to a
life of pleasure. He ran up bills for fine clothes and drifted
into the gambling habits prevalent among a class of the
population in Washington. He took to the bottle, and
from a graceful youth of wild tendencies developed into
a graceless man of confirmed dissipation, whose miscon
duct caused grief and mortification to the fond mother
and her husband.
The burden of meeting the indebtedness incurred by
Todd fell entirely upon Madison, and was a considerable
financial strain. In addition he contributed to the sup
port of his nephews, paying for the education of one at
Hampden Sidney and another at William and Mary.
They wrote to -him in a filial spirit and did not hesitate
to ask him for money when they needed it. These family

38o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
obhgations were not, however, the main cause of the
pecuniary embarrassments which harassed the last years
of his hfe. To support such an estabhshment as that
of Montpeher was an attempt sure to end in disaster ex
cept to a man of well-assured income. The household
was large, the flow of guests incessant, the hospitahty
lavish ; there was the cost of clothing and feeding a hun
dred negroes, and the returns from planting were dis
tressingly small. Retrenchments became necessary a
few years after the permanent return to Montpeher from
Washington. The French gardener, whose wages of $400 a
year were considered enormous in Virginia, was dismissed
and his place filled by one of his black assistants. The
stable of driving and riding horses was decreased year by
year, until at the end there was but a single pair of driv
ing horses. In 1825 Madison asked Nicholas Biddle,
President of the Bank of the United States, for a long loan
of $6,000 on his farms and was refused. The bank. Bid-
die said, already had an embarrassing amount of real
estate and had adopted a rule against long loans on such
property.* Madison was obliged, accordingly, to sell
some of his land, and even to part with some of the shares
of stock he owned. He was repeating in a less degree
the experience of Jefferson, who, if he had lived much
longer, would have been obliged to abandon Monticello,
and of Monroe, who was finally obliged to give up Oak
HiU. One asset Madison had which was an embanassment
and expense rather than a useful possession. His slaves
had been acquired from time to time, partly by inheri
tance, and most of them had been with him for many years
and could not be sold. The kindness of his nature ex
tended to them and was rewarded by faithful attachment
on their part. They knew him in distinction to his
brothers as "Mas'r Jimmy." A survivor among them,
Nancy Barbour, still living at a great age in the village of
Orange, declares that he never got angry with any of
* Dept. of State MSS.

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 381
them, and that they preferred going to him with requests
to going to his wife. She recalls one instance of his per
sonal castigation of a slave, when Reuben, a worthless
scamp, returned from some unlawful errand with a pal
pably false excuse and was punished by three light taps on
the shoulder from his master's walking stick.
The personal impressions of Madison taken down from
the lips of his cousin. Miss Sarah Conway, of Smithfield,
Va., when eighty -nine years of age and still in the full
possession of her faculties, may be put down here. She
often visited Montpelier as a girl from twelve to fifteen
years of age, and Madison and his wife were both fond
of young people and made them feel at home. He was
always neat in his dress and was assisted in his toUet by
Paul (Jennings), his body-servant, and Paul always ac
companied him when he travelled. He wore shorts with
long silk stockings, and silver buckles that almost covered
the tops of his shoes. His hair was in a queue, tied with
a bow of black ribbon. The pitch of his voice was mod
erate and he spoke clearly and distinctly. He did not
gesticulate in ordinary conversation, but did when telling
an amusing story. At his dinner table there was always
wine, which he drank, but he was temperate and sober
in all things. He was a very liberal man, and after his re
tirement from public life on one occasion invited every
famUy in Orange County to an entertainment, and the
grounds were covered with tables to accommodate the
people, the more distinguished guests and elderly people
being entertained in the house. He was without ostenta
tion, and moved about among his neighbours as any
private gentleman would have done. He and his wife
lived together without straining their prerogatives, and
everybody admired and loved Mrs. Madison. She was
an excellent manager and had everything about her in
abundance without waste. His temper was even and
placid and not easily ruffled. He never laughed boister
ously, but was cheerful and playful in temperament, fond
of a pleasant joke, but always dignified.

382 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
In the daily routine breakfast was eaten at about nine
o'clock and dimier at three, the table being set with a
liberal display of silver and fine china. In the evening
the family gathered in the drawing-room, and the young
ladies, of whom there were usually several in the house,
played the piano and sang. Madison spent much of his
time in his study, but was the life of the evening circle.
When his ailments increased so that he could not get up
and down stairs without discomfort, he had a bed put in
his study, the door of which opened into the dining-room,
and when he was too ill to sit at the dinner table he would
have his chair pushed to the door, where he could join
in the conversation. Miss Conway says that he did not
laugh boisterously, but there is good evidence that in
circles of intimate friends he sometimes gave way to un
restrained facetiousness and set his hearers into roars of
laughter. "A gentleman," says Randall in his Life of
Jefferson, "who was intimate at Montpelier, long after its
owner's retirement, mentioned to us visiting him on one
occasion when he was severely indisposed and confined
to his bed. When the family and friends sat down to
dinner, the invalid desired the door of his apartment
to be left open 'so that he could hear what was going
on.' Every few moments he was heard to cry out in a
feeble but most humourous voice, 'Doctor, are you push
ing about the bottle ? Do your duty. Doctor, or I must
cashier you.'"
Of the jokes with which the meny old man amused his
friends none have been preserved, but one of his favourite
subjects was the adventures of the Baroness Reidesel, the
wife of General Reidesel, a prisoner of war during the
Revolution. They lived at Colle, Mazzei's plantation,
and the Baroness, who was big, handsome and a great
gossip, rode her horse astride like a man, and was well
known to all the country people. She wrestled bravely
with the English tongue and made many remarkable
mistakes in using it.

CHAPTER XXXVII
THE END
"My dear Husband is still confined to his bed. In ad
dition to a disabling Rheumatism throughout the winter,
he has had a bilious fever, which has reduced him so much
that he can only walk from one bed to another. I never
leave him more than a few minutes at a time, and have
not left the enclosure around our house for the last eight
months on account of his continued indisposition, con
cerning which friends at a distance have reed but too
favourable reports. Our Physicians have advised the
Warm Springs for Mr. Madison, and we hoped to have
taken him there, but as he could not travel unless con
veyed on his bed, we dare not think of it at present."
This was the report of Mrs. Madison to her friend Mrs.
Tobias Lear, in Washington, in a letter which is undated,
but was doubtless written early in the spring of 1836.*
The last struggle of the old man against the disease
which had held him captive for so many years was be
ginning. In a postscript to one of his wife's letters to
Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith he wrote in trembhng char
acters (January 17, 1835) :
"I am very thankful, my kind friend, for the interest
you take in my health. It is not good, and at my age
nature can afford little of the medical aid she exerts on
younger patients. I have indeed got through the most
painful stages of my principal malady, a diffusive &
obstinate rheumatism; but I feel its crippling effects on
my limbs, particularly my hands and fingers, as this little
effort of the pen wiU show."!
* Family papers of J. Henley Smith, Esq., of Washington.
Xld. 383

384 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON
The crippled condition of his fingers was almost con
stant for the last four years of his lffe. February 19,
1832, he wrote a note to Robert Treat Paine, labouriously
printing each letter.
There was no continuous period after his retirement
when his health was good. In the Autumn of 182 1, he
had the prevaihng bUious fever, but he recovered quickly.
He had at this time and occasionally afterwards the bene
fit of the advice of an eminent physician, Robley DungH-
son, who held the chair of medicine at the University and
was at the head of the faculty until he went to Baltimore
in 1833. It was on one of Dunglison's half friendly, haff
professional visits that he found his patient reclining on a
sofa and taUdng to the ladies of the household. He
remonstrated with him for not lying still. "Oh," said
Madison, "you know I talk most easily when I he."*
He was quite ill in 1827 and in 1829 before he went to
the State convention. The intermissions in his rheumatic
seizures became less frequent and in the summer of 1831
he was taken violently. The following June Dunghson
came to him hurriedly, having heard alarming reports,
but he ralhed. For the last twenty years of his life his
regular family physician was his cousin. Dr. Charles
Taylor, and associated with him towards the last were
Drs. Thomas Slaughter and Peyton Grymes, both of
Orange. Early in the summer of 1836 the report went forth that
he was sinking. Nevertheless, he was moved each day
from his bed to his chair, and his mind continued active,
for he would be read to by his wife and would dictate.
His mind was clear, although he expressed a few days
before his death some concern that he was unable to con
nect the memory of events readily. On the evening of
June 2 7, his physicians were with him for the last time.
He had become extremely emaciated, was mere skin and
bones, and was growing graduaUy weaker. On the morn
ing of June 28 he was moved from his bed to his chair as
?Randall's "Jefferson."

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 385
usual, and his niece brought him his breakfast and left
it with him, urging him to eat. When she returned to the
room a few minutes later he was dead. No one was with
him at the time ; he made no parting speeches and took
no sonowful farewells; but among his papers was found
this, his last message to his fellow-countrymen:
"ADVICE TO MY COUNTRY.
"As this advice, if it ever see the hght, will not do so
tiU I am no more, it may be considered as issuing from the
tomb, where truth alone can be respected, and the happi
ness of man alone consulted. It will be entitled, therefore,
to whatever weight can be derived from good intentions,
and from the experience of one who has served his coun
try in various stations through a period of forty years ; who
espoused in his youth, and adhered through his lffe, to the
cause of its liberty ; and who has borne a part in most of
the great transactions which will constitute epochs of its
destiny. "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my
convictions is, that the union of the states be cher
ished AND perpetuated. LET THE OPEN ENEMY TO IT
BE REGARDED AS A PANDORA WITH HER BOX OPENED, AND
THE DISGUISED ONE AS THE SERPENT CREEPING WITH HIS
DEADLY WILES INTO PARADISE." THE END.

CXi^e- 6-

INDEX

Adams, Henry, on charges against
l^fadisoji, 317
Adams, John, approves alien and
pedi tion laws, 251
fails to enforce alien law, 259
solicits loans in Europe, 35
supported for Vice-Presidency
by Madison, 213
wishes to appoint Madison
Minister, 240
Adams, John Quincy, commis
sioner for peace, 355
Minister to Russia, 355
Adams, Samuel, opposes Jay
treaty, 229
Adams, William, British com
missioner for peace, 356
Alien and sedition laws, approved
by Federalists, 251
Ambler, J., Treasurer of Va., on
finances, 33
American Whig Society, founded,
IS
Ames, Fisher, complains of bar
gains over capital, 197
defends bank bill, 202
Amis, Thomas, journey down
Mississippi, 62
Annapolis Convention, adjourns,
107
agreed on, 92
meets, 105
outcome of Mt. Vernon meet-
, ing. 93
Annapolis proposed for capital,
192
rejected, 192
Applications for office received by
Madison, 166
Armstrong, Gen. John, appointed
Secretary of War, 329
resigns, 334
Assumption of State debts, Ham
ilton's plan, 182
before House, 185

Assumption of State debts, Hain-
ilton's plan, defeated, 184
revived in Senate, 197
Astor, John Jacob, assists treas
ury, 335
Bache, Benjamin Franklin, editor
of The Aurora, 240
Back lands, area of , 45
States agree to surrender, 44
Virginia cession, 45
Baldwin, Abraham, on Senate,
118.
Balmaine, Rev. S., marriage
ceremony by, 244
Baltimore, House proposes Con
gress meet at, 197
proposed for capital, 192
Bancroft, George, conversation
with Madison, 318
Bank, national, opposed by
Madison, 201
recharter fails, 322
signs new law, 337
Baptists, increase of, in Virginia,
79
persecution of, 12
Barbour, John S, writes on sub
ject of war, 340
Barbour, Nancy, recollections of
Madison, 380
Barker, Jacob, takes part of
loan, 336
Barlow, Joel, Minister to France,
353
Bassano, Due de, on French
decrees, 353
Bayard, James A., commissioner
for peace, 356
his projected mission to Eng
land, 317
Beatty, John, a founder of the
American Whig Society, 15
Beckley, John, political agent of
Southern Republicans, 212

387

388

INDEX

Bedford, Gunning, classmate of
Madison, 15
favors State equality, 121
Bellini, Secretary and Interpreter
of Council of State, 26
Benson, Egbert, delegate to An
napolis convention, 105
Benton, Thomas H., on nulhfica
tion, 263
Berlin and Milan decrees (French
decrees), 305
Bill of Rights (see Declaration
of Rights)
Bishop, Samuel, Collector of Cus
toms at New Haven, 228
Bladensburg, Madison joins troops
at, 332
Blair, John, Councillor of State,
25
delegate to ratification conven
tion, 147
delegate to Virginia convention
of 1776, 3
Bland, Richard, delegate to Vir
ginia convention of 1776, 3
educated at William and Mary,
13
Bland, Theodorick, presents peti
tion for second constitutional
convention, 177
Bonaparte, Joseph, Livingston
confers with, 296
Bonaparte, Napoleon, alleged
alliance of Madison with,
340
Berlin and Milan decrees of,
305
decides on war with England,
295
promises to repeal French
decrees, 312
Boston, Federalists in, 343
Boston town meeting denounces
Jay treaty, 229
Boudinot, Elias, defends national
bank bill, 202
on speculation in public securi
ties, 181
opposes second constitutional
convention, 177
refutes Madison's argument
against funding debt, 182
Bounties on exports, opposed by
Madison, 204
Bowie, Ralph, writes Madison
about patronage, 277

Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, a
founder of the American Whig
Society, 15
classmate of Madison, 15
Bradford, William, a founder of
American Whig Society, 15
college friend of Madison, 15
Breckinridge, John, introduces
and amends Kentucky resolu
tions, 252
opposes legislation for religious
purposes, 80
Brent, Richard, Representative
from Virginia, 256
supports call for papers of Jay
treaty, 232
British seizures of American ves
sels, 22S
Browere, J. H. J., makes bust of
Madison, 377
Bryan, Judge George S., on nulli
fication, 270, note
Burke, Aedanus, denounces bar
gain for location of capital,
194
position on "assumption," 185
Burr, Aaron, at Princeton with
Madison, i;
dropped by Republicans, 213"
introduces Madison to Dolly
Payne Todd, 242
relations with Madison, 243
Butler, Pierce, communicates Jay
treaty to Madison, 228
on results of constitutional
convention, 135
on Senate, 118
Cabell, John, instructions of, 6
Cabell, William, educated at
William and Mary, 13
Cabinet, changes in, 339
weakness of, 328
Calhoun, John C, early consti
tutional views of, 268
member of war party, 322
report of, in favor of war, 325
Callender, James Thompson, edi
tor, 240
reimbursement of fine, 278
threats against Jefferson, 279
tried for sedition, 259
writes to Madison about his
fine, 279
Campbell, appointed Secretary of
Treasury, 336
resigns, 337

INDEX

389

Canada, plan for invading, 331
Capital, location of, 189
New York offers Kingston for,
190
two agreed upon, 190
CardeUi, G., makes busts of
Madison and his wife, 377
Carey, Matthew, on Federalists'
loyalty, 341
Carrington, Edward, on "funding
and assumption," 186
opposes national bank, 210
reports R. H. Lee's efforts to
defeat constitution, 145
reports Washington's wish that
Madison enter Senate, 162
Carroll, Daniel, offers motion for
location of capital, 194
on Annapolis convention, 105
opposes "assumption," 184
votes for "assumption," 199
Cary, Archibald, educated at
William and Mary, 13
Castlereagh, Lord, writes to Mon
roe, 356
Catholics, defense of, by Madison,
218
Catlett, Elizabeth, Madison's
sponsor, 21
Catlett, Judith, Madison's spon
sor, 21
Catlett, Rebecca, descent of, 20
Ceracchi, Giuseppe, makes bust
of Madison, 377
Chase, Judge Samuel, approves
sedition law,2 59
Chase, Samuel, member of Poto
mac Commission, 89
Cheves, Langdon, one of war
party, 322
Chew, Thomas, patents lands
with Ambrose Madison, 20
Clark, Abraham, delegate to
Annapolis convention, 105
Clark, George Rogers, expedition
of, 45
Clay, Henry, commissioner for
peace, 356
favors national bank, 337
one of war party, 322
opinion of Jefferson and Madi
son, 316
views of nullification, 266
Clinton, DeWitt, nominated for
presidency, 326
Clinton, George, favored by Mad
ison for vice-presidency, 213

Clinton, George, letter to Ran
dolph against constitution,
159
opposed by Hamilton, 214
opposed by Madison, 214
voted for by Virginia, 214
Cockbum, Admiral, advance of,
, 331
Colonization Society, Madison
elected President of, 369
Connecticut favors impost duty,
41
Federalists in, 344
Governor of, refuses to furnish
militia, 329
offers back lands, 46
sends no delegate to Annapohs,
105
Constitution of Virginia (1776)
agreed to, 8
Madison's objections to, 365
Constitution, the, opposition to
ratification, 139
project for repeal of, discussed
in Congress, 177
Constitutional Convention, com-
Eromise of larger and smaller
tates, 123
Madison sounds public opinion
on, 104
origin of idea, 108
proceedings secret, 116
Constitutional Convention in Vir
ginia, Madison a. member of,
365
Constitutional Convention, sec
ond, asked for by Virginia,
177
project disapproved, 178
urged, 161
Convention, Constitutional (see
Constitutional Convention)
Convention to consider ratifica
tion of Constitution (see Rati
fication Convention)
Convention, Virginia, of 1776, i
Continental Congress, functions
of members of, 38
last meeting of, 167
Conway, Eleanor Rose, Madison's
mother, descent of, 20
Francis, descent of, 20
Madison bom in his house, 21
Conway, Miss Sarah, recollec
tions of Madison, 381
Cooper, Thomas, editor, 240:

390

INDEX

Copyrights, power of Congress to
grant, proposed by Madison,
127
views on international, 370
Corbin, Francis, delegate to rati
fication convention, 174
on slavery, 74
on slavery and farming, 376
opposes Patrick Henry, 161
reports Henry's opposition to
constitution, 160
Council of State, Madison elected
a member, 25
Coiu-t of Appeals, Federal, pro
vided for by articles of con
federation, 131
Coxe, Tench, delegate to Annap
olis, 105
Crawford, W. H., appointed Sec
retary of Treasury, 338
Cutts, Mrs. Anna, Madison goes
to her house, 333
Dallas, Alexander J., Secretary
of Treasury, 336
views on the bank, 338
Dandridge, B., a Councillor of
State, 25
Davis, Rev. William, christens
Madison, 21
Dawson, J., on sedition law, 251
Dearborn , Gen . , inefficiency of , 3 2 8
Declaration of Rights, committee
to draft, 6
provisions of, 7
Delaware favors impost duty, 41
Delaware River, site for capital
on banks of, 191
chosen, 196
Deposit, right of, agreed to by
Spain, 288
withdrawn, 291
Dexter, Samuel, opposes extreme
measures of Federalists, 349
ridicules Catholic Church, 218
Dickinson, John, delegate to
Annapolis, 105
on powers of judiciary, 131
President of Annapolis con
vention, 106
upholds smaller States in Con
stitutional Convention, 121,
122
Digges, Dudley, a Councillor of
State, 25
Dissenters, persecution of, in
Virginia, 11

Duane, William, editor, 240
solicits patronage of State De
partment, 282
Duer, William, on situation in
New York, 157
Dunglison, S. Robley, Madison's
physician, 384
Durand, A. P., paints Madison's
portrait, 377
D'Yrujo, Marquis, on withdrawal
of right of deposit, 291
Eggleston, Joseph, Representative
from Virginia, 256
Elliot, Jonathan, Madison's as
sistance to, 374
Ellsworth, Mrs. Dorothy, Madi
son's landlady, 242
Ellsworth, Oliver, revives "as
sumption," 197
upholds smaller States in Con
stitutional Convention, 121,
122
Emancipation sentiment in Vir
ginia, 71
Emmons, Richard, sends book
to Madison, 373
Episcopal Church in Virginia,
an act of incorporation,
80
a social institution, 79
condition of, 1 1
decadence of, 22
disestablishment of, 78
Erskine, David Montague, British
Minister to the United States,
305
agreement by, with Madison,
306
disavowed and recalled, 307
Eustis, William, appointed Secre
tary of War, 304
dismissed, 328
Executive departments, bill to
establish, 174
Farewell address, Washington's,
Madison's draft of, 220
Farmers' Bank in Richmond,
Madison's depository, 375
Federalist, The, authorship of, 140
Federal Republicans, association
of, against constitution, 158
Fenno, John, editor United States
Gazette, 235
Finch, John, sends book to
Madison, 373

INDEX

39T-

Fitch, John, inventor, impor
tunes Madison, 97
Floridas, lost by Spain to Eng
land, 54
Floyd, Catherine, engaged to
Madison, 68
Foreign Affairs, Secretary of, his
duties, 63
Foster, Augustus G., British
Minister to the United States,
313
describes Madison, 273
France, alleged alliance of
Madison with, 340
antagonism of Madison toward
government of, 354
Franklin, Benjamin, solicits loans
in Europe, 35
views on old age, 371
Freneau, Philip, a founder of the
American Whig Society, 15
career of, 236
classmate of Madison, 15
editor of the National Gazette,
235
French decrees. Napoleon prom
ises to modify, 310
repeal of reported, 253, 312
(see Berlin and Milan decrees)
French revolution, sympathy with
in America, 215
"Fundirig and assumption," un
popular in Virginia, 184,186
Gale, George, opposes "assump
tion," 184
votes for " assumption,'' 199
Gallatin, Albert, commissioner
for peaoe, 356
declines reappointment as Sec
retary of Treasury, 338
hastens cabinet crisis, 319
on nullification, 264
rank in cabinet, 303
service abroad made definite,
336
supports call for papers of Jay
treaty, 232
Gambler, Lord, British commis
sioner for peace, 356
Gardner, Wilham P., makes
charges against Richard Wag
ner, chief clerk, 2S2
Gardoqui, Don Diego, Spanish
Minister, comes" to United
States, 58

George, Henry, Jefferson antici
pates his doctrine, 100
Georgetown proposed for capital,
^ 191
Georgia sends no delegates to
Annapolis, 105
Genet, French Minister, comes to
the United States, 216
dismissed, 216
Germantown, chosen for capital
by Senate, ig6
Gerry, Elbridge, on Senate, 118
reports disloyalty in Massa
chusetts, 341
Ghent, peace commission meets
at, 356
Ghent, Treaty of, 360
Gibson, Jonathan, Madison's
sponsor, 21
Girard, Stephen, assists treasury,
r, 335
Goodrich, Elizur, removed as
Collector of Customs at New
Haven, 278
Gordon, James, delegate to ratifi
cation convention, 147
Gorham, Nathaniel, opposes free
navigation of Mississippi, 65
Goulburn, Henry, British com
missioner for peace, 356
Graham, John, appointed chief
clerk of State Department,
283
Graham, John A., sends book to
Madison, 373
Grayson, William, opposes consti
tution, 144
opposition leader in ratification
convention, 144
Great Britain, projected alliance
with, 292
Griffin, Cyrus, sits in last Conti
nental Congress, 168
sums up chances of adoption of
constitution, 156
Grundy, Felix, one of war party,
322
Grymes, Dr. Peyton, one of
Madison's physicians, 384
Hamilton, Alexander, accuses
Clinton of disloyalty, 156
bargain by, for capital, 190
charge of monarchist against,
207
drafts address of Annapolis
convention, loS

392

INDEX

Hamilton, Alexander, explains
powers of judiciary, 130
favors Madison's appointment
to French mission, 250
fulfils bargain for capital, 199
made citizen of France, 313
member of committee on style,
127
opposes Clinton, 214
part taken by in Constitutional
Convention, 129
plan of constitution, 129
plans The Federalist, 139
proposes a constitutional con
vention, 108
quarrels with Madison, 208
report on protection, 203
retirement of, 219
roughly treated at public meet
ing, 229
sits in last Continental Con
gress, 168
speech in favour of Federal
appointment of collectors, 38
submits report on public debt,
179
supports Madison s motion for
impost tax, 42
thinks back lands belong to
United States, 50
uses United States Gazette , 235
writes reply to Rhode Island,
37
Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., reports
Monroe's death, 372
Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, friend
ly letter to Madison, 373
Hamilton, Paul, appointed Secre
tary of the Navy, 304
resigns, 329
Hanson, A. C, charge against
Madison, 317
Hardy, S., signs deed of cession of
back lands, 52
"Harewood," W. Va., Madison
married there, 244
Harrison, Benjamin, educated
at William and Mary, 13
opposes constitution, 144
opposition leader in ratifica
tion convention, 149
Harrison, Carter H., Representa
tive from Virginia, 256
Harrison, Nathaniel, a Councillor
of State, s
Hartford convention, character
of members of, 348

Hartford convention repeats
Madison's language, 260
Hazen, Moses, memorial for land
for his troops, 49
Henderson, Alexander, appointed
on Potomac commission, 88
Henry, James, papers of, pur
chased by Maaison, 342
Henry, John, a founder of the
American Whig Society, 15
Henry, Patrick, approves of
emancipation law, 72
changes constitutional views,
178
favors religious assessment
blE, 79, 80
in Virginia convention of 1776,
2
opposes constitution, 142, 160
opposes Madison, 155, 159
opposition leader in ratifica
tion convention, 149
rivalry in legislature with R. H.
Lee, 77
second constitutional conven
tion favored by, 161
secures Madison's defeat for
Senate, 162
supports Clinton, 213
tries to defeat Madison's elec
tion to House, 163
Hite, Jacob, killed by Indians, 99
Holt, John, printing press of,
seized, i
Hornet, The, sloop of war, arrives
with news, 324
Horrocks, Rev. William, Presi
dent of William and Mary, 14
Horsey, Outerbridge, Quincy's
letter to, 347
House of Burgesses, last session
of, I
House of Representatives, basis
of representation in, 119
Houstoun, W. C, delegate to
Annapolis, 105
IlUnois land company, claim of,
46
Impost tax proposed, 39
Inauguration ball, 299
of Madison, 299
coat, 299
Indiana company, claim of, 46
formed from Virginia land
cession, 45

INDEX

393

Innes, Henry, leader in ratifica
tion convention, 149
Irvine, William, on office seeking,
276
Irving, Washington, describes
Madison, 300
Jackson, Andrew, Madison's opin
ion of, 364
Jackson, Francis James ("Copen
hagen"), characteristics of,
307
describes Madison, 308
dismissed, 309
instructions of, 307
received by Federalists, 310
Jackson, James, on speculation
in public securities, 180
Jameson, David, a Councillor of
State, 25
Jay, John, cooperates with Madi
son and Hamilton in writing
The Federalist, 139
discloses negotiations with
Spanish Minister, 64
instructions as Minister to
England, 227
nominated as Minister to Eng
land, 226
solicits loans in Europe, 35
wishes to abandon free navi
gation of Mississippi, 59
Jay treaty comes up , 223
call for papers concerning, 232
communicated to Madison by
Pierce Butler, 228
President proclaims it, 231
provisions of, 228
Jefferson, Thomas, characteristics
of, 272
connection with National
Gazette, 239
criticizes constitution, 144
describes bargain for capital,
197
drafts Kentucky resolutions,
252
elected Vice-President, 247
enemies of, 272
favors floating capital, 190
last letter to Madison, 371
not a nuUifier, 263
on alien and sedition laws, 251
on Madison's qualifications for
Presidency, 300
on poverty in Europe, 100
opposed to "assumption," 187

Jefferson, Thomas, signs deed of
cession of back lands, 52
Jenifer, Daniel, of St. Thomas,
member of Potomac commis
sion, 89
Johnson, Richard M., one of war
party, 322
Johnson, William S., explains
judiciary clause in constitu
tion, 132
member of committee on style,
127
Johnson, Zachariah, opposes
Henry in assembly, 161
Jones, Joseph, favors bill for
religious assessments, 79
Jones, Dr. Walter, delegate to
Annapolis, 93
Representative from Virginia,
256
Jones, William, acts as Secretary
of Treasury, 336
appointed Secretary of Navy,
^ .3.29
Judiciary, supreme powers of,
debated in Constitutional
Convention, 130
Kentucky asks admission as
State, 62, 94
attitude of, toward slavery, 74
resolutions, by whom written,
252
King, Rufus, member of com
mittee on style, 127 3
Minister to England, 285
Kingston, N. Y., offered for
capital, 190
Lafayette, Marquis de, aid for
free navigation of Mississippi
enlisted, 60
Madison's estimate of, 99
Land companies, claims of, 46
Lansing, John, opposes constitu
tion, 158
Lay, John A., Madison's agent in
Richmond, 375
Lear, Mrs. Tobias, Mrs. Madison's
letter to, 383
Lear, Tobias, report of Washing
ton's last conversation, 222
Lee, Arthur, signs deed of cession
of back lands, 52
Lee, Henry, assists Freneau, 237
at Princeton with Madison, 15

394

INDEX

Lee, Henry, delegate to ratifi
cation convention, 149
on Madison's prospects, 302
opposed to centralization, 204
opposed to free navigation of
Mississippi, 60
Lee, Richard Bland, offers motion
for capital, 194
opposes "funding and assump
tion," 184
opposes Patrick Henry, loi
votes for "assumption," 199
Lee, Richard Henry, attitude
toward national govemment,
78
concerts meastires to defeat
constitution, 144, 145, 167
delegate to Virginia convention
of 1776, 3
election to Senate, 214
favors religious assessments,
79,81
proposes Georgetown for capi
tal, 191
rivalry with Patrick Henry, 77
Lee, Richard Henry, Jr., life of
Richard Henry Lee, 374
Lee, Thomas Ludwell, delegate
to Virginia convention of
1776. 3
Lewis, Morgan, reports DeWitt
Clinton's designs, 326
Leland, Parson, assists Madison's
election to ratification con
vention, 147
Livingston, Edward, author of
nullification proclamation,
264
calls for papers of Jay treaty,
231
friendly relations with Madison,
371
Madison's interest m his crim
inal code, 374
on nullification, 204, 265, 266
takes seat in Congress, 231
Livingston, Robert R., appointed
Minister to France, 287
completes purchase of Louisi-
a.na, 297
on a foreign policy, 287
on prosperity in New England,
345
Longacre, J. B., makes sketch of
Madison, 377
Louisiana, cession of, to France
opposed, 290

Louisiana, cession of, demands of
France, 293
expedition to, projected, 291
Lowell, John, advocates division
of States, 348
Lyon, Matthew, tried for sedition,
259
Macon, Nathaniel, on treatment
of America, 313
Madison, Ambrose, patents land,
19
Madison, Eleanor Rose Conway,
Madison's mother, descrip
tion of, 22
Madison genealogy, 19, note
Madison, James, a candidate for
the House, 163
a candidate for Senate, 162
a founder of the American
Whig Society, 15
a member of the committee on
style in Constitutional Con
vention, 127
advocates tax on exports, 124
appearance in ratification con
vention, 151
appointed on committee to con
sider state of treasury, 35
appointed on Potomac com
mission, 88
appointments to office by, 283
approves views of Edward
Livingston, 265
approves views of Henry Clay,
266
as a farmer, 375
asks loan of Nicholas Biddle,
380
assists Freneau to establish
National Gazette, 237
aware of New England dis
loyalty, 352
birth of, 21
books sent to , 3 7 3
breaks with Washington, 219
chairman committee to reply
to President's speech, 230
charges against, 316
christening of, 21
comes to Washington in 1801,
274
congratulated on peace, 359
connection with University of
Virginia, 368
consults with Nicholases, Tay
lor and Breckinridge, 251

INDEX

395

Madison, James, continues Jeffer
son's policy, 303
cooperates with Hamilton and
Jay in. The Federalist, 139
deals with Callender, 278
defeated for Senate, 162
defends Catholics, 218
defines position on public debt,
181
delegate to Annapolis, 93
delegate to Virginia convention,
of 1776, 3
delivers first message from
House to Senate, 169
denotmces bargaining for capi
tal, 194
described by Edmund Ran
dolph, 4
describes contest with Monroe,
165
dismisses Armstrong, 334
dismisses Jackson, British Min
ister, 308, 310
elected a Councillor of State,
elected member House of Dele
gates, 77
elected to the Assembly, 255
elected President of Coloniza
tion Society, 369
elected President Washington
National Monument Society,
368
elected to Continental Congress,
32, 62
elected to House of Representa
tives, 165
elected to ratification conven
tion, 146
essay on domestic slavery, 75
extravagance of, 274, 380
favors discriminating tonnage
dues, 173
favors proportional representa
tion m Congress, 122
favors tax on imports, 170
feeling of, toward Hamilton, 211
first meeting with Jefferson, 12
foes to Princeton, 14
is part in bargaining for
capital, 199
inauguration of , 299
insists on free navigation of
Mississippi, 60
interview with Gardoqui, 63
joins troops at Bladensburg,
332

Madison, James, last address of,
to Congress, 362
last advice to countrymen, 385
last illness, 384
leads Constitutional Conven
tion, 133
made a citizen of France, 313
makes agreement with Ersldne,
306
marries Dolly Payne Todd, 244
member convention of 1829,
365
memoranda prepared for Con
stitutional Convention, 113
message to Congress 181 2, 329
moves reference Jay's report on
Mississippi to committee, 65
objects to Virginia constitu
tion of 1776, 365
offers amendment to declara
tion of rights , 9
offers provisions for copyrights
and patents, 127
offers provisions for sale of
public lands and purchase of
arsenals, etc., 127
on Andrew Jackson, 364
on committee to draft reply to
Rhode Island, 37
on Jay treaty, 229
on Jefferson's election, 271
on opponents in Constitutional
Convention, 121
on power of judiciary, 132
on purchase of Louisiana, 297
on Russian friendliness, 355
on slavery, 70
opinion of Virginia legislation,
96
opposes bill for assessments for
Christian religion, 81
opposes recognition of slave
trade in constitution, 125
opposes national bank bill, 201
outlines plan of constitution,
no
partisanship of, 214
personal appearance of, 137,
381
policy toward England, 285
popularity of, 303
position in Washington society,
274
prepares Jay's instructions on
Mississippi question, 54
prepares veto message for
Washington on bank bill, 203

396

INDEX

Madison, James, prevents passage
of capital bill, 196
proclamation under Mobile act,
314
piogramme of, in inaugural
address. 354
proposed by Washington for
Secretary of State, 221
proposes to stop paper money,
36
proposes place for capital, 127,
189
purchases lands on Mohawk,
102
purchases papers of James
Henry, 342
recommends enlisting an army,
321
reelected President, 327
religious views of, 10
renominated for Presidency,
326
reporter of Constitutional Con
vention, ri6
reports in favor of impost, 42
residence while Secretary of
State, 274
retires temporarily, 248
retires to Montpelier, 364
signs bank bill, 337
sits in last Continental Con
gress, 168
social characteristics of, 273
speech of , in convention of 1829,
366
speech of, in favor of national
govemment, 121
speech of, in ratification con
vention, 151
speech of, in favor of impost
tax, 39
studies of, at college, 16
studies law, 70
suggestions of war by, 323
suggests revision of back lands
cession, 43
supports motion for papers of
Jay treaty, 232, 233
teaches his brothers and sisters,
^^
unsuccessful candidate for
House of Delegates, 24
urged to resign Presidency, 347
urges central location of capital,
195
urges tracing title to back
lands, 48

Madison, James, views on slavery,
.369
views on war, 318
weak cabinet of, 303
wishes to join army, 18
writes refutation of nullifica
tion, 261
writes remonstrance against
religious assessments, 84
Madison, James, Sr., father of
Madison, influence of, 21
death of, 271
description of, 23
marriage of , 20
Madison, Mrs , in Washington, 306
social success of, 275
Madison, Rev. James, commends
Madison's address for Vir
ginia resolutions, 257
consecration of , 1 1
on The Federalist, 140
writes about University of
Virginia, 368
Madisons, The, a colonial family,
19
Maddyson, Captain Isaac, comes
to America, rg
Malthus, Madison's anticipation
of, 100
Marbois, Barb6 de, lodges in
same house with Madison, 68
negotiates sale of Louisiana,
296
Marshall, John, a leader in ratifi
cation convention, 149
disapproves alien and sedition
laws, 251
dominates Supreme Court, 260
favors religious assessments, 79
opinion of Madison's eloquence,
151
Martineau, Harriet, on South
Carolina, 270
visit to Montpeher, 369
Martin, Luther, explains powers
of judiciary, 130
favors State equality, 121
Martin, Rev. Thomas, Madison's
tutor, 14
dies, 17
Maryland favors impost tax, 41
opposes Virginia land cession,
51
sends no delegates to Annapohs,
i°5
Mason, George, appointed on
Potomac commission, 88

INDEX

397

Mason, George, delegate to
Annapolis, but fails to go, 105
drafts Virginia constitution of
1776, 8
in convention of 1776, 2
on committee to draft declara
tion of rights, 6
on powers of judiciary, 131
on Senate, irS
on slavery, 72, 125
opinion of Edmund Randolph,
^47. .
opposition leader in ratifica
tion convention, 149
originates plan for surrender
of back lands, 45
protests against constitution,
142
reconciliation of, with Madison,
204
refuses to sign constitution,
Massachusetts, fast in, proclaimed,
344
favors impost tax, 41
general court, resoutions of, 349
Govemor of, refuses to furnish
militia, 329
Supreme Court of, declares
militia under Govemor, 344
Maury, James, Madison's agent
in Liverpool, 375
Mazzei, Philip, scheme for a
loan, 29
McClurg, James, educated at
William and Mary, 13
delegate to ratification con
vention, 147
reports opposition to constitu
tion, I4S
McKnight, Charles, a founder of
American Whig Society, 1$
at Princeton with Madison, 15
Meade, Bishop, on Episcopal
Church in Virginia, r r
Mercer, James, delegate to Vir
ginia convention of 1776, 2
Mercer, John Francis, on powers
of judiciary, 131
Merry, Anthony, British Minister
reports disloyalty of Federal
ists, 342
Mississippi, free navigation of,
abandonment proposed, 57,
58, 64
favored, 54

Mississippi, instructions to Jay on
subject, 54
question Ijrought into ratifica
tion convention, 154
Mobile act, Madison puts into
effect, 314
Monarchists in United States,
206
Monroe, James, appointed Min
ister to France, 292
assists Livingston, 297
candidate for Presidency, 301
educated at William and Mary,
. ^3
inaugurated as President, 364
instructs peace commission,
, 358
last letter to Madison, 372
member of Constitutional Con
vention of 1829, 367
on New England Federalists,
352
opposes constitution, 144 '
opposes Madison for House,
164
opposition leader in ratification
convention, 149
reports approach of enemy
on Washington, 331
Secretary of State, 319, 320
Secretary of War, 328
treats with Callender, 280
treaty with England negotiated
by, 301
Montpelier, grounds at, 378
hospitality, 376
house, 376
part of, deeded to Madison, 75
tract known as, 20
Moore, John, Madison's sponsor,
2r
Moore, Rebecca, "Madison's spon
sor, 21
Morris, Gouvemeur, approves
Hamilton's plan of govem
ment, 130
influence of, in Constitutional
Convention, r34
member of committee on style,
127
on judiciary, 13 r
on Senate, 118
proposes bargain between east
and south, 124
Morris, Robert, on authority of
Congress, 32

398

INDEX

Morris, Robert, reports on finan
cial situation, 34
Muter, George, reports western
sentiment on Mississippi
question, 61
National debt (see Public Debt)
National feeling, lack of, among
public men, 205
National Gazette, The, 235 ;
ceases publication, 239
Naturalization, debate on, 217
Nelson, Hugh, opposes constitu
tion, 144
New England confederacy pi:o-
posed, 348
prosperity in, 346
New Hampshire delegates to
Annapolis fail to attend, 105
favors impost duty, 41
New Jersey protests against
Virginia land cession, 51
New York, cession of back lands,
49
New York Chamber of Commerce
approves Jay treaty, 229
New York favors impost duty, 41
ratifies constitution, 157
New York City as temporary
capital, 191
Nicholas, George, delegate to
ratification convention, 149
fires first shot of revolution in
Virginia, i
on effect of The Federalist, 141
opposes abolition in Kentucky,
74 . „
opposes "assumption, 187
opposes religious assessments,
83
supports call for papers on Jay
treaty, 232
Nicholas, John,' Representative
from Virginia, 256
Nicholas, Robert Carter, delegate
to Virginia convention of
1776,3
Nicholas, Wilson Cary, opposes
religious assessments, 80, 83
and George plan campaign
against religious assessments
bill, 84
North Carolina accedes to con
stitution, 178
favors impost tax, 41
refuses to ratify constitution,
157

North Carolina sends no dele
gates to Annapolis conven
tion, lOj
Nullification, discussed in 1821 in
South Carolina, 267
Madison's opposition to, 367
Madison writes refutation of,
374
Nullification party, doctrine of,
261
Octagon House, Madison moves
^ *°' 333
Office seeking under Jefferson,
276
Ohio formed from back lands, 45
Orders in Council, British, 305
Osgood, Samuel, on committee to
consider state of treasury, 35
Page, John, a Councillor of State,
25
Page, Robert, supports call for
papers on Jay treaty, 232
Parish, David, assists treasury,
335
Parties, difference between, de
scribed by Tucker, 206
Parties, difference between, on
constitutional construction,
204
Patents, power to grant, proposed
by Madison, 127
Patterson, Charles, instructions
of, 6
Patterson, Judge William, atti
tude toward sedition law, 259
Payne, Mrs John, lodgings kept
by, 243
Peale, C. W. , essay by, in National
Gazette, 238
paints portrait of Madison, 377
Pell, Philip, last niember to
appear in Constitutional Con
gress, 168
Pendleton, Edmund, a leader in
ratification convention, 149
attitude toward independence,
2
chosen president of ratification
convention. 149
opposed to bank law, 210
president of Virginia conven
tion, 2
Pennsylvania favours impost tax,
41

INDEX

399

Philadelphia convention (see
Constitutional Convention)
Jay treaty burned at, 229
Pickering, Timothy, approves
alien and sedition laws, 251
John Adams' opinion of, 249
on charges against Madison,
317
on New England confederacy,
348
plots with British Minister, 342
Pierce, William, describes Madi
son in convention, 134
Pinckney, Charles, letter to
Madison on old age, 371
on Senate, n8
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, on
Senate, 118
praises eastem States, 126
Pinckney, Thomas, negotiates
treaty with Spain, 289
Pinkney, William, treaty with
England negotiated by, 301
" Porcupine, Peter," editor, 240
Port Conway, birthplace of Madi
son, 20
Porter, Charles, defeats Madison
for House of Delegates, 24
Potomac commission meets at
Mt. Vernon, go
Company incorporated, 88
Maryland members meet, 89
River, navigation of, 87
site on, offered for capital, rgo,
197
Presbyterians, increase of, in
Virginia, 79
Primogeniture abolished in Vir
ginia, 23
Princeton College, classmates of
Madison, 15
Providence, R. I., Federalist senti
ment in, 344
Public debt, Madison chairman
committee to consider, r79
of what comprised, 179
Quakers in Virginia form aboli
tion society, 73
Quincy, Josiah, friendly relations
with Madison, 371
suggests secession, 346
Randolph, Beverly, on "funding
and assumption," 186
Randolph, Edmund, appointed
on Potomac commission, 88

Randolp, Edmund, delegate to
Annapohs, 93
delegate to ratification con-
Vention, 2
describes delegates to Virginia
convention of 1776, 2
heads yirginia delegation to
Constitutional Convention,
no
"not yet a strict American,"
205
offers Virginia plan to conven
tion, 119
on slavery, 72
refuses to sign constitution,
141
Randolph, John, of Roanoke,
opposes Madison, 302
Randolph, Mary, sends book to
Madison, 393
Randolph, Thomas Jefferson,
defends Jefferson from charge
of being a nuUifier, 263
Randolph, Peyton, educated at
William and Mary, 13
President of Continental Con-
fress, I
cation convention, delegates
to, 147
Read, George, approves of Ham
ilton's plan, 130
delegate to Annapolis conven
tion, 105
Read, Jacob, writes to Madison to
buy his slaves, 73
Religious assessments bill, de
feated, 86
bill postponed, 83
Religious liberty, clause of decla
ration of rights providing,
8,9
Madison's amendment provid
ing for, 8
Remonstrance against bill for
religious assessments, Madi
son writes, 84
Republican party, two schools
of, 276
Rhea, John, asks annexation of
territory, 314
Rhode Island delegates to Annap
olis convention fail to attend,
i°5
fails to send delegates to Con
stitutional Convention, rog
Rhode Island opposes impost
tax, 41

400

INDEX

Riedesel, Baroness, anecdotes of,
382
Ringgold, Tench, reports Monroe's
last message, 373
Rodney, Caesar A., continued as
Attorney-General, 304
Ronald, Wilham, delegate to An
napolis, 93
Ross, David, delegate to Annapo
lis, 93
fails to attend, 105
Rumsey, James, Madison's ac
quaintance with, 97
Rush, Richard, dechnes appoint
ment as Secretary of the
Treasury, 396
Russell, Jonathan, commissioner
for peace, 356
reports French seizures, 312
Russian mediation, 355
Rutiedge, John, nomination for
Chief Justice rejected, 260
on committee to consider state
of treasury, 35
on Senate, 118
Salomon, Haym, money-lender,
68
Sanderson's Lives of the Signers,
Madison's interest in, 374
Schureman, James, delegate to
Annapohs, 105
Scott, Thomas, offers resolution
for Susquehanna for capital,
193-
Sedgwick, Theodore, amends re
ply to President's speech, 230
defends bank biU, 202
proposes provisional army, 226
Sedition law, attitude of judges
toward, 239
Seney, J., presents Maryland's
offer for site for capital, 193
Serurier, French Minister, on
repeal of French decrees, 312
reports war pending, 324
Sherman, Roger, favours modified
"assumption," 184
Slaughter, Dr. Thomas, Madison's
physician, 384
Slavery, despondent views of
Madison on, 369
Slavery, leading Virginians on,
71
Smith, John Blair, Madison's
friend at Princeton, rs

Smith, Melancthon, agent of
Northem Repubhcans, 213
Smith, Meriwether, delegate to
Annapohs convention, 93
fails to attend, 105
Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison,
reports Clay's opinion of
Madison, 316
Smith, Robert, disloyalty of, 319
dismissal of, 319
selected for Secretary of State,
303
Smith, Samuel, opposes admin
istration's bill, 321
Smith, Samuel Stanhope, a
founder of the American
Whig Society, 15
Madison's friend at Princeton,
15
Smith, William, argues against
discriminating tonnage dues,
225
defends bank bill, 202
favours assumption plan, 185
speculation in public funds,
charges made, 180
South Carolina favors "assump
tion," 185
favours impost tax, 42
sends no delegates to Annapolis
convention, 103
Spain, alHance with, proposed, 54
attitude toward free naviga
tion of Mississippi, 60
relations with, 288
treaty with, for navigation of
Mississippi, 288
Sparks, Jared, Madison assists
him, 374
State Department, condition of,
283
records of, taken away, 332
Stoddart, Benjamin, on New
England Federalists, 345
Stone, 'Thomas, member of Poto
mac commission, 89
Strong, Governor Caleb, appoints
Federahst militia officers, 341
orders fast, 344
St. Thomas, parish where Mont
pelier was situated, 22
Stuart, Gilbert, paints portrait of
Madison, 377
Supreme Court, attitude toward
sedition law, 259
not independent of politics,
259

INDEX

401

TaUeyrand, Due de, makes offers
for Louisiana, 2g5
Tariff, Hamilton's report on, 203
Taylor, Dr. Charles, Madison's
physician, 384
Taylor, H., on slavery, 74
Taylor, John, of Caroline, against
religious assessments, 80
introduces Virginia resolutions,
252
Taylor, Zachary, offense of, at
Madison, 379
Tazewell, Henry, favours religious
legislation, 79
Tertium Quids, party of, 302
Thornton, Dr. William, appointed
in charge of patent business,
283
Ticknor, George, sends book to
Madison, 373
Tobacco, sales of, 375
Todd, Dolly Payne, description
of, 244
Todd, John Payne, misconduct of,
379
Tonnage act advocated by Madi
son, 224
Tonnage dues, discrimination
against Great Britain urged,
172
Trenton, capital at, proposed, 195
Tucker, George, describes parties,
206
Madison assists in literary
work, 373
Tucker, St. George, delegate to
Annapolis, 105
on disloyalty in Massachusetts,
341
Tucker, William Tudor, favours
"assumption," 185
Turberville, George Lee, opposes
Henry, 161
reports on opposition to consti
tution, 145
Tyler, John, opposition leader in
ratification convention, 149
Union party in South Carolina,
270
United States Gazette, The, news
paper, 23 s _
University of Virginia, Madison s
connection with, 368
Vandalia Company, claims of, 46
Venable, Abraham B., Represen
tative from Viriginia, 256

Vermont, Federahsts in, 344
Vincennes, inhabitants of, loot
Spanish store, 63
Vining, John, defends bank biU,
202
urges Delaware site for capital,
„. 195
Virginia and Maryland, boundary
between, 87
Virginia cession of back lands
accepted, 52
conditions of, 46
opposition to, 47
Virginia convention of 1776,
instructs delegates to Con
gress to declare for independ
ence, 5
Virginia favors impost tax, 41
Virginia plan, the, offered Consti
tutional Convention, 119
Virginia resolutions of 1799, ad
dress in support of, 254
replies to, 256
substance of, 253
Voss, Nicholas, rents house to
Madison, 274
Waddel, Rev. James, preaches
near Gordonsville, 22
Wagner, Richard, chief clerk,
charged with Federalism, 282
retained, 283
Walker, 'fhomas, a Councillor
of State, 25
Wallace, Caleb, Madison's friend
at Princeton, 15
War Department, records of,
taken away, 332
War with England, discontent
with conduct of, 330
opposed by Madison's friends,
340
War with France, contemplated
by Madison, 326
Washington, capture of, 331
Washington, George, breaks with
Madison, 219
confers with Potomac commis
sion, go
confidence in Madison, 219
dislikes Jay treaty, 230
favours religious legislation, 79
hesitates to sign bank bill, 203
interest in navigation of Poto
mac, 88
naturaUy a Federalist, 221
proclamation of neutrality
criticized by Madison. 216

402

INDEX

Washington, George, public abuse
of, 230
reelected President, 213
refuses to enter ratification
convention, 147
thinks free navigation of Missis
sippi may be postponed, 61
unfavourable opinion of Madi
son, 222
Washington, Mrs. George Steptoe,
wife of Washington's nephew,
244
Washington National Monument
Society, Madison elected
president of, 368
Webster, Daniel, compromise
bank bill prepared by, 337
on nullification and Virginia
resolutions, 261
Webster, Noah, asks Madison's
patronage of his dictionary,
374
writes to Madison about offices,
277
Webster, Pelatiah, proposes Con
stitutional Convention, ro8
Weems, M. S., sends book to
Madison, 373
Wheaton's Life of William Pink
ney, Madison's interest in,
374
White, Alexander, against legis
lation for religious purposes,
80
opposed assumption plan, 184
presents Virginia's act offering
site for capital, 193
votes for "assumption," 199

William and Mary College, infi
delity at, 14
Virginians educated at, 13
Williamsburg for capital, efforts
to secure, igr
Wilmington, Del., rejected for
capital, ig2
Wilson, James, influence of, in
Constitutional Convention,
134
on powers of the judiciary, 131
thinks back lands belong to
the United States, 50
Winder, Gen. W. H., appointed in
command of defenses of
Washington, 331
Winder, Levin, Govemor, brother
of General Winder, 331
Wirt, William, reports conversa
tion with Madison on New
England sedition, 351
Wisconsin, formed from back
lands, 45
Worthington, Thomas, charges
against Madison, 317
Wythe, George, chairman com
mittee of whole in ratiflca
tion convention, 147
delegate to Virginia conven
tion of 1776, 3
educated at William and Mary,
13
on power of the judiciary, 131
Yates, Robert, opposes constitu
tion, 158

3 9002 00743 5366