1To James Madison from Sherman Converse, 3 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I beg leave to enclose you for inspection a copy of Mr Websters prospectus of his Large Dictionary and a small printed specimen of the Lexicography of the Work. Mr W. has devoted nearly 30 years of laborious application to the Compilation of this Dictionary, and I have the opinions of some of the first scholars of our Country that for phylological research and decided merit, it excels every...
2To James Madison from Francis Brooke, 4 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty to recommend to you Mr John T Lomax of this place as the Successor of Mr Gilmer in the university. I know no professional lawyer better qualified to fill his place, Mr Lomax is one of the best read lawyers in the State, and though he has not attained the eminence of some of them, it is more to be attributed to his great modesty and other causes, than to any inferiority of...
3From James Madison to Sherman Converse, 10 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 3d. inst; inclosing a manuscript copy of Mr. Webster’s prospectus of his Dictionary, with a printed specimen of the execution of the work; and I comply with your request of an early answer. The plan embraces so many commendable objects beyond the ordinary Scope of such works that its successful execution must be a substantial improvement on them. The specimen,...
4From James Madison to Noah Webster, 10 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
In my letter of Ocr. 12. 1804. answering an enquiry in yours of Augst. 20. it was stated that “In 1785 I made a proposition with success, in the Legislature (of Virginia) for the appointment of Commissioners to meet at Annapolis, such Commissioners as might be appointed by other States, in order to form some plan for investing Congress with the regulation & taxation of Commerce.” In looking...
5From James Madison to George W. Featherstonhaugh, 11 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your Note of the 25 ult: and the Volume of Agricultural Memoirs forwarded with it. You have been very kind in repeating such a favor, notwithstanding the failure on my part of any compensating returns for preceding ones. The Albemarle Society has not yet published any similar collection of papers. And as for myself, time is fast stealing from me what I hope you will long...
6To James Madison from John M. Patton, 17 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I received a few days after last orange county court, your much esteemed favour, covering two letters in relation to a claim against Benjamin F. Porter on behalf of the legatees of John S. Wood. I cannot refrain from expressing the gratification I have received from the proof of your confidence in me, which is implied in the selection you have made. I should have acknowledged the receipt of it...
7To James Madison from Noah Webster, 17 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have this day received a note from you, intended to correct a passage in a former letter to me on the subject of the first proposition made to the legislature of Virginia in 1785 for a convention of Commissioners to regulate the Commerce of the country. For this, please to accept my acknowledgements. By your letter, I perceive you suppose me to be yet in Europe. This is a mistake. I returned...
8To James Madison from Thomas L. McKenney, 18 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I enclose you part of a document relating to the Civilization of the Indians. The Secretary’s report was printed first, by mistake, of the Committee, and not both together—and I have none of the copies. It appeared in the News-Papers. Very truly Yr. Ot. Sert RC ( DLC ). Docketed by JM . Civilization of the Indians: Letter from the Secretary of War, to the Chairman of the Committee on Indian...
9To James Madison from Levett Harris, 21 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
A passage in your letter of the 24. Ultimo, received in due time, pained me as I read it, and seems, upon reflection, to impose upon me the duty of sending to you a more full development of the circumstances out of which has arisen my present disagreeable attitude towards Mr. Todd. You observe “It is his (Mr Todd’s) wish, I trust, to give to the transaction, so unfortunate in its origin , and,...
10To James Madison from Littleton Dennis Teackle, 22 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have taken the liberty of addressing to you a News-paper, containing An Act of the General Assembly of this State, passed at its late Session. This is a part of the plan which you were pleased to approve of some years ago. After repeated attempts, to carry the whole in one System, I was induced to limit the scheme to the elementary, or primary schools. Hereafter, it is my intention to...
11From James Madison to Andrew Stevenson, 25 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. the copy of your late Speech kindly forwarded by you. I cannot say that I concur in all your views of the subject it discusses. But I take pleasure in doing justice to the ability with which those are maintained in which I do not concur. Will you pardon me for pointing out an error of fact into which you have fallen, as others have done, by supposing that the term national applied...
12From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 27 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison has received, under the President’s name, a copy of the Message and documents transmitted to the House of Representatives, relating to the proposed Congress at Panama: and he ought not to make his acknowledgments for the politeness to which he is indebted, without expressing, at the same time, his sense of the ability and eloquence, as well as of the intrinsic interest by which the...
13From James Madison to Thomas L. McKenney, 27 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 18th., with a supplemental document relating to the Civilization of the Indians; a subject highly interesting under all its aspects. The literary “characters” devised by the Indian “Guess” are the offspring of an ingenious mind. But if I understand them, they are rather stenographic, than “Alphabetic,” a species of writing, facilitated doubtless by the scantiness...
14From James Madison to Daniel Webster, 27 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
Having to thank you for a copy, just come to hand, of the Exve. Communications to the H. of Reps relating to the Congress at Panama, I take occasion to supply the omission to do so for a former favor of a like sort. I hope you will not doubt the value I set, as well on the motive as the matter for which I am indebted: But as such documents generally reach me thro’ other channels, I feel some...
15To James Madison from Philip P. Barbour, 28 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
Upon my return home, I looked into the question which you mentioned yesterday, and I find two cases in Cranch’s reports, distinctly asserting the principle, that a trustee who is a citizen of a different state, may sue in the Circuit Federal Court, for the benefit of a Cestui que trust, who is a citizen of the same state with the deft. The cases take a distinction, between the case of a...
16From James Madison to Levett Harris, 29 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd yours of the 21st. inclosing a copy of your correspondence with J. P. Todd, and referring to expressions in mine of Feby. 24. The correspondence accords pretty much wth. my inferences from your former letters. With respect to the expressions, I must explain them by saying that I regarded the transaction in its origin, unfortunate to both the parties, blameable also in one of them,...
17From James Madison to Bernard Peyton, 29 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
Waggoner Aleck will deliver 2 Hhs Tobo which will be followed by others as fast as they can be made ready. The quality of the Tobo. is considered as good, tho’ a little pinched in its size by dry weather. This is less the case with a part of the crop. I leave to your own judgmt. as heretofore the times of sale requesting only, at the instance of my 2 Overseers, that the prices, may be...
18From James Madison to Littleton Dennis Teackle, 29 March 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 22d. inst: inclosing a copy of the Law providing for primary schools throughout your State. I congratulate you on the foundation thus laid for a General System of Education, and hope it presages a superstructure, worthy of the patriotic forecast which has commenced the Work. The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty,...
19To James Madison from Arthur S. Brockenbrough, 2 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
I contracted with Mr Philip Sturtevant for the carving of the Composite Capitels for the library room at $30 each amountg to the sum of $1.200 as appears from Letter No 1 accompanying this—from his letter of the 1st Jany No 2 you will find he is not satisfied with the contract and asks more pay. I informed him I would not take the responsibility of paying him more than the contract calls for...
20To James Madison from Robley Dunglison, 3 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
The Undersigned respectfully suggests to the Rector and Visitors of the University the propriety of instituting some regulations with respect to Graduation in his school. It is true that, as yet, no individual can have passed through such a course of study, in this institution, as to enable him to arrive at the highest honors; but as the views of the Board of Rector & Visitors have been openly...
21To James Madison from John P. Emmet, 3 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor, agreeably to the Enactments, to lay before you the journal of the Faculty. In company with them are two reports of Committees appointed by the Faculty; one (marked A) relates to a Police and the other (marked B) is upon our Enactments. They are both respectfully submitted for your most serious consideration. In conclusion, Gentlemen, I beg to present my sincerest respects. RC...
22To James Madison from George Long, [ca. 3 April 1826] (Madison Papers)
Several of the students have applied to me for information about the terms on which a diploma in Greek could be obtained. I was of course unable to give them any answer, but I promised to lay the subject before the Visitors. There are a few whose industry and acquirements will deserve some reward: they wish to know what will be expected that they may have sufficient time to make the necessary...
23To James Madison from George W. Spotswood, 3 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
You will pardon the liberty I take in troubling you with this letter, but I consider it a duty I not only owe to my family but to the Institution to call your attention to the uncomfortable tenement I occupy, particularly when I reflect upon the losses in slaves I met with last fall and the great distress of my family from sickness produced from the situation of the yard & drains, and no...
24To James Madison from Charles Johnston, 4 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
In compliance with the wishes of my friends and my own inclination I am about publishing a narrative of my Capture and detention by the Indians as a prisoner in the year 1790 in which I have had the assistance of a friend much more competent to such an undertaking than I can pretend to be. The Work is in considerable forwardness but will not be ready for the press for some time yet to come. In...
25Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 7 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors of the University of Virginia held at the said University on Monday the 3d. and Tuesday the 4th. of April 1826. at which were present Thomas Jefferson, Joseph C. Cabell, John H. Cocke, Chapman Johnson and James Madison the following proceedings were had. 86. There shall be established in the University a Dispensary which shall be attached to the Medical school, and...
26From James Madison to Edward Everett, 9 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. your favor of Mar. 29. accompanied by the two copies, one, of your speech on a proposed amendment of the Constitution of the U.S., the other, of a Report on the Mission to Panama. The documents contain very able & interesting views of their respective subjects, and belong to the select class of Materials for an instructive history of the discussions & proceedings of the...
27From James Madison to Martin Van Buren, 10 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison has duly recd. the Copy of the Executive proceedings of the Senate & other documents relating to the Mission to the Congress at Panama forwarded under a Cover of Mr. Van Buren; to whom he returns his thanks for the valuable communication with assurances of his high respect & best wishes. Draft ( NN ). The Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States, on the Subject of...
28To James Madison from John M. Patton, [10 April 1826] (Madison Papers)
I must apologize for neglecting to apprise you of the situation of the papers sent to me sometime ago. I intended to have done so from last orange court but in the hurry of business it escaped me. My Brother Robert Patton Jr being at liberty to advocate the claim, I have handed him the papers with your letter. He has written to the parties in Tennesee upon the subject. With great respect Your...
29From James Madison to Charles Johnston, 11 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 4th. & return the prospectus of your intended publication with my subscription to it. There is at present a more than ordinary desire of information concerning the Indian Tribes, and a just anxiety to save, every interesting peculiarity in their physical, moral & social features from the oblivion threatened by the extinction or transformation which seems to...
30To James Madison from Stephen Pleasonton, 12 April 1826 (Madison Papers)
At the request of our Excellent friend Mr Monroe, I have the honor to forward to you, enclosed, a copy of a report of a select Committee of the House of Representatives of the UStates, on several items of claim which arose out of his Missions abroad, and of which the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed have heretofore prevented the adjustment; and, I do this with the more pleasure as...