The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-02-06
For THE ENQUIRER.
No. "

l can never feel myself so fully citizen in the
republic OF letters, as when examine and at
tempt To- record the various talents, with which
MIR. Madison is endowed. But as a great scho-
lar may, nevertheless, be wrctched President,
shall pass by the opportunity of indulging de-
gree OF national vanity, which must be reused by
the hcpe of having the administration confded to
a man, whom the most learned would receive as
brother, and the most ambitious of literary emf
nence would not err in accepting q guide. And
yet conjecture must be hazafded, to supply the
place or truths, which his modesty withholds
from the public eye that at some future period,
when those, who shall glory in the remembrance
OF him, acknowledge none of the restraints which
lie may have prescribed TO himself more nume-
rous, and no less decisive proofs, than his abors
now before the world, will be exhibited, of his
political ability, growing with every cxigency of
his country.
Aware, that this conjecture has too much of
the complexion of partially, let us resort to some
OF the many facts which all federated America
has witnessed, admired, and received with thanks
In omlttng the notice of ten years utility, seve-
raj conspicuous displays of MIR. Madson's wis
dom are placed among the ordinary acts which
other men OF good parts might have performed
But ask the most confident in their own talents,
whether in the year 1886, when Madison project
cd a new constitution for the United States, the
immense fabric which was afterwards raised,
was not too vast for minds familidrized only to
the operations OF single state gov ernments Did
IL not iof some time experience the Tidicue of
LIslon, which too much learning had conjurcd up
What that celebrated man, John Rutledge of
oouth Carolina, at tirst said of himself, may sure
~ DC SAID, without dispaFagement of others that
government bottomed upon such principles and
armed with such authorities, astonished him SO
much, that he found no foothold for it in his for
mef conceptions We were driven into indepen-
dence by the gOad Of tyranny the federal con
sututlOn was q creature of profound research and
OF The purest choice, which the collision of hu.
MAJ AFFAIRS would admit. In Virginia, where the
repugnance TO diminution of state sovereig7,tv
prevailed to an extreme Mr. Madison originated
II; IN the convention at Philadelphia, his plastic
hand was visible on every occasion in the con-
Venton ut Richmond, his reasoning was the chief
efiectual antagonist to its gigantic enemy in the
clo5ethc reconclled the people by the productions
OF ms pen, and IN Congress, he cherished all its
republican tendencies.
To travel through the details Of his conduct.
connected with these large ideas, would form
separate volume Astounding in political instruct
on but would be needless to those, who have
studied the history of their country and would
certainly be neglected by others, to whom inyesti
CATIONS OF this kind may be announcement Since.
however, no scale exists, By which political me-
FIJI can be graduated with mathematical exact
ness, and TO ascertain It's extent an appeal must
be made to a certain general feeling of the peo.
pie let each man answer to himself a few ques
tons without being deceived by his vanity, or dup
ed by considerations of party
Whit man in Virginia, besides Madison, at
irst conceived the great scheme, on which the
history OF ancient and modern confederacies shed
so dim light!
VINO else, if he did conceive IL, possessed the
patriotic firnness to encounter the preiudices of
Virginia in proposing the preliminary steps Was
not the change Of acquisitions on the states into
legislation on the individuals Of those states al
most exeerated, when he had The bodress to hint