The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-11-04
An Anecdote of Madison.

A letter published in the Washington
Post gives an interesting account of a
Journey made by Andrew Jackson's |
secretary of state from Washington to |
James Madison's estate of'Montpelier"
near Orange Courthouse, Va. After |
an uncomfortable day and night ride |
in an old-fashioned Virginia stage |
coach over heavy roads, Mr. Living
ston arrived at Montpelier at l clock
in the morning. MIR. Madison was
aroused and the secretary of state was
shown to his chamber. The latter
says:
He found the venerable father of the
| constitution a wan and wasted old man,
whose hair was blanched and whose
| form was wasted by blasts of more than
eighty winters. He had arisen from an
| ANTIQUE poster and curtained bed and
was sitting before wood fire, and by
his side stood a small and simple table,
on which there burned single tallow
! candle. The venerable statesman was
himself curtained and almost concealed
by a night-gown that reached to his
feet. But MIR. Livingston said that as
soon as he had opened up the contents
of his solitary embassy to the old seer
he showed, like Moses, that ''his eye
was not dim, neither was his natural
face abated.n He requested MIR. Llv-
incston to read the proclamation to
him (meantime ordering another can
die to be lighted, Mr.. Livingston hold
ing the paper close to and between the
: two dim lights), and during the read
ing Mr. Madison gave austere audience.
! sometimes suggesting modlncatlon,
: an interIineation or sllght para
phrase, but this mentally and subject
lively. When Mr.. Livingston had I'm
e ished, Mr.. Madison, after some quiet
!, reflection, requested to have the paper
e reread. Again Mr.. Livingston slowly
I and deliberately read, again the greai
! and grave constitutionalist from De
n meath his night cap muttered menta
n modification. Finally, he asked thai
he might read the document and nots
= upon it the changes or comments wnici
h Gen. jackson had requested This h'
( did. and his interllneations were a
terse and beautiful and pithy as th'
e pages of the Federdltst.
n And now the gray of the dawn wa
n stealing through the curtains MI
10 Madison remarked that he had had MI
a Liyingston's carriage sent back, an
le that he would drive with the secretar
he in his own carriage to the Court-Hous
" to eaten the stage for Fredricksbur
st and that they would walk down t
i, breakfast while the carriage was beln
ne prepared. 1t so fell from some NIL
at calculation that when they reache
ne Orange Court-House they found {. g
20 stage had already some time gone Nj
5. Madison at once insisted that Mr. Ii
he ingston should use his carriage to Ere
re ericksDurg, writing and giving Il
er coachman a note to the landlord oil
ne tavern midway between the stages.
of nearly SO, instructing him to furnish
III fresh team thence to Frederickspul
nd and return. When within some U
,.e miles OF Fredericksburg the stage
lat oyertaken and passed. and Mr.. Lawn
on ston was thus enabled to anticipate
ae closest calculations. When he reach
all the white house the following day a
,at submitted the revised draft 10 the PR
az ident. il was formulated and prom
for gated in the form and phrase OF the
tbs vision.