Year: 1879




ready money to pay for.


1 fear from an expression in your let
ter that the people of Kentucke* think
Of separating, not only, from Virginia,
lin which they are right, but also from
the confederacy. I own I should think
this most calamitous event, and such
an one as every good citizen on both
sides should set himself against. Our
present Federal limits are not too large
for good government; nor will the in
crease of votes in Congress produce any
i'll effect. On the contrary, it will drown
the little divisions at present existing
there. Our confederacy must be viewed
as the nest from which all America,
North and South, is to be peopled. We
should take care, too, not to think it for
the interest of that great continent to
press too soon on the Spaniards. Those
countries cannot be in better hands.
My fear is that they are too feeble to hold
them till our population can be suffi-
GENTLY advanced to gain it from them
piece by piece. The navigation of the
Mississippi we must have. This is all
we are as yet ready to receive.


have made acquaintance with a very
sensible, candid gentlemen here, who
was in South America during the revolt
which took place there while our revo
luton was working. He says that those
disturbances (of which we scarcely heard
anything) cost on both sides an hun
dred thousand lives.


I have made particular acquaint-
ance here with Monsieur de Button, and
have great desire to give him the best
idea I can of our elk. Perhaps your
situation may enable you 20 aid NE in
this. Were it possible, you could not
oblige me more than by sending me the
horns, skeleton, and skin of an elk.
The most desirable form of receiving
them would be to have the skin slit from
the under jaw along the belly to the
tail. and down the thighs to the knee; to
take the animal out, leaving the legs
and hoofs, the bones of the head, and
the horns attached to the skin. By sew
ing up the belly, &C., and shipping the
skin, it would present the form of the
animal. However, as an opportunity
of doing this is scarcely to be expected.
packed in box and sent to Richmond
thing of this kind is precious here, and
to prevent my adding to your trouble
[ must close my letter, with assurances





which am, dear sir,


Your friend and serv't,


TIL. JEFFERSON.
P. ST must add a prayer for some
Paccan nuts-100, if possible-to be
packed in box of sand and sent me.
They might come either directly or via
n. York.


l*Old mode of spelling Kentucky.]


The Constitution of the United States
was adopted September II, 1857, by the
Convention in Philadelphia, of which
Mr.. Madison was a member. The fol-
lowing letter reads like an article in
s'The Federalist:"


New YORK. Oct. 80, 1857,


Dear Sir Il have been this day IA
vored with yours of the 2lst instant, and
beg you to accept my acknowledgements
for it. am truly sorry to find so many
respectable names on your list of adver
saries to the Federal Constitution. The
diversity of opinion on so interesting a
subject, among men of equal integrity
and discernment, is at once q melan-
choly proof of the fallibility of the hui.
an judgment and of the imperfect
pre- gress yet made in the science of gov
ernnlent. Nothing is more common
here. and I presume the case must be the
same W ith you, than to see companies of
intelligent people equally divided, and
equally earnest, in maintaining on one
side that the general government will
overwhelm the State governments, and
on the other, that it will be a prey to
their encroachments; on the one side,
that the structure of the government is
too firm and too strong, and on the 9th
er, that it partakes too much of the
weakness and instability of the govern
ments of the particular States. What
is the proper conclusion from all this
That unanimity is not to be expected in
any great political question; that the
danger is probably exaggerated on each
side, when an opposite danger is con
ceived on the opposite side: that if any
Constitution is to be established by de-
liberation and choice, it must be exam
ined with many allowances, and must
be compared, not with the theory which
each individual may frame in his own
mind, but with the system which it is
meant to take the place of, and with
any other which there may be proba-
bility of obtaining.


l cannot judge so well as yourself of
the propriety of mixing with the adop-
ton of the Federal Constitution a re-
vision of that of the State If the latter
point could be affected without risk or
incOnveniency to the former, it is no
doubt desirable. The practicability of
this will depend on the degree of una
nimity with which it would be under
taken. I should doubt extremely
whether the experiment could safely be
made. Might not the blending these
two things together unite those who are
unfriendly to either, aud thus strength
en- the opposition you have to contend
with? In case the general government
should be established, it will perhaps be
easy to follow it with an amendment of
our own Constitution. The example
will have some influence by proving the
practicability and safety of such expert
ments, and, if the Convention think fit,
they may lay proper train of them
selves for bringing the matter about.


The public mind in this quarter seems
not finally settled as yet with regard to
the proposed Constitution. The first inn
preston has been every where favorable,
except in Rh. Island. Nor is there any
reason to suspect that the generality Of
States will not embrace the measure.
The character of this State has long
DeSu dutl-ISueTdl, duO IL Is known That
a very powerful party continue SO.
Penn. is also divided into parties, but it
is supposed that majority will pretty
certainly be on the right side.


With great respect and regard, am,
dear sir,


Y'r ob't and h'ble serv't,


is. MADISON, JR.


The following will probably be read
with interest by lawyers:


RICHMOND, May 2Sth, '9O.


My Dear SIR II have considered the
record brought me by Mr.. Clay, and
am really apprehensive that he is total
ly routed and has not single rallying
point left.


With respect to the errors in arrest of
judgment, they would be sufficient ac-
cording to the great mass of authority
collected in the books. but the principle
~hich seems now to prevail, tho it is
scarcely to be found in print, is that
where words are laid to be malicieusly
spoken and to be injurious to the plain
tiff. and the verdict has established them
to be SO, they are to be considered as ac-
tionable, unless it is plain that they