Madison and Jefferson (122 page)

56.
Peden, ed.,
Notes on Virginia
, Queries VIII and XIV.

57.
John Wood Sweet,
Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North, 1730–1830
(Baltimore, 2003), chap. 4, “Strange Flesh,” and chap. 7, “Conceiving Race,” quote at 189.

58.
On this tradition, and the culture of patronage and publishing, see esp. Richard B. Sher,
The Enlightenment and the Book
(Chicago, 2006), chap. 3.

59.
Washington to JM, November 30, 1785; Mason to JM, December 7, 1785; JM to Washington, December 9, 1785,
PJM
, 8:429, 433, 438–39.

60.
“Act Concerning Statehood for the Kentucky District,” December 22, 1785,
PJM
, 8:450–53. Kentucky statehood was delayed until 1792. Madison had long seen Kentucky as a virtual colony of Virginia and continued to assume that Virginians would sell goods to the settlers in the West, replicating the British model of center and periphery. Madison backed George Washington’s idea of a Potomac canal for the same reason.

61.
Shackelford,
Jefferson’s Adoptive Son
, 111–13; William Howard Adams,
The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
(New Haven, Conn., 1997), 10.

62.
TJ to JM, February 8, 1786, and January 30, 1787,
RL
, 1:412, 462–63; Shackelford,
Thomas Jefferson’s Travels in Europe
, 37–39. The attitude of the English toward the United States persisted, as Britain-based American John Brown Cutting demonstrated in a subsequent letter to Jefferson on Americans’ degradation in the press and government alike: “Why every species of contumely and abuse against the citizens of [A]merica is so much relished here it is obvious to discern.” The king and his ministers had created a “political fashion”: America-bashing. “To gratify the irascible feelings of the monarch,” Britons would recommence hostilities, if they could be assured of only a minor derangement in their internal affairs. “I own in the present moment of [B]ritish insolence and royal hatred, a fresh conflict with us may not be very distant.” Cutting to TJ, August 3, 1788,
PTJ
, 13:461–62.

63.
Monroe to JM, February 11 and February 16, 1786; Lee to JM, February 16, 1786; JM to Monroe, March 19, 1786; Grayson to JM, March 22, 1786,
PJM
, 8:492–93, 504–5, 510. Lee, like Madison, would finally marry in his forties.

64.
JM to TJ, March 18, 1786,
RL
, 1:413–16; JM to Lafayette, March 20, 1785,
PJM
, 8:250–55; Onuf,
Statehood and Union
, 54–58.

65.
John Fiske,
The Critical Period in American History, 1783–1789
(Boston, 1888), Preface. Fiske found his title after considering Thomas Paine’s comment when his wartime series, “The Crisis,” ended, in 1783, and Paine asserted: “The times that tried men’s souls are over.” The historian differed, thinking the next five years were even more critical. JM to Monroe, March 14 and March 19, 1786,
PJM
, 8:497–98, 505–6; Ketcham, 175–76. Madison had referred to “the present paroxysm of jealousy” among the states as early as 1783.

66.
JM to TJ, August 12, 1786
RL
, 1:429–30.

67.
TJ to JM, April 25, 1786,
RL
, 1:417; TJ to Washington, May 2, 1788,
PTJ
, 13:127–28.

68.
Lance Banning,
The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), 66–69; JM to TJ, April 23, 1787,
RL
, 1:475–76.

69.
JM to TJ August 12, 1786; TJ to JM, January 30–February 5, 1787,
RL
, 1:431, 461–62.

70.
TJ to John Banister, Jr., October 15, 1785,
PTJ
, 8:636–37; Burstein,
Jefferson’s Secrets
, chap. 6.

71.
Maria Cosway to TJ, April 29, 1788,
PTJ
, 13:116; Burstein,
Inner Jefferson
, 98–99.

1.
Washington to Knox, December 5, 1784; Knox to Washington, April 9, 1787,
PGW-CS
, 2:170–72, 5:134; JM to TJ, March 19, 1787,
RL
, 1:470.

2.
Madison called paper money “fictitious money,” and Lee considered the fluctuation in currencies enough of a cause for alarm that he wrote: “Knaves assure, and fools believe, that calling paper money, and making it tender, is the way to be rich and happy; thus the national mind is kept in constant ferment.” Congress, he warned, had to put its foot down so that the “continual disturbance by the intrigues of wicked men” would be stopped. Lee to Mason, May 15, 1787,
Papers of George Mason
, 3:876–79.

3.
TJ to JM, October 28, 1785; JM to TJ, June 19, 1786,
RL
, 1:390, 423–24.

4.
See “Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies,”
PJM
, 9:3–24.

5.
“Vices of the Political System of the United States,”
PJM
, 9:348–50. For the importance of Madison’s experience in the Virginia Assembly in convincing him of the need for a new federal system of government, see Charles F. Hobson, “The Negative on State Laws: James Madison, the Constitution, and the Crisis of Republican Government,”
William and Mary Quarterly
36 (April 1979): 223–24.

6.
“Vices of the Political System,”
PJM
, 9:353–54; JM to TJ, October 15, 1788 (containing Madison’s observations on Jefferson’s draft of a constitution for Virginia),
RL
, 1:555; JM to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:383.

7.
Ketcham, 169–70, 185.

8.
JM to TJ, December 4, 1786,
RL
, 1:454.

9.
It was Randolph’s idea that the general propositions of reform should be “prepared for feeling the pulse of the convention,” and that an “address” should accompany the Virginia plan. See Randolph to JM, March 27, 1787,
PJM
, 9:335.

10.
Madison let Washington know that his name was needed to convince the Virginia legislature of the “magnitude of the occasion.” See JM to Washington, November 8, 1786; also JM to Washington, December 7 and December 24, 1786,
PJM
, 9:166, 199, 224–26. Madison was concerned about the best way to capitalize on Washington’s stature. In April he wrote to Randolph that it might be wise for the general to postpone his arrival, as it would be disastrous if he should be attached to “any abortive undertaking.” Yet Madison also considered that his late arrival might keep him from presiding over the convention and subject him to a “less conspicuous” role. He thought Washington’s delay might enable Pennsylvania to nominate Benjamin Franklin as chair. Madison was willing to sacrifice Washington’s role, if it would reinforce the alliance with Pennsylvania. See JM to Edmund Randolph, April 15, 1787,
PJM
, 9:378. On Madison’s relationship with Robert Morris, see Ketcham, 117, 130–35; David Brian Robertson,
The Constitution and America’s Destiny
(New York, 2005), 78–79.

11.
JM to TJ, May 12, 1786; JM to James Monroe, May 13, 1786,
PJM
, 9:50, 55.

12.
Clinton Rossiter,
1787: The Grand Convention
(New York, 1966; revised ed., 1987), 121–23; JM to TJ, April 23, 1787,
RL
, 1:476; JM to Edmund Randolph, April 8, 1787, JM to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:369, 382–83.

13.
JM to Randolph, April 8, 1787, JM to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:369–70,
383; Jack N. Rakove, “The Great Compromise: Ideas, Interests, and the Politics of Constitution Making,”
William and Mary Quarterly
44 (July 1987): 427–28.

14.
It was an accepted theory at the time that migration patterns overwhelmingly favored the Southwest, as available land there would lure Americans away from the northern states and toward the Gulf of Mexico.

15.
JM to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:383.

16.
JM to Randolph, April 8, 1787; to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:370, 384–85.

17.
JM to Randolph, April 8, 1787; to Washington, April 16, 1787,
PJM
, 9:369–70, 383–84. Also see the discussion in Gordon S. Wood,
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1969), chap. 12.

18.
JM to TJ, October 24 and November 1, 1787,
RL
, 1:500; on the pervasive influence of Locke’s educational theory, see Jay Fliegelman,
Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority, 1750–1800
(New York, 1984), 13–15, 30–31; and on the importance of pedagogical discipline under Witherspoon at Princeton, see Christopher Castiglia, “Pedagogical Discipline and the Creation of White Citizenship: John Witherspoon, Robert Finley, and the Colonization Society,”
Early American Literature
33 (1998): 192–214.

19.
Comments by JM, June 8, in
Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787
(Athens, Ohio, 1966), 88–89.

20.
TJ to JM, June 20, 1787,
RL
, 1:480.

21.
Examples of the correspondence: Cosway to Jefferson, “I will write two words, to show you I can write
if I please
but as I dont please I shall say no More, as I wait to hear from you … tho’ you neglect me, I force myself to your recolection.” To which Jefferson replied, only half-convincingly, that she should cross the Channel again to see how well her paintings were being admired, whence he would “take refuge every day in your coterie.” Of course, a coterie was a flock, and as such would prevent the two of them from sneaking off alone. He had moved from poetic longing to prosaic flattery. TJ to Cosway, April 24 and July 27, 1788; Cosway to TJ, June 23, 1788; Angelica Schuyler Church to TJ, July 21, 1788,
PTJ
, 13:103–4, 287–88, 391, 424.

22.
Abigail Adams to TJ, September 10, 1787,
PTJ
, 12:112; Malone, 2:133–38.

23.
TJ to Monroe, June 17, 1785; to Lafayette, April 11, 1787; to George Gilmer, August 12, 1787,
PTJ
, 8:233, 11:283–85, 12:26.

24.
Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson
, comp. E. Millicent Sowerby (Washington, D.C., 1952–59), 5:143–45; Francis D. Cogliano,
Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy
(Charlottesville, Va., 2006), 44–48.

25.
TJ to Monroe, June 17, 1785,
PTJ
, 8:233.

26.
Rossiter,
1787: Grand Convention
, 104–6; Ketcham, 191.

27.
Carl Van Doren,
Benjamin Franklin
(New York, 1938), 744–45.

28.
JM to TJ, May 15, 1787,
RL
, 1:477; Ketcham, 192–93.

29.
George Mason to George Mason, Jr., May 20 and June 1, 1787,
Papers of George Mason
, ed. Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1970), 3:881, 892–93.

30.
JM to TJ, May 15, 1787,
RL
, 1:477; TJ to John Adams, August 30, 1787,
PTJ
,
12:69. On May 25 the southern states were present in force, whereas New England had not as yet assembled complete delegations. The most recent scholar to write on the convention sees this, in part, as a function of some New Englanders’ “apathy” toward the proceedings. See Richard Beeman,
Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
(New York, 2009), 58–60.

31.
After Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Dr. McClurg of Virginia was the most conspicuous holder of state and continental securities at the convention. See Rossiter,
1787: The Grand Convention
, 124.

32.
Nathan Schachner,
Alexander Hamilton
(New York, 1949), 102–3, 124–25; Robert Ernst,
Rufus King: American Federalist
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1968), 66–68; Malone, 1:409; John E. O’Connor,
William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman, 1745–1806
(New Brunswick, N.J., 1979), 88, 111, 130, 133–34; Christopher Collier,
Roger Sherman’s Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution
(Middletown, Conn., 1971), 102, 194, 234–35; Paul S. Clarkson and R. Samuel Jett,
Luther Martin of Maryland
(Baltimore, 1970), 41.

33.
Collier,
Roger Sherman’s Connecticut
, 7–15, 20, 26, 58, 90, 102, 110–11, 138, 189, 194, 230, 235.

34.
Leonard L. Richards,
Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle
(Philadelphia, 2002), 23, 26–27, 63, 83–88; Richard Buel, Jr., “The Public Creditor Interest in Massachusetts Politics, 1780–1786,” in Robert A. Gross, ed.,
In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion
(Charlottesville, Va., 1993), 51, 55.

35.
Washington to Knox, December 26, 1786; Randolph to Washington, January 4, 1787; Washington to Randolph, March 28, 1787,
PGW-CS
, 4:482, 501, 5:113; also Woody Holton,
Unruly Americans and the Origins of the American Constitution
(New York, 2007), 220; Richards,
Shays’s Rebellion
, 131–32. Washington had initially told Governor Edmund Randolph that he wished to decline appointment to Virginia’s delegation. Randolph waited three months, as the details of Shays’s Rebellion had time to disseminate. Then Washington had his change of heart.

36.
“Vices of the Political System,”
PJM
, 9:350; JM to Edmund Pendleton, January 9, 1787,
PJM
, 9:245. Madison heard the rumors of British influence in Shays’s Rebellion from William Grayson, who was serving in Congress. See Grayson to JM, November 22, 1786,
PJM
, 9:174–75; Richards,
Shays’s Rebellion
, 127–32; Stephen E. Patterson, “The Federalist Reaction to Shays’s Rebellion,” in Gross, ed.,
In Debt to Shays
, 105.

37.
JM to TJ, March 19, 1787,
RL
, 1:473; Holton,
Unruly Americans
, 77, 155–56; Richards,
Shays’s Rebellion
, 16–17, 118–19.