Library of Congress
`
`James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, August 10, 1788.
`Partly in Cipher. Transcription: The Writings of James
`Madison, ed. Gaillard Hunt. New York: G.P. Putnam’s
`Sons, 1900-1910.
`
`TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. MAD. MSS.
`
`New York, Augst 10, 1788.
`
`Dear Sir,
`
`Mr. Warville Brissot has just arrived here, and I seize an opportunity suddenly brought to
`my knowledge to thank you for your several favors, and particularly for the pedometer.
`Answers to the letters must be put off for the next opportunity.
`
`My last went off just as a vote was taken in the Convention of this State which foretold the
`ratification of the new Government. The latter act soon followed and is inclosed. The form
`of it is remarkable. I inclose also a circular address to the other States on the subject of
`amendments, from which mischiefs are apprehended. The great danger in the present
`crisis is that if another Convention should be soon assembled it would terminate in discord,
`or in alterations of the federal system which would throw back essential powers into the
`State Legislatures. The delay of a few years will assuage the jealousies which have
`been artificially created by designing men and will at the same time point out the faults
`which really call for amendment. At present the public mind is neither sufficiently cool nor
`sufficiently informed for so delicate an operation.
`
`The Convention of North Carolina met on the 21st Ult:
`
`James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, August 10, 1788. Partly in Cipher. Transcription: The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard
`Hunt. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900-1910. http://www.loc.gov/resource/mjm.03_0632_0635
`
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`Not a word has yet been heard from its deliberations. Rhode Island has not resumed the
`subject since it was referred to & rejected by the people in their several Towns.
`
`Congress have been employed for several weeks on the arrangement of times & place
`for bringing the new Government into agency.1 The first has been agreed on though not
`definitively, & make it pretty certain that the first meeting will be held in the third week in
`March. The place has been a subject of much discussion and continues to be uncertain.
`Philada as least eccentric of any place capable of affording due accommodations and a
`respectable outset to the Government was the first proposed. The affirmative votes were
`N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Pena., Maryd., Virga., and N. Carolina. Delaware was present
`& in favor of that place, but one of its Delegates wishing to have a question on Wilmington
`previous to a final determination divided that State and negatived the motion. N. York
`came next in view, to which was opposed first Lancaster which failed and then Baltimore,
`which to the surprise of every body was carried by seven States. S. Carolina which had
`preferred N. York to the two other more Southern positions unexpectedly concurring in
`this. The vote however was soon rescinded, the State of S. Carolina receding the Eastern
`States remonstrating against, and few seriously urging, the eligibility of Baltimore. At
`present the question lies as it was
`
`originally supposed to do, between N. York & Philada, and nothing can be more uncertain
`than the event of it. Rhode Island which alone was disposed
`
`1 The struggle to secure the capital on the banks of the Potomac River began in Congress
`with a resolution offered May 10, 1787, by Richard Henry Lee in favor of Georgetown (
`Journals of Congress, Ed. 1801, xii, 51). The progress of the question up to the time the
`new government went into operation is accurately traced in Madison's letters. See also
`Journals of Congress, Ed. 1801, xiii, 62, et seq.
`
`James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, August 10, 1788. Partly in Cipher. Transcription: The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard
`Hunt. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900-1910. http://www.loc.gov/resource/mjm.03_0632_0635
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`to give the casting vote to N. York, has refused to give any final vote for arranging &
`carrying into effect a system to which that State is opposed, and both the delegates have
`returned home.
`
`Col. Carrington tells me [he] has sent you the first volume of the federalist, and adds the
`2d. by this conveyance. I believe I never have yet mentioned 1 to you that publication.
`It was undertaken last fall by Jay, Hamilton, and myself. The proposal came from the
`two former. The execution was thrown, by the sickness of Jay, mostly on the two others.
`Though carried on in concert, the writers are not mutually answerable for all the ideas of
`each other , there being seldom time for even a perusal of the pieces by any but the writer
`before they were wanted at the press , and sometimes hardly by the writer himself.
`
`1 Italics for cypher.
`
`I have not a moment for a line to Mazzei. Tell him I have recd. his books & shall attempt
`to get them disposed of. I fear his calculations will not be fulfilled by the demand for them
`here in the French language. His affair with Dorhman stands as it did. Of his affair with
`Poster Webb I can say nothing. I suspect it will turn out badly.
`
`Yrs affecly
`
`James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, August 10, 1788. Partly in Cipher. Transcription: The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard
`Hunt. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900-1910. http://www.loc.gov/resource/mjm.03_0632_0635
`
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