8089. SPECULATION, Land.—
You
mention that my name is used by some speculators
in Western land jobbing, as if they
were acting for me as well as for themselves.
About the years 1776 or 1777, I consented to
join Mr. Harvey and some others in an application
for lands there; which scheme, however,
I believe he dropped on the threshold,
for I never after heard one syllable on the
subject. In 1782, I joined some gentlemen
in a project to obtain some lands in the
western part of North Carolina. But in the
winter of 1782 and 1783, while I was in expectation
of going to Europe, and that the
title to western lands might possibly come
under the discussion of the ministers, I
withdrew myself from this company. I am
further assured that the members never prosecuted
their views. These were the only
occasions in which I ever took a single step
for the acquisition of western lands, and in
these I retracted at the threshold. I can
with truth, therefore, declare to you, and
wish you to repeat it on every proper occasion,
that no person on earth is authorized to
place my name in any adventure for lands
on the western waters, that I am not engaged
in any but the two before mentioned. I am
one of eight children to whom my father
left his share in the loyal company, whose interests,
however, I never espoused, and they
have long since received their quietus. Excepting
these, I never was, nor am I now,
interested in one foot of land on earth off the
waters of James River.—
To James Madison.
Ford ed., iv, 2.
(P.
1784)
