The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]
Philadelphia, April 9, 1782.
Dear Sir,—I perceive, by a passage cited in the
examination of the Connecticut claim to lands in
Pennsylvania, that we have been mistaken in supposing
the acquiescence of Virginia in the defalcations
of her chartered territory to have been a silent
one. It said that "at a meeting of the Privy Council,
July 3d, 1633, was taken into consideration the petition
of the planters of Virginia, remonstrating that
some grants had lately been obtained of a great proportion
of the lands and territories within the limits
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further hearing the parties, (to wit: Lord Baltimore,
and said adventurers and planters.)" The decision
against Virginia is urged as proof that the Crown
did not regard the charter as in force with respect
to the bounds of Virginia. It is clearly a proof that
Virginia at that time thought otherwise, and made
all the opposition to the encroachment which could
then have been made to the arbitrary acts which
gave birth to the present revolution. If any monuments
exist of the transactions of Virginia at the
period above mentioned, or any of the successive
periods, at which these encroachments had been repeated,
you will have an opportunity of searching
more minutely into them. It is not probable, however,
that after a failure in the first opposition any
further opposition will be found to subsequent grants
out of Virginia.
| The writings of James Madison, | |