The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.[14]
Dear Sir,—I received your letter from Eppington.
I had not heard that either the Attorney General or
the Governor of Illinois meant to resign.
Inclosed are several letters for you, received from
France by the return of the Wasp. You will see
the propriety of my adding one to myself from Mr.
Short, to be returned after perusal. Our information
from Paris, of the 19th of September, gives no countenance
to the rumoured renewal of hostilities in
Austria. The delay of peace in form alone keeps
alive such rumours. But why should such an event
flatter the hopes of G. Britain? According to all the
lessons of experience, it would quickly be followed
by a more compleat prostration of her Ally. Armstrong
had forwarded to the French Court the
measure taken here in consequence of the disavowal
of Erskine's arrangement, but there had not been
time for an answer. The answer to the previous
communication had been, let England annul her
illegal blockade of France, and the Berlin decree
will be revoked; let her then revoke her orders of
November, and the Milan decree falls, of course.
This state of the question between the two powers
would promise some good, if it were ascertained that
by the blockade of France previous to the Berlin
decree was meant that of May, extending from the
Elbe to Brest, or any other specific act. It is to be
feared that there is an intentional obscurity, or that
an express and general renunciation of the British
practice is made the condition. From G. Britain
we have only newspaper intelligence. The change
in the Ministry seems likely to make bad worse, unless
to which things must rapidly proceed under
the quackeries and corruptions of an administration
headed by such a being as Perceval. Jackson is
proving himself a worthy instrument of his patron,
Canning. We shall proceed with a circumspect attention
to all the circumstances mingled in our affairs,
but with a confidence, at the same time, in a just
sensibility of the nation to the respect due to it.
| The writings of James Madison, | |