University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MADISON.

Col. Wadsworth[61] of Connecticut wishes to procure a Barrel or half
Barrel of the best Peach Brandy, & I have undertaken to use my
efforts for the purpose. If it can be got at all it is probably in our
neighbourhood. I recollect particularly that Col Geo. Taylor had
some that we thought good & which is perhaps to be obtained. If
that or any better can be had I shall be glad that one of my brothers
would take the trouble of engaging it & having it forwarded. The
older the better provided the quality be excellent. If age be wanting,
the quality should be such as will be made excellent by age. To secure
it against fraud, it is desired that the cask be cased with an outer one;
the cask itself to be of wood that will give it no ill taste. The price
will not be considered so much as the character of the spirits, it being
for the use of the gentleman himself—If no brandy be on hand that
will do, perhaps the ensuing fall if the peaches be not destroyed, may
supply the defect. In that case it might be well to speak in time to
some person & have a barrel distilled with special care for the purpose.
The brandy is to be shipped from Fredericksburg addressed to
Watson & Greenleaf at New York—for Col. Wadsworth Mr. Maury or
Mr. Glassell will forward it if sent to either of them. I have nothing
to add to the papers enclosed having written a few days ago, & being
now in haste.

SUBSTANCE OF A CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT,
5TH MAY, 1792.

In consequence of a note this morning from the President, requesting
me to call on him I did so; when he opened the conversation by observing,
that having some time ago communicated to me his intention of
retiring from public life on the expiration of his four years, he wished
to advise with me on the mode and time most proper for making known
that intention. He had he said spoken with no one yet on those
particular points, and took this opportunity of mentioning them to me,
that I might consider the matter, and give him my opinion, before the
adjournment of Congress, or my departure from Philadelphia. He
had he said forborne to communicate his intentions to any other
persons whatever, but Mr. Jefferson, Col. Hamilton, General Knox,
and myself, and of late to Mr. Randolph. Col. Hamilton and Genl.
Knox he observed were extremely importunate that he should relinquish
his purpose, and had made pressing representations to induce
him to it Mr. Jefferson had expressed his wishes to the like effect. He
had not however persuaded himself that his continuance in Public life
could be of so much necessity or importance as was conceived, and his
disinclination to it was becoming every day more & more fixed; so
that he wished to make up his mind as soon as possible on the points
he had mentioned. What he desired was to prefer that mode which
would be most remote from the appearance of arrogantly presuming
on his re-election in case he should not withdraw himself, and such a
time as would be most convenient to the Public in making the choice
of his successor. It had he said at first occurred to him, that the commencement
of the ensuing Session of Congress would furnish him with
an apt occasion for introducing the intimation, but besides the lateness
of the day, he was apprehensive that it might possibly produce
some notice in the reply of Congress that might entangle him in
farther explanations.

I replied that I would revolve the subject as he desired and communicate
the result before my leaving Philada. but that I could not but
yet hope there would be no necessity at this time for his decision on
the two points he had stated. I told him that when he did me the
honor to mention the resolution he had taken, I had forborne to do
more than briefly express my apprehensions that it would give a
surprize and shock to the public mind, being restrained from enlarging
on the subject by an unwillingness to express sentiments sufficiently
known to him; or to urge objections to a determination, which if
absolute, it might look like affectation to oppose; that the aspect
which things had been latterly assuming, seemed however to impose
the task on all who had the opportunity of urging a continuance of his
public services; and that under such an impression I held it a duty, not
indeed to express my wishes which would be superfluous, but to offer
my opinion that his retiring at the present juncture might have effects
that ought not to be hazarded; that I was not unaware of the urgency
of his inclination; or of the peculiar motives he might feel to withdraw
himself from a situation into which it was so well known to myself he
had entered with a scrupulous reluctance; that I well recollected the
embarrassments under which his mind labored in deciding the question
on which he had consulted me, whether it could be his duty to
accept his present station after having taken a final leave of public
life; and that it was particularly in my recollection that I then entertained
& intimated a wish that his acceptance, which appeared to be
indispensable, might be known hereafter to have been in no degree the
effect of any motive which strangers to his character might suppose,
but of the severe sacrifice which his friends knew, he made of his
inclinations as a man, to his obligations as a citizen; that I owned I
had at that time contemplated, & I believed, suggested as the most
unequivocal tho' not the only proof of his real motive, a voluntary
return to private life as soon as the state of the Government would
permit, trusting that if any premature casualty should unhappily
cut off the possibility of this proof, the evidence known to his friends
would in some way or other be saved from oblivion and do justice to his
character; that I was not less anxious on the same point now than
I was then; and if I did not conceive that reasons of a like kind to those
which required him to undertake still required him to retain for some
time longer, his present station, or did not presume that the purity of
his motives would be sufficiently vindicated, I should be the last of
his friends to press, or even to wish, such a determination.

He then entered on a more explicit disclosure of the state of his
mind; observing that he could not believe or conceive himself any
wise necessary to the successful administration of the Government;
that, on the contrary he had from the beginning found himself deficient
in many of the essential qualifications, owing to his inexperience in the
forms of public business, his unfitness to judge of legal questions, and
questions arising out of the Constitution; that others more conversant
in such matters would be better able to execute the trust; that he
found himself also in the decline of life, his health becoming sensibly
more infirm, & perhaps his faculties also; that the fatigues & disagreeableness
of his situation were in fact scarcely tolerable to him;
that he only uttered his real sentiments when he declared that his
inclination would lead him rather to go to his farm, take his spade in his
hand, and work for his bread, than remain in his present situation;
that it was evident moreover that a spirit of party in the Government
was becoming a fresh source of difficulty, and he was afraid was
dividing some (alluding to the Secretary of State and Secy. of the
Treasury) more particularly connected with him in the administration;
that there were discontents among the people which were also shewing
themselves more & more, & that altho' the various attacks against
public men & measures had not in general been pointed at him, yet in
some instances it had been visible that he was the indirect object, and
it was probable the evidence would grow stronger and stronger that
his return to private life was consistent with every public consideration,
and, consequently that he was justified in giving way to his inclination
for it.

I was led by this explanation to remark to him, that however novel
or difficult the business might have been to him, it could not be
doubted that with the aid of the official opinions & informations
within his command his judgment must have been as competent in all
cases, as that of any one who could have been put in his place, and in
many cases certainly more so; that in the great point of conciliating
and uniting all parties under a Govt. which had excited such violent controversies
& divisions, it was well known that his services had been in
a manner essential; that with respect to the spirit of party that was
taking place under the operations of the Govt. I was sensible of its
existence but considered that as an argument for his remaining,
rather than retiring, until the public opinion, the character of the Govt.,
and the course of its administration sh.d be better decided, which could
not fail to happen in a short time, especially under his auspices; that
the existing parties did not appear to be so formidable to the Govt. as
some had represented; that in one party there might be a few who
retaining their original disaffection to the Govt. might still wish to
destroy it, but that they would lose their weight with their associates,
by betraying any such hostile purposes; that altho' it was pretty
certain that the other were in general unfriendly to republican Govt.
and probably aimed at a gradual approximation of ours to a mixed
monarchy, yet the public sentiment was so strongly opposed to their
views, and so rapidly manifesting itself, that the party could not long
be expected to retain a dangerous influence; that it might reasonably
be hoped therefore that the conciliating influence of a temperate &
wise administration would before another term of four years should
run out, give such a tone & firmness to the Government as would secure
it against danger from either of these descriptions of enemies; that
altho' I would not allow myself to believe but that the Govt. would be
safely administered by any successor elected by the people, yet it was
not to be denied that in the present unsettled condition of our young
Government, it was to be feared that no successor would answer all the
purposes to be expected from the continuance of the present chief
magistrate; that the option evidently lay between a few characters;
Mr. Adams, Mr. Jay, & Mr. Jefferson were most likely to be brought
into view; that with respect to Mr. Jefferson his extreme repugnance
to public life & anxiety to exchange it for his farm & his philosophy
made it doubtful with his friends whether it would be possible to obtain
his own consent; and if obtained, whether local prejudices in the
Northern States, with the views of Pennsylvania in relation to the seat
of Gov.t, would not be a bar to his appointment. With respect to Mr.
Adams, his monarchical principles, which he had not concealed, with
his late conduct on the representation bill, had produced such a
settled dislike among republicans every where, & particularly in the
Southern States, that be seemed to be out of the question. It would
not be in the power of those who might be friendly to his private
character & willing to trust him in a public one, notwithstanding his
political principles to make head against the torrent. With respect to
Mr. Jay his election would be extremely dissatisfactory on several
accounts. By many he was believed to entertain the same obnoxious
principles with Mr. Adams, & at the same time would be less open and
therefore more successful in propagating them. By others (a pretty
numerous class) he was disliked & distrusted, as being thought to
have espoused the claims of British Creditors at the expence of the
reasonable pretensions of his fellow Citizens in debt to them. Among
the Western people, to whom his negotiations for ceding the Mississippi
to Spain were generally known, he was considered as their most
dangerous enemy & held in peculiar distrust & disesteem. In this
state of our prospects which was rendered more striking by a variety
of temporary circumstances, I could not forbear thinking that altho'
his retirement might not be fatal to the public good, yet a postponement
of it was another sacrifice exacted by his patriotism.

Without appearing to be any wise satisfied with what I had urged he
turned the conversation to other subjects; & when I was withdrawing
repeated his request that I would think of the points he had mentioned
to me, & let him have my ideas on them before the adjournment.
I told him I would do so; but still hoped his decision on the
main question would supersede for the present all such incidental
questions.

Wednesday Evening, May 9, 1792

Understanding that the President was to set out the ensuing
morning for Mount Vernon, I called on him to let him know that as
far as I had formed an opinion on the subject he had mentioned to me,
it was in favor of a direct address of notification to the public in time
for its proper effect on the election, which I thought might be put into
such a form as would avoid every appearance of presumption or indelicacy,
and seemed to be absolutely required by his situation. I
observed that no other mode deserving consideration had occurred,
except the one he had thought of & rejected, which seemed to me
liable to the objections that had weighed with him. I added that if
on farther reflection I shd. view the subject in any new lights, I would
make it the subject of a letter tho' I retained my hopes that it would
not yet be necessary for him to come to any opinion on it. He begged
that I would do so, and also suggest any matters that might occur as
proper to be included in what he might say to Congress at the opening
of their next Session; passing over the idea of his relinquishing his
purpose of retiring in a manner that did not indicate the slightest
assent to it.

Friday, May 25, 1792.

I met the President on the road returning from Mount Vernon to
Philada., when he handed me the letter dated at the latter place on the
20th of May,[62] the copy of the answer to which on the 21st of June is
annexed.—Mad. MSS.

COPY OF A LETTER TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON.

Having been left to myself for some days past, I have made use of
the opportunity for bestowing on your letter of the 20th Ult, handed
to me on the road, the attention which its important contents claimed.
The questions which it presents for consideration are—1. at what time
a notification of your purpose to retire will be most convenient? 2
what mode will be most eligible? 3 whether a valedictory address will
be requisite or advisable? 4. if either, whether it would be more
properly annexed to the notification or postponed to your actual
retirement.

1

• The answer to the first question involves two points: first the
  expediency of delaying the notification; secondly the propriety of
  making it before the choice of electors takes place, that the people may
  make the choice with an eye to the circumstances under which the
  trust is to be executed. On the first point, the reasons for as much
  delay as possible are too obvious to need recital. The second, depending
  on the times fixed in the several States which must be within 34
  days preceding the first Wednesday in December, requires that the
  notification should be in time to pervade every part of the Union,
  by the beginning of November. Allowing six weeks for this purpose,
  the middle of September, or perhaps a little earlier would seem a
  convenient date for the act.

2.

• With regard to the mode, none better occurs than a simple
  publication in the newspapers. If it were proper to address it through
  the medium of the general Legislature, there will be no opportunity.
  Nor does the change of situation seem to admit a recurrence to the
  State Govts, which were the channels used for the former valedictory
  address. A direct address to the people who are your only constituents
  can be made I think with most propriety, thro' the independent
  channel of the press, thro' which they are as a constituent Body
  usually addressed.

3.

• On the third question I think there can be no doubt that such an
  address is rendered proper in itself by the peculiarity & importance of
  the circumstances which mark your situation; and advisable by the
  salutary & operative lessons of which it may be made the vehicle.
  The precedent at your military exit might also subject an omission
  now to conjectures & interpretations which it would not be well to
  leave room for.

4.

• The remaining question is less easily decided. Advantages &
  objections lie on both sides of the alternative. The occasion on which
  you are necessarily addressing the people evidently introduces, most
  easily & most delicately, any voluntary observations that are meditated.
  In another view a farewell address before the final moment
  of departure is liable to the appearance of being premature & awkward.
  On the opposite side of the alternative however a postponement will
  beget a dryness & an abridgement in the first address little corresponding
  with the feelings which the occasion would naturally produce
  both in the author & the objects of it; and tho' not liable to the above
  objection, would require a resumption of the subject apparently more
  forced, and on which the impressions having been anticipated &
  familiarized, and the public mind diverted perhaps to other scenes, a
  second address would be received with less sensibility & effect than
  if incorporated with the impressions incident to the original one. It is
  possible too that previous to the close of the term, circumstances
  might intervene in relation to public affairs, or the succession to the
  Presidency which would be more embarrassing, if existing at the time
  cf a valedictory appeal to the public, than if unknown at the time of
  taat delicate measure.

On the whole my judgment leans to the propriety of blending the
acts together; and the more so as the crisis which will terminate your
public career will still afford an opportunity, if any immediate contingency
shd call for a supplement to your farewell observations.
But as more correct views of the subject, may produce a different
result in your mind, I have endeavored to fit the draught inclosed to
either determination. You will readily observe that in executing it,
I have arrived at that plainness & modesty of language which you had
in view, & which indeed are so peculiarly becoming the character &
the occasion; & that I have had, little more to do as to the matter
than to follow the very just & comprehensive outline which you had
sketched. I flatter myself, however, that in every thing which has
depended on me, much improvement will be made before so interesting
a paper shall have taken its last form.

Having thus, Sir, complied with your wishes, by proceeding on a
supposition that the idea of retiring from public life is to be carried
into execution, I must now gratify my own by hoping that a reconsideration
of the measure, in all its circumstances and consequences
will have produced an acquiescence in one more sacrifice, severe as it
may be, to the desires & interests of your country. I forbear to enter
into the arguments which plead for it, in my mind, because it would
be only repeating what I have already taken the liberty of fully
explaining. But I could not conclude such a letter as the present
without a repetition of my ardent wishes & hopes that our country
may not at this important conjuncture be deprived of the inestimable
advantage of having you at the head of its Counsels. J. M Jr.

[Draught enclosed in the above.]

The period which will close the appointment with which my fellow-citizens
have honored me, being not very distant, and the time actually
arrived at which their thoughts must be designating the Citizen who
is to administer the Executive Government of the U. S. during the
ensuing term, it may be requisite to a more distinct expression of the
public voice that I should apprize such of my fellow Citizens as may
retain their partiality towards me, that I am not to be numbered
among those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg them to be assured that the resolution which dictates this
intimation has not been taken without the strictest regard to the
relation which as a dutiful citizen I bear to my country; and that in
withdrawing that tender of my service which silence in my situation
might imply, I am not influenced by the smallest deficiency of zeal for
its future interests, or of grateful respect for its past kindness; but by
the fullest persuasion, that such a step is compatible with both.

The impressions under which I entered on the present arduous trust
were explained on the proper occasion. In discharge of this trust, I
can only say, that I have contributed towards the organization &
administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very
fallible judgment was capable. For any errors which may have
flowed from this source, I feel all the regret which an anxiety for the
public good can excite; not without the double consolation however
arising from a consciousness of their being involuntary, and an experience
of the candor which will interpret them. If there were any
circumstances which could give value to my inferior qualifications for
the trust, these circumstances must have been temporary. In this
light was the undertaking viewed when I ventured upon it. Being
moreover still farther advanced into the decline of life, I am every day
more sensible that the increasing weight of years, renders the private
walks of it in the shade of retirement as necessary as they will be
acceptable to me. May I be allowed to add, that it will be among the
highest as well as the purest enjoyments that can sweeten the remnant
of my days, to partake in a private station in the midst of my fellow
Citizens, of that benign influence of good laws under a free Government
which has been the ultimate object of all our wishes, and in which
I confide as the happy reward of our cares & labors. May I be allowed
further to add as a consideration far more important, that an early
example of rotation in an office of so high & delicate a nature may
equally accord with the republican spirit of our constitution & the
ideas of liberty & safety entertained by the people.

(If a farewell address is to be added at the expiration of the term,
the following paragraph may conclude the present:)

Under these circumstances, a return to my private station according
to the purpose with which I quitted it, is the part wch. duty as well as
inclination assigns me. In executing it I shall carry with me every
tender recollection which gratitude to my fellow Citizens can awaken;
and a sensibility to the permanent happiness of my country that will
render it the object of my unceasing vows and most fervent supplications.

(Should no further address be intended, the preceding clause may
be omitted, & the present address proceed as follows:)

In contemplating the moment at which the curtain is to drop forever
on the public scenes of my life, my sensations anticipate & do not
permit me to suspend, the deep acknowledgments required by that
debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many
honors it has conferred on me, for the distinguished confidence it has
reposed in me, and for the opportunities I have thus enjoyed of
testifying my inviolable attachment by the most stedfast services
which my faculties could render. All the returns I have now to make
will be in those vows which I shall carry with me to my retirement &
to my grave, that Heaven may continue to favor the people of the U. S.
with the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that their union & brotherly
affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution, which is the
work of their own hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration
in every Department may be stamped with wisdom &
with virtue, & that this character may be ensured to it by that watchfulness
over public servants & public measures which on one hand
will be necessary to prevent or correct a degeneracy; and that forbearance
on the other, from unfounded or indiscriminate jealousies
which would deprive the public of the best services by depriving a
conscious integrity of one of the noblest incitements to perform them;
that, in fine, the happiness of the people of America under the auspices
of liberty may be made compleat, by so careful a preservation & so
prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire them the glorious satisfaction
of recommending it to the affection, the praise, & the adoption of
every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

And may we not dwell with well-grounded hopes on this flattering
prospect, when we reflect on the many ties by which the people of
America are bound together, & the many proofs they have given of an
enlightened judgment and a magnanimous patriotism.

We may all be considered as the children of one common country.
We have all been embarked in one common cause. We have all had
our share in common sufferings & common successes. The portion of
the earth allotted for the Theatre of our fortunes fulfils our most
sanguine desires. All its essential interests are the same; whilst the
diversities arising from climate, from soil, & from other local & lesser
peculiarities, will naturally form a mutual relation of the parts that
must give to the whole a more entire independence, than has perhaps
fallen to the lot of any other nation.

To confirm these motives to an affectionate & permanent Union &
to secure the great objects of it, we have established a common Government,
which being free in its principles, being founded in our own
choice, being intended as the guardian of our common rights & the
patron of our common interests, & wisely containing within itself a
provision for its own amendment as experience may point out its
errors, seems to promise everything that can be expected from such an
institution; and if supported by wise counsels, by virtuous conduct, &
by mutual & friendly allowances, must approach as near to perfection
as any human work can aspire, & nearer than any which the annals of
mankind have recorded.

With these wishes & hopes I shall make my exit from civil life, and I
have taken the same liberty of expressing them which I formerly used
in offering the sentiments which were suggested by my exit from
military life. If, in either instance I have presumed more than I ought
on the indulgence of my fellow citizens, they will be too generous to
ascribe it to any other cause, than the extreme solicitude which I am
bound to feel, & which I can never cease to feel, for their liberty their
prosperity & their happiness.[63] —Mad. MSS.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Your favor of the 12 Ult having arrived during an excursion into
Albemarle, I did not receive it till my return on yesterday. I lose not
a moment in thanking you for it, particularly for the very friendly
paragraph in the publication in Fenno's paper. As I do not get his
paper here, it was by accident I first saw this extraordinary manouvre
of calumny, the quarter, the motive, and the object of which speak of
themselves. As it respects Mr. Jefferson I have no doubt that it will
be of service both to him & the public, if it should lead to such an investigation
of his political opinions and character as may be expected.
With respect to myself the consequence in a public view, is of little
account. In any view, there could not have been a charge founded
on a grosser perversion of facts, & consequently against which I could
feel myself more invulnerable.

That I wished & recommended Mr. Freneau to be appd. to his present
Clerkship is certain. But the Department of State was not the only,
nor as I recollect the first one to which I mentioned his name &
character. I was governed in these recommendations by an acquaintance
of long standing, by a respect for his talents, & by a knowledge of
his merit & sufferings in the course of the revolution. Had I been less
abstemious in my practice from solicitations in behalf of my friends, I
should probably have been more early in thinking of Mr. F. The
truth is, that my application when made did not originate with myself.
It was suggested by another Gentleman[64] who could feel no motive
but a disposition to patronize merit, & who wished me to co-operate
with him. That with others of Mr. Freneau's particular acquaintances
I wished & advised him to establish a press at Philada. instead
of one meditated by him in N Jersey, is also certain, I advised the
change because I thought his interest would be advanced by it, &
because as a friend I was desirous that his interest should be advanced.
This was my primary & governing motive. That as a consequential
one, I entertained hopes that a free paper meant for general circulation,
and edited by a man of genius of republican principles, & a friend to
the Constitution, would be some antidote to the doctrines & discourses
circulated in favour of Monarchy and Aristocracy & would be an
acceptable vehicle of public information in many places not sufficiently
supplied with it, this also is a certain truth; but it is a truth which I
never could be tempted to conceal, or wish to be concealed. If there be
a temptation in the case, it would be to make a merit of it.

But that the establishment of Mr. F's press was wished in order to
sap the Constitution, and that I forwarded the measure, or that my
agency negociated it by an illicit or improper connection between the
functions of a translating Clerk in a public office, & those of an Editor
of a Gazette, these are charges which ought to be as impotent as they
are malicious. The first is surely incredible, if any charge could be so;
& the second is I hope at least improbable, & not to be credited, until
unequivocal proof shall be substituted for anonymous & virulent
assertions.

When I first saw the publication I was half disposed to meet it with
a note to the printer, with my name subscribed. I was thrown into
suspense however by reflecting that as I was not named, & was only
incidentally brought into view, such a step might be precipitate, if not
improper, in case the principal should not concur in such a mode of
vindication. 2. that I was not enough acquainted with the turn the
thing might take, and the light in which it might be viewed on the
spot. 3. that in a case the least doubtful, prudence would not rush
into the newspapers. These considerations have been since sanctioned
by the opinion of two or three judicious & neutral friends whom I have
consulted. The part finally proper however remains to be decided
and on that I shall always be thankful for the ideas of my friends
most in a condition to judge.[65] —Mad. MSS.