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 JONATHAN ELLIOT. |
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO JONATHAN ELLIOT.
Dr. Sir, I have recd. your letter of the 12th, in
which you observe that you are committing to the
Press the 2d Vol of Debates in the State Conventions
on the question of adopting the federal Constn;
that the Vol will include the debates of the Virga.
Convention, and you request of me a correct Copy
of the part I bore in them.
On turning to the several pages containing it, in
the 2d & 3d Vols. of the Original Edition, (the 1st
not being at hand,) I find passages, some appearing
to be defective, others obscure, if not unintelligible,
others again which must be more or less erroneous.
These flaws in the Report of my observations may
doubtless have been occasioned in part by want of
care in expressing them; but probably in part also
by a feebleness of voice caused by an imperfect recovery
from a fit of illness, or by a relaxed attention
in the Stenographer himself incident to long &
intentional fidelity, no doubt has been suggested.
But in whatever manner the faulty passages are
to be accounted for, it might not be safe, nor deemed
fair, after a lapse of 40 years, lacking a few months,
and without having in the meantime ever revised
them, to undertake to make them what it might
be believed they ought to be. If I did not confound
subsequent ideas, and varied expressions, with the
real ones, I might be supposed to do so.
These considerations induce me to leave my
share of those debates, as they now stand in print;
not doubting that marks of incorrectness on the face
of them will save me from an undue degree of
responsibility.
I have never seen nor heard of any publication
of the Debates in the 2d Convention of N. Carolina,
and think it probable that if taken down, they never
went to the Press.
I am glad to find you are encouraged to proceed
in your plan of collecting & republishing in a convenient
form, the proceedings of the State Conventions
as far as they are to be obtained; and with
my best wishes that you may be duly rewarded for
the laudable undertaking, I tender you my friendly
respects.
Mrs. Madison desires me to express her acknowledgments
for the little volume,[95]
you politely sent
her.
| The writings of James Madison, | |