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
Dear Sir,—I return the two communications
from the President inclosed in your letter of Aug. 30.
I am afraid the people of Spain as well as of
Portugal need still further light & heat too from
the American example before they will be a Match
for the armies, the intrigues & the bribes of their
Enemies, the treachery of their leaders, and what
is most of all to be dreaded, their Priests & their
Prejudices. Still their cause is so just, that whilst
there is life in it, hope ought not to be abandoned.
I am glad you have put on paper a correction of
the Apocryphal tradition, furnished by Pickering,
of the Draught of the Declaration of Independence.
If he derived it from the misrecollections of Mr.
Adams, it is well that the alterations of the original
paper proposed by the latter in his own handwriting
can be more absurd than the cavil that the Declaration
contains known & not new truths. The object
was to assert not to discover truths, and to make
them the basis of the Revolutionary Act. The merit
of the Draught could only consist in a lucid communication
of human Rights, a condensed enumeration
of the reasons for such an exercise of them,
and in a style & tone appropriate to the great
occasion, & to the spirit of the American people.
The friends of R. H. Lee have shewn not only
injustice in underrating the Draught, but much
weakness in overrating the Motion in Congs. preceding
it; all the merit of which belongs to the Convention
of Virga. which gave a positive instruction
to her Deputies to make the Motion. It was made
by him as next in the list to P. Randolph then
deceased. Had Mr. Lee been absent the task would
have devolved on you. As this measure of Virga.
makes a link in the history of our National birth,
it is but right that every circumstance attending it,
should be ascertained & preserved. You probably
can best tell where the instruction had its origin
& by whose pen it was prepared. The impression
at the time was, that it was communicated in a
letter from you to (Mr. Wythe) a member of the
Convention.
| The writings of James Madison, | |