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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH. 1 - James Madison, The Writings, vol. 1 (1769-1783) [1900]

Edition used:

The Writings of James Madison, comprising his Public Papers and his Private Correspondence, including his numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900). Vol. 1.

Part of: The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols.

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TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

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 of the Colony there; and a day was ordered for 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.

[1 ]From the Madison Papers (1840).