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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

Philadelphia, October 22, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

By the vessel spoken of in my last, Congress have received a letter from Mr. Adams, dated Hague, August the eighteenth, which enclosed a copy of the plenipotentiary commission issued to Mr. Fitzherbert, the British Minister at Brussells. The following skeleton of the commission will give you an idea of its aspect towards America:

“Georgius tertius, etc., omnibus, etc., salutem. Cum, belli incendio jam nimis diu diversis orbis terrarum partibus flagrante, in id quam maxime incumbamus ut tranquillitas publica, tot litibus, etc., rite compositis, reduci, etc., possit,—cumque eâ de causa, virum quendam tanto negotio parem, ad bonum fratrem nostrum, Regem Chrismum mittere decrevimus: Sciatis igitur quod nos, fide, etc. Alleini Fitzherbert, etc., confisi, eundem nominavimus, etc., nostrum Plenipotentiarum, dantes, etc., eidem omnem potestatem, etc., nec non mandatum generale pariter ac speciale, etc., in aula prædicti bon. frat. Reg. Chrismi pro nobis et nostro nomine, una cum Plenipotentiariis, tam Celsorum et Præpotentium Dominorum, ordinum Generalium Fœderati Belgii, quam quorumcunque Principum et Statuum quorum interesse poterit, sufficiente auctoritate instructis, tam singulatim ac divisim quam aggregatim ac conjunctim, congrediendi, etc., atque cum ipsis de pace, concordia, etc., præsentibus, etc. etc. In palatio nostro, etc., 24 Julii, 1782.

The only further circumstance contained in his letter, relative to the business of a pacification, is the appointment of a Plenipotentiary by the States General, who was to set out for Paris in about three weeks after the date of the letter.

The States of Holland and West Friesland had determined upon the proposed treaty of commerce, and Mr. Adams expected to have a speedy conference with the States General, in order to bring it to a conclusion.

The Secretary of War lately communicated to Congress an extract of a letter from General Washington of a very unwelcome tenor. It paints the discontents of the army in very unusual colors, and surmises some dangerous eruption, unless a payment can be effected within the present year. The Secretary is gone to head-quarters at the request of the General. How far their joint precautions will calm the rising billows, must be left to the result.

Congress have reduced the estimate for the ensuing year to six millions of dollars, and the requisitions on the States, for the present, to one-third of that sum. A call for the residue is suspended till the result of the applications for loans shall be known.

The combined fleets have certainly gone to support the siege of Gibraltar. The Dutch has returned to the Texel. According to the preconcerted plan, it was to have proceeded North, after disposing of its convoy, and have reinforced the combined fleet. The disappointment is traced up to the machinations of the Prince of Orange, whose attachment to the enemies of the Republic seems to be fatal to all her exertions. For other particulars taken from foreign gazettes, I refer to those herewith enclosed, and those enclosed to Mr. Ambler.

[1 ]From the Madison Papers (1840).