TO JARED SPARKS. mad. mss. - James Madison, The Writings, vol. 9 (1819-1836) [1910]
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. 9.
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TO JARED SPARKS.mad. mss.
October 5th, 1830.
Dear Sir—
Your letter of July 16 was duly recd. The acknowledgment of it has awaited your return from your tour to Quebec, which I presume has by this time taken place.
Inclosed is the exact copy you wish of the draught of an address prepared for President Washington, at his request in the year 1792, when he meditated a retirement at the expiration of his first term. You will observe that (with a few verbal exceptions) it differs from the extract enclosed in your letter only in the provisional paragraphs, which had become inapplicable to the period and plan of his communication to Col. Hamilton.
The No of the N. American Review for Jany last, being I find, a duplicate, I return it. The pages to which you refer throw a valuable light on a transaction which was taking historical root, in a shape unjust as well as erroneous. Did you ever notice the “Life of Mr. Jay” in Delaplaine’s biographical works ? The materials of it were evidently derived from the papers, if not the pen of Mr. Jay, and are marked by the misconceptions into which he had fallen. It may be incidentally noted as one of the confirmations of the fallibility of Hamilton’s memory in allotting the Nos in the “Federalist” to the respective writers, that one of them, No 64, which appears by Delaplaine, to have been written by Mr. Jay, as it certainly was, is put on the list of Mr. Hamilton, as was not less certainly the case with a number of others, written by another hand.
Previous to the rect of your letter I had recd one from Mr. Monroe, to whom I had mentioned the liberty I had taken with Rayneval’s memoir. I inclose the part of his letter answering that part of mine.
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