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

TO JAMES MADISON 1 - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 4 (Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO JAMES MADISON1

m. mss.

Baltimore, Jan. 31, 1783.

Dear Sir,

—A gentleman returning from this place to Philadelphia gives me an opportunity of sending you a line. We reached Newport the evening of the day on which we left you. There we were misled by an assurance that a lower ferry could not be crossed. We therefore directed our course for the Bald friar’s: & thence to another ferry 6 miles above. Between these two we lost two days, in the most execrable situation in point of accommodation & society which can be conceived. In short braving all weather & plunging thro’ thick and thin we arrived here last night being the fifth from Philadelphia.—I saw Monsr. de Ville-Brun last night & augur him to be agreeable enough. I learnt (not from him but others) that to embark their sick &c. will keep us three days.—Having nothing particular to communicate I will give you an anecdote which possibly you may not have heard and which is related to me by Major F [ranks]1 who had it from Doctor Franklin himself. I use the only cypher I can now get at, using the marginal numbers in order & not as concerted. Mr. Z2while at Paris had often pressed the Dr. to communicate to him his several negotiations with the Ct. of France, wch. the Dr. avoided as decently as he could. At length he received from Mr. Z a very intemperate letter. He folded it up and put it into a pigeon hole. A 2d 3d & so on to a fifth or sixth he recd. & disposed of in the same way. Finding no answer could be obtained by letter, Mr. Z paid him a personal visit & gave a loose to all the warmth of which he is susceptible. The Dr. replied, I can no more answer this conversation than the several impatient letters you have written me, (taking them down from the pigeon hole,) call on me when you are cool & good humored & I will justify myself to you. They never saw each other afterwards. As I find no A in the book erase the B in the first A B, so that 1.1 may denote A instead of A B.

I met here the enclosed paper which be so good as to return with my compliments to Miss Kitty. I apprehend she had not got a copy of it, and I retain it in my memory. Be pleased to present me very affectionately to the ladies & gentlemen whose pleasing society I lately had at Mrs. House’s, and believe me, your assured friend.

[1 ]The parts in italic are written in cipher numbers in the original.

[1 ]This is “352.4” in cipher, which translates into “F.” As Major Franks was Jefferson’s secretary at this time, it leaves little doubt as to who is intended.

[2 ]“946.5” in cipher. It almost certainly alludes to Adams, though the editor of the Madison Letters (i., 62) infers that Arthur Lee is the person meant. Cf. with letter, post, of Feb. 14, 1783.