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

TO JAMES MADISON - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 5 (Correspondence 1786-1789) [1905]

Edition used:

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

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

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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 MADISON

j. mss.

Paris Feb. 6. 1788.

Dear Sir,

— * * * I am glad to hear that the New Constitution is received with favor. I sincerely wish that the 9 first conventions may receive & the 4 last reject it. The former will receive it finally, while the latter will oblige them to offer a declaration of rights in order to complete the union. We shall thus have all it’s good, and cure it’s principal defect. You will of course be so good as to continue to mark to me it’s progress. I will thank you also for as exact a data as you can procure me of the impression made on the sum of our domestic debt by the sale of lands, & by federal & state exertions in any other manner. I have not yet heard whether the law passed in Virginia for prohibiting the importn. of brandies. If it did, the late Arret for encouraging our commerce will be repealed. The Minister will be glad of such a pretext for pacifying the opposition.1 * * *

[1 ]The italic part was in cipher.