Beschreibung:

MADISON, James (1751-1836). President . Autograph letter signed ("Js Madison Jr") to George Joy, Philadelphia, [PA], 3 April 1795. 1 1/8 pages, folio, deckle edges of sheet untrimmed, remnants of Madison's seal in orange wax, integral address leaf neatly inlaid . MADISON ON JAY'S TREATY, THE WARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE WHISKEY REBELLION A fine letter written in the midst of the most critical period of George Washington's presidency. In the decade after the establishment of its constitutional government, the young United States faced both diplomatic problems created by foreign wars and the frightening prospect of domestic rebellion. James Madison, who played a key role in the creation of the Constitution, served as a congressman during these uncertain years of early national growth. Here, Madison writes to Joy (a London essayist who wrote newspaper articles and pamphlets and who frequently bombarded Madison with his views on American neutral commerce) concerning political matters and recent events. He thanks Joy for sending books the previous summer especially: "the valuable collection of Treaties...the copy for Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson was duly forwarded, and I am desired to make you his acknowledgements also. I find you were right in supposing him not to be possessed of the work." Noting the value of the information (which apparently related to neutral rights) to Jefferson, Madison writes: "It is possible however, if that source of information had been in his hands, that the haste with w[hi]ch diplomatic correspondance is carried on, especially when the parties are on the spot, might not have admitted the researches which you have so accurately made." In 1794, in response to British seizures of American merchant vessels, Washington sent John Jay to England to negotiate a treaty which he hoped would end such violations of neutral trade, but, more importantly, would establish a stronger friendship between the two nations. Madison notes the arrival of Jay's Treaty: "The treaty entered into by Mr. Jay was not recd till after the 3 . of March, the day of adjournment by Congress: and being considered by the Executive as of a secret nature, is unknown in its contents to the public; and consequently nothing can be said of the reception which it is to meet with from the public. The Senate was summoned to meet on the 8th of June to receive the communication." Jay's Treaty resolved several outstanding issues, including the removal of British troops from the Old Northwest, but it failed to address the question of America's neutral rights. When its contents were made public, it met with widespread opposition creating the political division which spawned the two-party system. Madison publically denounced the treaty which tied the nation to its old enemy, calling it a "ruinous bargain" (Ketcham, James Madison , p. 357). Expressing concern over the wars of the French Revolution, Madison writes: "We have just rec . . the first accounts of the arrival of the French at Amsterdam and of the other important events connected with that. Every one is anxious to know the effects on Europe and particularly on England." Madison also alludes to the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, in which the residents of Western Pennsylvania took up arms against a proposed tax on Whiskey: "I send herewith a collection of interesting papers written by Mr. Coxe, and a pamphlet containing Mr. Gallatin's speech on an occasion w[hi]ch lead [ sic ] him into a narrative of the late Insurrection."