James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

by Lynne Cheney

26.PMC, 16:168, to Monroe, Dec. 20, 1795; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 420; Stahr, John Jay, 336; Adams and Cunningham, Correspondence, 36; Malone, Jefferson, 3:248; Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty, 198; Chernow, Hamilton, 487, 490.

  27.PMC, 16:168, to Monroe, Dec. 20, 1795; 11:311, from Francis Corbin, Oct. 21, 1788; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 420–21; Randolph, Vindication, 49–75.

  28.Bowers, Jefferson and Hamilton, 326–28; Brant, “Edmund Randolph, Not Guilty!,” 185–86; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 425–29.

  29.PMC, 16:169, to Monroe, Dec. 20, 1795; Combs, Jay Treaty, 165–70; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 429.

  30.Brant, “Edmund Randolph, Not Guilty!,” 187–88; PMC, 16:204, to Monroe, Jan. 26, 1796.

  31.PMC, 16:88, from Jefferson, Sept. 21, 1795; Bemis, Jay’s Treaty, 265–91; Varg, Foreign Policies of the Founding Fathers, 103–4.

  32.PMC, 16:88–89, from Jefferson, Sept. 21, 1795; 16:62–69, “Draft of the Petition to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia: Editorial Note.”

  33.PMC, 16:163, to Jefferson, Dec. 13, 1795.

  34.Annals, 4th Cong., 1st sess., 400, March 2, 1796; PMC, 16:259, “Jay’s Treaty,” March 10, 1796.

  35.PMC, 16:256–62, “Jay’s Treaty,” March 10, 1796.

  36.PMR, 1:604, “Detatched Memoranda,” ca. Jan. 31, 1820; Annals, 4th Cong., 1st sess., 771, April 6, 1796; Remini, House, 57–58.

  37.PMC, 16:313–25, “Jay’s Treaty,” April 15, 1796.

  38.PMC, 16:333, to Monroe, April 18, 1796 (most words encoded); 16:343, to Jefferson, May 1, 1796; Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 63.

  39.Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 67–69; PMC, 16:335, to Jefferson, April 23, 1796.

  40.Annals, 4th Cong., 1st sess., 1259–60, April 28, 1796.

  41.Ibid., 1263; Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, John Adams to Abigail Adams, April 30, 1796. Ames lived another twelve years, ill most of that time.

  42.Hess, America’s Political Dynasties, 156; Annals, 4th Cong., 1st sess., 1280, April 29, 1796; Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 71.

  43.Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 71; Maier, Ratification, 472.

  44.Morison and Commager, Growth of the American Republic, 1:308; Beschloss, Presidential Courage, 31; PMC, 16:325, “Jay’s Treaty,” April 15, 1796; Cross, History of England and Greater Britain, 834.

  45.PMC, 16:343, 364, to Jefferson, May 1 and 22, 1796.

  46.PMC, 15:493, to Jefferson, March 23, 1795.

  47.PMC, 15:428, from Jefferson, Dec. 28, 1794; 15:493, to Jefferson, March 23, 1795; 16:232–33, to Monroe, Feb. 26, 1796 (most words encoded); Malone, Jefferson, 3:273–74.

  48.PJ, 29:187, to William Booker, Oct. 4, 1796; “Monticello (House) FAQ,” Monticello, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/monticello-house-faq#when; PMC, 16:404, to Monroe, Sept. 29, 1796 (most words encoded); Malone, Jefferson, 3:278.

  49.Chernow, Hamilton, 510.

  50.Pasley, “Journeyman, Either in Law or Politics,” 532–34, 553; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 520.

  51.PMC, 16:422, to Jefferson, Dec. 5, 1796; Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 177–91; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 520–21. Elkins and McKitrick note that delayed returns accounted for the loss of the one vote, 860n81.

  52.PMC, 16:424, to Jefferson, Dec. 10, 1796.

  53.PJ, 29:235, to Adams, Dec. 28, 1796; PMC, 16:455–56, to Jefferson, Jan. 15, 1797.

  54.“James Madison’s Autobiography,” 203; Kennedy, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, 1:246.

  55.Malone, Jefferson, 3:296; Brant, Madison, 3:451.

  56.Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, John Adams to Abigail Adams, Jan. 14, 1797.

  Chapter 12: REIGN OF WITCHES

  1.ASP-FR, 2:64, from Rufus King, April 19, 1797.

  2.Ketcham, Madison, 373.

  3.Green and Miller, Building a President’s House, 5–6, 14–15, 21.

  4.Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 61–62, 67–68; Green and Miller, Building a President’s House, 6, 14–15.

  5.PMC, 17:63, 123, to Jefferson, Dec. 25, 1797, and April 29, 1798; 17:128, from Jefferson, May 10, 1798.

  6.PMC, 17:74, to Monroe, Feb. 5, 1798; PDM, to Lee, Oct. 1794–97.

  7.Monroe Papers, from Burr, March 10, 1796; Tissot, Traité de l’épilepsie, 29; Ketcham, Madison, 370–71, 477. Jefferson purchased Tissot’s Oeuvres in seventeen volumes in 1783 and purchased another seventeen-volume set in 1788. Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive, “1783 Catalog of Books,” 65; Coolidge Collection of Jefferson Manuscripts, Froulle account statement for Jefferson, 1788.

  8.PMC, 8:328, to Randolph, July 26, 1785; Ketcham, Madison, 372–74, 389; PMC, 16:174, 17:147, to Madison Sr., Dec. 27, 1795, and June 9, 1798; Kat Imhoff, “Slave Quarter Excavation at James Madison’s Montpelier,” video, National Endowment for the Humanities, www.neh.gov.

  9.Chernow, Hamilton, 537–41; Marsh, “Hamilton and Monroe,” 467; PMC, 17:50, from Monroe, Oct. 15, 1797; 17:53, to Monroe, Oct. 19, 1797.

  10.PMC, 17:145, 146n1, from Monroe, June 8, 1798; 17:148–49, to Monroe, June 9, 1798; 17:60, from Monroe, Dec. 10, 1797; 17:61–62, to Monroe, Dec. 17, 1797.

  11.ASP-FR, 2:157–63, dispatches from the envoys to Timothy Pickering, April 3, 1798; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 561; PMC, 17:113, to Jefferson, April 15, 1798.

  12.Toll, Six Frigates, 99; Abigail Adams, New Letters, 171, to Mary Cranch, May 10, 1798.

  13.Toll, Six Frigates, 101.

  14.PMC, 17:133–34, to Jefferson, May 20, 1798.

  15.James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 200; PMC, 17:162n2, from John Dawson, July 5, 1798.

  16.Taylor Diary, July 2, 1798.

  17.PMC, 17:134, to Jefferson, May 20, 1798; PJ, 30:389, to John Taylor, June 4, 1798; Koch and Ammon, “Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,” 152.

  18.James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 442.

  19.Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 710; James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 226, 258–60, 270–71; Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty, 260–61; Banning, Sacred Fire of Liberty, 385–86; Ames, Works, 1:247, to Christopher Gore, Dec. 18, 1798.

  20.Koch and Ammon, “Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,” 157–58; Malone, Jefferson, 3:401–4; PJ, 30:550–55, “Resolutions Adopted by the Kentucky General Assembly,” Nov. 10, 1798.

  21.Koch and Ammon, “Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,” 159; PMC, 17:175, from Jefferson, Nov. 17, 1798; 17:188–90, “Virginia Resolutions,” Dec. 21, 1798.

  22.PMC, 17:187–88, “Virginia Resolutions: Editorial Note”; 17:191n2, “Virginia Resolutions,” Dec. 21, 1798; Ketcham, Madison, 397; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 720–24.

  23. Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty, 271; DeConde, Quasi-war, 161; PMC, 17:184; to Jefferson, Dec. 11, 1798; 17:193, 195n3, 209, 223, 225, from Jefferson, Jan. 3, 16, and 30 and Feb. 5, 1799.

  24.Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 307; John Adams, Works, 8:613, to McHenry, Oct. 22, 1798; Chernow, Hamilton, 555–58.

  25.PH, 22:452–53, to Sedgwick, Feb. 2, 1799.

  26.Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 615–16; Billias, Elbridge Gerry, 297; microfilm edition of Adams Papers, Adams to Harrison Gray Otis, May 9, 1823.

  27.McCullough, John Adams, 523; PMC, 17:234, from Jefferson, Feb. 19, 1799; PWRT, 3:389, from Pickering, Feb. 21, 1799; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 618; Kurtz, Presidency of John Adams, 282.

  28.PMC, 17:245–46, from Taylor, March 4, 1799; 17:227–28, from Walter Jones and others, Feb. 7, 1799; Taylor Diary, April 24, 1799.

  29.PMC, 17:287, “Election of James Monroe,” Dec. 6, 1799.

  30.Lear, Letters and Recollections of George Washington, 130–35.

  31.Malone, Jefferson, 3:444; PMC, 17:295, “Death of George Washington,” Dec. 18, 1799; Royster, Light-Horse Harry Lee, 202.

  32.PMR, 1:603, “Detatched Memoranda,” ca. Jan. 31,
1820.

  33.PDM, from James Madison, Dec. 2, 1799; Gish, Virginia Taverns, Ordinaries, and Coffee Houses, 231, 245; Creighton, History of Epidemics in Britain, 2:788.

  34.PMC, 17:297, to Jefferson, Dec. 29, 1799; 17:308–11, Report of 1800, Jan. 7, 1800.

  35.Elliot, Debates, 4:539; PMC, 17:336–44, Report of 1800.

  36.PMC, 17:312–16, Report of 1800.

  37.PMC, 17:306, “Report of 1800: Editorial Note.”

  38.PMC, 17:415–16, “The Election of 1800: Editorial Note”; 17:357, to Jefferson, Jan. 18, 1800; Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 9:74–87.

  39.Rives Papers, George Tucker, untitled memoir of James Madison.

  40.PMC, 17:377, to Jefferson, April 4, 1800.

  41.PMC, 17:371–72, from Mason, March 7, 1800.

  42.PMC, 17:377, to Jefferson, April 4, 1800.

  43.PMC, 17:386, from Dawson, May 4, 1800; 17:387, from Jefferson, May 12, 1800.

  44.PJ, 31:562–63n, to Thomas Mann Randolph, May 7, 1800; Larson, Magnificent Catastrophe, 121, 125–26.

  45.James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 337–55; Smith and Lloyd, Trial of Samuel Chase, 1:372–80; PMC, 17:390, to Monroe, May 23, 1800.

  46.PMC, 17:393, from Jefferson, June 13, 1800; Meteorological Journals, July 1800.

  47.Chernow, Hamilton, 616–18; PH, 25:186–234, “Letter from Alexander Hamilton Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams,” Oct. 24, 1800.

  48.Chernow, Hamilton, 622; PMC, 17:454, to Jefferson, Jan. 10, 1801.

  49.Republic of Letters, 2:1139–40; Larson, Magnificent Catastrophe, 62, 236–38; PJ, 32:215, 257, from Pinckney, Oct. 12 and Dec. 2, 1800.

  50.PMC, 17:418–19, 438, from David Gelston, Oct. 8 and Nov. 21, 1800.

  51.“James Madison’s Autobiography,” 206.

  52.Malone, Jefferson, 3:499; PH, 25:311, from Sedgwick, Jan. 10, 1801; PMC, 17:444, 448, from Jefferson, Dec. 19 and 26, 1800.

  53.PMC, 17:453, to Jefferson, Jan. 10, 1801; Brant, Madison, 4:27; PH, 25:303, from James Gunn, Jan. 9, 1801; King, Life and Correspondence, 3:391, from Robert Troup, Feb. 12, 1801; Larson, Magnificent Catastrophe, 246; PJ, 32:594, to Monroe, Feb. 15, 1801.

  54.Larson, Magnificent Catastrophe, 262–65; Annals, 6th Cong., 2nd sess., 1024–28, Feb. 11–17, 1801.

  55.Bayard, Documents Relating to the Presidential Election in the Year 1801, 11–12; PJ, 32:594, to Monroe, Feb. 15, 1801; PH, 25:257, to Oliver Wolcott Jr., Dec. 16, 1800; 25:276–77, to Bayard, Dec. 27, 1800.

  56.PMC, 17:447, 455–56, to Jefferson, Dec. 20, 1800, and Jan. 10, 1801.

  57.PMC, 17:475, to Jefferson, Feb. 28, 1801; Miller, “Madison Family’s Land in the Region of ‘Montpelier,’” 1–2, 16–24; Ketcham, Madison, 390.

  58.PMS, 1:7, 110, to Jefferson, March 7 and April 22, 1801; PJ, 33:203, to Randolph, March 6, 1801; Shulman, “Madison v. Madison,” 363–64; PMS, 8:58, from Robert Taylor, Sept. 16, 1804.

  59.PMS, 1:127, from Jefferson, April 30, 1801.

  Chapter 13: THE REVOLUTION OF 1800

  1.Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 25.

  2.Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 74; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 23–24.

  3.Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 70–71, 85; Young, Washington Community, 42.

  4.Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 73–74; Seale, President’s House, 1:90–91; Margaret Bayard Smith, Winter in Washington, 2:261.

  5.Seale, President’s House, 1:94; Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 71.

  6.PMS, 1:393, to Wilson Cary Nicholas, July 10, 1801.

  7.DeConde, Quasi-war, 294–95; PMS, 1:59, from David Howell, March 30, 1801; 1:37–38, from William Irvine, March 23, 1801; 1:66, from Polk, April 2, 1801.

  8.PMS, 1:119, from Callender, April 27, 1801; 1:244, to James Monroe, June 1, 1801; PJ, 34:205, to Monroe, May 29, 1801.

  9.PJ, 30:557, to Nicholas, Oct. 5, 1798; Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 12, 541.

  10.Seale, President’s House, 1:94–95; Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 385; PMS, 1:79, from William Eaton, April 10, 1801; 1:188, from James Leander Cathcart, May 16, 1801; PJ, 34:114–15, “Notes on a Cabinet Meeting,” May 15, 1801; Brant, Madison, 4:60; Farrand, Records, 2:318, Madison’s notes, Aug. 17, 1787.

  11.PMS, 1:200, to Eaton, May 20, 1801; Toll, Six Frigates, 224, 257–62; PMS, 3:xxxi.

  12.Toll, Six Frigates, 261.

  13.PMS, 1:394, to Nicholas, July 10, 1801; 1:476, to Levi Lincoln, July 25, 1801; De Coppet Collection, Madison to Delaplaine, memo, Sept. 1816.

  14.PMS, 2:60, from Jefferson, Aug. 22, 1801; Brant, Madison, 4:61.

  15.Brant, Madison, 4:64.

  16.Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty, 534–36; Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 186.

  17.Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, 99, 109, 115–19.

  18.Henry Adams, Jefferson, 137, 161–64; Malone, Jefferson, 4:101–6.

  19.Malone, Jefferson, 4:126, 131–32; PH, 25:544, to Gouverneur Morris, Feb. 29, 1802; Ames, Works, 1:298, to Thomas Dwight, April 16, 1802; 1:310, to Christopher Gore, Dec. 13, 1802.

  20.Malone, Jefferson, 4:73–79.

  21.Henry Adams, Jefferson, 279–82, 316.

  22.Brant, Madison, 4:90–91; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 276–77; Kukla, Wilderness So Immense, 230.

  23.PMS, 4:146–47, to Pinckney, Nov. 27, 1802; 4:xxvi; 4:198, to Livingston, Dec. 17, 1802.

  24.Ammon, James Monroe, 38–39; Malone, Jefferson, 4:269–70.

  25.Kukla, Wilderness So Immense, 261–62; Ammon, James Monroe, 203; PJ, 7:512, to Monroe, Nov. 11, 1784; Brant, Madison, 4:111; PMS, 4:397n1, from Monroe, March 7, 1803; Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 22–25; Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 97.

  26.Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison,” 26; Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 29; Allgor, Perfect Union, 70–73; Ellis, American Sphinx, 227; Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Collection, Feb. 13, 1806.

  27.Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, 2:154; Allgor, Perfect Union, 74–75; Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 84.

  28.Kukla, Wilderness So Immense, 267–68; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 320; PMS, 4:500–501, from Livingston, April 11, 1803.

  29.PMS, 5:248, to Monroe, July 30, 1803; Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 38–39; Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, 102.

  30.Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 349, 354, 361–63.

  31.Ibid., 365–68; PMS, 4:541, to Monroe, April 20, 1803.

  32.Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 374.

  33.“Reminiscences of Madison Hemings,” in Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 473. Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 517–18. Gordon-Reed points out that the naming incident almost certainly occurred when Hemings was carrying Madison Hemings rather than after he was born, 589.

  34.PMS, 5:248–49, to Monroe, July 30, 1803; Jefferson, Complete Anas, 222; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 348–49.

  35.Gallatin, Writings, 1:111–14, to Jefferson, Jan. 13, 1803; Malone, Jefferson, 4:318; PMS, 5:156, “Proposed Constitutional Amendment,” ca. July 9, 1803.

  36.PMS, 5:323, from Jefferson, Aug. 18, 1803; 5:328, to Jefferson, Aug. 20, 1803; Republic of Letters, 2:1290; Ketcham, Madison, 421.

  37.Annals, 8th Cong., 1st sess., 14, Oct. 17, 1803; Hermann, Louisiana Purchase, 37; Malone, Jefferson, 4:403.

  38.Henry Adams, Jefferson, 334–35.

  39.Forte, “Marbury’s Travail,” 351–55, 397–99. Both Jefferson’s and Marshall’s mothers were Randolphs.

  40.Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803); PMR, 1:191, to Monroe, Dec. 27, 1817; PMC, 11:293, “Observations on Jefferson’s Draft of a Constitution for Virginia,” ca. Oct. 15, 1788.

  41.PMC, 17:311, Report of 1800.

  42.Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 72; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 547–50.

  43.Tinkcom, “Caviar Along the Potomac,” 72.

  44.PMS, 6:361, to Monroe, Jan. 19, 1804; Ri
ves Papers, Edward Coles to Hugh Grigsby, Dec. 23, 1854; Henry Adams, Jefferson, 552–57.

  45.PMS, 6:186–87, to King, Dec. 18, 1803; 6:197–99, from King, Dec. 22, 1803; 6:362, to Monroe, Jan. 19, 1804; Jefferson, Works, 10:47–48, “Rules of Etiquette,” 1803; Malone, Jefferson, 4:384–85.

  46.PMS, 6:362–63, to Monroe, Jan. 19, 1804.

  47.Ibid., 361–66; Malone, Jefferson, 4:383–84; Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 46–47.

  48.PMS, 6:361, to Monroe, Jan. 19, 1804; Plumer, Memorandum, 212.

  49.Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, 287–88.

  50.Isenberg, Fallen Founder, 235–49, 252; Jefferson, Complete Anas, 224; Malone, Jefferson, 4:398.

  51.LC-TJ, from Clinton, Jan. 20, 1804.

  52.PMS, 2:485, to John Francis Mercer, Feb. 24, 1802. PMC, 15:493, to Jefferson, March 23, 1795. Madison also suffered a contagious illness the month following: PMS, 3:9, to Andrew Ellicott, March 8, 1802.

  53.PMS, 7:498, to Monroe, July 21, 1804; Plumer, Memorandum, 64.

  54.Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, 266; PH, 25:544, to Morris, Feb. 29, 1802; Isenberg, Fallen Founder, 256–61; Chernow, Hamilton, 700.

  55.Bickham, Weight of Vengeance, 32; Harrison Papers, “Private Notes of Conversation with Mr. Madison,” Nov. 27–30, 1827.

  56.Risjord, Old Republicans, 38–39.

  Chapter 14: PORTRAITS

  1.Cutts, Queen of America, 142; Barratt and Miles, Gilbert Stuart, 239–42; Few, “Diary,” 351; PDM, to Anna Cutts, ca. May 8, 1804.

  2.Jefferson, Autobiography, 55; Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States, 101; Rives Papers, George Tucker, untitled memoir of James Madison; Dorinda Evans, Genius of Gilbert Stuart, 42; Hunt, “First Inauguration Ball,” 756.

  3.Cutts, Queen of America, 94.

  4.Barratt and Miles, Gilbert Stuart, 239, 262–63.

  5.PDM, to Cutts, May 25, 1804; Barratt and Miles, Gilbert Stuart, 272.

  6.Malone, Jefferson, 4:381–82; Brant, Madison, 4:194, 205; Barratt and Miles, Gilbert Stuart, 243.

  7.Dawidoff, Education of John Randolph, 25; Bruce, John Randolph of Roanoke, 2:320–21.

  8.Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty, 128, 456; Malone, Jefferson, 4:246–47, 448–49; Brant, Madison, 4:234–36; Bruce, John Randolph of Roanoke, 1:180–200.