The President of the United States having communicated to the two
Houses of Congress the melancholy intelligence of the death of their
illustrious and beloved fellow-citizen, James Madison, of Virginia,
late President of the United States, and the two Houses sharing in
the general grief which this distressing event must produce:
_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the chairs
of the President of the Senate and of the Speaker of the House of
Representatives be shrouded in black during the present session,
and that the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and the members and officers of both Houses wear
the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.
_Resolved_, That it be recommended to the people of the United States
to wear crape on the left arm, as mourning, for thirty days.
_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to
transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Madison, and to assure her
of the profound respect of the two Houses of Congress for her person and
character and of their sincere condolence on the late afflicting
dispensation of Providence.
MONTPELIER, _August 20, 1836_.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
I received, sir, in due time, your letter conveying to me the
resolutions Congress were pleased to adopt on the occasion of the death
of my beloved husband--a communication made the more grateful by the
kind expression of your sympathy which it contained.
The high and just estimation of my husband by my countrymen and friends
and their generous participation in the sorrow occasioned by our
irretrievable loss, expressed through their supreme authorities and
otherwise, are the only solace of which my heart is susceptible on the
departure of him who had never lost sight of that consistency, symmetry,
and beauty of character in all its parts which secured to him the love
and admiration of his country, and which must ever be the subject of
peculiar and tender reverence to one whose happiness was derived from
their daily and constant exercise.
The best return I can make for the sympathy of my country is to fulfill
the sacred trust his confidence reposed in me, that of placing before
it and the world what his pen prepared for their use--a legacy the
importance of which is deeply impressed on my mind.
With great respect,