MONTPELIER, _November 15, 1836_.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
SIR: The will of my late husband, James Madison, contains the following
provision:
"Considering the peculiarity and magnitude of the occasion which
produced the Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, the characters who
composed it, the Constitution which resulted from their deliberations,
its effects during a trial of so many years on the prosperity of the
people living under it, and the interest it has inspired among the
friends of free government, it is not an unreasonable inference that a
careful and extended report of the proceedings and discussions of that
body, which were with closed doors, by a member who was constant in his
attendance, will be particularly gratifying to the people of the United
States and to all who take an interest in the progress of political
science and the cause of true liberty."
This provision bears evidence of the value he set on his report of the
debates in the Convention, and he has charged legacies on them alone to
the amount of $1,200 for the benefit of literary institutions and for
benevolent purposes, leaving the residuary net proceeds for the use of
his widow.
In a paper written by him, and which it is proposed to annex as a
preface to the Debates, he traces the formation of confederacies and of
the Articles of Confederation, its defects which caused and the steps
which led to the Convention, his reasons for taking the debates and the
manner in which he executed the task, and his opinion of the framers of
the Constitution. From this I extract his description of the manner in
which they were taken, as it guarantees their fullness and accuracy:
"In pursuance of the task I had assumed, I chose a seat in front of the
presiding member, with the other members on my right and left hands.
In this favorable position for hearing all that passed I noted down,
in terms legible and in abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself,
what was read from the chair or spoken by the members, and losing not
a moment unnecessarily between the adjournment and reassembling of
the Convention, I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the
session, or within a few finishing days after its close, in the extent
and form preserved in my own hand on my files.
"In the labor and correctness of this I was not a little aided by
practice and by a familiarity with the style and the train of
observation and reasoning which characterized the principal speakers.
It happened also that I was not absent a single day, nor more than the
casual fraction of an hour in any day, so that I could not have lost
a single speech, unless a very short one."
However prevailing the restraint which veiled during the life of Mr.
Madison this record of the creation of our Constitution, the grave,
which has closed over all those who participated in its formation, has
separated their acts from all that is personal to him or to them. His
anxiety for their early publicity after this was removed may be inferred
from his having them transcribed and revised by himself; and, it may be
added, the known wishes of his illustrious friend Thomas Jefferson and
other distinguished patriots, the important light they would shed for
present as well as future usefulness, besides my desire to fulfill
the pecuniary obligations imposed by his will, urged their appearance
without awaiting the preparation of his other works, and early measures
were accordingly adopted by me to ascertain from publishers in various
parts of the Union the terms on which their publication could be
effected.
It was also intended to publish with these debates those taken by him in
the Congress of the Confederation in 1782, 1783, and 1787, of which he
was then a member, and selections made by himself and prepared under
his eye from his letters narrating the proceedings of that body during
the periods of his service in it, prefixing the debates in 1776 on the
Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson so as to embody all the
memorials in that shape known to exist. This exposé of the situation of
the country under the Confederation and the defects of the old system of
government evidenced in the proceedings under it seem to convey such
preceding information as should accompany the debates on the formation
of the Constitution by which it was superseded.
The proposals which have been received, so far from corresponding with
the expectations of Mr. Madison when he charged the first of these works
with those legacies, have evidenced that their publication could not be
engaged in by me without advances of funds and involving of risks which
I am not in a situation to make or incur.
Under these circumstances, I have been induced to submit for your
consideration whether the publication of these debates be a matter of
sufficient interest to the people of the United States to deserve to be
brought to the notice of Congress; and should such be the estimation of
the utility of these works by the representatives of the nation as to
induce them to relieve me individually from the obstacles which impede
it, their general circulation will be insured and the people be
remunerated by its more economical distribution among them.
With high respect and consideration,