To Maria Jefferson, Eppington.

MY DEAR MARIA:

NEW YORK, May 23, 1790.

I was glad to receive your letter of April 25th, because I had been near two months without hearing anything from you.

I hope you will now always write immediately on receiving a letter from me.

Your last told me what you were not doing; that you were not reading Don Quixote, not applying to your music. I hope your next will tell me what you are doing. Tell your uncle, that the President, after having been so ill, as at one time to be thought dying, is now quite recovered. I have been these three weeks confined by a periodical headache. It has been the most moderate I ever had; but it has not left me. Present my best affections to your uncle and aunt. Tell the latter, I shall never have thanks enough for her kindness to you, and that you will repay her in love and duty. Adieu my dear Maria. Yours affectionately,

To Maria Fefferson, Eppington.

MY DEAR MARIA.

TH. JEFFERSON.

NEW YORK, June 13, 1790.

I have received your letter of May 23d, which was in answer to mine of May 2d; but I wrote you, also, on the 23d of May, so that you owe me an answer to that still, which I hope is on the road. In matter of correspondence as well as of money, you must never be in debt. I am much pleased with the account you give me of your occupation, and the making the pudding is as good an article as any. When I come to Virginia, I shall insist on eating a pudding of your own inaking, as well as trying other specimens of your skill. You must make the most of your time while you are with so good an aunt, who can learn you everything.

We had not peas or strawberries here, till the eighth

day of this month; on the same day, I heard the first whip-poor-will's whistle. Swallows and martins appeared here on the 21st of April. When did they appear with you? and when had you peas, strawberries, and whippoor-wills in Virginia? Take notice, hereafter, whether the whip-poor-wills always come with the strawberries and peas. Send me a copy of the maxims I gave you. I have had a long touch of my periodical headache, but a moderate one. It has not quite left me yet. Adieu my dear; love your uncle, aunt and cousins, and me more than all. Yours affectionately, TH. JEFFERSON.

11

Chapter Five.

JAMES MADISON.

AMES MADISON, fourth President of the United States, was born in King George County, Virginia, March 16th, 1751, and died at his seat, Montpelier, near Orange Courthouse, Va., 1836. His father was James Madison. of Orange, a planter of ample means and high standing, descended from John Madison, an Englishmen, who settled in Virginia about 1653. The maiden name of his mother was Eleanor Conway. He was the eldest of seven children, and was sent at an early age to a school in King and Queen County, under the direction of Donald Robertson, a Scotchman. He afterwards prosecuted his studies at home under the Rev. Thomas Martin, the Minister of

the Parish, who resided at Montpelier, and acquired a competent knowledge of Latin, Greek, French and Italian. In 1769, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to Princeton, New Jersey, where he was graduated A. B, in 1771. His habits of application were so

close at this period that his health became seriously affected. In 1772 he returned to Virginia, and commenced a course of legal study, reading also works on theology, philosophy, and belles-lettres. His attention was particularly directed to theology, and he thoroughly explored all the evidences of the Christain religion. From these pursuits his mind was diverted by public affairs. The colony was agitated by the impending struggle with England. The clergy of the Baptist and other non-conformist denominations had been subjected to violent persecutions, and the friends of religious rights were endeavoring to cure this abuse. Mr. Madison took an active part in his county in defence of the Baptists. In 1776 he was elected a member of the Virginia Convention from the County of Orange, and procured the passage of the substance of an amendment to the declaration of rights by George Mason, which struck out the old term toleration and inserted a broader exposition of religious rights. He was in the same year a member of the General Assembly. In the winter of 1779 he was chosen by the assembly as a delegate to Congress. He took his seat in that body in 1780, and remained in it three years. He opposed the issue of paper money by the states. As Chairman of the Committee to prepare instructions to United States Ministers at Versailles

and Madrid, and in support of the claims of the Confederacy to Western territory and to the free navigation of the Mississippi river, he drew up an elaborate and able paper, which was unanimously adopted by Congress. As Chairman of the Committee to establish a system of general revenue to pay the expenses of the war, he prepared an able address to the States in support of the plan which was adopted by Congress, and received the warm approval of Washington. On his return, from serving in Congress, to Virginia, he was elected a member of the Legislature, and took his seat in 1784. Here he inaugurated the measures relating to a revision of the old statutes, and gave his support to the bills introduced by the revisers, Jefferson, Wythe, and Pendleton, on the subject of entails, primogeniture, and religious freedom. He aided in the separation of Kentucky from Virginia, and the formation of the new State, opposed the further issue of paper money, and took a prominent part in favor of the payment of debts due to British creditors. His greatest service at this time was the preparation, after the adjournment of the Assembly, of a "memorial and remonstrance against the project of a general assessment for the support of religion."

This paper is one of the ablest and most eloquent ever drawn up by the author, and caused the complete defeat of the measure against which it was directed. In January, 1786, he obtained the passage of a resolution by the General Assembly of Virginia, inviting the other States to appoint Commissioners to meet at Annapolis, and devise a new system of commercial regulations of greater effi