Beschreibung:

MADISON, James. Autograph letter signed ("James Madison") to Jared Sparks, Montpellier, 5 October 1830. 1 1/8 pages, 4to, docketed by Sparks. Very fine condition. MADISON SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF WASHINGTON'S "FAREWELL ADDRESS" AND THE "FEDERALIST PAPERS" An important letter in which Madison clarifies his role in the composition of two key American texts. Madison is replying to a request by Harvard historian Jared Sparks (1789-1866), who was compiling material for a Washington biography: "Enclosed is the exact copy you wish of the draft of an Address prepared for President Washington at his request, in the year 1792, when he meditated a retirement at the expiration of his first term. You will observe that (with a few verbal exceptions) it differs from the extract enclosed in your letter only in the provisional paragraphs which had become inapplicable to the period & plan of his communication to Col. [Alexander] Hamilton." Madison wanted Sparks to know that Hamilton could not be regarded as the sole author of Washington's famous farewell. Ironically, Washington had also wanted to acknowledge Madison's contribution, but out of a spirit of political vengeance, not generosity. The two Virginians, once close, had become irreconcilable political enemies by 1796. Washington told Hamilton to mention Madison's earlier draft to show that (contrary to attacks by Madison and Jefferson) the President had not wanted a second term and was not relishing the powers of office. Hamilton advised against personalizing the attack, and even incorporated most of Madison's opening paragraphs into his own draft. The final text, however, includes unmistakable swipes at Madison, such as this comment on Federalist Number 10: "There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within limits is probably true...but...it is a spirit not to be encouraged." Madison, incensed, was amazed that Washington had "his own mind wrought up to the tone that could dictate or rather adopt some parts of the performance." (Ketcham, 366). Here, Madison's revisiting of the story of the Farewell Address put him in mind of his collaboration with Hamilton and Jay on the the Federalist Papers : "Did you ever notice," he asks Sparks, "the 'Life of Mr. Jay' in Delaplaine's Biographical work? The materials of it were evidently derived from the papers, if not the pen, of Mr. Jay, and are marked by the misconceptions into which he had fallen. It may be incidentally noted as one of the confirmations of the fallibility of Mr. Hamilton's memory in allotting the Nos. in the 'Federalist' to the respective writers, that one of them, No. 64, which appears by Delaplaine to have been written by Mr. Jay, as it certainly was, is put on the list of Mr. Hamilton, as was not less certainly the case with a number of others written by another hand." Hamilton jumbled some of the roman numerals when he compiled his list of the Publius authors, and historians had been repeating those errors as well for many years. Provenance : Mrs. Philip D. Sang (sale, Sotheby's, 30 October 1990, lot 76).