TO JAMES MADISON.

MAD, MSS.

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 20. 1784. DEAR SIR,-Your favour of the 11th inst. came to hand this day. I had prepared a multitude of memons of subjects whereon to write you, but I will first answer those arising from your letter. By the time. my order got to Philadelphia every copy of Smith's history of New York was sold. I shall take care to get Blair's lectures for you as soon as published, and will attend to your presumed wishes whenever I meet with anything rare & of worth. I wish I knew better what things of this kind you have collected for yourself, as I may often doubt whether you have or have not a thing. I know of no objections to the printing the revisal; on the contrary I think good will result from it. Should this be decided I must make a short trip to Virginia, as from the loss of originals I believe my copies must often be wanting.'

I had never met with the particular fact relative to the grinders of the incognitum found in Brasil & Lima & deposited in the British Museum, which you mention from Dr. Hunter. I know it has been said that in a very few instances such bones have been found in S. America. You will find a collection of these in 2. Buff. Epoq. de la Nature, 187. But they have been so illy attested, so loosely & ignorantly described, and so seldom even pretended to have been seen, that I have supposed their identity with the Northern bones, & perhaps their existence at all not sufficiently established. The authority of Hunter

The Report of the Committee of Revisors.-Cƒ. 11, 197.

is respectable but if this be the only well attested instance of those bones brought from S. Amera, they may still be believed to have been first carried there either previous to the emigration of the Spaniards when there was doubtless a communication between the Inds of the two continents, or after that emigration, when an intercourse between the Spaniards of N. & S. Amera took place. It would be unsafe to deny the fact; but I think it may well be doubted. I wish you had a thermometer. Mr. Madison of the college & myself are keeping observations for a comparison of climate. We observe at sunrise & at four o'clock P. M., which are the coldest & warmest points of the day. If you could observe at the same time it would show the difference between going North & Northwest on this continent. I suspect it to be colder in Orange or Albemarle than here.

I think I informed you in my last that an attempt had been made to ratify the Definitive treaty by seven states only, and to impose this under the sanction of our seal (without letting our actual state appear) on the British court. Reade, Williamson & Lee were violent for this, and gave notice that when the question should be put they would call the yeas & nays, & shew by whose fault the ratification of this important instrument should fail, if it should fail. I prepared the inclosed resolution by way of protest & informed them I would place that also on the journals with the yeas & nays as a justification of those who opposed the proposition. I believe this put a stop to it. They suffered the question to rest unde

cided till the 14th of Jan. when 9 states appeared & ratified. Colo. Harmer & Colo. Franks were immediately dispatched to take pasages to Europe with copies of the ratification. But by the extraordinary severity of the season, we know they had not sailed on the 7th. inst. The ratification will not therefore arrive in time. Being persuaded I shall be misrepresented within my own state, if any difficulties should arise, I inclose you a copy of the protest containing my reasons. Had the question been put there were

but two states who would have voted for a ratification by seven. The others would have been in the negative or divided. I find Congress every moment stopped by questions whether the most trifling money propositions are not above the powers of seven states as being appropriations of money. My idea is that the estimate for the year & requisition grounded on that, whereon the sums to be allowed to each department are stated, is the general appropriation which requires 9 states, & that the detailing it out provided they do not go beyond these sums may be done by the subordinate officers of the federal government or by a Congress of 7 states. I wish you to think of this & give me your thoughts on the subject.—We have as yet no Sec of Foreign affairs. Lee avows himself a candidate The plan of Foreign affairs likely to take place is to commission Adams, Franklin & Jay to conclude treaties with the several European powers, and then to return, leaving the field to subordinate characters. Mess Adams & Jay have paid a visit to the court of London unordered & uninvited. Their

reception has been forbidding. Luzerne leaves in August. Whether recalled or on his own request is not known. This information comes from himself, tho' is not as yet known [?] of publickly. Lee finding no faction among the 737 here, entered into that among the 864. 737. which rages to a very high degree. A trial being appointed by the one party on a certain 761, he undertook to 792 one, and fixed it on precisely the same 761. This of course has placed him in the midst of the mud. He is 80. 302. 885. 409. 941 a 312. 730. 784. 561. 727. of 551. 675 and of 655. 320. 187 expectation. I have no doubt from some conversations with him, that there is a design agitating to sever the western 1090. 278 and add it to this state. He supported in conversation with me the propriety & necessity of such a general measure, to wit, of enlarging the small states to interest them in the 1104. 162. 130. be well switched in our state. soured with it, and is not cautious in betraying his hostility against it. We cannot make up a Congress at all. There are 8 states in town 6 of which are represented by two members only. Of these two members of different states are confined by the gout, so that we cannot make a house. We have not sat above 3 days I believe in as many weeks. Admonition after admonition has been sent to the states, to no effect. We have sent one to-day. If it fails, it seems as well we should all retire. There have never been 9 states on the floor but for the ratification of the treaty and a day or two after.-George

He deserves to He is extremely

town languishes. The smile is hardly covered now when the federal towns are spoken of. I fear that our chance is at this time desperate. Our object therefore must be if we fail in an effort to remove to Georgetown to endeavor then to get to some place off the waters of the Chesapeak where we may be ensured against Congress considering themselves as fixed. My present expectations are, that as soon as we get a Congress to do business, we shall attend to nothing but the most pressing matters, get through them & adjourn, not to meet again till November, leaving a Commee of the States. That Commee will be obliged to go immediately to Philadelphia to examine the offices & of course they will sit there till the meeting in November. Whether that meeting will be in Philadelphia or Trenton will be the question and will in my opinion depend on the vote of New York [?]. Did not you once suppose in conversation with me that Congress had no authority to decide any cases between two differing states, except those of disputed territory? I think you did. If I am not mistaken in this, I should wish to know your good sense of the words which describe those cases which may be submitted to a federal court. They seem to me to comprehend every cause of difference.

We have received the act of our assembly ceding the lands north of Ohio & are about executing a deed for it. I think the territory will be laid out by passing a meridian through the western cape of the mouth of the Gr. Kanhaway from the Ohio to L. Erie, and another through the rapids of Ohio from