Excerpts from The Papers of Thomas Jefferson

Julian P. Boyd, ed.. (Princeton, N.J., 1953)

Volume 9: 1 November 1785 to 22 June 1786

22 January 1786 From James Madison, with Enclosure, pp. 194-209.

p. 201: "On Potowmack they have been at work for some time. On this river they have about eighty hands ready to break ground, and have engaged a man to plan for them."

pp. 208-209: Ed. Note: [Madison] added a statement that seems to offer the best explanation for the origin of the alternative proposed by Tyler: "It seems naturally to grow out of the proposed appointment of Commissioners for Virga. and Mayd. concerted at Mount Vernon, for keeping up harmony in the commercial regulations of the two States (Madison to Washington, 9 Dec. 1785;Writings, ed. Hunt, II, 198; see also Madison to Monroe, same date, II, 201-2). This was written four days after the Maryland resolutions were laid before the Virginia legislature, resolutions which suggested that Delaware and Pennsylvania also be brought into the uniform commercial system proposed for the two states (JHD, Oct. 1785, 1828 edn., p. 72). An extension of the Mount Vernon idea to two other states may have provided for John Tyler, as it certainly did for the committee of commerce to whom the Maryland resolutions were referred, the natural suggestion that it would be logical to enlarge such a plan so as to include all the states.