CHAPTER XXIII.

Mr. Madison makes another Effort for Compliance with Treaty of Peace respecting British Debts- His Proposition, relative to Erection of District of Kentucky into an Independent State, adopted - His Labors in prosecuting Revision of the Laws - Unhappy Financial Measures of the Legislature - It adjourns - Occupations and Studies of Mr. Madison during Recess - Taste for Natural History promoted in Virginia by Officers of the French Army, while its Head-Quarters were at Williamsburg, after Surrender of Yorktown-Researches of Mr. Madison in that Department of Science - Correspondence with Mr. Jefferson, in which he examines and animadverts on Theories of BuffonGeneral Philosophical Speculations - Habit of Cautious and Comprehensive Induction exemplified in Answer to Letter of Mr. Jefferson, on Relative Condition of Laboring Poor in Europe and America.

THE British Government, as we have seen, made the failure of some of the States to comply with the treaty of peace, in regard to the recovery of debts due from the citizens of one country to those of the other, its excuse for delaying the surrender of the military posts held by it within the limits of the United States. Mr. Madison, anxious to remove every reproach of a breach of public faith from the character of Virginia, determined to make another experiment to prevail on the legislature to repeal the laws, passed during the war, by which an interdict had been laid on the payment of these debts. He moved the appointment of a special committee

on the subject, of which he was made chairman, and presented from that committee a proposition, corresponding in substance with the one offered by him at a former session, and aiming, by a fair and liberal arrangement, to conciliate the obligations and interests of the debtor with the rights of the creditor. This proposition, in its passage through the committee of the whole, to which it was referred, underwent radical changes of a nature so inconsistent with a loyal fulfilment of the obligations it recognized in terms, that Mr. Madison abandoned it, in despair of any honorable result.

"Since the proceedings of the committee of the whole," he said, in a letter to Mr. Monroe, “the subject has slept on the table, no one having called for the report. Being convinced myself that nothing can be now done that will not extremely dishonor us and embarrass Congress, my wish is that the report may not be called for at all. In the course of the debates, no pains were spared to disparage the treaty by insinuations against Congress, the Eastern States, and the negotiators. of the treaty, particularly John Adams. These insinuations and artifices explain, perhaps, one of the motives from which the augmentation of the Federal powers and respectability has been opposed."

During this session of the legislature, a proceeding of a novel and interesting character took place, which called for all the wisdom and foresight of Mr. Madison to mould it into a proper shape. The

1 See ante, vol. 1. pp. 566-570, and 595-599.

inhabitants of the district of Kentucky, embraced within the limits and represented in the councils of Virginia, met in convention in May, 1785, and adopted a memorial appealing to the legislature to sanction their erection into an independent State. The Commonwealth of Virginia, recognizing the fundamental principle that the true end of representative government is the welfare and convenience of the governed, felt no repugnance to the proposed measure; but, before renouncing her sovereignty over so large a portion of her population and territory, both justice and policy prescribed, as an essential preliminary, that the new State should come under the obligations and allegiance due to the common Confederacy. This sentiment had been forcibly expressed by Mr. Madison, in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, written the 7th July, 1785, a few months before the meeting of the Assembly.

"I agree perfectly with you," he says, " in thinking it the interest of the country to embrace the first decent opportunity of parting with Kentucky,

1 The conduct of Virginia, in consenting to the separation of Kentucky, when a longer incorporation with the parent State ceased to be desired, was the subject of a warm contemporary eulogium from one of the ablest political writers of the last century. Judge Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in speaking of it before his Law Class in the College of Philadelphia, in 1790-91, used the following language: "An illustration of this doctrine may be drawn from a

recent instance which has happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The district of Kentucky has, by an amicable arrangement, been disjoined from the rest of the Commonwealth, and formed into a separate State. It is a pleasure, perhaps I may add it is a laudable pride, to be able to furnish to the world the first example of carrying into practice the most sublime parts of the most sublime theories of government and law."-Wilson's Works, vol. 1. p. 159.

and to refuse with firmness to part with any more of our settlements beyond the Alleghany. It seems necessary, however, that this first instance of a voluntary dismemberment of a State should be conducted in such a manner as to form a salutary precedent.

"As it is an event that will indirectly affect the whole Confederacy, Congress ought clearly to be made a party to it, either immediately or by a proviso that the partition act shall not take effect till the actual admission of the new State into the Confederacy. No interval whatever should be suffered between the release of our hold on that country, and its taking on itself the obligations of a member of the Federal body. Should it be made a separate State without this precaution, it might possibly be tempted to remain so, as well with regard to the United States as to Virginia."

The memorial of the convention of Kentucky was, soon after its presentation, referred to a select committee, consisting of Mr. Madison, Mr. Henry Lee, Mr. Bullitt, Mr. Ronald, Mr. Carrington, Mr. Alexander White, Mr. Corbin, Mr. Page, Mr. Meriwether Smith, and Mr. Prentis.1 A report was made from the committee, through Mr. Page, which prescribed no other conditions for the independence of the new State than that it should recognize all rights of property derived under the laws of Virginia, and be answerable for a fair proportion of her public debt. It would hence appear 1 See Journal of House of Delegates of Virginia, 1785, p. 36.

that Mr. Madison had not been able to obtain the sanction of the select committee to the full extent of his views. He moved, therefore, in committee of the whole House, an amendment, embracing, with other additional provisions, an express declaration that the authority of Virginia over the district was not to cease until measures were definitively taken for the incorporation of the new State into the Confederacy; and also that the river Ohio, along the borders of the new State, should be for ever a common highway, free to all the citizens of the United States. Of the success of this amendment, he gives the following account, in a letter to Mr. Monroe, of the 9th December, 1785:

"My proposed amendment to the report on the memorial of Kentucky was agreed to in a committee of the whole, without alteration, and with very few dissentients. It lies on the table for the ratification of the House. The members from that district have become extremely cold on the subject of an immediate separation."

The action of the committee of the whole on the amendment was, a few days afterwards, confirmed by the House; and a bill, in pursuance of it, was ordered to be prepared and brought in by the committee for courts of justice, of which Mr. Madison was chairman. The bill so prepared became a law, and, subsequently renewed from time to time, formed the basis on which Kentucky, seven years later, was received into the Union, under the auspices of the new Constitution of the United