"As you seem to require that I should be open and unreserved (which is indeed the only proof of true friendship), I will venture to give you a word of advice, though it be more to convince you of my affection for you than from any apprehension of your needing it. Pray do not suffer those impertinent fops that abound in every city to divert you from your business and philosophical amusements. You may please them more by admitting them to the enjoyment of your company, but you will make them respect and admire you more by showing your indignation at their follies, and by keeping them at a becoming distance. I am luckily out of the way of such troubles, but I know you are surrounded with them; for they breed in towns and populous places as flies do in the shambles, because there they get food enough for their vanity and impertinence.

"I have undertaken to instruct my brothers and sisters in some of the first rudiments of literature; but it does not take up so much of my time but I shall always have leisure to receive and answer your letters, which are very grateful to me, I assure you; and for reading any performances you may be kind enough to send me, whether of Mr. Freneau or any body else. I think myself happy in your correspondence, and desire you will continue to write as often as you can, as you see I intend to do by the early and long answer I send you. You are the only valuable friend I have, settled in so public a place, and I must rely on you for an account of all literary transactions in your part of the world. I am not sorry to hear of Livingston's getting a degree. I heartily wish him well, though many would think I had but little reason to do so; and if he would be sensible of his opportunities and encouragements, I think he might still recover. Lucky (?) and his company, after their feeble yet wicked assault upon Mr. Erwin, in my opinion, will disgrace the catalogue of names, but they are below contempt, and I spend no more words about them.

"And now, my friend, I must take my leave of you, but with such hopes that it will not be long before I receive another epistle from you, as make me more cheerfully conclude and subscribe myself Your sincere and affectionate friend.

"Your direction was right; however, the addition of Jr.' to my name would not be improper."

"JAN. 20, 1775.

"We are very busy at present in raising men and procuring the necessaries for defending ourselves and our friends in case of a

sudden invasion.

The extensiveness of the demands of the Congress, and the pride of the British nation, together with the wickedness of the present ministry, seem, in the judgment of our politicians, to require a preparation for extreme events.

"I suppose the inhabitants of your province are more reserved in their behavior, if not more easy in their apprehension, from the prevalence of Quaker principles and politics. The Quakers are the only people with us who refuse to accede to the Continental Association. I can not forbear suspecting them of being under the control and direction of the party in your quarter; for I take those of them that we have to be too honest and simple to have any sinister or secret views, and I do not observe any thing in the association inconsistent with their religious principles.

"I have not seen the following in print, and it seems to be so just a specimen of Indian eloquence and mistaken valor, that I think you will be pleased with it. You must make allowance for the unskillfulness of the interpreters:

"SPEECH OF LOGAN, A SHAWANESE CHIEF, TO LORD DUNMORE.

"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold or naked, and he gave him not clothing. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his tent, an advocate for peace; nay, such was my love for the whites, that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed by, and said, “Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.""

This last letter to Mr. Bradford was dated June 20, 1775, and contains the famous speech of Logan, the Mingo chief, and which Mr. Madison thought he was then first giving to the public. This simple, charming, powerful speech was made, it has always

been claimed, to Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, in the fall of 1774, after the defeat of the Indians at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.

At the date of these and several more letters to Bradford, Mr. Madison had barely reached the age of a voter in this country at the present time; and as specimens of thoughtful and accurate letter-writing they are not equaled in the case of any other public man at the same age of life. These early productions show the natural drift of his mind towards politics, a disposition greatly advanced, of course, by the unusual circumstances of the times. They furnish an exponent to the character of his correspondence in riper years. Poetry, wit, criticism, romance, play, were of no moment to him. Life now had more necessary and important interests. Most of Mr. Madison's published letters, no matter to whom they were written, relate to public affairs, and it would be impossible for any man after reading them to conclude that his thoughts were borrowed or that they were pushed upon him by Thomas Jefferson, or any other man whose pretensions to public leadership were much greater, or that he was not of himself, one of the principal workers in organizing the Federal Government, as well as the government under it in his own State.

During his residence at Princeton College, Dr. Witherspoon said that Madison had not been guilty of an indiscreet act. With little exception, perhaps, this verdict may be found applicable at any stage of his career. There is no story connected with his boyhood, a period which must have been too short for the usual catalogue of small crimes and adventures with

which most public characters are introduced to the pages of history.

Rev. William Meade, in his work on the "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," gives the following family record, as kept by James Madison, the father of the President:

"Ambrose Madison was married to Frances Taylor, August 24, 1721.

"Ambrose Madison was father of James Madison. Frances Taylor was sister of Erasmus Taylor, and daughter of James Taylor.

"James Madison, Sen., was born March 27, 1723, and was baptized April 21st, and had for godfathers, Thomas Madison and James Taylor, and for godmothers, Martha Taylor and Elizabeth Penu.

"Frances, wife of Ambrose Madison, departed this life October 25, 1761, and was interred the Sunday following at Montpellier, in Orange. Her funeral sermon was preached on Wednesday, the 30th of December following.

"James Madison, Sen., was married to Nelly Conway, September 15, 1749.

"The following are their children:

"James Madison, Jr. (the President), was born on Tuesday night, at twelve o'clock, being the last of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth day of March (16th, New Style), 1751, and was baptized by Rev. Mr. William Davis, March 31st, and had for godfathers Mr. John Moore and Mr. Jonathan Gibson, and for godmothers Mrs. Rebecca Moore, Miss Judith and Miss Elizabeth Catlett.

"Frances Madison was born on Monday morning, at seven o'clock, June 18, 1753.

"Ambrose Madison was born on Monday night, between nine ten o'clock, January 27, 1755.

"Catlett Madison was born on Friday morning at three o'clock, February 10, 1758.

"Nelly Madison (Mrs. Hite) was born February 14, 1760. The said Nelly was born Thursday morning, just after daybreak.

"William Madison was born May 1, 1762.

He

was born on Saturday morning, about twenty-five minutes after ten o'clock.

"Sarah Madison (Mrs. Thomas Macon) was born August 17, 1764.

"Elizabeth Madison was born February 19, 1768, half an hour after twelve o'clock.

"Reuben Madison was born September 19, 1771 (and had some young women for his godmothers).

"Frances Taylor Madison was born October 4, 1774.”

Mr. Meade says:

"James Madison (the late President), is the eldest of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, of whom but one brother and one sister are now living (1857). He was born on the north bank of the Rappahannock, at Port Conway, opposite the town of Port Royal, on the 5th of March, 1751. His father's name was James, the son of Ambrose Madison and Frances Taylor. He lived to the age of seventy-eight years, and died in February, 1801.

"The father of Ambrose was John, the son of John Madison, who, it appears, took out, by a statement of a patent now in possession, certain lands on the shores of the Chesapeake, between North and York Rivers, in Gloucester County, near Colonel Taylor's Creek, in the year 1653-6th, Charles II. Richard Bennet, Governor and Captain-general of Virginia. The ancestors of Frances Taylor are traced one remove farther back, and were residents of the same district of country. The name of his mother was Nelly Conway, descended from some of the early settlers."

Mr. Madison's mother died in 1829, at the age of nearly one hundred years.