Volume 42, Number 4 · March 2, 1995
The Fixers
By Edmund S. Morgan
The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826
edited by James Morton Smith
Norton, three volumes, 2,073 pp., $150.00
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were, in the words of one historian, 'the two greatest philosopher statesmen of the American Enlightenment.' Who can deny it? Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence; Madison wrote not only the United States Constitution, or at least most of it, but also the most searching commentary on it that has ever appeared. Each of them served as president of the United States for eight years. What they had to say to each other has to command attention. And they had a lot to say. They first met while serving in the Virginia state legislature in 1776, when Madison was twenty-six and Jefferson thirty-three, and within a few years began a correspondence and collaboration that ended only with Jefferson's death on the fiftieth anniversary of his great Declaration, July 4, 1826. During that time they exchanged 1,250 letters that have been preserved, and here they are, in chronological order, from small enigmatic one-liners to lengthy discursive ruminations.
Review, 3182 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |