DOROTHY TODD PAYNE MADISON ("DOLLEY") | In a letter written two years after her husband's death, Dolley Madison seeks assistance with the publication of his notes from the Constitutional Convention

Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang

DOROTHY TODD PAYNE MADISON ("DOLLEY")

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("DP MADISON") TO J. K. PAULDING, REGARDING THE PUBLICATION OF HER HUSBAND’S NOTES

One page (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 248 x 198 mm) on a bifolium of blue-ruled wove paper, Washington, 21 May 1838, integral autograph address leaf with franking signature ("Free DP Madison"), stamped "Free" and postmarked "Washington City D.C. May 21"; seal tear, first leaf a bit wrinkled and with two-inch tear at top margin above text, second leaf with pinholes at folds. 

A year after President Madison's death in 1836, his widow sold his notes from the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as well as his notes from his tenure as a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, to the United States Congress. Under the supervision of Attorney General Henry D. Gilpin, these were published in 1841 as The Papers of James Madison, Purchased by Order of Congress; being his Correspondence and Reports of Debates during the Congress of the Confederation and his Reports of Debates in the Federal Convention; now Published from the Original Manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State, by Direction of the Joint Library Committee of Congress. 

The project evidently got underway shortly after Congress acquired the papers, as this letter from Dolley Madison to James K. Paulding shows. "I hope you will excuse me my valued friend for the trouble these few lines may cause you, they are to ask your opinion of the progress, &c. made by the Messrs. Harper in printing the one volume now in their hands—'letters on Constitutional Subjects' of which we conversed when I had the pleasure to see you in Washington. My son has written me very often, during his present protracted visit to New-York, but I fear he is much indisposed, as well as unpractised in that business—in any situation your counsel would be of great advantage to him, as well as to myself, and would be gratefully received." 

Paulding is best remembered as a prolific and popular author associated with the "Knickerbocker School," but he also served in the Naval Department for several administrations and was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Martin Van Buren. He became known to President Madison through his anti-British satires and discussed the possibility of writing a biography of Madison, who first appointed him as secretary to the Board of Navy Commissioners in 1815. Paulding's principal publisher was Harper & Brothers, which was one of the reasons Mrs. Madison asked for his intercession with that firm. In the event, however, The Papers of James Madison was published by J. & H. G. Langley.

The cause of Dolley Madison's son's indisposition can be too easily guessed. John Payne Todd was the only surviving child from his mother's first marriage; his younger brother and father died in the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic. Adopted by James Madison, Todd became a wastrel and alcoholic, often landing in prison for assault and disturbing the peace, as well as for his chronic gambling debts. Todd alienated many of his adoptive father's papers from the archive maintained by his mother, which he would sell to satisfy his many creditors.