t Monroe was writing from New York that letter to
Governor Henry, Madison was writing from Philadelphia a letter to
Jefferson. Having mentioned a plan for strengthening the
Confederation, Madison says:--

"Though my wishes are in favor of such an event, yet I
despair so much of its accomplishment at the present crisis,
that I do not extend my views beyond a commercial reform. To
speak the truth, I almost despair even of this. You will
find the cause in a measure now before Congress, ... a
proposed treaty with Spain, one article of which shuts the
Mississippi for twenty or thirty years. Passing by the other
Southern States, figure to yourself the effect of such a
stipulation on the Assembly of Virginia, already jealous of
Northern politics, and which will be composed of thirty
members from the Western waters,--of a majority of others
attached to the Western country from interests of their own,
of their friends, or their constituents.... Figure to
yourself its effect on the people at large on the Western
waters, who are impatiently waiting for a favorable result
to the negotiation with Gardoqui, and who will consider
themselves sold by their Atlantic brethren. Will it be an
unnatural consequence if they consider themselves absolved
from every federal tie, and court some protection for their
betrayed rights?"[354]

How truly Madison predicted the fatal construction which in the South,
and particularly in Virginia, would be put upon the proposed surrender
of the Mississippi, may be seen by a glance at some of the resolutions
which passed the Virginia House of Delegates on the 29th of the
following November:--

"That the common right of navigating the river Mississippi,
and of communicating with other nations through that
channel, ought to be considered as the bountiful gift of
nature to the United States, as proprietors of the
territories watered by the said river and its eastern
branches, and as moreover secured to them by the late
revolution.

"That the Confederacy, having been formed on the broad basis
of equal rights, in every part thereof, to the protection
and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of the rights of
any one part, to the supposed or real interest of another
part, would be a flagrant violation of justice, a direct
contravention of the