shine forth in the productions, whether written or spoken, of both. Such intellectual affinities, joined to moral worth, could not but form a strong bond of friendship, and of mutual confidence, attachment, and respect between them. These sentiments are warmly manifested by the pupil in a letter written from Princeton to his father the 9th October, 1771, in which he says:

"I should be glad if your health and other circumstances should enable you to visit Dr. Witherspoon during his stay in Virginia. I am persuaded you would be much pleased with him, and that he would be very glad to see you."

Dr. Witherspoon continued to feel a lively interest in the studies and pursuits of his pupil, after the formal connection of the latter with the college was terminated. Young Madison, appreciating at its just value the aid of so enlightened a guide and counsellor, and desiring also to avail himself of the riches of the college library, determined, after his graduation, to pass one year more at Princeton as a private student. The preceptor and the pupil were destined to meet again, after a lapse of nine years, in the supreme councils of the country, as coworkers in the great cause of national independence and national union.

CHAPTER II.

Madison leaves Princeton and returns to his Father's Residence in Virginia-His Studies and Pursuits at Home - Correspondence with his College Friend, Bradford of Philadelphia-Religious Sentiments-Traits of Personal Character - Progress of Controversy with the Mother Country-Persecution of Baptists in Virginia excite Indignation of Madison-Early Champion of Religious Freedom-Established Church in Virginia - Conduct and Influence of its Members in the Contest for Independence.

IN 1772, Mr. Madison, then twenty-one years of age, returned to take up his residence under the paternal roof in Virginia. Here his love of study followed him; and he divided his time. between an extensive course of reading for his own improvement, and the amiable office of instructing his younger brothers and sisters in the rudiments of literature. The temporary lull in our controversies with the mother country happily enabled him, for a year or two, to give himself up to these peaceful and edifying pursuits with but little distraction.

The port duties imposed upon the Colonies, after the repeal of the Stamp Act, had in their turn been repealed also, with the single exception of the duty of three pence on tea, which,

contemptible as it was in amount, was obstinately retained by the infatuation of Lord North, as a symbol of the legislative supremacy of England; he madly declaring that a total repeal, which was urged by some of the ablest of his colleagues in the Cabinet, as well as by the leaders of the opposition in Parliament, "was not to be thought of, till America is prostrate at our feet." America wisely contented herself, for a season, with a calm but effectual resistance by associations generally entered into, and for the most part religiously kept, not to consume any tea of British importation, so long as it was the subject of unconstitutional taxation.

A brief period of comparative tranquillity ensued. During this interval we find Mr. Madison, from the bosom of the peaceful retirement in which he was prosecuting his studies with no other discouragement than that of the feeble health he had brought with him from Princeton, cultivating the pleasures of ingenuous friendship in a free epistolary intercourse with some of his late college companions. Among these was young Bradford of Philadelphia, whose name has been already mentioned. He was two or three years the junior of Mr. Madison; but congenial tastes and sentiments formed a strong, mutual attachment between them. The subsequent career of Bradford, first as a gallant officer of the army during a portion of the revolutionary contest, afterwards successively attorney-general,

HIS EARLY CORRESPONDENCE.

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and judge of the supreme court, of Pennsylvania, and finally attorney-general of the United States under the administration of Washington, in which high position his days were prematurely ended, shows how worthy he was of the friendship he inspired.

A cordial and unreserved correspondence was kept up between these two young friends for several years after they left their Alma Mater, from which we propose to offer some extracts as illustrative alike of the early character of Mr. Madison and of the contemporary history of the country. We give entire the first letter, as revealing the inmost sentiments of Mr. Madison's mind on topics of the deepest interest to human life, in a mingled tone of philosophy and friendship, and with an unstudied Addisonian grace, which prefigured the future sage in the youthful friend.

"ORANGE, Virginia, Nov. 9, 1772. "MY DEAR B: You moralize so prettily that, if I were to judge from some parts of your letter of October 13, I should take you for an old philosopher, that had experienced the emptiness of earthly happiness; and I am very glad that you have so early seen through the romantic paintings with which the world is sometimes set off by the sprightly imaginations of the ingenious. You have happily supplied by reading and observation the want of experiment; and therefore I hope you are sufficiently guarded

against the allurements and vanities that beset us on our first entrance on the theatre of life. Yet however nice and cautious we may be in detecting the follies of mankind, and framing our economy according to the precepts of wisdom and religion, I fancy there will commonly remain with us some latent expectation of obtaining more than ordinary happiness and prosperity, till we feel the convincing argument of actual disappointment: though I will not determine whether we shall be much the worse for it, if we do not allow it to intercept our views towards a future state, because strong desires and great hopes instigate us to arduous enterprises, fortitude, and perseverance.

"Nevertheless, a watchful eye must be kept on ourselves, lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the annals of heaven. These thoughts come into my mind, because I am writing to you and thinking of you. As to myself, I am too dull and infirm now to look out for any extraordinary things in this world, for I think my sensations for many months have intimated to me not to expect a long or healthy life; though it may be better with me after some time, but I hardly dare expect it, and therefore have little spirit or elasticity to set about anything that is difficult in acquiring, and useless in possessing after one has exchanged time for eternity. But you have