Madison, James, 1751-1836 to Edmund Pendleton re: waiting foreign dispatches on peace talks; selling slave

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GLC#
GLC06757
Type
Letters
Date
1782/08/06
Author/Creator
Madison, James, 1751-1836
Title
to Edmund Pendleton re: waiting foreign dispatches on peace talks; selling slave
Place Written
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pagination
1 p. : docket Height: 24.8 cm, Width: 19.7 cm
Primary time period
American Revolution, 1763-1783
Sub-Era
The War for Independence

Awaiting news of peace talks and personal advice regarding impossibility of selling a slave. Madison notes that while European newspapers "teem with paragraphs relative to pacific negotiations" but past British policy "should always restrain our hopes of peace from circumscribing our preparations for war." In July 1782 the Earl of Sherlburne took over the ministry and in early August he agreed to enter formal negotiations with the Americans. Madison also talks about selling a slave: "Upon recollection, it will be impossible to dispose of the slave in this state[,] there being a legal institution ag[ain]st it. Even his coming into [Philadelphia] will operate as a manumission, unless the case of runaway ... [is] provided...." Pendleton had earlier asked Madison's help in helping locate a runaway slave of Pendleton's nephew and, if found, to either lodge him in jail or sell him for 100 pounds or more. See Madison Papers 5: 27 and EP's letter to JM 29 July 1782 (4: 442-3). Madison also is responding here to the unexpected Pennsylvania abolition act of 1780, which suddenly raised deep legal issues of comity.

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