authoritative, to expect him to incorporate these mistakes in his Debates.[1]
Another extensive set of corrections is to be found in the speeches made in debate. These are generally in the form of additions to Madison’s original record. Because of misquotations of his own remarks, Madison condemned Yates’s notes severely, as being a “very erroneous edition of the matter”.[2] It is more than surprising, then, to discover that these additions were taken from Yates. Such proves to have been the case, however, and in over fifty instances. There were a number of speeches or remarks, including several of his own, that Madison failed to note in any form, but later thought worthy of inclusion. And there were also new ideas or shades of thought which Yates had noticed but which Madison failed to catch.
The fact of these changes being made does not rest merely upon the wording of the text and Madison’s statement in 1821 that he was intending to prepare his notes for posthumous publication. The manuscript[3] shows that most of the changes thus made are easily recognizable. The ink which was used at the later date has faded quite differently from that of the original notes, so that most of the later revisions stand out from the page almost as clearly as if they had been written in red ink.[4]
- ↑ It should be noted that Madison was at least seventy years old when these revisions of his manuscript were made, and it is not to be wondered at that he did not always show the accuracy and discrimination for which the work of his earlier years has given him a reputation. And if it be true, as suggested below, note 23, that Madison made these revisions at two different times, it would be quite natural for him to make more radical changes in the second revision, when he had accustomed himself to the idea of changes being necessary, or when he had forgotten the criteria of his earlier revision.
- ↑ References under note 13 above.
- ↑ In the keeping of the Bureau of Rolls and Library, Department of State, Washington, D. C.
- ↑ This is not always the case, for the original manuscript has faded differently in different parts, perhaps because of different exposure or the use of more than one kind of ink. There also seem to have been at least two distinct sets of later corrections, probably made at different times. It is, therefore, sometimes difficult and sometimes impossible to determine whether or not the correction is a later one. A reference to the “printed Journal” must of course be of a later date than 1819, and the ink and writing of these words will frequently make clear all of the corrections of that date. It is also very helpful to know that it was Madison’s invariable practise in his original notes to refer to himself as “M” or “Mr. M.” In the revision of his manuscript he filled out his own name, so that the ink and writing of “adison” often furnish the necessary clue.
A note at the end of the Debates, formally signed by Madison, “The few alterations and corrections made in these debates which are not in my handwriting, were dictated by me and made in my presence by John C. Payne” (Records of September 17), undoubtedly refers to this revision. Hunt, Writings of Madison, IV, 456, states that a slight correction on September 14 is the only one in Payne’s handwriting, but the present editor is unwilling to accept this, although unable to make any other positive determination for himself. The editor of the Documentary History confesses his inability to distinguish between the two handwritings (III, 771, marginal note).
In publishing Madison’s notes in volume III of the Documentary History, the attempt was made to show all corrections of the manuscript by the use of small type, but this includes every correction whether made at the time of first writing or later. It is also misleading in that small type is used where Madison was forced to write in a cramped hand at the end of a line or the bottom of a page, and many places are overlooked where there happened to be sufficient space in the manuscript to enable Madison to make the correction in his natural handwriting.
