The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCXXXIII

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩⅢ. James Madison to Robert Walsh.^[1]

Montpr. Jany 11. 1820.

It is far from my purpose to resume a subject on which I have perhaps already exceeded the proper limits. But having spoken with so confident a recollection of the meaning attached by the Convention to the term “migration” which seems to be an important hinge in the argument, I may be permitted merely to remark that Mr. Wilson,^[*] with the proceedings of that assembly fresh on his mind, distinctly applies the term to persons coming to the U. S. from abroad, (see his printed speech p. 59): and that a consistency of the passage cited from the Federalist with my recollections, is preserved by the discriminating term “beneficial” added to “voluntary emigrations from Europe to America”

* ↑  See letter of J. M. to Mr. Walsh of Novr. 27. 1819 [ⅭⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩⅡ above.]

1. Documentary History of the Constitution, Ⅴ, 306.