The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCXXXV
ⅭⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩⅤ. James Madison to President Monroe.[1]
I have been truly astonished at some of the doctrines and declarations to which the Missouri question has led; and particularly so at the interpretation put on the terms “migration or importation &c”. Judging from my own impressions I shd. deem it impossible that the memory of any one who was a member of the Genl. Convention, could favor an opinion that the terms did not exclusively refer to migration & importation, into the U. S. Had they been understood in that Body in the sense now put on them, it is easy to conceive the alienation they would have there created in certain States: and no one can decide better than yourself the effect they would had in the State conventions, if such a meaning had been avowed by the advocates of the Constitution. If a suspicion had existed of such a construction, it wd. at least have made a conspicuous figure among the amendments proposed to the Instrument.
- ↑ Documentary History of the Constitution, Ⅴ, 307.