Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

May 31, 1848.

Chap.[Chapter] LII. — An Act to provide for the Purchase of the Manuscript Papers of the late James Madison, former President of the United States.
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$25,000 appropriated for the purchase of all the unpublished manuscripts of the late James Madison.

Manner in which the above sum is to be paid to Mrs. Madison.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to purchase of Mrs. D. P. Madison, widow of the late James Madison, formerly President of the United States, all the unpublished manuscript papers of the said James Madison now belonging to and in her possession; and upon delivery thereof to the Secretary of State, with a proper conveyance of title to the United States, the said sum of money, upon the certificate of the Secretary of State of the delivery and conveyance of said papers, shall be paid at the treasury, agreeably to the wishes of the said Mrs. Madison, and in the manner following, namely: five thousand dollars of said sum of twenty-five thousand dollars to be paid to her; and the residue of twenty thousand to James Buchanan, now Secretary of State, John Y. Mason, Secretary of the Navy, and Richard Smith, Esq.[Esquire], of Washington City, to be held, put out to interest, vested in stocks, or otherwise managed and disposed of by them, or the survivor or survivors of them, as trustees for the said Mrs. Madison, according to their best discretion and her best advantage — the interest or profit arising from the said principal sum to be paid over to her as the same accrues — the said principal sum to be and remain inalienable during her lifetime, as a permanent fund for her maintenance, but subject to be disposed of as she may please by her last will and testament.

Approved, May 31, 1848.
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1 John J. Crittenden introduced S.[Senate] 31 in the Senate on December 23, 1847. The Senate read the bill the first and second times and, by unanimous consent, considered it as Committee of the Whole. On motion of Ambrose H. Sevier, the Senate ordered the measure postponed to and made a special order of the day for December 27. The Senate ordered the House report of March 9, 1846, be printed and distributed. On December 29, the Senate resumed consideration of the bill as Committee of the Whole. No amendment being made, the Committee of the Whole reported the bill to the Senate, which ordered that it be engrossed and read a third time. The bill received a third reading and, on the motion of Andrew P. Butler, the Senate postponed further deliberation until December 30. The Senate resumed consideration on December 30 and passed the bill 22 to 13. The Senate informed the House of the bill’s passage that same day. On January 12, 1848, the House read S. 31 a first and second time and referred it to the Committee of the Whole House for attention as the order of the day for January 13. On May 20, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole to resume consideration. Alexander H. Stephens offered a resolution that debate in the Committee of the Whole on the bill cease within ten minutes after the Committee resumed its deliberation and that the Committee vote on such amendments and report the bill with amendments to the House. The House approved this resolution and voted to read the bill a third time. The House read the bill a third time and passed it 82 to 59, with Abraham Lincoln voting in the affirmative. On May 30, the Senate Committee on Enrolled Bills sent the enrolled bill to the House for examination. The House Committee on Enrolled Bills found it truly enrolled, and Speaker Robert C. Winthrop signed it and sent it back to the Senate. Vice President George M. Dallas signed the enrolled bill as president of the Senate, and on May 31 the Senate and House committees delivered their enrolled bills to President James K. Polk. The president approved and signed the act on May 31. Journal of the Senate of the United States of America: Being the First Session of the Thirtieth Congress; Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 6, 1847, in the Seventy-Second Year of the Independence of the United States (Washington: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1847-48), 72, 79, 83, 362, 365, 368;Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States: Being the First Session of the Thirtieth Congress; Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 6, 1847, in the Seventy-Second Year of the Independence of the United States (Washington: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1847-48), 168, 227, 829-30, 850, 864.

2On June 8, 1848, Dolley Madison delivered the manuscripts to the State Deparment. Unbeknownst to her, John Payne Todd, her son by her first marriage, had removed some of the more important documents from the collection before delivery. The $25,000 allocated was for the remainder of Madison’s papers in Dolley Madison’s possession. On March 4, 1837, Congress paid $30,000 for first cache, which appeared in 1840 under the title The Papers of James Madison, Purchased by Order of Congress; Being His Correspondence and Reports of Debates During the Congress of the Confederation and his Reports of Debates in the Federal Convention; Now Published from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State, by Direction of the Joint Library Committee of Congress, Under the Superintendence of Henry D. Gilpin. In the winter of 1843-44, Dolley Madison offered Congress the entire writings of her husband. On January 13, 1846, the House appointed a committee to investigate the expediency of the purchase. On March 9, the committee submitted its report and reported a bill to provide for the acquisition. In February 1847, the Senate passed a bill to purchase the manuscripts, but the House did not concur. William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal, eds., The Papers of James Madison: Volume 1, 16 March 1751-16 December 1779 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), xvii, xx-xxii;Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States Being the First Session of the Twenty-Ninth Congress; Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 1, 1845, in the Seventieth Year of the Independence of the United States (Washington: Ritchie & Jeiss, 1845-46); 243, 499-500; Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States Being the Second Session of the Twenty-Ninth Congress; Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 7, 1846, in the Seventy-First Year of the Independence of the United States (Washington: Ritchie & Heiss, 1846-47), 430, 458, 524; Journal of the Senate of the United States of America: Being the Second Session of the Twenty-Ninth Congress; Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 7, 1846, in the Seventieth-First Year of the Independence of the United States (Washington: Ritchie & Heiss, 1846-47); 221, 229; Catherine Allgor, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation (New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 379.