The publication of the Jefferson–Madison correspondence is an event, for all who take a serious interest in American politics, that should have happened a long time ago. The letters have been available in older, separate editions of the works of the two founders, and also in the newer, critical editions of their “papers,” still far from completion, which are turned out, one volume at a time, with such agonizing slowness as to suggest an involuntary retentiveness in the editors. But here, suddenly, are three beautiful volumes all at once, and of the whole correspondence. They are a credit to both editor and publisher.

James Morton Smith, the editor, helped produce The Adams–Jefferson Letters(edited by Lester J. Cappon and published in 1959), an exchange remarkable for its charm and detachment. Now he gives us Jefferson’s correspondence with Madison, an even more valuable resource, with just as much philosophy but also full of the business at hand and the confidences necessary for common action. The letters are organized chronologically into chapters, each beginning with an introduction by Smith that provides the context of the period (usually a year or two, depending on the frequency of the