To James Madison from John Williams, 21 January 1822
From John Williams
Senate Chamber Jany. 21st 1822.
D Sir
Enclosed I send you an argument in support of the claim of Massachusetts depending before Congress.1 This claim will be much pressed during the present Session. Present my respects to Mrs. Madison and accept for yourself assurances of my sinsere regard.
John Williams2
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. This was probably the Report on the Merits of the Claim of the State of Massachusetts, on the National Government for Expenses of the Militia, during the Late War, to the Governor and Council of the Commonwealth. January, 1821. (Boston, 1822; Shoemaker 9414).
2. John Williams (1778–1837) was born in North Carolina but moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he began to practice law in 1803. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain, 1799–1800, and as colonel of the U.S. Thirty-Ninth Infantry during the War of 1812, when he took part in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He was attorney general of Tennessee, 1807–8, and represented his state in the U.S. Senate, 1815–23. President Adams appointed him chargé d’affaires to the Central American Federation in 1825, and he lived in Guatemala until December 1826 (McBride and Robison, Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, 1:794–95).