Letter to Congress on the Matter of the "Shutdown"

The following letter was sent to Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader John Thune, Senator Rick Scott of Florida and Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff to the President, for distribution to all members of Congress.  The letter was sent in script and with James Madison's actual personal seal.

October 31, 2025

To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:

It is with deep regret that I observe your present discord and the paralysis into which the operations of government have fallen. The cessation of your public business—styled in modern parlance a “shutdown”—is a lamentable exhibition of that very factional spirit against which I and my compatriots most earnestly warned. When the representatives of a free people allow their party interests to eclipse the nation’s welfare, the temple of liberty itself trembles.
Neither side may rightly claim innocence. The one errs in obstinate attachment to its own philosophy, the other in equal obstinacy of opposition. The effect is the same: the people, whose toil furnishes the revenues and whose trust sustains this Republic, are made the victims of your contention. The doors of public service are closed; the confidence of citizens is shaken; and the reputation of American self-government is impaired before the eyes of the world.
Let it be remembered that the Constitution was contrived not to serve parties, but to preserve a Union of states and of minds under laws freely made. It demands from you not victory over your adversaries, but concord in the service of the common good. Compromise is not a sign of weakness, but of wisdom—the very “reason and choice” by which we sought to prove that men are capable of governing themselves.
I beseech you, therefore, to resume deliberation in the spirit of the Constitution itself: with many heads to consider, and many hands to execute, yet with one heart devoted to the general welfare. Restore the operations of government not for the triumph of a party, but for the vindication of republican principle.
May prudence and patriotism once more govern your councils, lest this generation forfeit the example we endeavored to set.
 
Redii pro Deo et Patriae
 
With the highest respect and esteem,
I remain your most obedient servant,

sig. James Madison