LOL! How hypocritical. You 'imply' with every breath, yet discount implications stated by others.
It's quite simple to verify letters to Madison, his collection is in the Library of Congress. Looking under 'Rives' brings up only 2 letters concerning the first name Alexander...both TO Madison. None are from him. [ http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/madison_papers/nameR.html ]
Nor is this letter to Rives listed at http://www.constitution.org/jm/jm.htm , which is another index of Madison letters. The Trist letter, however is listed.
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From the letter:
The compact can only be dissolved by the consent of the other parties, or by usurpations or abuses of power justly having that effect.
Skipped right over that part, didn't you?
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This particular letter also contains a 'for your eyes only missive:
But being aware that without more development & precision, they may in some instances be liable to misapprehension or misconstruction, I will ask the favour of you to return the letter after it has passed under your partial & confidential eye.
'Partial eye'? Maybe Madison knew the recipient was biased against secession.
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Not to mention Madison himself said that, due to advanced age, his judgment was questionable.
But I am unwilling to enter the political field with the "telum imbelle" which alone I could wield. The task of combating such unhappy aberrations belongs to other hands. A man whose years have but reached the canonical three-score-&-ten (and mine are much beyond the number) should distrust himself, whether distrusted by his friends or not, and should never forget that his arguments, whatever they may be will be answered by allusions to the date of his birth.
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You continue to use material Madison wrote in his later years while ignoring information such as the Federalist paper which Madison wrote in the prime of life and while in full possession of his facilities.....why?
"Applying a like view of the subject to the case of the U. S. it results, that the compact being among individuals as imbodied into States, no State can at pleasure release itself therefrom, and set up for itself. The compact can only be dissolved by the consent of the other parties, or by usurpations or abuses of power justly having that effect. It will hardly be contended that there is anything in the terms or nature of the compact, authorizing a party to dissolve it at pleasure."
Was Madison dotty in 1830 as well?
You continue to use material Madison wrote in his later years while ignoring information such as the Federalist paper which Madison wrote in the prime of life and while in full possession of his facilities.....why?
Because during the period when Madison was making clear his dismissal of the whole concept of secession without the consent of the other states he had watched the Constitution in action for 40 years. He had seen how others would abuse it and find meanings in it that weren't there to begin with. By 1830 states had threatened to walk out of the Union in a snit on several occasions, when writing the Federalist Papers it had never been discussed or, probably, contemplated. It's natural that Madison would be in a position to clarify what the founders had intended. I've seen nothing that would make me believe that any of then every intended actions like unilateral secession guaranteed to cause hostility and acrimony. And Madison makes it clear he believed likewise.