RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 12 Sep. 1793 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Proceedings of Meetings of the Inhabitants of Petersburg and Vicinity, 31 Aug., 2 Sep. 1793, at the first of which a committee of seven, including Peachy, was chosen to draft resolutions on the Proclamation of Neutrality and the government’s neutrality policy, and at the second of which the committee’s resolutions expressing support for American neutrality and the Proclamation—while condemning interference by foreign powers or ministers in American internal affairs as well as any attempts to undermine confidence in the President—were unanimously approved, after which the meeting continued and adopted a resolution stating that it considered “the Combination of the despots of Europe against the Liberties of France” as tending “to destroy the political happiness of Mankind” and wished, despite its support for neutrality, that “Liberty and the Rights of Man may be the prevailing principle’s throughout the Universe” (MS in DLC: Washington Papers; undated; signed by Peachy as chairman; endorsed by Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr.).

Thomas Griffin Peachy (1734–1810), clerk of Amelia County, Virginia, from 1757 to 1791, was an alderman and former mayor of Petersburg. In December 1792 he participated in an abortive effort to found a bank at Richmond (WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892– description ends , 1st ser., i [1892], 26, iii [1894], 112; CVSP description begins William P. Palmer and others, eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers … Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond, Richmond, 1875–93, 11 vols. description ends , iv, 572, vi, 480–2; Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols. description ends xiii, 599).

The context of the Petersburg meetings is described in notes to George Wythe to TJ and Edmund Randolph, 17 Aug. 1793, and James Madison to TJ, 2 Sep. 1793 (second letter).