1. The previous Tuesday and Wednesday were 14 and 15 April.

2. For the summons to the Senate, see GW to John Adams, 3 March and source note. Randolph sent a letter to “three nonanswering Senators” on 27 April: Jacob Read of South Carolina, Timothy Bloodworth of North Carolina, and Stevens Thomson Mason of Virginia. He expressed apprehension “that some accident may have befallen my dispatches” sent the previous March and requested the senators to “acknowledge the receipt of this letter” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).

Elijah Paine (1757–1842) of Vermont briefly joined the Revolutionary war effort at age nineteen, but decided to enter Harvard College in 1777. He studied law following his graduation in 1781 and gained admittance to the bar three years later. Paine moved to Vermont where he helped establish the town of Williamstown in 1784. He became an influential farmer and a political leader in his new state. Paine served as secretary to the Vermont constitutional convention of 1786; a representative in the state legislature, 1787–90; and a judge of the Vermont Supreme Court, 1791–93. Paine supported the Federalists and served in the U.S. Senate from 4 March 1795 until 1801, and voted in favor of the Jay Treaty.

Timothy Bloodworth (1736–1814), a longtime North Carolina state legislator, served in the U.S. Senate from 1795 to 1801.

Stevens Thomson Mason (1760–1803) of Virginia was born in Stafford County and served as an aide to GW during the siege of Yorktown. He developed an interest in politics after the war and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1783. Four years later Mason was elected as a state senator and served in that body until 1790. In 1794 Mason was elected to the U.S. Senate when GW appointed James Monroe as the new U.S. minister to France. Mason served in that body until his death.

3. This letter has not been identified.

4. Randolph’s response to Benjamin Goodhue has not been identified. Randolph informed the governors in his circular of 16 April, “As it is contrary to the law of nations, that any of the belligerent powers should commit hostility on the waters, which are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; so ought not the ships of war, belonging to any belligerent power to take a station in those waters, in order to carry on hostile expeditions from thence.” Each governor, “in the name of the President” must take the following action: whenever “a fleet, squadron or ship of any belligerent nation shall clearly and unequivocally use the rivers or other waters of” a state, “as a station, in order to carry on hostile expeditions from thence,” governors must notify “the commander thereof, that the President deems such conduct to be contrary to the rights of our neutrality; and that a demand of retribution will be urged upon their government, for prizes, which may be made in consequence thereof.” Randolph recommended that the governors place “A standing order to this effect … in the hands of some confidential officer of the militia,” and instruct them to notify the state department by mail “immediately upon the happening of any case of the kind” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; see also ASP description begins Walter Lowrie et al., eds. American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, D.C., Gales and Seaton, 1832–61. description ends , Foreign Relations, 1:608). Randolph based this circular upon his letter of 15 April to Gov. Robert Brooke (DNA, RG 59, Domestic Letters).

5. An extract of a letter from the son of New York merchant George Codwise, dated London, 11 Dec. 1794, was printed in Andrew Brown’s Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser of 16 April. “I have seen Mr Jay but once since my arrival … he informs me that ample satisfaction will be made for all American property unlawfully condemned by the British. I stated to him our case, which he thinks is very clear, and advises me to appeal immediately; and says, that as soon as the treaty … is ratified, Congress will appoint two commissioners, and this court the same, who will appoint an umpire, and decide all cases that is cast off by the court of appeals—that the captors will be obliged to refund the property; those that are insufficient government is bound to make good.”

6. For the invitation to a civic festival to celebrate the recent French victory over the Netherlands, see Benjamin Franklin Bache et al. to GW, 11 April. A newspaper report about the civic festival held on 17 April announced that the activities began at sunrise with the firing of seven guns. At 10:00 A.M. fifteen guns signaled the gathering of an assembly in the center square of the city. Led by a band that trilled military music, American, French, and Dutch participants carried the flags of the three countries to a garden that belonged to the French Minister. There they erected a center altar on which they placed a statue of liberty and gathered the flags of the three nations in front. The celebrants circled the altar and sang the “hymn of liberty,” after which they heard several speeches, including one from the French Minister. The festival concluded with the discharge of twenty-one guns and the singing of patriotic songs. At 3:00 P.M. nearly 400 celebrants gathered at Oeller’s hotel for “a sumptuous repast” and additional celebrations (Aurora General Advertiser [Philadelphia], 20 April).

7. Aaron Burr (1756–1836) graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) in 1772. During the Revolution he participated in the 1775 Canadian expedition. He served briefly on GW’s staff the following year and then commanded a regiment in the 1778 Battle of Monmouth. He resigned from the army the following year. In 1783 Burr moved to New York City and worked as a lawyer. He served in the state assembly, 1784–85, and was appointed New York attorney general in 1789. Burr served his only term as U.S. senator 1791–97.