To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington, 19 March 1793
From George Washington
March 19th. 1793
The President returns to the Secretary of State the letter and enclosures from Colo. Humphreys—and sends him a letter just received from Mr. Ellicott.
The President wishes the Secretary’s opinion whether the direction to the Director of the Mint for collecting and assaying certain foreign Coins agreeably to the law—“regulating foreign Coins” &c—should go directly from the President to this Officer—or whether it should go through the Secretary of State.
RC (DLC); in the hand of Tobias Lear; endorsed by TJ as received 20 Mch. 1793. Recorded in SJPL. Enclosures: (1) David Humphreys to TJ, 25 Jan. 1793, and enclosures. (2) Andrew Ellicott to Washington, 16 Mch. 1793, reporting his dismissal as surveyor by the Commissioners of the Federal District and demanding that the accuracy of his work be judged by “men of known professional abilities in that way” (printed in Sally K. Alexander, “A Sketch of the Life of Major Andrew Ellicott,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, ii [1899], 189–90).
TJ had sent the President the letter from Humphreys earlier the same day (, 94).