1. For TJ’s reply reporting he had accepted the office, see TJ to JJ, 14 Feb. 1790, ALS, UkWC-A (EJ: 00053); microfilm copy of ALS, NNC (EJ: 06653); PrC, DLC: Jefferson (EJ: 10215); PTJ description begins Julian T. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (42 vols. to date; Princeton, N.J., 1950–) description ends , 16: 180–81.

2. TJ responded he understood he was authorized to hire only one assistant, and there was another highly recommended candidate (Roger Alden, deputy secretary of Congress, who had custody of the congressional papers). Alden thus became the rival of Henry Remsen Jr., JJ’s undersecretary. However as TJ later reported in a letter to William Barton (12 Aug. 1790): “When I arrived here [New York] I found Mr. Alden at the head of the home-office, and Mr. Remsen at that of the foreign office. Neither could descend to a secondary appointment, and yet they were each so well acquainted with their respective departments and the papers in them, that it was extremely desireable to keep both. On this ground of their peculiar familiarity with the papers and proceedings of their respective offices, which made them necessary to me as indexes, I asked permission to appoint two chief clerks.” Congress reluctantly agreed, but since Alden resigned in July 1790, the two positions were consolidated and given to Remsen, who retained the post until April 1792 when he resigned to become teller of the New York branch of the Bank of the United States. See PTJ description begins Julian T. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (42 vols. to date; Princeton, N.J., 1950–) description ends , 15: 519–20; 16: 180; 17: 347–51; PRM description begins E. James Ferguson et al., eds., The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784 (9 vols.; Pittsburgh, Pa., 1973–99) description ends , 7: 67n3.