To George Washington from Charles Lee, 14 February 1797
From Charles Lee
Philadelphia 14th February 1797
Sir
I have examined the journals of the House of Representatives and also of the Senate respecting your message to Congress of the 18th of February 1793 accompanied with a report and plot of the territory of the United States on Patowmack. In each House an order was made that the message lie on the table.1 On the next day the Clerk of the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate a message with the plot of the territory of the United States on the Patowmack, concerning which no order appears to have been made.2 On the 2d of march following the Senate made an order “that the Secretary return all original papers not addressed to the Senate which have been laid before them during the present session by the President or by any of the Heads of Departments,”3 and on the same day Congress adjourned without day, the term limited by the Constitution expiring on the next day.4 The message of the President does not suggest that any Act was to be done by Congress on the subject, and there is no evidence on the journals that it was even ever taken into their consideration, so that the question what is the plot of the territory of the United States on the Patowmack will rest on transactions concerning which Congress have not declared any opinion and in which they have not taken any part. With perfect respect I have the honor to remain your most obedient servant
Charles Lee
Copy, DLC: Samuel Davidson Papers. No reply to Lee from GW has been found.
Lee probably issued this opinion as a result of Samuel Davidson’s dispute with the D.C. commissioners over his property near President’s Square (now Lafayette Square), and the alleged mishandling of and modifications to Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original plan of the Federal City (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 20 Feb.; see also the commissioners to GW, 3 Feb., and n.1 to that document).
1. With his message to Congress of 18 Feb. 1793, GW transmitted surveyor Andrew Ellicott’s plat of the federal district, a report from the D.C. commissioners of 1 Jan. 1793, and other papers, and asked that they be returned to the State Department “after having answered the purpose of” Congress’s “information” (GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 18 Feb. 1793; see also Thomas Jefferson to GW, same date, and n.1; and Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 5 Jan. 1793). Both the Senate and the House ordered the enclosed papers “to lie on the table” on 18 Feb. 1793 (, 5:124; see also , 5:62).
2. The Senate journal for 19 Feb. 1793 records: “A message from the House of Representatives by Mr. [John] Beckley their clerk:
“‘Mr. President—I am directed to bring to the Senate a plat of the territory of the United States, on the Potomac, as given in by the commissioners of that territory, and which was referred to in the message of the President of the United States, of the 18th instant.’ And he withdrew” (, 5:63).
3. For this order of 2 March 1793, see , 5:88.
4. Congress’s adjournment on 2 March 1793 marked the end of the second session of the Second Congress. The first session of the Third Congress began on 2 Dec. 1793.
Article I, sections 4 and 5 of the U.S. Constitution provide guidelines for the scheduling of congressional sessions but are silent on the issue of adjournment. Section 4 specified that Congress “shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.”