From Thomas Jefferson to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 22 February 1792
To the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Philadelphia February 22d. 1792.
Sir
I have the honor to enclose you copies of the Laws adopted and published by the Governor and Judges of the Territory North-west of the Ohio, according to the Resolution of the House of Representatives of the United States of the 10th. instant. The six last of these only have come to hand since the commencement of the present Government, all those preceding the year 1790 having been received by the Congress of the former Government. Some of these Acts are without date, and one without signature, which I mention to assure you that in these circumstances as well as all others, they are strictly conformable to the copies deposited in my office.—I have the honor to be with the most profound esteem and respect, Sir Your most obedient and most humble Servant.
PrC (DLC); in hand of George Taylor, unsigned. FC (DNA: RG 360, DL). Entry in SJPL reads: “Th: J. to Sp. H. R. with laws of N.W. territory.”
The laws TJ transmitted governed the militia, the establishment of a court system and legal proceedings, the administration of oaths, the setting of crimes and punishments, establishment of marriage, appointment of coroners, and the regulation of liquor and gambling, all of which are reprinted in Theodore Calvin Pease, ed., The Laws of the Northwest Territory, 1788–1800, Illinois State Historical Library, Collections, xvii (1925), 1–41. See also , I, 505; and TJ to George Washington, 23 Aug. 1791 and note.