Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to the House of Representatives, 20 April 1802

To the House of Representatives

Gentlemen of the
house of Representatives

I transmit you a report from the Secretary of state with the information desired by a resolution of the house of representatives of the 8th. of January relative to certain spoliations and other proceedings therein referred to.

Th: Jefferson

RC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 7th Cong., 1st sess.); endorsed by a House clerk. PrC (DLC). Recorded in SJL with notation “Rep. of Sy. of state & documents on Span. spolians.” Printed with enclosures in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–61, 38 vols. description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:440–58.

The RESOLUTION of 8 Jan. asked the president “to cause to be laid before this House such information and documents as are in possession of the Department of State, relative to spoliations committed on the commerce of the United States, under Spanish authority; and, also, relative to the imprisonment of the American Consul at Saint Jago de Cuba.” The House appointed James A. Bayard and John Randolph to present the resolution to TJ. Just prior to adopting the measure, the House approved a resolution that requested estimates of the costs of implementing the Convention of 1800. TJ responded to the resolution about the convention, which Randolph and Bayard also conveyed to him, within a few days of its passage (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:43; TJ to the House of Representatives, 12 Jan. 1802).

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