George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-15-02-0239

From George Washington to John Jay and Rufus King, 3 March 1794

To John Jay and Rufus King

Philadelphia 3d March 1794

I certify, that the transcript below, which was permitted to be extracted from a report of the Secretary of State to the President of the United States, (dated the 10th of July 1793) by the Secretaries of Treasury and War, and inserted by them in a statement of certain facts published in Dunlap & Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser No. 4581. is a correct quotation from the original.

“On repeating to him” (the Governor, Mr Jefferson says) “and Mr Dallas what Mr Genet had said, we found that it agreed in many particulars with what he had said to Mr Dallas: but Mr Dallas mentioned somethings which he had not said to me, and particularly his declaration that he would appeal from the President to the People.” 1

B. D.
Secy to the P.U.S.

The above certificate was given to Mr Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, and Mr King, Senator from the State of New York, upon the Express condition that it should not be published, nor shewn, during my Continuance in the Administration of the Government of the United States; unless very imperious circumstances should arise to call it forth: nor then, or at any time thereafter, without first obtaining my consent. The object for requiring, & the motive to granting it, being, that it might remain with them as an evidence that they were not the Authors of the report “That Mr Genet had declared he would appeal from the President to the People.” 2

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ADS, NjP:De Coppet Collection. GW’s docket reads, “Certificate &ca. To—Mr John Jay—& Mr Rufus King 3d March 1794.”

1For the report from which the following extract was made by Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, see Thomas Jefferson’s Memorandum of a Conversation with Edmond Charles Genet, 10 July 1793 (Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 26:463–67). The extract was included in an article printed on page 3 of the 17 Dec. 1793 issue, number 4581, of Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia). The conversations alluded to in this extract are Jefferson’s discussion with Pennsylvania governor Thomas Mifflin and Alexander J. Dallas and an earlier one between Edmond Genet and Dallas in which, allegedly, Genet made his controversial declaration.

2GW personally handed the certificate to Rufus King on this same date (see GW to Knox, 15 Feb., and notes).

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