To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington, 14 May 1793
From George Washington
May 14th: 1793.
The President sends to the Secretary of State the enclosed Extract which he has just received from a respectable Gentleman in this City—who informs him that the writer is a person of respectability and good information in London. The President wishes it to be shewn to the Gentlemen if they are still together.
RC (DLC); in the hand of Tobias Lear; endorsed by TJ as received 14 May 1793.
Although the enclosed letter is unsigned, and although the President evidently sought to conceal the identity of the author, TJ may have recognized John Vaughan’s handwriting. There is no evidence of the reaction to Vaughan’s letter by the Gentlemen of the Cabinet, who met on 13, 14, and 15 May to consider TJ’s response to George Hammond’s complaints about French violations of American neutrality (, 132, 137; Memorandum from Alexander Hamilton and Edmund Randolph, printed under 13 May 1793; TJ to Hammond, 15 May 1793; TJ to Jean Baptiste Ternant, 15 May 1793).