MS (DLC: Washington Papers); in TJ’s hand; undated, but prepared no later than 23 Nov. 1793 and recorded in SJPL under 22 Nov. 1793 as “Materials for speech to Congress”; with list of topics upside down at foot of verso; bears check marks, probably added by Edmund Randolph, next to each paragraph of text and each item in list of topics; endorsed by Washington. PrC (DLC: TJ Papers, 95: 16291–2); partially blurred and clipped; at head of text by TJ in ink: “Materials for President’s speech to Congress”; lacks check marks.

At some point during an ongoing series of Cabinet meetings to prepare for the forthcoming meeting of Congress, the President had evidently requested that each Cabinet member prepare outlines of the topics and language to be included in his annual address. TJ’s submission—consisting of a column of suggested text for the portions of the address dealing with neutrality issues and a parallel column of notes identifying the specific problems each paragraph was addressing, together with a subjoined list of other topics meriting congressional notification—is conjecturally assigned to this date on the basis of SJPL. Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, and Henry Knox each prepared undated proposals that differed in detail and emphasis. Two of the suggestions, the President’s call for the establishment of a military academy to teach artillery and engineering and the recommendations by Hamilton and Knox for fortifying major harbors, aroused TJ’s opposition in subsequent Cabinet meetings (Fitzpatrick, Writings description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, Washington, D.C., 1931–44, 39 vols. description ends , xxxiii, 160–1; Syrett, Hamilton description begins Harold C. Syrett and others, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1961–87, 27 vols. description ends , xv, 429–30; Randolph, “Heads of subjects to be communicated to congress; some at the opening, others by messages,” DLC: Washington Papers; Knox’s submission, entirely in the form of draft language, is in same, both being filed at the end of November 1793). These documents must have been completed prior to 23 Nov. 1793, when the Cabinet, meeting in Hamilton’s absence, considered and emended a consolidated outline the Attorney General had compiled from them, all of which bear check marks presumably made by Randolph while preparing this comprehensive synopsis (Randolph, “Heads of Matter, to be communicated to congress, either in the speech, or by message, as collected from the notes of the President, and the other gentlemen,” DLC: Washington Papers). At this meeting Randolph was assigned the task of drafting the President’s annual address (Notes of Cabinet Meeting on the President’s Address to Congress, 23 Nov. 1793, and note; Notes of Cabinet Meeting on the President’s Address and Messages to Congress, 28 Nov. 1793, and note). The final version of the address did not use TJ’s language on problems associated with the neutrality crisis. Nor did it adopt his suggestion about the need to delineate more precisely the partition of the National authority between the Civil and Military organs beyond recommending that Congress regulate the jurisdiction of Federal courts in cases concerning the validity of prizes and property brought by belligerents into American ports and that, if such cases were to remain the province of the executive rather than the judiciary, a law would be desirable authorizing the President “to have facts ascertained by the Courts, when, for his own information, he shall request it.” However, the address did touch on all of the other subjects listed by TJ (Fitzpatrick, Writings description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, Washington, D.C., 1931–44, 39 vols. description ends , xxxiii, 163–9).

Jay’s & Wilson’s charges: see TJ to Gouverneur Morris, 26 Aug. 1793, and note. For the subsequent messages to Congress, see George Washington to the Senate and the House of Representatives, [2], [14] Dec. 1793.