From George Washington to John Jay, 9 December 1789
To John Jay
Wednesday December 9th 1789
The President of the United States presents to the Chief Justice of the United States a volume of the laws passed in the first Session of the Congress of the United States, and requests his acceptance of the same.1
LB, DLC:GW; copy, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.
A note at the bottom of the letter-book copy indicates that “the same card accompanied a Volume sent to the Secretary of the Treasury—The Secretary of State—The Secretary of War and each of the Associate Justices.”
1. The volume was probably Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, Begun and Held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the Fourth of March, in the Year M,DCC,LXXXIX. And of the Independence of the United States, the Thirteenth . . . , the first edition of the federal statutes, published in New York in 1789 by Francis Childs and John Swaine, official printers to the United States. Jay replied on the same day: “The Chief Justice of the U.S. has recieved, and presents his respectful acknowledgements to the President of the United States for the elegant Edition of the Laws passed in the first Session of Congress, with which the President condescended to honor him this morning” (DNA:PCC, item 78).