From Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Harrison Smith, [23 February 1801]
To Samuel Harrison Smith
Monday morn. [23 Feb. 1801]
Th:J. to mr Smith.
The bookbinder promises me 40. copies of the Manual on Thursday morning. your’s therefore might be offered for sale on Saturday. A commee of the H. of R. communicated to me the record of their having elected me &c. I took that occasion to make my acknolegements to the House & to the nation. their communication & my answer are entered on the Journals of the house, & I wish them published. I could give you a copy of my answer, but not of so much of their communication as was verbal, because I had it not in writing. you could probably get it from their clerk.
RC (DLC: J. Henley Smith Papers); partially dated; addressed: “Mr. Saml. H. Smith”; endorsed by Smith.
Offered for sale: the advertisement for TJ’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice first appeared in the National Intelligencer on Friday, 27 Feb.
Smith immediately published the communication of the House committee to the president-elect and TJ’s answer of 20 Feb. (National Intelligencer, 23 Feb. 1801).