From George Washington to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 9 November 1792
To the United States Senate and House of Representatives
United States [Philadelphia] November 9th 1792.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives;
I now lay before you, a letter from the Secretary of State, covering the copy of one from the Governor of Virginia, with the several papers therein referred to, on the subject of the boundary between that State, and the territory of the United States, south of the river1 Ohio. It will remain with the Legislature to take such measures, as it shall think best, for settling the said boundary with that State, and at the same time, if it thinks proper, for extending the settlement to the State of Kentucky, between which and the same territory, the boundary is, as yet, undetermined.2
George Washington.
Copy, DNA: RG 233, Second Congress, 1791–93, House Records of Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages; LB, DLC:GW; Df (letterpress copy), in George Taylor, Jr.’s writing, DLC: Jefferson Papers. The date of “Nov. 8. 1792” on the letterpress copy of the draft is in Jefferson’s writing.
1. The word “river” does not appear in either the letter-book copy or the draft.
2. For the letters of Thomas Jefferson and Virginia governor Henry Lee, and the several affidavits and reports that were enclosed in Lee’s letter, and for background on the Virginia and Kentucky boundary disputes, see Jefferson to GW, 2 Nov. 1792 (first letter), and source note and note 1.