From George Washington to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 30 December 1791
To the United States Senate and House of Representatives
United States [Philadelphia] December 30th 1791.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives.
I lay before you a copy of the ratification, by the Commonwealth of Virginia, of the Articles of amendment proposed by Congress to the Constitution of the United States; and a copy of a letter which accompanied said ratification from the Governor of Virginia.1
Go: Washington.
LB, DLC:GW; copy, DNA: RG 233, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Legislative Proceedings, Journals.
1. GW enclosed a copy of Gov. Henry Lee’s letter of 22 Dec. with the resolutions of the Virginia legislature ratifying the last eleven of the twelve proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution (Vi: Executive Letterbook). The Virginia house of delegates agreed to the first of the proposed articles on 25 Oct. 1791, and the state senate concurred on 3 November. GW transmitted a copy of this ratification to Congress on 11 November. The remaining eleven articles were approved by the house of delegates on 5 Dec., and the Virginia senate concurred on 15 Dec. (, 13:327–29). Tobias Lear transmitted to the secretary of state on this date the original of Lee’s letter to GW of 22 Dec. and its enclosures (DLC: Thomas Jefferson Papers).