Enclosure: From Thomas Jefferson to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 18 February 1793
Enclosure: From Thomas Jefferson to the United States Senate and House of Representatives
Philadelphia February1 18th 1793.
Sir,
The Commissioners of the Territory of the United States on the Potomac having, according to law, had the said Territory surveyed and defined by proper metes and bounds, and transmitted their report with a plat of the boundary, I have now the honor to lay them before you. As this work has been executed under the authority of the Legislature, I presume it would be proper to communicate the Report to them, and to submit the Plat also to their inspection, that they may be duly informed of the progress of the work.2
I have to add that these papers, being original, are again to be deposited with the Records in the Office of the Department of State. I have the honor to be, with Sentiments of the most perfect esteem and attachment, Sir, Your most obedient and Most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson
LS (letterpress copy), DLC: Jefferson Papers; LB, DLC:GW; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters.
1. The copyist originally wrote “January” at this place in the dateline of the LS; Jefferson later crossed out the letters “Jan” and inserted “Febr” above the line.
2. On the commissioners’ transmittal of the plat to Jefferson, see Jefferson to GW, 18 Feb., n.1. The plat has not been identified. The enclosed “Commissioners Report” of 1 Jan. 1793 declared that the boundary of the federal district had been “surveyed, defined and limited by Andrew Ellicott,” and it described the “four lines” and the “square mile stones” that defined the district (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings). GW enclosed this report and the plat of the District of Columbia with his letter to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives of 18 Feb. (see also 58).