1. Letter not found. Mifflin’s endorsement of JJ’s letter indicates that his letter referred to his concerns over residents of Connecticut who claimed title (and disputed title held by settlers from Pennsylvania and New York) for land in the “Connecticut Gore,” the territory on the New York-Pennsylvania border.

The controversy over these lands arose due to a title dispute between New York and Connecticut over a strip of land in what is now Steuben County, N.Y. The land, 8 miles wide (northsouth) and 240 miles long (east-west) was above the New York-Pennsylvania line and below the Massachusetts-Connecticut line (if extended). Connecticut claimed title to this land, like the Western Reserve, under its 1662 “sea-to-sea” charter. Settlers from New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut settled in the area. In 1795, Connecticut sold the Gore to Jeremiah Halsey and Andrew Ward, in exchange for the duo finishing the new state house in Hartford. Halsey and Ward formed the Connecticut Gore Land Company and began granting titles to settlers. On 8 Feb. 1796, JJ wrote to the New York State Senate that “certain persons under pretence of title from a neighbouring state… were by improper practices endeavouring to draw into question the jurisdiction, and to excite opposition to the lawful authority of this state over this tract.” JJ directed the state attorney general, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, to investigate, and he presented those papers to the legislature. In response, the legislature issued a resolution to protect New York’s claims. However, the Gore Company upon hearing this, preempted New York’s action by bringing their own ejectments against the New York claimants in U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut, arguing that the land in question was under Connecticut’s jurisdiction. Justice Cushing presided, with the Connecticut claimants represented by James Sullivan and Theophilus Parsons. The New York defendants were represented by Hoffman and AH. Indeed, the legal case of the New Yorkers was entirely directed and paid for by New York State. Concurrently, New York and Connecticut attempted to resolve the matter out of court. Matters of borders and of legal jurisdiction, state and federal, were clearly the larger issues at stake in this dispute. Eventually, after much negotiation and a separate suit between the two states before the Supreme Court, Connecticut ceded claim to the Gore in exchange for the Western Reserve lands (now northeastern Ohio). DHSC description begins Maeva Marcus et al., eds., The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800 (8 vols.; New York, 1985–2007) description ends , 8: 178–270 and LPAH description begins Julius Goebel Jr. and Joseph Smith, et al., eds., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton (5 vols.; New York: 1964–81) description ends , 1: 657–73; N.Y. Senate Journal, 19th sess. (1796) description begins [New York State], Journal of the Senate of the state of New-York. At their nineteenth session, begun and held at the City-Hall, of the city of New-York, on Wednesday, the sixth of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six (New York, 1796; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 30871) description ends , 34, 44, 45, 50–51, 68. See Josiah Ogden Hoffman to JJ, 14 Dec. 1797, below; JJ to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., 4 Dec. 1799, Dft, NNC (EJ: 08998); and JJ’s Address to the New York State Legislature, 28 Jan. 1800, ADS, PHi: Gratz (EJ: 01135); PtD, New-York Gazette, 3 Feb.; Argus, Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser and Spectator (both New York), 5 Feb.; Massachusetts Mercury (Boston), 7 Feb.; Newburyport Herald, 7 Feb.; Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 8 Feb.; Universal Gazette (Philadelphia), 13 Feb. 1800; N.Y. Assembly Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) description begins [New York State], Journal of the Assembly of the state of New-York; at their twenty-third session, began and held at the city of Albany, the twenty-eighth day of January, 1800 (Albany, [1800]; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 38084) description ends [28 Jan. 1800], 5–7; N.Y. Senate Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) description begins [New York State], Journal of the Senate of the state of New-York; at their twenty-third session, began and held at the city of Albany, the twenty-eighth day of January, 1800 (Albany, [1799]; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, 38085) description ends [28 Jan. 1800], 4–6; NYGM description begins State of New York, Messages from the Governors comprising Executive Communications to the Legislature and other Papers relating to Legislation from the Organization of the First Colonial Assembly in 1683 to and including the Year 1906 vol. 2 1777–1822 (Albany, 1909) description ends , 2: 448–54.