To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 9 March 1793
From Thomas Jefferson
[Philadelphia] Mar. 9. 93.
Th: Jefferson presents his respects to the President & sends him a letter put into his hands by Govr St Clair.1 he also sends him Govr Clinton’s answer, this moment received. he does not say how it happened that Th: J’s letter of Feb. 17. did not get to him till Feb. 28. it was certainly put into the Post office here on the morning of Feb. 18.2 it must be presumed the Govr has been absent from New York.
AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State; LB (photocopy), DLC:GW.
1. Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the Northwest Territory, had written to Gov. Arthur St. Clair on 19 Jan. 1793, complaining about rioting, public disturbances, and citizens’ efforts to gain legal redress in the territory. Sargent blamed the problems not only on a lack of laws but also on the absence or laxness of the judges who were meant to enforce them ( 3:399–404).
2. The letters from Jefferson to George Clinton of 17 Feb. and Clinton to Jefferson of 5 Mar. are printed in 25:215–16, 317. For more information on GW’s efforts to attain copies of past treaties between the state of New York and various Indian nations, see GW to Edmund Randolph, 12 Feb., Tobias Lear to Jefferson, 17 Feb. 1793, and note 3.