To Thomas Jefferson from Robert Bowie, 28 December 1803
From Robert Bowie
Council Chamber [28] December 1803
Sir,
In pursuance of a Resolution of the Senate of this State, I have the honor of transmitting to you inclosed, an authenticated Copy of a law lately passed by the Legislature of Maryland, ratifying an amendment to the Constitution of the United States in the manner of choosing a President and Vice President and am with high consideration
Robert Bowie
FC (MdAA: Letterbooks of Governor and Council); partially dated; at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson President of the United States.” Recorded in SJL as a letter of 28 Dec. received from Annapolis 30 Dec. with notation “ratifn Maryld.” Enclosure: “An Act to ratify an amendment to the constitution of the United States of America, proposed by congress to the legislatures of the several states” (At a Session of the General Assembly of Maryland, begun and held at the City of Annapolis, on Monday, the 7th of November, in the year of our Lord 1803, and ended the 7th of January, 1804, the following Laws were enacted [Annapolis, 1804; , No. 6723]).
An ardent Republican and former state legislator, Robert Bowie (1750-1818) was elected governor of Maryland in 1803 and served until 1806 ().
A resolution by the Maryland Senate, passed 26 Dec., requested that the governor transmit to the president the state legislature’s act ratifying the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The state senate passed the ratification act unanimously, while the House of Delegates approved it by a vote of 40 to 26 (Votes and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland. November Session, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three. Being the Third Session of the Sixth Senate [Annapolis, 1804], 22, 26; Votes and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland. November Session, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three. Being the First Session of This Assembly [Annapolis, 1803], 66).