The above document appears to have been based, at least initially, on a list of the members of the Eighth Congress printed in the National Intelligencer on 10 Oct. 1803, which TJ apparently copied and subsequently modified and updated at least through December 1803. The Intelligencer printed Federalist members in italics, whereas TJ identifies them on his list here with a dash to the left of the name. Like the Intelligencer, TJ did not include the first name of Vermont representative William Chamberlain. Nor did the Intelligencer initially include the names of Representatives Samuel Taggart of Massachusetts and Joseph Bryan of Georgia or Senator Joseph Anderson of Tennessee, but supplied the missing names in its 12 and 19 Oct. editions; TJ added these names at the bottom of their respective delegations out of alphabetical sequence. TJ also corrected the Intelligencer’s 10 Oct. list by replacing New York representative John Cantine with Josiah Hasbrouck, who won a special election in April 1803 to fill a vacancy in the delegation caused by Cantine’s resignation (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ; Vol. 37:461n). The entire House delegation from New Jersey was also absent from the Intelligencer’s 10 Oct. list, since they were not elected until mid-December 1803 (Hudson, N.Y., Bee, 6 Dec. 1803; Newark, N.J., Centinel of Freedom, 20 Dec. 1803; National Intelligencer, 28 Dec. 1803). TJ added their names in the order in which they appeared in the 28 Dec. edition of the Intelligencer, which reported the election results. With the exception of the New Jersey delegation, however, TJ does not appear to have revised his list to reflect changes in membership that took place after Congress convened on 17 Oct. For example, TJ’s list makes no note of the resignation of DeWitt Clinton from the Senate on 11 Nov. or the arrival of his successor, John Armstrong, on 7 Dec. Nor does TJ record the replacement of Senator John Taylor of Virginia with Abraham B. Venable on 13 Dec. (JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820-21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:310, 321, 324).

The purpose of the check marks and slashes on TJ’s list is uncertain. They do not appear to correspond to attendance or to record any particular vote in Congress. They may, however, relate to the dinners TJ hosted at the President’s House for members of Congress, and the above list may have been a precursor to the more detailed dinner records that TJ began keeping at the start of the second session of the Eighth Congress in November 1804 and continued to the end of his presidency. In these records, at the start of each session TJ created lists of all Senate and House members, arranging the latter by state and party affiliation—Republicans in one column and Federalists in the other—then alphabetically by last name. Senators were listed in a single column, with Republicans listed first and Federalists second, but not alphabetized. When a congressman accepted an invitation to dine with the president, TJ placed a check mark to the left of the name to record his attendance. Those declining an invitation received a dash next to their names. TJ occasionally included slashes or other symbols in his records, but their meaning is unclear (TJ’s dinner records of 5 Nov. 1804 to 6 Mch. 1809 are located at MHi). For analyses of TJ’s presidential dinners and his recordkeeping system for them, see Charles T. Cullen, “Jefferson’s White House Dinner Guests,” White House History, 17 (2006), 24-43; Merry Ellen Scofield, “The Fatigues of His Table: The Politics of Presidential Dining During the Jefferson Administration,” Journal of the Early Republic, 26 (2006), 449-69; and Vol. 36:xlvi-xlvii. Images of the dinner records from MHi are reproduced in Cullen, “Dinner Guests,” 30-7.

A 14 Feb. 1807 letter from TJ to Rhode Island senator James Fenner provides additional information as to how the president’s lists of congressional dinner guests were compiled. Apologizing to Fenner for not sending him an invitation to dine sooner, TJ explained that he “always makes out himself, a list of the gentlemen who are so kind as to call on him.” By “some accident which he does not recollect,” TJ omitted Fenner’s name from his list, and “his invitations being taken from that list, that omission has produced the effect now apologised for.” This letter suggests that TJ’s dinner lists were used to record not only dinner invitations and guests, but also congressmen who paid calls on the president (RC in NjP: Andre De Coppet Collection). In accord with this letter, TJ’s dinner guest list for the 1806-7 session of Congress does not include Fenner under his list of senators (Cullen, “Dinner Guests,” 34).

The arrangement of the names and symbols on the list above closely resembles the method of recording dinner guests that TJ commenced in November 1804, with check marks presumably for those who attended a dinner and slashes possibly used to note those who called on the president or declined his invitations, or perhaps both. As explained previously, TJ uses dashes here to identify Federalists. Members lacking either check mark or slash on the list above—that is, those who apparently neither paid a call on TJ or received an invitation from him—were primarily Federalists, those whose attendance in Congress was limited, or both. Federalist senators Simeon Olcott of New Hampshire and Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, as well as Representatives Samuel W. Dana, Calvin Goddard, and Roger Griswold of Connecticut, Joshua Sands of New York, and Samuel D. Purviance of North Carolina, apparently did not receive invitations during the first session of the Eighth Congress, nor did they receive one during the following session (Scofield, “Fatigues,” 466n; Cullen, “Dinner Guests,” 30). The election of Federalist Thomas Lewis of Virginia to Congress was contested early in the session by Republican Andrew Moore, and the House awarded Lewis’s seat to Moore on 5 Mch. 1804 (Vol. 40:407-8). Illness prevented Federalist Phineas Bruce of Massachusetts from attending either session of the Eighth Congress. George Tibbits of New York did not arrive until 15 Nov. 1803 and was granted a leave of absence from the House on 19 Jan. 1804. Calvin Goddard left Congress on 26 Dec. (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:443, 500, 542). Most of the Republicans lacking either a check mark or a slash were late in taking their seats; William Helms of New Jersey arrived 9 Jan. 1804, Walter Bowie of Maryland arrived 23 Jan., and Senator Thomas Sumter, Sr., of South Carolina did not arrive until 6 Feb. (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:523, 546; JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820-21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:350).

TJ commenced his dinner gatherings at the President’s House during the Seventh Congress, and the practice continued into the succeeding sessions. Writing his wife on 27 Oct. 1803, Samuel L. Mitchill reported his recent attendance at a “very agreable” dinner with the president, along with Senators James Jackson, Abraham Baldwin, George Logan, and Stephen R. Bradley, and Representatives Caesar A. Rodney, Isaac Anderson, William MacCreery, Joseph H. Nicholson, Thomas Mann Randolph, and John Wayles Eppes. TJ’s new private secretary, Lewis Harvie, was also present. Mitchill dined again at the President’s House on 21 Jan. 1804, this time with Joseph B. Varnum, Joseph Stanton, Marmaduke Williams, and Andrew McCord, and again with Randolph and Harvie. Mitchill attended his final dinner of the session on 17 Mch. 1804, sharing TJ’s hospitality again with Jackson, Baldwin, and Nicholson as well as with Nathaniel Macon, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Abraham B. Venable, Jacob Crowninshield, William Eustis, Samuel Smith, Joseph Clay, and Captain John Rodgers of the navy (Mitchill to Catharine Mitchill, 27 Oct. 1803, 22 Jan., 19 Mch. 1804, RCs in NNMus: Samuel Latham Mitchill Papers). The diary of freshman Senator John Quincy Adams records that he and his wife, Louisa Catherine Adams, dined with TJ on 7 Nov. and 23 Dec. 1803. Adams noted 17 persons attended the November gathering, including James and Dolley Madison and Dolley’s sister Anna Payne; Senator Robert Wright, his two daughters, and a Miss Gray; Senator Pierce Butler and General William McPherson; and Thomas Mann Randolph and John Wayles Eppes. Senator Venable and Representatives Macon and John Randolph arrived after dinner. At the December occasion, Adams recorded the attendance of Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith and his wife, Senator Wright and his daughters, Representative MacCreery and his wife and daughter, and Representative Henry W. Livingston and his wife (John Quincy Adams, diary 27 [1 Jan. 1803-4 Aug. 1809], 52, 58, in MHi: Adams Family Papers). In her own diary, however, Mrs. Adams recorded that this dinner took place on 24 Dec. and without the presence of Congressman Livingston (Judith S. Graham and others, eds., Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, 2 vols. [Cambridge, Mass., 2013], 1:207).