Enclosure: Draft Clause on Foreign Intercourse, [1 December 1792]
Enclosure
Draft Clause on Foreign Intercourse
[1 Dec. 1792]
To the bill which shall be brought in1 for continuing the act of July 1. 1790. c. 22. ‘providing the means of intercourse between the U.S. and foreign nations’ it is proposed to add the following clause.
And be it further enacted that where monies have issued,2 or shall issue, from the Treasury, for the purposes of intercourse or treaty with foreign nations, under the authority of the* said act, or of the present or† any preceding act, the President shall be authorized to refer the settlement and delivery of Vouchers, for all such parts thereof as in his judgment may be made public to the Auditor of the U.S., and for all other parts, to such person as he shall appoint, prescribing for their government3 such rules as the nature of the case shall in his opinion require.4
Note the acts of 1790. and 1792. use the terms ‘intercourse with foreign nations’;5 the act of 1791. is expressly for a treaty with the emperor of Morocco.
Dft (DNA: RG 59, MLR); undated; entirely in TJ’s hand; with notes written in margin. PrC of another Dft (DLC, TJ Papers, 69: 11930); undated; entirely in TJ’s hand with notes written in the margin and some words later overwritten in pencil; variations from Dft (see especially note 1 below) suggest that this text is the retained copy of the Dft TJ submitted to the House committee described in note to covering letter. Mistakenly recorded in SJPL under 2 Dec. 1791: “[draught] of paragraph for bill on foreign intercourse.”
1. Preceding five words omitted in PrC.
2. PrC: “shall have issued.”
3. Here in PrC TJ added “in every case.”
4. Remainder of text in margin.
5. Closing quotation mark supplied by the Editors.