The Virginia resolution of the 2d of january 1781 provided “For a cession of the lands on the north west side of Ohio to the United States” (Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols.; Sowerby, no. 1863; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 573) description ends 10:564–7). The misdated act of novr 1783, which the Virginia House of Delegates actually passed on 19 Dec. 1783 and the Senate of Virginia confirmed a day later, was “An Act to authorize the Delegates of this State in Congress, to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, the right of this Commonwealth to the territory north westward of the river Ohio” (JHD description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia description ends [Oct.–Dec. 1783 sess.], 131, 148; Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols.; Sowerby, no. 1863; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 573) description ends 11:326–8). It was copied into the 1 Mar. 1784 deed of cession, which TJ drafted and cosigned as a delegate to the United States Confederation Congress (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 45 vols. description ends , 6:571–80; Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols.; Sowerby, no. 1863; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 573) description ends 11:571–5). This body had previously reviewed Virginia’s 2 Jan. 1781 resolution offering to cede the state’s northwest territory to the federal government and agreed to accept such a cession on the 13th of septr 1783 (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 1904–37 description ends , 25:558–64; Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols.; Sowerby, no. 1863; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 573) description ends 11:567–70).

In the appendix to the 11th volume of his Statutes at Large, Hening concluded that the phrase in question was mistakenly omitted because in the original text a word was repeated at the beginning and end of the same line and the transcriber, “seeing the same word again at the end of the line, passed on to the next line; a circumstance which frequently occurs in copying” (Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols.; Sowerby, no. 1863; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 573) description ends 11:566).

A missing letter from TJ to Hening of 11 Apr. 1823 is recorded in SJL.