To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 10 February 1797
From Timothy Pickering
[Philadephia] Friday Feby 10. 1797.
The Secretary of State has the honor to inform the President of the United States, that having examined the Constitution & the law respecting the President & Vice President of the U. States, he sees no part requiring that the Vice-President elect should come to the Seat of Government to take the oath to support the Constitution of the U.S. which appears to be the only oath required of him. That oath may be administered by any one Senator to the Vice President.1 However, the Secretary will immediately see the Vice President, if at his lodgings, & ascertain the ideas of the Senate on the mode of notifying to Mr Jefferson his election; & if this was expected to be by Express, one shall be engaged without delay.2
T. Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.
1. Article II, section 1, of the U.S. Constitution provides the oath that the president-elect is required to take prior to assuming office. However, that article is silent on the question of oaths for the vice president elect. Article VI orders members of Congress and all executive and judicial officers to take an oath to support the Constitution, but it does not stipulate the time or place for its administration. The “Act to regulate the Time and Manner of administering certain Oaths,” 1 June 1789, directed that the oath required by Article VI of the Constitution be administered to the Senate president, or vice president, by a senator. The law also required all officers “appointed under the authority of the United States” to swear the oath in support of the Constitution prior to taking office, but it did not specify the location where it should be administered ( 23–24). On 9 Feb., only one day after the electoral votes were counted, Congress began to consider the manner in which to notify Vice President–elect Thomas Jefferson of his election (see , 9:173–79; see also U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to GW, this date).
2. On this date, the Senate passed a resolution requesting “the President of the United States … to cause to be transmitted to Thomas Jefferson … Vice-President elect, … notification of his election to that office, and that the President of the Senate do make out and sign a certificate. …” The Senate directed that the above resolution be laid before GW ( , 9:81–84; see also U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to GW, this date). Pickering wrote Jefferson from Philadelphia in a letter of 11 Feb.: “pursuant to the request of the Senate communicated to him yesterday, the President … has directed me to transmit to you the inclosed certificate … of your being elected … Vice-President” ( , 29:305–6). In a second letter dated 11 Feb., Pickering notified Jefferson that the certificate enclosed with his first letter was a copy. According to Pickering, Timothy Bloodworth, the son of the U.S. senator of the same name from North Carolina, had been directed to deliver the original certificate to Jefferson (see , 29:306). Jefferson was sworn in as vice president of the United States on 4 March (see Circular to U.S. Senators, 1 March, and n.1 to that document).