From George Washington to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 15 January 1794
To the United States Senate and House of Representatives
United States 15. January 1794.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives.
I lay before you, as being connected with the correspondence, already in your possession, between the Secretary of State and the Minister plenipotentiary of the French Republic, the copy of a Letter from that Minister of the 25th of December 1793; and a copy of the proceedings of the Legislature of the State of South Carolina.1
Go: Washington
LS, DNA: RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–95, Senate Records of Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages; LB, DNA: RG 233, Third Congress, 1793–95, House Records of Legislative Proceedings, Journals; Df (in Edmund Randolph’s writing), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. The draft appears on the last page of Randolph’s proposed letter to Edmond Genet of 13 Jan. 1794.
1. For the previous submission of correspondence between Thomas Jefferson, the former secretary of state, and Edmond Genet, see GW to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 5 Dec. 1793. GW’s current letter was prompted by the efforts of Genet to recruit residents of the Carolinas and Georgia for an expeditionary force against Spanish colonies. In his letter to Jefferson of 25 Dec. 1793, Genet denied having any authorization to raise such a force, but admitted granting commissions to several citizens of South Carolina who were willing to serve in this capacity ( , 27:619–20; translation, , 1:311). For the enclosed proceedings of the S.C. legislature, see William Moultrie to GW, 7 Dec. 1793, and enclosure.