MS (DLC); entirely in Washington’s hand. PrC (DLC: Washington Papers); endorsed by Tobias Lear. FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, SDC). Tr (AMAE: CPEU, xxxvii); in French; at foot of text: “pour traduction fidelle, Signé P. A. Adet.” For the provenance in 1796 of the French Trs of this document and the accompanying circular letter, see Turner, CFM description begins Frederick Jackson Turner, “Correspondence of French Ministers, 1791–1797,” American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1903, II description ends , 815.

TJ immediately detected the fine hand of Alexander Hamilton behind these questions, and the weight of the evidence generally supports his suspicion of Hamiltonian authorship. On 9 Apr. 1793, shortly after the arrival in Philadelphia of reliable news of the French declaration of war on Great Britain, Hamilton wrote two letters to Chief Justice John Jay in New York about measures necessary for preserving American neutrality in this epochal conflict. In them Hamilton touched upon the points raised in questions 1–6 and 12 above, often in almost the same language as that employed by the President, and two days later Jay even sent him a draft declaration of neutrality, though it does not seem to have had any direct bearing on the one issued by the President on 22 Apr. 1793. Moreover, Attorney General Randolph subsequently informed TJ that on the day before Washington transmitted these questions to the Cabinet (and presumably prior to Washington’s return to Philadelphia late that day from a visit to Mount Vernon) Hamilton had discussed with him “the whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the skeleton.” Randolph deduced from this that Hamilton was the author of the questions, a judgment in which TJ concurred on the basis of their literary style and implied reservations about the French alliance (Notes on Relations with France, 6 May 1793; Syrett, Hamilton description begins Harold C. Syrett and others, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1961–87, 27 vols. description ends , xiv, 297–300, 307–10). Although it now seems indisputable that Hamilton inspired the form and content of the President’s queries on neutrality, especially in view of the complete lack of evidence of similar advance preparations on the part of other Cabinet members, it is still impossible to determine whether he did so in conversation with Washington or by actually providing him with a now missing draft of the questions (Thomas, Neutrality description begins Charles M. Thomas, American Neutrality in 1793: A Study in Cabinet Government, New York, 1931. description ends , 26–30, 41–50; Freeman, Washington description begins Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington, New York, 1948–57, 7 vols.; 7th volume by J. A. Carroll and M. W. Ashworth description ends , vii, 43–7). See also the following document.