To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 5 May 1793
From Thomas Jefferson
[Philadelphia] May. 5. 1793.
Th: Jefferson with his respects to the President has the honour to inclose him the following papers.1
- 1. a letter from mister Pinckney with the papers it refers to, on the subject of mister Albion Coxe, employed as Assayer, who is arrived.2
- 2. a copy of the letter written to Mr Morris & mister Pinckney, on the subject of M. de la Fayette, copies of which were sent to Messrs Humphreys, Carmichael & Short.3 the two former were to act on the subject, because nearer the proper scene. the communication was made to the three latter merely for their information, and that they might know the views of the government in case they should have occasion to say or do any thing on the subject.
- 3. Mr Fox’s pamphlet.4
AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; AL (letterpress copy), DLC: Jefferson Papers; LB, DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State; LB (photocopy), DLC:GW.
1. Jefferson submitted this letter on 6 May, and GW returned all of the enclosures except the pamphlet, on that same date ( 129).
2. Thomas Pinckney’s letter to Jefferson of 12 Mar. is printed in 25:370–71. On the documents enclosed in Pinckney’s letter, see 129. For Cox’s employment as assayer for the U.S. Mint, see Jefferson to GW, 16 Nov. 1792 (second letter).
3. For details on Jefferson’s letter to Gouverneur Morris and Pinckney of 15 Mar., see Jefferson to GW, 15 Mar., and note 2. On 6 May, Jefferson again sent to GW “the copy of the letter on the subject of M. de la Fayette, supposing it might be agreeable to keep it by him. there is another copy retained for the office” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
4. This may have been Charles James Fox’s most recent publication, A Letter from the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, to the Worthy and Independent Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminster (London, 1793), but the only pamphlet by Fox in GW’s library at the time of his death was Substance of a Speech of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, on Monday, December 1, 1783. Upon a Motion for the Commitment of the Bill “for Vesting the Affairs of the East-India Company in the Hands of Certain Commissioners, for the Benefit of the Proprietors, and of the Public” (Dublin, 1784); see 83.