To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 13 August 1793
From Thomas Jefferson
August 13th 1793.
Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to the President, the report of the Commissioners of public accounts was delivered to Mr Taylor to be filed away.1 he was called to new york on Saturday by the illness of his child, and Mr Blackwell has been searching some time for it without being able to find it2—he will continue to search, & when found it shall be sent to the President.3
LB, DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. For this report, see Commissioners for Settling Accounts Between the United States and the Individual States to GW, 29 June 1793. GW sent this report to Jefferson on 15 July, with a request that copies be made for submission to Congress when it convened later this year ( , 198). Jefferson then passed the report to George Taylor, Jr. (d. 1835), chief clerk at the Department of State. Earlier on this date, Tobias Lear wrote Jefferson, in a letter not found, asking for the report’s return (Taylor to Lear, 19 Aug. 1793). GW apparently wanted Jefferson to return the original report so that it could be sent to the Treasury Department, where it would be filed in compliance with “an implication” of “An Act to provide more effectually for the settlement of the Accounts between the United States and the individual States” of 5 Aug. 1790 (ibid., 219; ., 178–79; see also Edmund Randolph to GW, 13 Aug. 1793).
2. The previous Saturday was 10 August. Jacob Blackwell was a clerk in the Department of State ( 1:57).
3. The report was located on 19 Aug., and Taylor enclosed it with his letter to Lear of that date. See also Lear to Alexander Hamilton, 19 Aug. 1793.