To Thomas Jefferson from Tobias Lear, 7 August 1791
From Tobias Lear
[Philadelphia], 7 Aug. 1791.] He encloses a letter from the President to Thomas Johnson, with the request that it be sent with his commission and directed “to the care of the Postmaster at Baltimore as the most likely mean of their reaching their destination with safety and dispatch.”—He also transmits a letter from Governor Blount to the Secretary of State and letters from the latter to Governor St. Clair and Judge Symmes which were submitted to the President.
RC (DLC); 2 p.; endorsed by TJ as from Washington with his “approbn. of lrs. to Sinclair and Symmes” and as received 7 Aug. 1791 (so recorded in SJL). PrC (DNA: RG 59, MLR). Tr (DNA: RG 59, SDC).
Enclosures: (1) Washington to Johnson, 7 Aug. 1791, regarding his appointment as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; see Pendleton to TJ, 13 July 1791. (2) Blount to TJ, 17 July 1791. (3) TJ to St. Clair, 6 Aug. 1791. (4) TJ to Symmes, 6 Aug. 1791. TJ had submitted his letters to St. Clair and Symmes for the President’s “perusal” (TJ to Washington, 7 Aug. 1791) and Lear avoided saying that they had been approved. TJ of course assumed approval, but took the unusual step of keeping Lear’s letter in his personal files and noting that approbation had been given. In fact the entry in SJL recorded the letter as from the “President [T. Lear for him].”