RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 27 Aug. and so recorded in SJL.

George Hay (1765–1830) was a Williamsburg native and political writer who practiced law in Petersburg and actively campaigned on TJ’s behalf in the election of 1800. Relocating to Virginia’s capital shortly thereafter, he practiced in the state’s superior courts and became a supporter of James Monroe, who appointed him to minor offices and whose daughter he later married. Under the pseudonym “Hortensius," Hay published An Essay on the Liberty of the Press, in 1799 in Philadelphia (Evans description begins Charles Evans, Clifford K. Shipton, and Roger P. Bristol, comps., American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America from … 1639 … to … 1820, Chicago and Worcester, Mass., 1903–59, 14 vols. description ends , No. 35605). He represented James Thomson Callender in the seditious libel case against him in federal circuit court in 1800 and prosecuted Aaron Burr for treason in 1807 (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, New York and Oxford, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ).

Sed, Clarum et Venerabile Nomen: but, with an illustrious and venerable name.