1. The enclosures have not been identified. Residents of the Kentucky District of Virginia earlier had petitioned the U.S. House of Representatives to suspend collection of the federal excise tax on distilled spirits in the district until American right to the navigation of the Mississippi had been secured. The House received the petition on 16 Nov. 1791 and referred it to the secretary of the treasury for his information (see Annals of Congress description begins Joseph Gales, Sr., comp. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and All the Laws of a Public Nature. 42 vols. Washington, D.C., 1834–56. description ends , 2d Cong., 1st sess., 192). On 6 Mar. 1792 Alexander Hamilton transmitted to Congress a “Report on the Difficulties in the Execution of the Act Laying Duties on Distilled Spirits” (Syrett, Hamilton Papers, description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. 27 vols. New York, 1961–87. description ends 11:77–106). See also Hamilton to GW, 18 Feb. 1792.