Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Shelby, 1 June 1792

To Isaac Shelby

Philadelphia June 1st. 1792:

Sir

The district of Kentucky having this day become a “New State by the name and Stile of the State of Kentucky” agreeably to an Act passed 4. February 1791, I have now the honor to transmit to your Excellency, herewith, two copies of the acts passed at the 1st. Session of the 2d. Congress, which, together with those of the first Congress with the treaties annexed to each volume, and the Census, sent by Mr. Brown a Member of the House of Representatives from Kentucky, may be relied on as authentic. I have the Honor to be, with sentiments of respect & esteem, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant

Th: Jefferson

PrC (DLC); in the hand of George Taylor, Jr., signed by TJ; at foot of text: “His Excellency the Governor of the State of Kentucky.” FC (Lb in DNA: RG 360, DL). Not recorded in SJL.

Isaac Shelby (1750–1826), a Marylandborn soldier who served with distinction in various southern campaigns during the Revolutionary War, held public offices in Virginia and North Carolina before settling in Kentucky, then part of Virginia, in 1783. He was elected the state’s first governor in May 1792 (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ).

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