George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 19 June 1793

From Thomas Jefferson

[Philadelphia] June 19. 1793.

The decision of the case of the British debts which was expected to have taken place at Richmond, being now deferred, Th: Jefferson has the honor of submitting to the President the draught of a letter to mister Hammond, asking an answer on the subject of the treaty of peace.1

AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; AL (letterpress copy), DLC: Jefferson Papers; LB, DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.

1The case of Ware v. Hylton addressed the obligation of Americans to pay their pre-war debts to British creditors. The British government used the failure of U.S. citizens to pay these debts as an excuse for not surrendering possession of several military posts on American soil as mandated by Article 7 of the 1783 Treaty of Paris (Miller, Treaties description begins Hunter Miller, ed. Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. Vol. 2, 1776-1818. Washington, D.C., 1931. description ends , 99–100). On the hearing of this case by the U.S. Circuit Court sitting at Richmond, Va., in the spring of 1793, and for previous correspondence between Jefferson and George Hammond about a British withdrawal from these military posts, see GW to Jefferson, 1 June 1793, and note 2. For Jefferson’s letter to Hammond of 19 June about the military posts, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 26:322. For the cabinet’s approval of Jefferson’s draft, see Cabinet Opinion, 20 June 1793.

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