Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Volume 19 The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 19: January 1791 to March 1791

Volume 19, covering the final critical weeks of the First Congress, reveals Washington and Jefferson in the closest and most confidential relationship that existed at any time during their official careers. It opens with the proclamation announcing the exact location of the Federal District, an unexplained choice made in the utmost secrecy by the President in consultation with the Secretary of State some weeks before Washington toured the upper Potomac in an ostensible journey to inspect rival sites and to encourage competition for the location of the national capital. It includes the politically related question of the chartering of the Bank of the United States, on which Jefferson delivered his famous opinion challenging its constitutionality. But the conflict with Hamilton over the Bank, important as it was, did not bring the two men on the public stage as contestants. Instead, the first focusing of public attention on the breach in the administration occurred with the publication of Jefferson's report on the whale and cod fisheries. This widely disseminated report is here presented in a context showing that, after Hamilton declined to cooperate in reciprocating the favors France had granted to American trade, Jefferson deliberately and publicly challenged the Hamiltonian opposition. In unusually blunt language, his report called for commercial retaliation against Great Britain, thus causing a sensation both in the ... ministry. This volume shows Jefferson's concern over the growing discontent in the South and West over fiscal and other policies of the national government, his resistance to interested promotion of consular appointments in business circles, his grappling with the political and constitutional questions concerning the admission of Kentucky and Vermont, his involvement in the political consequences of the death of Franklin that affected even the proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, his cautious relationship with Tench Coxe as a source of statistical information which the Secretary of the Treasury failed to supply, and his report to Washington on a judicial appointment that brought on both embarrassment and constitutional questions. Once Congress had dispersed, Jefferson was able to turn his attention to long-neglected private concerns and to the correspondence that gave him most satisfaction, that with the family at Monticello. The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson Is A Projected 60-volume Series Containing Not Only The 18,000 Letters Written By Jefferson But Also, In Full Or In Summary, The More Than 25,000 Letters Written To Him. Including Documents Of Historical Significance As Well As Private Notes Not Closely Examined Until Their Publication In The Papers, This Series Is An Unmatched Source Of Scholarship On The Nation's Third President--publisher's Description. V 1. 1760-1776 -- V. 2. 1777-18 June, 1779, Including The Revisal Of The Laws, 1776-1786 -- V. 3. 18 June, 1779 To 30 September, 1780 -- V. 4. 1 October, 1780 To 24 February 1781 -- V. 5. 25 February 1781 To 20 May 1781 -- V. 6. 21 May 1781 To 1 March 1784 -- V. 7. 2 March 1784 To 25 February 1785 -- V. 8. 25 February To 31 October 1785 -- V. 9. 1 November, 1785 To 22 June, 1786 -- V. 10. 22 June To 31 December, 1786 -- V. 11. 1 January To 6 August, 1787 -- V. 12. 7 August 1787 To 31 March, 1788 -- V. 13. March To 7 October, 1788 -- V. 14. 8 October 1788 To 26 March, 1789 -- V. 15 March 1789 To 30 November 1789. -- V. 16. 30 November 1789 To 4 July, 1790 -- V. 17. 6 July To 3 November 1790 -- V. 18. 4 November 1790 To 24 January 1791 -- V. 19. 24 January To 31 March 1791 -- V. 20. 1 April To 4 August 1791 -- V. 21. Index, Volumes 1-20 -- V. 22. 6 August 1791 To 31 December 1791 -- V. 23. 1 January To 31 May 1792 -- V. 24. 1 June To 31 December 1792 -- V. 25. 1 January To 10 May 1793 -- V. 26. 11 May To 31 August 1793 -- V. 27. 1 September To 31 December 1793 -- V. 28. 1 January 1794 To 29 February 1796 -- V. 29. 1 March 1796 To 31 December 1797 -- V. 30. 1 January 1798 To 31 January 1799 -- V. 31. 1 February 1799 To 31 May 1800 -- V. 32. 1 June 1800 To 16 February 1801 -- V. 33. 17 February To 30 April 1801 -- V. 34. 1 May To 31 July 1801 -- V. 35. 1 August To 30 November 1801 -- V. 36. 1 December 1801 To 3 March 1802 -- V. 37. 4 March To 30 June 1802 -- V. 38. 1 July To 12 November 1802 -- V. 39. 13 November 1802 To 3 March 1803 -- V. 40. 4 March To 10 July 1803 -- V. 41. 11 July To 15 November 1803. Julian P. Boyd, Editor; Lyman H. Butterfield ... [et Al.], Associate Editors. Vol. 22: Charles T. Cullen, Editor, Eugene R. Sheridan, Associate Editor, Ruth W. Lester, Assistant Editor; Vol. 25-: John Catanzariti, Editor, Eugene R. Sheridan, Senior Associate Editor; Vol. 29-: Barbara B. Oberg, General Editor. Supplemented By Three Temporary Indexes Covering Vols. 1-6, 7-12, And 13-18, Compiled By Elizabeth J. Sherwood And Ida T. Hopper; Published: Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1954-73. Beginning With V. 21, Permanent Cumulative Indexes Will Appear After Each Decimal Volume; Vol. 21 Provides An Index To The First 20 Vols. And Replaces The Earlier Temporary Indexes. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. Volume 18, covering part of the final session of the First Congress, shows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his effective collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening--and almost achieving--a retaliatory navigation bill. During these few weeks Jefferson produced a remarkable series of official reports on Gouverneur Morris' abortive mission to England, on the first case of British impressment of American seamen to be noticed officially, on the interrelated problems of Mediterranean trade and the American captives in Algiers, and on the French protest against the tonnage acts. All of these state papers reflected the consistency of Jefferson's aim to bolster the independence of the United States, to promote national unity, and even, as his report on the Algerine captives indicates, to lay the foundations for American maritime power. This volume reveals Jefferson's continuing interest in a unified system of weights and measures, his effort to create a mint, and his concern over executive proceedings in the Northwest Territory. It contains also his suggestions for the President's annual message and his first encounter, at the hands of Noah Webster, with Federalist ridicule of his interest in science. Despite his heavy official duties and the confusion into which his household was thrown when 78 crates of books, wines, and furniture arrived from France, Jefferson never failed to write his promised weekly letter to his daughters and son-in-law under the alternating plan which obligated each of them to write only once every three weeks. The record of this time of extraordinary pressure shows that Jefferson retained his usual equanimity except when, after a full two months, he failed to receive any scrap of writing from the little family at Monticello. Be so good as to send to this place for my use two gross of bottles and 6. gross of corks, and add them to the account you make out for Mr. Lewis.