Until I receive full consent to a free choice of route through the whole distance I have thought it safest neither to accept nor reject finally the partial report of the commissioners.
Thomas Jefferson
The Public Record
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a pivotal role in the early development of the United States. Jefferson is best known as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which articulated the colonies' desire for freedom from British rule and laid the foundation for American democratic ideals.
I have received acts of the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia giving the consent desired; that of Pennsylvania has the subject still under consideration, as is supposed.
Some matters suggested in the report belong exclusively to the Legislature.
we may now estimate with tolerable certainty the means derived from the Ohio and its waters toward the accomplishment of the purposes of Mr. Burr.
No occasion having arisen for making use. of any part of the balance of $18,012.50, unexpended on the 31st day of December, 1805, that balance remains in the Treasury.
I immediately delivered to the attorney of the United States in this district the evidence received against them, with instructions to lay the same before the judges and apply for their process to bring the accused to justice.
I had for some time been in the constant expectation of receiving such further information as would have enabled me to lay before the Legislature the termination as well as the beginning and progress of this scene of depravity so far as it…
The mass of what I have received in the course of these transactions is voluminous, but little has been given under the sanction of an oath so as to constitute formal and legal evidence.
Great alarm, indeed, was excited at New Orleans by the exaggerated accounts of Mr. Burr.
Great zeal was shewn by the inhabitants generally, the merchants of the place readily agreeing to the most laudable exertions and sacrifices for manning the armed vessels with their seamen.
By this time it was known that many boats were under preparation, stores of provisions collecting, and an unusual number of suspicious characters in motion on the Ohio and its waters.
Information now recently communicated has brought us nearly to the period contemplated.
I transmit to each House of Congress a copy of the laws of the Territory of Michigan passed by the governor and judges of the Territory during the year 1805.
The quantity of freestone necessary, with the size and quality of many of the blocks, was represented as beyond what could be obtained from the quarries by any exertions which could be commanded.
The other parts of the work, which might all have been completed in time, were necessarily retarded by the insufficient progress of the stonework.
I took every measure within my power for carrying into effect the request of the House of Representatives of the 17th of April last to cause the south wing of the Capitol to be prepared for their accommodation by the commencement of the…
A step so friendly will afford further evidence that all our proceedings have flowed from views of justice and conciliation.
Delays, indeed, have taken place, occasioned by the long illness and subsequent death of the British minister charged with that duty.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the negotiation depending between the United States and the Government of Great Britain is proceeding in a spirit of friendship and accommodation which promises a result of mutual advantage.
It is, however, a work of time, as many arrangements are necessary to place our future harmony on stable grounds.
I can not, therefore, but recommend the suspension of this act for a reasonable time, on considerations of justice, amity, and the public interests.
I have therefore thought proper to issue this my proclamation, warning and enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led without due knowledge or consideration to participate in the said unlawful enterprises to withdraw from the same…
I require all good and faithful citizens and others within the United States to be aiding and assisting herein, and especially in the discovery, apprehension, and bringing to justice of all such offenders, in preventing the execution of…
And I hereby enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, of the United States, or of any of the States or Territories, and especially all governors and other executive authorities, all judges, justices, and other officers of the…





