Jefferson, Thomas | A rare signed Congressional Act respecting the recently organized Northwest Territory, 1792

Jefferson, Thomas

Printed document signed (“ThJefferson”) as Secretary of State, being an official printing of “An Act respecting the Government of the Territories of the United States North West and South of the River Ohio.” [Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine, 1792]

One page (408 x 242 mm) on a bifolium of fine laid paper (watermarked Posthorn | HS Sandy Run), the Act approved 8 May 1792 at the first session of the Second Congress; lightly browned and foxed, some fold separations with a few mends on verso, a bit of marginal chipping.

A very rare printing of an early United States law respecting the recently organized Northwest Territory, bearing the printed signatures of President George Washington, Speaker of the House of Representatives Jonathan Trumbull, and President pro tempore of the Senate Richard Henry Lee, as well as the holograph signature of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.

The present Congressional Act deals with the laws and government of the Northwest Territory:

“Be it enacted … That the laws of the territory north west of the river Ohio, that have been or hereafter may be enacted by the governor and judges thereof, shall be printed under the direction of the secretary of state, and two hundred copies thereof, together with ten sets of the laws of the United States, shall be delivered to the said governor and judges, to be distributed among the inhabitants for their information, and that a like number of the laws of the United States shall be delivered to the governor and judges of the territory south west of the river Ohio.

“And it be it further enacted, That the governor and judges of the territory northwest of the river Ohio shall be, and hereby are authorized to repeal their laws by them made, whensoever the same may be found to be improper.

“And be it further enacted, That the official duties of the secretaries of the said territories shall be under the control of such laws, as are or may be in force of said territories.

“And be it further enacted, That ay one of the supreme or superior judges of the said territories, in the absence of the other judges, shall be and hereby is authorized to hold a court.

“And be it further enacted, That the secretary of state, provide proper seals for the several and respective public offices in the said territories.

“And be it further enacted, That the limitation act, passed by the governor and judges of the said territory, the twenty-eighth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight, be and hereby is disapproved.”

The final provision of the Act ensures that expenses incurred by John Cleve Symmes and George Turner, two judges of the territory, will be reimbursed by the United States Treasury.

Other expenses were involved as well. On 12 July 1792, Jefferson wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to inform him that “By an act of Congress passed on the last day of their session it was made the duty of the Secretary of state to have seals prepared for the courts of the two Western governments, but nothing particular was said as to the resource for making payment for them. I have therefore to ask the favor of information from you whether there are any funds which you should think it justifiable to apply to the payment of these objects. I assume they will amount to several hundred dollars (Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Syrett, vol. 12, p. 28).

Individual acts and bills of Congress were routinely printed for public distribution but there was a provision to print a few large-paper copies of each act for official dissemination to the states which bore the Secretary of State's signature. The present copy is one of the large-paper issues.

The only other signed, large-paper copy that we can find in the auction records or standard references was sold by the Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation nearly fifty years ago (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 14 November 1978, lot 444). The few copies located by Evans, ESTC, and OCLC are all printed on a more standard size of paper (340 x 210 mm) and are not signed by Jefferson. These routine issues can also be easily distinguished because they include on the same sheet, beneath the Northwest Territory Act, the text of “An act to compensate the services of the late Colonel George Gibson,” which is not printed here.

REFERENCES

ESTC W380; Evans 24902