GEORGE WASHINGTON, 18 SEPTEMBER 1787

George Washington sends the first official printing of the Constitution to Thomas Jefferson, then in Paris serving as the U.S. minister to France.

The Constitutional Convention adjourned in the afternoon of Monday, 17 September 1787. Washington here forwards the results of the momentous proceedings in Philadelphia (over which he had presided from 25 May until the close) to Thomas Jefferson, the American Minister to France

"Dear Sir, Yesterday put an end to the business of the Federal Convention. Enclosed [not present] is a copy of the Constitution it agreed to recommend. Not doubting but that you have participated in the general anxiety which has agitated the minds of our Countrymen on this interesting occasion. I shall be pardoned I am certain for this endeavour to relieve you from it, especially when I assure you of the sincere regard and esteem with which I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, Yr most obedient & most Hble Servt."

It is highly ironic that, during the historic debates of the Constitutional Convention, two principal American constitutionalists were conspicuously absent, able only to offer comments and suggestions from distant sidelines. John Adams had circulated his influential "Thoughts on Government" in 1775 and had just published his detailed Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America in London in 1787. To his great frustration, Jefferson had missed the boat on a previous occasion. When Virginia drafted its new Constitution in 1776, he had been serving in the Continental Congress, charged with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Had he not been in France in 1787, as Malone observes, "inevitably he would have been a delegate to the convention in Philadelphia ... and it is interesting to speculate on the influence he might have exerted on those fateful deliberations"¹

Although absent from the scene of action, Jefferson kept close tabs on developments in America, especially through his correspondence with James Madison, a Virginia delegate and friend destined to play a critical role in the debates. Since 1784, Jefferson had been fulfilling Madison’s requests for books on “whatever may throw light on the general Constitution & droit public of the several confederacies which have existed.”² Madison wrote to Jefferson, spelling out his views on certain issues, but once the Convention convened delegates were sworn to secrecy and its deliberations moved swiftly to a conclusion. Here, writing just one day after the adjournment of the Convention, Washington offers a diplomatic understatement, observing that Jefferson had, no doubt "participated in the general anxiety....on this interesting occasion...." Interesting occasion indeed!

The same day he wrote Jefferson, September 18, Washington also forwarded a copy of the Constitution to the Marquis de Lafayette. He entrusted the delivery of both to Captain John Paul Jones, who had recently returned from Europe to press Congress for prize monies owed to him and to lobby, unsuccessfully, for a promotion to Rear Admiral. Jones's business with Congress delayed his planned departure for France until late October. There were then rumors that France and Britain might go to war, compelling him to await the departure of an American ship that wouldn't risk capture on the high seas in the event hostilities erupted.³ That opportunity arose on 11 November. Two days before his departure, he wrote to Washington that he would embark "in an American Ship bound for Amsterdam, and have bargained to be landed in France. I shall go directly to Paris, and deliver the two Packets you sent to my care immediately on my arrival, with two others from you that have been since put into my Hands for Mr Jefferson and the Marquis de la Fayette."⁴

“I wished to make the first offering of it to you”

Jones’s news of the delay took some time to reach Mount Vernon. It wasn’t until New Years Day that Washington advised Jefferson, that he had done himself “the honor to forward to you the plan of Government formed by the Convention, the day after that body rose; but was not a little disappointed, and mortified indeed (as I wished to make the first offering of it to you) to find by a letter,” from Jones that the letter remained in New York as of early November. Washington admitted that he suspected Jefferson had already seen the text, “and formed an opinion upon it.”⁵ Washington suspected correctly: the copies of the Constitution intended for Jefferson and Lafayette did not arrive in Paris until mid to late December.⁶

Indeed several people sent news and copies of the Constitution to Jefferson that had departed America before Washington’s copy. Writing from Philadelphia on 14 October 1787, Benjamin Franklin sent Jefferson “another copy of the propos’d new federal Constitution….”⁷ But Franklin’s copy and letter likely did not arrive until early 1788, ruling him out as the one who provided him the first copy. However, it is unclear what Franklin meant by "another copy." Did he already send him another copy of Dunlap's printing, or was Franklin referring to a copy sent by another correspondent? On 10 November, John Adams, writing from London, sent a copy that had been sent to him from Elbridge Gerry, Jefferson did not receive this copy until 26 November, but it still was not the first text of the Constitution he had seen.⁸ Lafayette, upon receiving the copy Washington had sent to him via John Paul Jones in late December, forwarded his copy to Jefferson as well.⁹

“How do you like our Constitution?”

Writing to Adams 13 days earlier, Jefferson, while not revealing the source of his information, asked “How do you like our new constitution,” admitting that “there are things in it which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what such an assembly has proposed.” Most troubling was the chief executive, who could run for office every four years “would not be easily dethroned, even if the people could be induced to withdraw their votes from him,” wishing that it included a term limit.¹⁰ Jefferson expressed similar sentiments to Washington upon receipt of his letter of 1 January 1788. Writing on 2 May, he expressed two “strong” objections: “The want of a declaration of rights.," and “The perpetual re-eligibility of the President. This I fear will make that an office for life first, and then hereditary.”¹¹

Lafayette, writing to Washington on 1 January 1788 (the same day Washington, thousands of miles away, was sending his regrets to Jefferson), expressed similar sentiments on the lack of a bill of rights and despotic potential of the executive branch. Lafayette was reassured that the latter would not become a reality (at least in the short term) in that it would be George Washington, the embodiment of Cincinnatus, who would serve as the nation’s first chief executive:

Comfort is that you Cannot Refuse Being Elected president—and that if you think the public vessel Can stir without such powers, you will Be able to lessen them, or propose Measures Respecting the permanence, Which Cannot fail to insure a Greater perfection in the Constitution, and a New Crop of Glory to Yourself—But in the Name of America, of Mankind at large, and Your Own fame, I Beseech you, my dear General, Not to deny your Acceptance of the office of president for the first Years—You only Can settle that political Machine, and I foresee it will furnish An Admirable Chapter in your History.¹²

Jefferson expressed similar sentiments in May 1789 when it had become clear that Washington would be elected President: “there was nobody so well qualified as yourself to put our new machine into a … regular course of action, nobody the authority of whose name could have so effectually crushed opposition at home, and produced respect abroad.”¹³

"something in the handwriting of George Washington."

Twenty-seven years later, on 21 January 1816, Jefferson sat down to answer a letter from Amos Cook, the Preceptor of Freyberg Academy in the District of Maine. Cook had written to Jefferson in December 1815 describing his school, and their collecting of books as well as specimens “of the hand-writing of a number of our most eminent Characters” for the benefit of the furtherance his pupils’ educations. As an example, Cook furnished a transcript a medieval Latin poem that John Adams had transcribed while in Spain in 1778 as an example of what he had been collecting for the school.

Jefferson seemed clearly moved by Cook’s example, and in light of what had transpired since he received his copy of the Constitution from George Washington in late 1787, it comes as no surprise. He had accepted, with much reluctance, the post of Secretary of State, where he grew estranged from Washington as the fault lines of the partisan politics of the 1790s placed them on opposing sides. Jefferson also found himself on the opposite side of the political fence from his old friend, and fellow author the Declaration of Independence, John Adams—a situation made ever the more awkward as Jefferson served as Adams's Vice President from 1787 to 1801. The election of 1800, and Jefferson’s triumph over Adams completely severed their association, and it was not until 1812 that the two ever communicated again.¹⁴

In his letter, Jefferson thanked Cook for “elegant and philosophical lines communicated by [Adams] the Nestor of our revolution,” which reminded him of the verses of Ecclesiastes. Jefferson then offered his own paraphrase: "'I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine; I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards, and pools to water them; I got me servants and maidens and great possessions of cattle; I gathered me also silver and gold, and men singers, and woman singers, and the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all sorts; and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld my heart not from any joy. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and behold! All was vanity and vexation of spirit. I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.'"¹⁵

At all stages of life, Jefferson sought occasions to read, translate, interpret and discuss—with a select few correspondents—the classical authors he revered. Retirement from public office finally yielded him (and his former adversary, John Adams) ample time for such literary and philosophical explorations. Asked to supply passages of value to students, Jefferson modestly observes to Cook "I am not so happy as my friend and antient colleague, Mr. Adams, in possessing anything original inedited, and worthy of comparison with the epigraph of the Spanish Monk. I can offer but humble prose; from the hand indeed of the father of eloquence, and philosophy; a moral morsel, which our young friends under your tuition should keep ever in their eye.... 'Hic, quisquis est, qui moderatione et Constantia quietus animo est," etc. [a lengthy quotation from Cicero, Tusculanarum disputationum, Book 1]. "Or, if a more poetical dress will be more acceptable to the fancy of the juvenile student: "Quisnam igitur liber? Sapiens, sibique imperiosusIn quam manca ruit semper Fortuna." [Horace, Sermonum, Book 2.27, ll. 83-88]. In conclusion, the founder of the University of Virginia Jefferson offers a profound summation: "And if the wise be the happy man , as these sages say, he must be virtuous too; for without virtue, happiness cannot be. This is the scope of all academical emulation."

Where are Jefferson’s Constitutions?

Cook, in his postscript, then requested if Jefferson “may be able to furnish us a piece of the late George Washington’s hand-writing.”¹⁶ Jefferson obliged Cook's request for "something in the handwriting of George Washington." He answers Cook by “enclosing a letter, which I received from him, while in Paris, covering a copy of the new Constitution."

That Jefferson was not fussed about sending Washington’s letter to him enclosing the Constitution is not surprising when we consider that of the multiple first printings that were sent to Jefferson (via Washington, Franklin, Adams, and Lafayette) none are extant. Based on the known correspondence from Jefferson, it appears that none of these copies were the first Jefferson read the text of the Constitution. E. Millicent Sowerby, the noted bibliographer of Jefferson’s works, wrote that although Jefferson received copies from several American correspondents, none could be located among his books. The editors of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson performed their own survey of extant copies of the first official printing of the Construction could not trace any of them to Jefferson.¹⁷ And despite the efforts of his friends to furnish him with the first official printing, in the end, he may have read the text from an American newspaper, or perhaps even in a British newspaper or magazine.¹⁸

Considering the possibility that Jefferson’s first encounter with the text of the Constitution may not have been from the official text issued by the Convention, he may not have valued those copies highly enough to retain them—but this remains merely a supposition. What is evident is that Jefferson found Washington’s letter of enclosure worthy of safe keeping—and, in turn, an appropriate gift to a worthy educator.


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¹ Malone, Jefferson and the Rights of Man, (Boston: Little Brown, 1951), 162.
² James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, ,The Papers of James Madison. Congressional Series, 8:11.[3 Samuel Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones: a Sailor’s Biography. (Boston: Little Brown, 1959), 354.
⁴ John Paul Jones to George Washington, New York, 9 November 1787. Published in The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 5:420.
⁵ George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, Mount Vernon, 1 January 1788. Published in The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 6:2-5.
⁶ See John Paul Jones to Thomas Jefferson, [Paris, c. 19 December 1787], in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:438. “I am just arrived here from England. I left New York the 11th. Novr. and have brought public dispatches and a number of private Letters for you.”
⁷ Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, Philadelphia, 14 October 1787. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:236.
⁸ John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:334-335.
⁹ Lafayette to Thomas Jefferson, Nemours, [25? December 1787]. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:460.
¹⁰ Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Paris, 13 November 1787. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:349-351.
¹¹ Jefferson to Washington, Paris, 2 May 1788. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series,13:124.
¹² Lafayette to Washington, Paris, 1 January 1788, Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 6:5
¹³ Ibid, 10 May 1789, 15:118.
¹⁴ See John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Quincy, 1 January 1812. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, 4:390.
¹⁵ Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 2:11.
¹⁶ Amos Cook to Thomas Jefferson, Freyburg, 18 December 1815. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 9:264.
¹⁷ Sowerby to the Editors of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 18 January 1954. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Main Series, 12:150n.
¹⁸ The British text of the constitution appeared in the November 1787 issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine. It is also possible that an early Philadelphia or New York printing may have arrived in France prior to the official printings.