RC (ViU:Adams Family Letters); endorsed: “W S Shaw / 19th: Feby. / 1801. / 5th: March Recd:.”

The Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 20 Feb., reported that soon after word spread of Thomas Jefferson’s election as president on 17 Feb., “a number of the Citizens of New-Jersey Avenue assembled and unanimously Resolved to illuminate their windows at Sunset.” In the same issue it was reported that windows would be illuminated on the evening of the 20th “in honor of REPUBLICANISM.”

The correspondence from Aaron Burr to Senator Jonathan Dayton was likely among several letters, not extant, that Burr sent to colleagues in Washington, D.C., announcing that he had abandoned his pretensions to the presidency. The Newburyport Herald, 3 March, printed an excerpt from a letter, stating, “Mr. Burr has written to General S. Smith, and Gen. Dayton, declaring he would not come in President by the influence of the federal party; as it would destroy his purposes” (Burr, Political Correspondence , 1:486).

Between the 13 Feb. passage of the Judiciary Act and the end of his presidency on 3 March, JA nominated 26 candidates to federal judicial posts, including sixteen to posts established by the new law. These nominations, dubbed “midnight appointments” by the political opposition in 1802, were made in messages read in the Senate on 18, 23, 25, 26 Feb. 1801, and 2 March, and all were confirmed. The appointments to the first four circuits were John Lowell (1743–1802), Harvard 1760, as chief judge for the first circuit, and Oliver Wolcott Jr. as a judge for the second circuit. For the third circuit, JA initially nominated Jared Ingersoll as chief judge and Richard Bassett (1745–1815) and William Griffith (1766–1826) as judges. Ingersoll declined the appointment, however, after which JA nominated William Tilghman as chief judge. For the fourth circuit, JA named Charles Lee as chief judge and Philip Barton Key and George Keith Taylor (1769–1815), William and Mary 1793, as judges. Lee declined the appointment, and Key was elevated to chief judge and Charles Magill appointed as judge.

JA also nominated John Davis (1761–1847), Harvard 1781, as Lowell’s replacement as judge for the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts and Harrison Gray Otis as Davis’ replacement as U.S. attorney for the Massachusetts District. In the same way that he solicited information about potential candidates from TBA, JA appears to have made a similar request of William Cranch, who sent an [ante 28 Feb.] letter to JA (Adams Papers) offering comment on 36 southern attorneys (vol. 7:170; William Smith Shaw to TBA, 8 Jan., note 7, above; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 6th Cong., 2d sess., p. 381–390; James Cheetham, A View of the Political Conduct of Aaron Burr, Esq., Vice-President of the United States, N.Y., 1802, p. 97; Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, www.fjc.gov/history/judges; Catalogue of William and Mary College, in the State of Virginia, Williamsburg, Va., 1855, p. 35).

On 18 Feb. JA nominated commercial agents to France, including Isaac Cox Barnet (1773–1833) at Bordeaux, John Murray Forbes (1771–1831) at Le Havre, John Jones Waldo at Nantes, and Thomas Waters Griffith (1767–1838) at Rouen, all of whom were confirmed by the Senate on 24 February. Barnet, however, did not receive a letter of appointment (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 6th Cong., 2d sess., p. 381, 385; CFA, Diary , 1:1; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series , 17:284; Jefferson, Papers , 33:226, 35:252). For William Lee’s nomination as commercial agent at Marseilles, see Susanna Palfrey Lee to AA, 16 Dec. 1800, and note 1, above.

On 16 Feb. 1801 Samuel Blodget Jr. published the anonymous Thoughts on the Increasing Wealth and National Economy of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1801, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 202, in which he argued that the United States should follow a policy of mercantile expansionism and borrow money from other countries to enhance U.S. credit (Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 16 Feb.).