Papers of John Adams, volume 20
I have the honour to enclose you a Postscript to the Report on Measures, Weights & coins now before your house. this has been rendered necessary by a small arithmetical error detected in the estimate of the cubic foot proposed in that report. the head of Superficial measures is also therein somewhat more developed.1
Nothing is known, since the last session of Congress of any further proceedings in Europe on this subject.
I have the honour to be with sentiments of the most profound
respect sir / Your most obedient / & most humble servt
RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “The honourable the President of the Senate.”
Adhering to a 15 Jan. 1790 resolution of the House of
Representatives, Jefferson set to work in April drafting a uniform system of weights
and measures meant to regulate trade and currency. He worked on the project with
singular focus for several months, battling intense headaches caused by spending long
hours on complex calculation. Along the way he consulted Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison, Philadelphia watchmaker Robert Leslie, and astronomer David Rittenhouse.
Jefferson sent the final report to the House on 4 July, and it was printed in several
New York newspapers during the first week of August. Sensing popular interest in
Jefferson’s great effort, George Washington urged Congress to take action on 7 Dec.
and again on 25 Oct. 1791, but it was not until 1792 that senators began to debate the
report (Jefferson, Papers
, 16:604–607, 614–616).