Th: Jefferson.




LETTER XXXIX.--TO GOVERNOR HANCOCK, August 24, 1790


TO GOVERNOR HANCOCK.

New York, August 24, 1790.

Sir,

The representatives of the United States have been pleased to refer to
me the representation from the General Court of Massachusetts, on the
subject of the whale and cod fisheries, which had been transmitted by
your Excellency, with an instruction to examine the matter thereof, and
report my opinion thereupon to the next session of Congress. To prepare
such a report as may convey to them the information necessary to lead to
an adequate remedy, it is indispensable that I obtain a statement of the
fisheries, comprehending such a period before and since the war, as
may show the extent to which they were and are carried on. With such
a statement under their view, Congress may be able, by comparing the
circumstances which existed when the fisheries flourished, with those
which exist at this moment of their decline, to discover the cause of
that decline, and provide either a remedy for it, or something which may
countervail its effect. This information can be obtained no where but
in the State over which your Excellency presides, and under no other
auspices so likely to produce it. May I, therefore, take the liberty of