RC (private owner, 1994); notation by JA: “The distance from Philada. to / Frankford KY. is 790 Miles”; and: “information from the post office / P.”

Originally from Lexington, Ky., Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess (1774–1811) was appointed U.S. attorney for the district of Kentucky in 1800 (Stella Pickett Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of America, N.Y., 1911, p. 346; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series , 1:148).

One of JA’s duties was to acknowledge the electoral votes received from states’ messengers like Daviess. JA then presided over a joint meeting of Congress on 8 Feb. 1797, where the state electors’ votes were unsealed and counted. JA announced the result of 71 votes for himself (one greater than the necessary majority of 70), 68 for Thomas Jefferson, 59 for Thomas Pinckney, and the rest dispersed among ten other candidates. JA and Jefferson were elected president and vice president, respectively, to serve for four years beginning on 4 March ( Annals of Congress , 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 2095–2098).