Primary Document Report

Name: John C. McKnight

Date: August 3, 1793

Title of Document: The George Washington Papers: Presidential Series, Volume 13, June 1- August 31, 1793

Source: To Cabinet, 3 August 1793. In The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, Vol. 13. Edited by
Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007.

Cabinet Opinion on the Rules of Neutrality, 3 August 1793. In The Papers of George Washington:

Presidential Series, Vol. 13. Edited by Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia

Press, 2007.

Explanation: These two documents consist of a letter from George Washington to his Cabinet members and a
letter from the Cabinet members to Washington that list and describe their ideas and stances on the countries “Rules

of Neutrality.” Washington’s letter states that the issues of neutrality need to be established as a precedent. He then

goes on to ask for the Cabinet’s advice. The second document is the Cabinet’s response and states and describes

their eight rules of neutrality. They end the list by stating that these are the rules that they have discussed and all

agreed on and are now submitted to the President. Each member of the cabinet signed their names, showing that

they all approved the rules.

Possible ways to use this document in a research paper or a lesson plan: These documents could
be very useful for a research paper and a lesson plan. For research, these documents provide a scholar with adequate

information on how the first office was able to reach an agreement on a serious political issue concerning foreign

affairs. It provides the researcher with a source of how Washington and his Cabinet conducting business. It could

also be used for a study of George Washington. If a scholar was planning on working on a biography of the first

President, this document would provide them with a great primary source. For a lesson plan, a teacher could use

these documents when teaching about the first Presidential term. For example, the documents could be read by the

students and the teacher could use this to show how the “Rules of Neutrality” were established. The teacher could

also use the documents to show the students how Washington conducted business with his Cabinet.
How does this document relate to other documents you have examined or heard before?

I read through many of the letters in this series of the George Washington Papers and the majority of these other

letters were written in a more personable manner. These two documents were more about business. Although there

are a lot of interesting things that you can gain from reading more personable letters, these two provide a researcher

and student with a lot of information about the American Government concerning the executive branch. For

example, it shows how the President asks his Cabinet for their advice and how that advice is given to the President.

Article URL: www.jstor.org/stable/3410763