_Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and
Measures of the United States_
COMMUNICATED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 13, 1790
New York, July 4, 1790
Sir: -- In obedience to the order of the House of
Representatives of January 15th, I have now the honor to enclose you
a report on the subject of measures, weights, and coins. The length
of time which intervened between the date of the order and my arrival
in this city, prevented my receiving it till the 15th of April; and
an illness which followed soon after added, unavoidably, some weeks
to the delay; so that it was not till about the 20th May that I was
able to finish the report. A desire to lessen the number of its
imperfections induced me still to withhold it awhile, till, on the
15th of June, came to my hands, from Paris, a printed copy of a
proposition made by the Bishop of Autun, to the National Assembly of
France, on the subject of weights and measures; and three days
afterwards I received, through the channel of the public papers, the
speech of Sir John Riggs Miller, of April 13th, in the British House
of Commons, on the same subject. In the report which I had prepared,
and was then about to give in, I had proposed the latitude of 38
degrees, as that which should fix our standard, because it was the
medium latitude of the United States; but the proposition before the
National Assembly of France, to take that of 45 degrees as being a
middle term between the equator and both poles, and a term which
consequently might unite the nations of both hemispheres, appeared to
me so well chosen, and so just, that I did not hesitate a moment to
prefer it to that of 38 degrees.
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