Petition of John Cox to Establish Permanent Seat on Delaware River
7/24/1789
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This petition was sent to Congress by citizens of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Organized by John Cox, the petition outlined 13 reasons the district should be located in their 10 square miles along the Delaware River. He cited a victorious Revolutionary War battle near the location to exemplify its defensibility, and continued by listing the advantages of the land itself. Not only did his location have the best fishing, timber, stone for building, and wildlife, but it even had the “cheapest and best of all manure, The Plaster of Paris” to use as fertilizer. As if that was not enough, the land would be “capable of supplying wood, as well for fuel as for other purposes, by water to the end of time.
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789 - 2015.
National Archives Identifier: 12014772
Full Citation: Petition of John Cox to Establish Permanent Seat on Delaware River; 7/24/1789; Petitions and Memorials and Resolutions of State Legislatures Submitted to the 1st Congress, 1789 - 1791; Petitions and Related Documents That Were Presented, Read, or Tabled, 1789 - 1966; Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789 - 2015, Record Group 46; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/petition-of-john-cox-for-permanent-seat, April 19, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.