COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, Jan. 2, 1796

• During President George Washington administration
• National University in the Federal City - Wash. D.C.

Page 2 has a report from the Virginia House of Delegates concerning Washington: "...that the plan contemplated for erecting an University at the Federal city...And whereas when the general assembly of Virginia presented sundry shares in the James River and Potomac companies to George Washington as a small token of their gratitude for the great, eminent and unrivaled services he had rendered to this Commonwealth, to the United States, and to the world at large...Resolved, therefore that the appropriation of the said George Washington of the aforesaid shoes in the Potomac Company to the University intended to be erected in the Federal City...". This speaks to the creation of what would be George Washington University.
Four pages, nice condition.

Background: This issue of the Columbian Centinel (Boston, January 2, 1796) is highly notable for printing an official report from the Virginia House of Delegates documenting George Washington’s pivotal decision to re-appropriate his 50 corporate shares in the Potomac Company—originally given to him by Virginia as a personal gift for his Revolutionary War service—toward endowing a national university in the Federal City (now Washington, D.C.). Historically, this text captures a critical legal and financial milestone that laid the direct institutional groundwork for what was later chartered by Congress as Columbian College and ultimately renamed The George Washington University in 1904. From a collector’s and archival standpoint, late-18th-century American newspapers carrying content related to President Washington's living presidency are inherently scarce, but this specific issue is exceptionally rare because major state legislative resolutions regarding national institutional endownments were typically buried in official journals or local Virginia prints rather than picked up and published in New England regional gazettes.