RC (Raab Collection, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, 2016); printed form, with blanks filled by Meriwether Lewis reproduced in italics; addressed by Lewis: “The Honble. Mr. Read.”

Nathan Read, a one-term Massachusetts congressman, was among several guests who accepted TJ’s dinner invitation for Saturday, 6 Feb. On that day, fellow guest Manasseh Cutler recorded dining, along with Read, at the President’s House with Senators James Hillhouse, Dwight or Theodore Foster, and James Ross and Congressmen Thomas Boude, Peleg Wadsworth, Henry Woods, Seth Hastings, and Samuel Tenney. “Dinner not so elegant as when we dined before,” Cutler noted. “Rice soup—Round of beaf—seemed to be boild to make the soup, & then browned in a dutch oven—Gravy with it—very good—Turkey—Very fat mutton—Ham—Line Veal—Cutletts of mutton or veal—fryed Eggs—fryed beaf by apper—a pie—called a Macaronie—It appeared to be a rich crust filled the skillions of onions, or shallots—wh. I took it to be—tasted very strong & not agreeable—Mr. Lewis told me—there were none in it—an Italian dish—& what appeard like onions was made of only flower & butter, with a particular liquor mixed with them—Ice Creams—very good—Crust wholly dried, Crumbled into thin flakes—Dish—some what like a pudding—Inside White as milk or curd—very poreous—light—covered over with a large quantity of, to appearan Cream sauce—very fine—Many other Jim cracks—Fruite—great variety of fruits—Plenty Wines & good—Presidt. Social—Thermo. this morng. at 17°—We Drank tea—& viewed agn. the great Cheese” (journal, 6 Feb. 1802, in Manasseh Cutler Collection, Northwestern University).