 However, he was unable to find a printer that was willing to publish and distribute the work.In early 1791, U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson asked surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott (the son of Joseph Ellicott and cousin of George Ellicott) to survey an area that would contain a new federal district.In February 1791, Ellicott left a surveying team that had he had been leading in western New York so that he could begin the district's survey.