From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 25 June 1795
To the United States Senate
United States June the 25th 1795.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
It has been represented by our Minister Plenipotentiary near the French Republic, that such of our commercial relations with France, as may require the support of the United States in detail, cannot be well executed without a Consul-General. Of this I am satisfied; when I consider the extent of the mercantile claims, now depending before the French government; the necessity of bringing into the hands of one agent the various applications to the several committees of administration, residing at Paris; the attention which must be paid to the conduct of consuls and viceconsuls; and the nature of the services, which are the peculiar objects of a minister’s care, and leave no leisure for his intervention in business, to which consular functions are competent. I therefore nominate
Fulwar Skipwith, to be Consul-general of the United States in France.1
I also nominate John Kelty, of Maryland, to be Inspector of the revenue for Survey No. 1. in the District of Maryland.2
William Nichols, of Pennsylvania, to be Marshal of and for the Pennsylvania District—vice David Lenox, resigned.3
John Davis, of Plymouth in Massachusetts, to be Comptroller of the Treasury of the U. States; vice Jonathan Jackson, declined.4
John Stockton, to be Commissioner of Loans for the State of Delaware; vice James Tilton, resigned.5
Dudley Atkins Tyng, of Massachusetts, to be Collector for the District of Newburyport; vice Edward Wigglesworth, superceded.6 and
George Forster, to be Collector for the District of Sunbury in the State of Georgia; vice James James, who was appointed by the name of John James in February last, & who has declined.7
Go: Washington
LS, DNA: RG 46, Fourth Congress, Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations; LB, DLC:GW.
The Senate approved these nominations on 26 June (see 191).
1. GW signed Fulwar Skipwith’s commission on 9 July (see 331).
2. GW referred to John Kilty, whose name is correctly written in the letterbook copy. GW signed Kilty’s commission on 1 July (see 330).
3. GW signed a new commission for William Nichols on 1 July (see 330).
4. GW had worked to find a man to fill the position of comptroller since Oliver Wolcott, Jr., resigned in early February to replace Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury. Jackson declined the office in a letter to GW of 28 March. On 10 April, GW temporarily appointed Henry Kuhl, chief clerk of the comptroller’s office, until a permanent replacement could be found, provided his “authority shall not continue for more than Six Months from the date hereof” (DS [photocopy], Remember When Auctions, Inc., 10 July 1999, Catalogue 46, item 192). GW signed the commission for John Davis (1761–1847) on 29 June (see 330). Davis served as comptroller until 21 Dec. 1796, when he accepted an appointment as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts (see 216). Davis held that position until 1801, when he became a federal judge.
5. John Stockton (1755–1822) served in the Delaware militia during the Revolutionary War. He became coroner of New Castle in 1783, served as sheriff from 1788 to 1791, and was a state senator in 1795. During the War of 1812 he served as a brigadier general of the Delaware militia. GW signed Stockton’s commission on 1 July (see 330).
6. Dudley Atkins Tyng (1760–1829) had successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to take the surname “Tyng” in 1790. He was recommended by Massachusetts senator George Cabot, who wrote to Wolcott that he was “ready to give unreserved assurances” of Tyng’s “possessing every valuable qualification” (Cabot’s note to Wolcott on “S.H.” to Cabot, 19 June, DLC:GW). GW signed Tyng’s commission on 1 July (see 330). He retained the office until removed in 1803 (see 432).
7. For James James’s nomination, see GW to the U.S. Senate, 2 Feb. (second letter), n.4; for his declination, see Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., to Wolcott, 24 June, n.3.
George Foster had been register of probate for Liberty County, Georgia. Under the name “Forster,” he was recommended as “a Gentleman qualified for the office” by Georgia senator James Gunn in a letter of this date to Wolcott (DLC:GW). GW signed his commission on 1 July, and he remained collector at Sunbury until he resigned in 1805 (see Georgia Gazette [Savannah], 29 Oct. 1789; 330; and Foster to James Holmes, 5 July 1805, in DNA: RG 59, Letters of Application and Recommendation during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, 1801–1809).