1. Dufouer’s petition, addressed “To his Excellency George Washington President of the United States” and dated “1793,” probably accompanied this letter. The petition reads: “That your petitioner served a regular Clerkship in the Merchantile line in the City of New York, and that some considerable time before the commen[c]ement of the late war your petitioner was appointed one of the Officers of the Custom House for the port of New York and continued in that appointment until the ports was shut, that in the Year 1776 your petitioner left his property in the City of New York and took a Decided part in the late Revolution. That at the close of the war when the Custom House was again established in this City, your Petitioner was appointed a Land and Tidewaiter and has served in that capacity until the present time.

“Your petitioner therefore humbly prays he may be Appointed Surveyor and Searcher for the port of New York” (DLC:GW). Seventy of Dufouer’s fellow citizens signed this petition below the following statement: “We the Subscribers do hereby Recommend Henry Dufouer the within Petitioner as a proper Person to be appointed to the Office he prays for.”

2. Dufouer had written Alexander Hamilton on 23 June 1792 asking for financial assistance (Syrett, Hamilton Papers, description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. 27 vols. New York, 1961–87. description ends 11:549–50). Dufouer did not receive the desired appointment, and on 28 May he wrote Hamilton for money to help him go “into the Merchantile line of Business” (ibid., 14:488–89).