To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 19 June 1795
From Timothy Pickering
War Office June 19. 1795.
The Secretary of War respectfully presents to the President the name of Mr George Clymer for one of the Commissioners to hold the treaty with the Creek Indians.1
Mr Fitzsimons, it is understood, will contest Mr Swanwick’s election for the city of Philadelphia.2
Mr John D. Cox is highly esteemed for his integrity and candour—his law-knowledge and sound judgement: But he is thought to be slow in conceiving, and particularly exposed to be led astray by artful, designing men.3
Mr Clymer possesses the requisite abilities, integrity, experience in business, and firmness.4
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. Pickering wrote “Private” on the cover.
1. For the proposed treaty with the Creek Indians, see James Seagrove to GW, 13 Jan.; GW’s second letter of 17 Feb. to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; James Gunn and Thomas P. Carnes to GW, c.2 March; and Pickering to Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., 15 May, n.2.
2. John Swanwick had defeated Thomas FitzSimons in the 1794 race to represent Philadelphia in Congress (see Edmund Randolph’s second letter to GW of 15 Oct., and n.1 to that document). But nine months after Swanwick took his seat, “sundry citizens and electors” of Philadelphia presented the House with a petition that alleged election improprieties and asked that the seat be declared vacant. The petition was referred to the committee on elections, which reported on 15 March 1796 that the citizens had “entirely failed” to support their allegations. The House approved that report in favor of Swanwick on 18 March ( 8:39–40, 258, 266).
3. John D. Coxe (1752–1824), brother of Tench Coxe, was a Philadelphia lawyer and later a judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
4. Later on this date Pickering informed GW that, “since writing the note mentioning Mr Clymer, Mr Bradford called on the Secy of War. Some conversation passed on the subject, by which it appeared that no gentleman, of the three named, had been spoken to. Mr Bradford desired the Secy of War to speak to Mr Fitzsimons, as lying in his department.
“Before taking any further step, the Secy of War proposed to wait on the President at six o’clock this afternoon: and will do it, if the President has no engagement to prevent it” (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
GW submitted Clymer’s nomination on 25 June as one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty with the Creek Indians.