To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 20 September 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State Sept. 20. 1796.
Sir,
I have just received a letter dated the 17th from Judge Benson: He accepts the place of third Commissioner under the fifth article of the British treaty, and was to set out yesterday for Passamaquoddy, to meet there the other Commissioners on the third of October. The trust, he remarks, is not incompatible with his present office; and interfering with it only for a short time, his acceptance of it appeared to him indispensable. He concludes with these words—“That my own judgement has coincided with the wishes of the President, certainly affords me a very sensible satisfaction.”1 I am with the highest respect, sir, your most obt servt
Timothy Pickering.
P.S. Amos Marsh, the District Attorney has desired to resign his office, & to have a successor speedily appointed.2 He recommends no one. It shall be a subject of enquiry.
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. GW replied to this letter on 28 Sept. (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
1. The letter from Egbert Benson, then an associate justice on the New York Supreme Court, to Pickering has not been identified.
For the persons already selected as commissioners under Article V of the Jay Treaty, see Pickering’s second letter to GW on 20 May, and n.6, and GW’s first letter to the U.S. Senate, same date; see also GW to Henry Knox, 4 April.
2. Amos Marsh was the federal district attorney for Vermont. For the nomination of Charles Marsh as his replacement, see GW to the U.S. Senate, 30 Dec. (DNA: RG 46, entry 52).