To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 14 November 1795
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State Novr 14. 1795.
Sir,
Mr FitzSimons has sent me three bills amounting to upwards of five hundred dollars, drawn by the agents in the W. Indies & Halifax for the expences of obtaining copies of the papers in the spoliation cases.1 I presented them to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment: but to avoid the tediousness of paying such small sums in the form used at the treasury, he desired me to request from the President an order on him for one thousand dollars, with which I might pay the present & future draughts of the kind. I have therefore to request such an order;2 and am most respectfully sir Your obt servant
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. The bills have not been identified.
2. On this date GW directed Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to “Pay to Timothy Pickering Esqr. Secretary of War, one thousand Dollars out of the Fund appropriated for defraying the Contingent Charges of Government; to be paid to the Agents of the United States in the West Indies and at Halifax for the expenses of obtaining copies of papers in Cases of Spoliation” (LB, DLC:GW).