To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 22 June 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State June 22. 1796.
Sir,
I have the honor to inclose a translation of Mr Adet’s letter relative to the capture of the ship Mount Vernon. It seems to be studiously reserved. Besides the case in question, my letter invited a frank & candid communication of any information on the subject. Whatever orders the Directory may have given to their new Commissioners gone to St Domingo, relative to neutrals trading with the enemies of the French Republic, it is plain such new orders could not have been furnished to the privateer called the Flying Fish, which, from the information I have received, left St Domingo, and was even probably in the port of Philadelphia, when those Commissioners arrived in the West Indies.1
We have heard of no more captures by the Flying Fish; and her capturing and retaining the ship Mount Vernon seems likely to have been done in expectation of eventually proving her to be British property, of which a number of circumstances, currently reported, induce the suspicion, in the minds of many people.2
yesterday I received a letter from Mr DeWitt: He suspends his decision on the appointment to the office of surveyor general, until he should come to the seat of government, for which he proposed to set off by the next stage. His letter is dated the 14th at Albany.3
Harrison Gray Otis who was appointed District Attorney for Massachusetts, declines accepting the office. Mr Wolcott says that Mr Davis, the Comptroller, would be gratified by an appointment to that office, when he quits the office of comptroller.
The death of Mr Gorham, supervisor of Massachusetts, presents Mr Jonathan Jackson, now an inspector in that department, as a candidate for the vacant office. He is so well known to you, either personally or by former recommendations of gentlemen who knew his worth, that no new testimonies in his favour seem necessary.
General John Brooks, the present marshall of that district, desires to succeed to Mr Jackson’s office: and Colonel Samuel Bradford, now the deputy marshall, who resides at Boston, and has to universal acceptance, done nearly all the business of the Marshall, desires to succeed General Brooks. The general, as well as Judge Lowell, speaks of Colo. Bradford in terms of perfect approbation.4
Captain OBrien remained here several days longer than I expected.5 When I pressed his departure last week I found he was waiting for some spare topmasts & yards which were making. Yesterday at one o’clock I delivered him his dispatches for Colo. Humphreys, and he was to sail before the evening. Mr Humphreys the naval constructor and Mr Fox are making calculations & forming a draught of the proposed frigate, without which proper directions for building her cannot be given.6 The greater part of the timber sufficiently seasoned may probably be collected from the various public yards.7 I am with the highest respect sir your most obt servant
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters.
1. Pickering had written French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet on 13 June (see Pickering to GW, 12 June, n.2). Adet replied to Pickering on 14 June; his letter reads in translation: “I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me relative to the seizure of the Ship Mount Vernon, by the French privateer flying-Fish.
“I am vexed, sir, not to have it in my power to give you the information you request of me. I cannot say whether the privateer which is certainly a vessel commissioned by the Republic and come from St Domingo to this port, has or has not acted conformably to orders which have been transmitted to her; I do not know the instructions given by the Directory to its Commissioners in the Colonies, nor do I know what conduct it has prescribed to them to cause to be observed by the armed vessels under their orders, in regard to neutrals trading with the enemies of the Republic. It is impossible for me, at this moment, to furnish you with precise explanations. I shall, therefore, write to the colonies to obtain them, and I will immediately transmit to you what shall come to my Knowledge, as well as to this point as concerning the event which is the object of your letter” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
In late January 1796 the Directory appointed a commission of five agents—Léger Félicité Sonthonax, Julien Raimond, Pierre Leblanc, Marc Antoine Giraud, and Philipe Roume—to reassert French control over Saint Domingue. The commissioners arrived at Cap Français on 11 May.
2. See Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to GW, 20 June, and notes 6, 9, and 10.
3. Simeon DeWitt’s letter has not been identified, but see GW to the U.S. Senate, 28 May (second letter).
4. For the officials mentioned in the previous three paragraphs, see Wolcott to GW, 20 June, especially notes 11 and 12.
5. For Capt. Richard O’Bryen, see Pickering to GW, 10 June, and n.5.
6. For the frigate intended for the dey of Algiers, see GW to same, 13 June, and n.4 to that document.
Josiah Fox (1763–1847) trained as a shipwright in Great Britain before coming to the United States in 1793. He was employed as a War Department clerk in 1794 with the understanding that he would assist Joshua Humphreys design frigates for the U.S. Navy (see Henry Knox to Fox, 16 July 1794, in MaSaPEM: Josiah Fox Papers). Fox officially became a naval constructor in 1798 and remained involved with public and private shipbuilding until about 1811, when he moved west and eventually settled at Colerain, Ohio.