To Thomas Jefferson from David M. Clarkson, 11 May 1793
From David M. Clarkson
St. Eustatius, 11 May 1793. He acknowledges receipt of his consular commission for this island from the President, as well as his instructions and the laws of the United States, but notes that he is unable to exercise this office because to his surprise the governor of the island has informed him that the States General has ordered all Dutch governors in their American colonies not to acknowledge consuls from the United States.
RC (DNA: RG 59, MLR); 1 p.; at foot of text: “The Honable Thomas Jefferson Esqr. Secretary of State”; endorsed by TJ as received 25 May 1793 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosed in TJ to George Washington, 27 May 1793.
David M. Clarkson (1765–1821), the son of Matthew Clarkson, mayor of Philadelphia from 1792 to 1796, was a shipper on St. Kitts for six years before being appointed United States consul at St. Eustatius in February 1793. See J. Robert T. Craine, comp., and Harry W. Hazard, ed., The Ancestry and Posterity of Matthew Clarkson (1664–1702) [n.p., 1971], 18, 27.