From George Washington to the United States Senate, 19 November 1792
To the United States Senate
United States [Philadelphia]
November 19th 1792
Gentlemen of the Senate
I nominate the following persons to fill the Offices annexed to their names respectively, to which they have been appointed during the recess of the Senate.
Zebulon Hollingsworth to be Attorney for the United States in the Maryland District; vice Richard Potts, resigned.1
Copland Parker, to be Surveyor of the Port of Smithfield in Virginia; vice James Wells, resigned.2
James Gibbon, to be Inspector of Survey No. 4. in Virginia; vice Thomas Newton Junr resigned.3
John Armistead, to be Surveyor of the Port of Plymouth in North Carolina; vice Thomas Davis Freeman, superseded.4
Thomas Parker, to be Attorney for the United States in the South Carolina District; vice John J. Pringle, resigned.5
I likewise nominate
Thomas Moffat, to be Surveyor of the Port of Fredericksburg in Virginia;6 vice William Lewis, who is appointed Keeper of the Light House lately erected on Cape Henry7—and—
Benjamin Joy of Massachusetts, to be Consul for the United States of America at Calcutta, and other Ports and places on the coast of India in Asia.8
Go: Washington
DS, DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–93, Senate Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations; LB, DLC:GW.
1. For background on Zebulon Hollingsworth’s appointment, see GW to James McHenry, 31 Aug. 1792, and notes.
2. Although Copeland Parker’s brother Josiah Parker had written a letter to GW on 1 July 1789 recommending him for a surveyor’s position in the new federal government, he did not receive any appointment that year. In that letter Josiah also wrote, “Colonel James Wells of the Militia of Isle of Wight requests to be appointed Surveyor at Smithfield.” GW nominated Wells to the desired position on 3 Aug. 1789, and the Senate approved the appointment the next day (see 1:11, 14). When Wells resigned his surveyor’s position in 1792 following his election to the Virginia general assembly, GW appointed Copeland Parker to succeed him (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 6 Mar. 1792 [third letter], note 6).
3. See James Gibbon’s letter of application to GW of 17 July 1792. Gibbon’s nomination was omitted in the letter-book copy.
4. For background on Thomas Davis Freeman’s removal from office and John Armistead’s appointment, see Hamilton to GW, 17 Sept. 1792, and note 1.
6. See Joseph Jones’s recommendation of Thomas Moffat in his letter to GW of 8 Nov. 1792.
7. For background on William Lewis’s appointment, see Hamilton to GW, 22 Sept. 1792, and note 6.
8. For background on Benjamin Joy’s nomination, see George Cabot to GW, 16 Nov. 1792, and notes. Tobias Lear notified Thomas Jefferson on 21 Nov. that all these nominations had been approved by the Senate on that same date, noting that Copeland Parker and John Armistead were “ex officio, Inspectors of the Revenue for the same ports” as those for which they were surveyors (DLC:GW). For the Senate’s approval of these nominations, see 1:126.