To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 5 October 1795
To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 5 October 1795
Department of State Oct. 5. 1795.
Sir,
I have the honor to inclose a copy of Mr Pinckney’s letter of the 21st of July from Madrid. No key has yet been found, or rather none exists here, to decypher his figures.1
On Saturday a packet arrived from Mr Bayard containing one of the spoliation cases decided by the High Court of Appeals—on principles extremely unfavourable. I sent the whole immediately to Mr Fitzsimons for the consideration of the Committee of Merchants.2 With the highest respect I am sir your most obt servt
Timothy Pickering
Mr Dandridge called this morning to see me—pretty much fatigued with his journey.
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. Thomas Pinckney had used a cipher that he had “made for the purpose of corresponding with our Ministers in Europe.” After realizing that the State Department did not have a copy, he sent a decipherable version of the ciphered text with his letter of 27 Aug., received on 5 Nov. (DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Spain).
2. A committee of merchants aggrieved by British ship seizures was formed at Philadelphia in October 1794. They requested that the government appoint agents to pursue their claims in the West Indies and Great Britain. Samuel Bayard was sent to London for that purpose (see Edmund Randolph to GW, 18 Oct. [second letter], 22 Oct. [second letter], and 23 Oct. [second letter]; and GW to John Jay, 1–4 Nov.; all 1794).
The preceding Saturday was 3 Oct., but the letter-book copy of Pickering’s letter to Thomas FitzSimons enclosing a printed copy of the case of the brigantine Betsey, William Furlong master, is dated 2 Oct. (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters). For a statement of the case and the July 1795 decision affirming the May 1794 condemnation of the ship by a Bermudan court, see American Remembrancer; or, an Impartial Collection of Essays, Resolves, Speeches, &c. Relative, or Having Affinity, to the Treaty with Great Britain (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1795), 3:132–37. In 1797 the commission created under the seventh article of the Jay Treaty awarded more than £6,000 to the owners of the Betsey ( 3:3207–9).