1. These documents involving Northwest Territory governor Arthur St. Clair have not been identified but presumably related to GW’s message to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives dated 25 May.

2. GW’s message to the Senate of this date reads: “I nominate Harrison Gray Otis, of Massachusetts, to be the Attorney of the United States for that District” (LS, DNA: RG 46, entry 52; copy, DLC:GW). The Senate received the message on 25 May and approved the nomination on 26 May (Senate Executive Journal, description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends 212). Harrison Gray Otis declined the office (see Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to GW, 20 June, postscript, and Pickering to GW, 22 June).

3. GW returned Pickering’s letter to Thomas Pinckney, minister to Great Britain, with his approval on 25 May (JPP, description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed. The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797. Charlottesville, Va., 1981. description ends 337). Pickering’s letter, dated 23 May, covered diplomatic developments with Spain, matters related to implementation of the Jay Treaty, and the process for settling small spoliation claims with Great Britain. He concluded: “Mr [Rufus] King expects to sail for London in June; and he is very desirous to meet you there. If no pressing object requires your departure at an earlier day, the President will be well pleased that you should await his arrival, and personally communicate to him whatever you shall deem material to the interests of the United States for him to know. Relying that this arrangement will be agreeable to you, Mr King will himself be the bearer of your letter of recall.

“I do not know what has been the former practice of the ministers of the United States but it really appears as proper as important that your whole correspondence relative to the affairs of the United States with the British Government and with this Department should be delivered over to your successor, whose acts and negociations must have a frequent and necessary reference to and connection with your own. I am therefore instructed by the President to desire you to tran[s]fer them accordingly” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions).

4. Pickering probably enclosed a draft of his letter to John Parish dated 2 June: “Complaints have been received at this office, originating with American Citizens, of your partiality to the British, and direct unfriendliness to the French Republic.” Pickering specified the complaints and excused Parish’s conduct, but he reported it still “expedient … to remove the cause of complaint. As Consul, you represent the American Government. But the President of the United States as the chief Administrator of that Government, desires that his conduct may appear as impartial as his principles. I am therefore directed to inform you, that a change is proposed in the Consulate of Hamburg. The President will endeavor to fill the place with an American citizen. But until a Successor shall notify to you his appointment, you will be pleased to continue to exercise your functions as Consul.” Pickering assured Parish that the change did not reflect on his “integrity” or “mercantile reputation. You will still enjoy here the respect to which these qualities entitle a man, and that consideration which by your early services to this Country you have acquired” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions; see also the Report on Foreign Affairs, 12 May, and n.13, printed as an enclosure with Pickering to GW, same date).

Alexander Hamilton had written Secretary of War James McHenry from New York on 1 June with thoughts on handling Parish, whom he believed a victim of favoritism toward the French. Hamilton wanted Parish “superseded, with a kind letter to him. I do not write to Pickering or the President because I am not regularly possessed of the information. But I hope you will attend to the matter, even if at the expense of being a little officious” (Hamilton Papers, description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. 27 vols. New York, 1961–87. description ends 20:212–14).