To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, c.17 February 1797
From Timothy Pickering
[c.17 Feb. 1797]1
Candidates for Offices.
William Claiborne, of the State of Tenassee—to be district judge. Recommended by General Marshall—and strongly by Colo. Carrington.2
David Campbell, late a Judge of that Territory, is recommended for District Judge, by a Mr Roane the friend of James Ross Esqr. who relies on his discernment & probity in the recommendation.3
Elias Backman, a merchant of Gottenburg in Sweden, to be Consul for that city. There are ample certificates of his respectability as a merchant, of his abilities & irreproachable character. Colo. Hamilton who has seen the recommendations, interests himself in his favour. Mr Backman writes English well.4
Isaac Cox Barnet, a native of New Jersey, residing at Brest, to be consul for that port. The young gentleman writes very handsomely. He is the nephew of Mr Boudinot, who warmly recommends him for his abilities and good qualities. The sentiments expressed in his letter to Mr B. do him honor.5
Nicholas Clary, a native of Marseilles and a relation to Mr Cathalan our Consul there, to be Consul at Genoa, where he resides. Daniel Ludlow & Co. at New-York recommend him for the respectability of his commercial and private character.6
Francis Childs, late printer at New York, now in Europe, & who proposes to reside at Genoa, is strongly recommended by Mr Dayton to be consul there. He has been some few years concerned in Commerce & has a good acquaintance with it, as Mr Dayton informs. He is one of the commercial house in which Mr Dayton is a partner.7
G. di Dominico, a Genoese, desires the same office. He refers to his friend Mr Ravara, the Genoese Consul here for his character.8
Conrad Frederick Wagner, to be Consul at Trieste (a port of the Emperor of Germany on the Adriatic) where he says he has been 17 years Consul for Sweden. The British, Spanish & Portuguese Consuls there certify that he is the Consul of Sweden. Joseph Donaldson at Leghorn has written in his favour for the appointment. Mr Wagner writes English well.9
AD, in Timothy Pickering’s writing, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters. Pickering docketed the letter: “Memo. Francis Cabot requests the place of Agent for protecting our seamen in Great Britain vacant by Mr Trumbull’s declining the agency.” In August 1796, John Trumbull had declined the post of agent to Great Britain. He had been selected to serve on the commission authorized under Article VII of the Jay Treaty (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 30 May, and n.1 to that document; see also Pickering to GW, 15 Oct. 1796, and n.2 to that document; and Pickering to GW, 1 March 1797, and n.7 to that document).
Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr., also submitted to GW recommendations for many of the posts described in the present document (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 17 Feb., source note).
1. GW’s secretary Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., docketed this letter “Feby 1797.” However, it was most likely written on or before 17 Feb., the day that GW wrote the U.S. Senate with his nominations to fill many of the posts mentioned in this document.
2. No written recommendations for William Charles Cole Claiborne from John Marshall or Edward Carrington have been identified. GW had received other recommendations for Claiborne as federal district judge for Tennessee, but he instead nominated John McNairy to the post (see William Fleming to GW, 10 Dec. 1796; see also John Blair to GW, 16 Dec. 1796; and Andrew Jackson to GW, 8 Feb. 1797).
3. No recommendation from Tennessee judge Archibald Roane for his father-in-law and former judge of the Southwest Territory, David Campbell, has been identified. For the opinions submitted to GW on Campbell’s abilities, see Joseph Anderson, 2 Nov. 1796; and Francis Preston to GW, 25 Jan. 1797.
4. The certificates have not been identified.
Born in Lovisa, Finland, Elias Backman (b. 1760) attended the university at Abo, Finland. He later worked as a merchant and shipowner in Lovisa and Paris. Around 1790, Backman settled in Göteborg, Sweden, where he was an exporter involved in the grain and hardware trade, and where he was named a burgher in 1794. GW nominated Backman as U.S. consul at Göteborg in February 1797. He served in that capacity until 1802. Backman later faced financial difficulties and bankruptcy.
5. Neither a letter to Pickering from Elias Boudinot, director of the U.S. Mint, nor a letter from Isaac Cox Barnet to Boudinot, has been identified. However, in a letter to Pickering dated 24 July 1796 from Paris, U.S. minister to France James Monroe wrote: “Permit me to make known to you the wish of Isaac Cox Barnet … to be appointed Consul at Brest. This young man is well recommended to me in point of morality, appears to possess adequate talents, and from what I hear is industrious, and being in every view strictly an American … I beg leave to recommend him to your attention.” Monroe advocated the establishment of a consulship at Brest, recommended Barnet for the post, and referred Pickering to Boudinot, “whose nephew he is, and who will doubtless give you more information of his merits” (, 4:55–58).
Isaac Cox Barnet (1773–1833) of Elizabeth, N.J., was the son of Dr. William M. Barnet, a friend and “old Acquaintance” of Boudinot (Boudinot to James Madison, 24 March 1802, in , 3:64–65). Barnet spent several months in France in the early 1780s before working in a New York counting-house. Barnet later returned to France, where he was a cargo agent for John R. Livingston in 1794. On 17 Feb. 1797, GW nominated Barnet as U.S. consul at Brest, and he served until 1799. He subsequently held consulships at Bordeaux, Antwerp, and Paris, and was commercial agent at Le Havre, France (see , 136).
6. No recommendation for Clary from the firm of Daniel Ludlow and Company has been identified. GW appointed Francis Childs, not Clary, as U.S. consul at the Republic of Genoa.
Formerly a merchant at Marseille, France, Nicolas-Joseph Clary (1760–1823) was the brother of Marie-Julie Clary, the wife of Joseph Bonaparte. The son of François Clary and his second wife, Rose Somis, Nicolas became a pair de France in 1815. He died in Paris.
Daniel Ludlow and Company had a counting-house located on Garden Street (now Exchange Place) at the corner of New Street in New York.
7. No written recommendation for Childs from Jonathan Dayton to Pickering has been identified, but for GW’s nomination of Childs as U.S. consul at the Republic of Genoa, see GW to the U.S. Senate, 17 February.
Childs was the editor of The Daily Advertiser (New York) from 1785 to 1796. He briefly published other New York and Philadelphia newspapers as well (see , 2:1391). The Daily Advertiser for 21 May 1796 printed an advertisement, dated 1 May 1796 that announced that Childs, Jonathan Dayton, and Jonathan Hampton Lawrence had “established a Commercial house” in New York “under the Firm of LAWRENCE, DAYTON & CO.” The announcement noted that their business would be operated by Lawrence “at no. 87 Greenwich street.”
8. Genoese merchant Gaetano Drago di Domenico, who previously sought an appointment as U.S. consul at Genoa, had written Pickering in April 1796 about that post. In his reply of 7 Dec. 1796, Pickering explained the delay in establishing a diplomatic post at Genoa. He wrote that “the precarious footing on which our commerce in the Mediterranean has rested for several years, and the unsettled condition of our negociations with the Barbary powers have hitherto forbid any solicitude on our part to make such Consular establishments.” According to Pickering, improved U.S. relations with the Barbary States made consular appointments in Italian ports probable. He therefore advised Drago di Domenico to transmit recommendation letters to the State Department. Nevertheless, Drago di Domenico never received an appointment from GW (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801; and Drago di Domenico to GW, 24 Dec. 1790). Drago di Domenico’s friend, Joseph Ravara, had been named the Genoese consul at Philadelphia in 1791.
9. No letter to Pickering from Joseph Donaldson, Jr., about Conrad Frederick Wagner has been identified. GW nominated Wagner as U.S. consul at the port of Trieste in his letter to the U.S. Senate of 17 February. Wagner served at Trieste until 1799 (see , 77).
Located at the head of the Adriatic Sea, Trieste was a part of the Hapsburg Empire and under Austrian rule. It was declared a free port in 1719 by Emperor Charles VI and remained as such until 1891. The current Holy Roman Emperor, referred to by Pickering as “Emperor of Germany,” was Francis II.
The British consul at Trieste in 1797 was Edward Stanley.