George Washington Papers
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From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 25 January 1797

To the United States Senate

United States
January 25th 1797.

Gentlemen of the Senate,

I nominate David Russell of the State of Vermont to be Collector of South Hero in the District of Vermont, vice Stephen Keyes, superseded.1

Go: Washington

LB, DLC:GW.

1On this date, GW’s secretary George Washington Craik delivered this message to the Senate, which approved the nomination on 26 January. GW again wrote the Senate on 31 Jan. to nominate Russell as the “Inspector of South Hero in the District of Vermont” (LS, DNA: RG 46, entry 52; LB, DLC:GW). The Senate confirmed that nomination on 1 Feb., and GW signed Russell’s commissions as collector and inspector at South Hero on 30 Jan. and 2 Feb., respectively (see 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 , 223–25; see also JPP description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed. The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797. Charlottesville, Va., 1981. description ends , 350). Russell served in both capacities until 1803.

Russell’s predecessor, Stephen Keyes, had served as collector at Alburg, Vermont. However, British claims to that place had prompted GW to instead name South Hero as Vermont’s port of entry in 1792. The port of entry reverted back to Alburg by 1803 (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 4 March 1791 [first letter]; Alexander Hamilton to GW, 9 May 1792 [first letter], n.1; and Albert Gallatin to Thomas Jefferson, with Jefferson’s Reply, 12 July 1803, in Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 41:36–37).

A soldier during the Revolutionary War, David Russell (c. 1758–1843) moved to Bennington, Vt., around 1783. There, he was associated with the Vermont Gazette. Either Russell or his father, also named David, served as postmaster at Bennington from 1784 to 1797. Russell later moved to Burlington, Vt., where he held numerous offices, including justice of the peace.

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