To George Washington from Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 7 September 1795
From Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
Treasury Department Septemb. 7th 1795.
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honour of transmitting to The President of the United States an official Certificate of a settlement made at the Treasury, by which it appears that the United States are indebted to George Bush, Collector of Wilmington, the sum of twenty one dollars; being for Express hire & expenses incurred relative to the detention of the armed ship Jumeaux, Captn Rualt, pursuant to instructions from the Secy of War.1
As there is no specific fund provided by Law for discharging this demand, it appears to be expedient if the President shall be pleased so to direct, that payment be made out of the fund appropriated for defraying the Contingent Expenses of the Government of the Ud States.2 All which is most respectfully submitted.
Oliv: Wolcott Jr
Secy of the Treasy
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The certificate has not been identified. The incident concerned Les Jumeaux, renamed Le Cassius. The ship was docked in the United States and refitted as a privateer. The crew engaged in armed resistance when George Bush, acting on orders from then-secretary of war Henry Knox, obtained assistance from the local militia (see Timothy Pickering to Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., 7 Jan., n.2; Alexander Hamilton to GW, 31 Jan. [third letter], and n.2 to that document; and , Foreign Relations, 1:631–32).
2. On 8 Sept. a warrant was issued to pay Bush out of the contingent fund (see “Account of the Application of the Grants made by Congress for the Contingent Charges of Government from the 1. October 1794 to 31. December 1795,” enclosed in GW to Congress, 13 Jan. 1796, DNA: RG 46, Fourth Congress, Records of Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages).