Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Christopher Ellery, 23 November 1803

From Christopher Ellery

Senate Chamber
Novr. 23d. 1803.

C. Ellery begs leave to present his highest respects to the President of the United States—and to mention that application has been made to him, by an old friend, of great worth, to aid Mr. Henry Wilson in the obtainment of a Consular appointment, for which he will ask through other friends—and further to mention that from the knowledge C. Ellery has of the character of his friend, he cannot doubt but that Mr. Wilson is well qualified for such an appointment and highly worthy of the confidence of the Executive—

RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 24 Nov. and “Wilson Henry to be Consul” and so recorded in SJL.

TJ nominated Baltimore merchant henry wilson to be commercial agent at Ostend on 9 Dec. and the Senate confirmed the nomination on 15 Dec. Wilson later received consular appointments for posts at L’Orient in 1816 and Nantes in 1817 (Papenfuse, Maryland Legislature description begins Edward C. Papenfuse, Alan F. Day, David W. Jordan, and Gregory A. Stiverson, eds., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789, Baltimore, 1979-85, 2 vols. description ends , 2:898; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States … to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:459, 460; 3:38, 39, 73, 74; TJ to the Senate, 9 Dec.).

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