To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 15 February 1804
From Albert Gallatin
Feby. 15. 1804
Dear Sir
Wilson Nicholas called again on me this morning, and seems to prefer an office in New Orleans for his nephew. Yet there is a difficulty, as we must have all the custom house officers at N Orleans immediately, and the business of the Comrs. at Mobile will not be terminated till in the course of the summer & perhaps later.
The vacancy on the bench occasions already conjectures & half applications. Wade Hampton is anxious for Mr Julius Pringle. Of that gentleman whom I never saw I know only that he was considered when pleading before the Supreme Court of the United States as extremely wild, and that he has assisted the Yazoo companies with his professional advice, a circumstance which may perhaps have some weight with Mr Hampton. The importance of filling this vacancy with a republican & a man of sufficient talents to be useful is obvious; but the task is difficult. As there are now two circuits without a residing judge, (the circuit of Virga. & N. Cara. having yet two) the person may be taken from either. If taken from the 2d district Brockholst Livingston is certainly first in point of talents &, as he is a State judge, would accept. If taken from the 6th district, unless you know some proper person, enquiry will be necessary. Parker the dist. atty. seems qualified but he is a federalist. I am told that the practise is as loose in Georgia as in New England and that a real lawyer could not easily be found there. But S. Cara. stands high in that respect at least in reputation.
With great respect Your obedt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 15 Feb. and “Ro. C. Nicholas. Pringle” and so recorded in SJL.
vacancy on the bench: writing on 26 Jan., Alfred Moore informed Madison that he was resigning as associate justice of the Supreme Court due to the “ill State of my health.” Appointed to the court in December 1799, the justice from North Carolina requested that Madison “make known my resignation to his Excellency the President” (, Sec. of State Ser., 6:392; , 1:325).
John Julius pringle, South Carolina’s attorney general, was admitted to the Supreme Court bar in 1796 (, 1:260; Vol. 34:6, 7n).
two circuits without a residing judge: Gallatin prepared a table to show the Supreme Court justice assigned to each U.S. judicial circuit (“Presiding judge”) and the justices’ residence by circuit (“Residing judge”). In the First Circuit (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island), William Cushing presided and was also resident; in the Second Circuit (Connecticut, Vermont, and New York), William Paterson presided and none of the justices was resident; in the Third Circuit (New Jersey and Pennsylvania), Bushrod Washington presided and Paterson was resident; in the Fourth Circuit (Delaware and Maryland), Samuel Chase presided and was resident; in the Fifth Circuit (Virginia and North Carolina), John Marshall presided and he, Washington, and Moore were resident; in the Sixth Circuit (South Carolina and Georgia), Moore presided and no justice was resident. In both instances in which Moore’s name appeared in the table, Gallatin wrote “resigned” (MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 146:25352; undated; entirely in Gallatin’s hand, including endorsement “Circuits”).
For TJ’s 1801 description of Thomas parker as a South Carolina Federalist who was “able” and “unmedling,” see Vol. 33:513, 514n.