From George Washington to the United States Senate, 19 February 1793
To the United States Senate
United States [Philadelphia]
February the 19th 1793.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I nominate the following persons to be Consuls for the United States of America, at the places affixed to their names respectively.
Nathaniel Cutting, of Massachusetts, to be Consul of the United States of America, for the Port of Havre de Grace in France; and for such other parts of that Country as shall be nearer to the said Port than to the residence of any other Consul or Vice Consul of the United States, within the same allegiance.1
Edward Fox, native of Great Britain, to be Consul of the United States of America for the Port of Falmouth, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, and for such other parts of the said Kingdom as shall be nearer to the said Port than to the residence of any other Consul or vice-Consul of the United States, in the same Kingdom.2
Joseph Yznardi, native of Spain, to be Consul of the United States of America for the Port of Cadiz, in the Kingdom of Spain, and for such other parts of the said Kingdom, as shall be nearer to the said Port, than to the residence of any other Consul or Vice Consul of the United States, within the same allegiance.3
Robert Montgomery, of Alicant, to be Consul of the United States of America, for the Port of Alicant in the Kingdom of Spain, & for such other parts of the said Kingdom as shall be nearer to the said Port than to the Residence of any other Consul or Vice-Consul of the United States, within the same allegiance.4
John Parish, native of Great Britain, to be Consul of the United States of America for the Port of Hamburg, and for all other places within the same allegiance.5
Henry Cooper, of Pennsylvania, to be Consul of the United States of America, for the Island of Santa Cruz, & for all other places under the same allegiance in America as shall be nearer to the said Island of Santa Cruz than to the residence of any other Consul or Vice-Consul of the United States within the same allegiance; vice James Yard resigned.6
David Matthew Clarkson of Pennsylvania, to be Consul of the United States of America for the Island of Saint Eustatius, & for all other places under the same allegiance in America which shall be nearer to the said Island of Saint Eustatius than to the residence of any other Consul or vice-consul of the United States, within the same allegiance.7
Benjamin Hamnell Philips of Pennsylvania, to be Consul for the United States of America in the Island of Curaçoa, and for all other places under the same allegiance in America, which shall be nearer to the said Island of Curaçoa than to the residence of any other Consul or Vice-Consul of the United States, within the same allegiance.8
Go: Washington
LS, DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Senate Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations; LB, DLC:GW. On 18 Feb. 1793 Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote a memorandum on consular appointees that GW likely read before making these nominations ( 25:227–28). The U.S. Senate confirmed these nominees on 20 Feb. ( 1:130–31; 62).
1. Nathaniel Cutting (d. 1824) was a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In March 1793 he was appointed as David Humphreys’s secretary during the latter’s treaty negotiations with Algiers (Humphreys to GW, 8 Feb., n.4).
2. In May 1794 GW replaced Edward Fox with Robert Were Fox on the understanding that the earlier appointment had been made by mistake (GW to U.S. Senate, 29 May 1794, LS, DNA: RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–1795, Senate Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations, and LB, DLC:GW; 1:158–59).
3. Nathaniel Cutting recommended Joseph Yznardi, Jr., for this consular position, because Yznardi had worked with the British proconsul in Spain for nearly three years and was known at the Spanish court (Cutting to Jefferson, 30 Jan. 1793, 25:102).
4. In 1792 Robert Montgomery had tried unsuccessfully to bring relief supplies to the Americans held captive at Algiers (Memorandum on Consuls and Consular Appointments, 15 Feb. 1793, ibid., 203; Jefferson to GW, 26 Oct. 1792, note 1).
5. John Parish, a merchant at Hamburg, Germany, had served as vice-consul there since 1790 (GW to U.S. Senate, 4 June 1790, n.1).
6. A copy of a letter from John Wilcocks to Jefferson of 17 Sept. 1792, recommending Henry Cooper for the consulship at Santa Cruz (St. Croix), is in DLC:GW. James Yard was the U.S. consul at Santa Cruz from February 1791 to 31 May 1792 (GW to U.S. Senate, 23 Feb. 1791, Jefferson to GW, 23 Feb. 1791, note 2).
7. A letter from P. N. Godin to Robert Morris of 28 June 1791, recommending David Matthew Clarkson for the consular position at St. Eustatius, is in DLC:GW.
8. In his memorandum on consular appointments of 15 Feb. 1793, Jefferson wrote that Benjamin Hamnell Philips came “strongly recommended” from, among others, Timothy Pickering, John Vaughan, and George Meade, the naval officer at Cadiz (ibid., 204). Meade’s letter to Jefferson of 24 Jan. 1792 is in DLC:GW.