From Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Moylan, 13 September 1793
To Stephen Moylan
Philadelphia Sep. 13. 1793.
Sir
The President, on his departure, left in my hands a commission for a Marshal of this district with a blank for the name to be inserted. It was his wish that your’s should be inserted if you should think the office would suit you. I must ask the favor of you to say whether you would accept of the commission, and to do it in a letter to Mr. Benjamin Bankson at my office, as I set out for Virginia within two or three days. Should you decline it I must still ask you to notify it to him, that he may proceed to follow the instructions given him in that case. The office will be vacant on the 20th. inst. by the resignation of Colo. Biddle, and I can with truth express the satisfaction it would give me personally to have it filled again by a person to whose merits I am less a stranger than to his person. I am with great respect Sir Your most obedt. servt
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “Genl. Moylan.” FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DL).
Stephen Moylan (1737–1811), a native of Ireland educated in Paris, established himself as a merchant at Philadelphia in 1768. He served in the Continental Army throughout the Revolution, beginning with terms as muster-master general and quartermaster general, but spent most of the war commanding contingents of cavalry. He turned down the post of United States Marshal but later this year accepted Washington’s appointment as commissioner of loans for Pennsylvania (; Moylan to TJ, 19 Sep. 1793; , i, 140).