To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 16 December 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State Decr 16. 1796.
The Secretary of State respectfully lays before the President of the United States a list of appointments which have been made during the recess of the Senate. The list No. 2 accompanies the former, mentioning, where known, the occasion of those appointments.1
The Secretary had the first list prepared in that simple form, because he thought it might seem to the President unpleasant to note the cause of some of the appointments; for instance, the recall of Mr Monroe,2 and the removal of Mr Parish the Consul at Hamburg;3 for if the causes are noticed in his nomination, they will appear in the public papers, and as if announced by his authority.
T. Pickering.
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters. No reply to this letter from GW has been found.
1. The two lists have not been found, but see GW to the U.S. Senate, 21 Dec.; see also Arthur St. Clair to GW, 2 Dec.; and Pickering to GW, c.17 Feb. 1797.
2. GW officially recalled James Monroe as U.S. minister to France in his second letter to the French Directory of 9 Sept. 1796. He appointed Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to replace Monroe (see Pickering to GW, 9 Sept., and n.1 to that document).
3. John Parish, U.S. consul to Hamburg, was accused of having pro-British biases and was removed from office (see Report on Foreign Affairs, 12 May 1796, and n.13, printed as an enclosure to Pickering to GW, same date; see also Pickering to GW, 24 May, and n.4). Samuel Williams was given a recess appointment to replace Parish (see Pickering’s second letter to GW of 29 July, and GW to the U.S. Senate, 21 Dec.).