Memorandum from Albert Gallatin, 31 May 1804
Memorandum from Albert Gallatin
[after 31 May 1804]
Boston 31 May 1804
Isaac Coffin
respecting expected resignation of — Hussey Collector of Nantucket.
NB. I. Coffin is the member of Senate, in the Massts. legislature, for the District including Nantucket, in which island he resides—
The resignation has not yet been received—
MS (DNA: RG 59, LAR); undated, written on a scrap torn from the address sheet of the enclosure and postmarked Boston, 31 May. Enclosure: Isaac Coffin to Gallatin, 31 May, stating that his April letter to Gallatin has gone unanswered so he is again writing to recommend Republican Daniel Coffin as collector of Nantucket to replace Stephen Hussey, who is “about to Resign” and whose “faculties are so Impaired” that he cannot continue to hold office; Coffin warns Gallatin that Hussey’s son, Daniel B. Hussey, is a man of “little learning” and a “most Violent Federalist”; Coffin is convinced that appointing Daniel Coffin will satisfy the Republicans of Nantucket (RC in same).
TJ saw a second letter dated 31 May that also anticipated Stephen Hussey’s resignation as collector of nantucket and recommended Daniel Coffin over Daniel B. Hussey. That letter was written by Micajah Coffin to Dearborn, his former Boston acquaintance. He urged the secretary of war to use his “assistance and Influence with the Secretary of the Treasury” to have Daniel Coffin appointed collector (RC in same; endorsed by TJ: “Coffyn Danl. to be Collector of Nantucket”; endorsed by Gallatin). Micajah was Isaac Coffin’s half brother and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. His letter to Dearborn was similar to ones that he wrote to Gallatin on 18 Apr. and to Richard Cutts on 5 May. They stressed Daniel Hussey’s known “opposition to the republican Ticket” and Daniel Coffin’s superior reputation as a past schoolmaster on the island and as a “Steady and well behaved Republican” (same; Alexander Starbuck, History of Nantucket, County, Island and Town: Including Genealogies of First Settlers [Boston, 1924], 715-16). On 2 June, Cutts forwarded recommendations to Gallatin, including a letter from John Bacon of 1 June confirming the integrity of Isaac Coffin. Cutts also praised the Coffin brothers as “undeviating Republicans” whose opinion the congressman regarded with the “utmost confidence” (RCs in DNA: RG 59, LAR; Bacon’s letter endorsed by TJ: “Coffin Danl. to be Collector Nantucket John Bacon’s letter to Cutts”).