To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 18 July 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State July 18. 1796.
Sir,
As soon as you had decided on the expediency of substituting a consul in the place of Mr Parrish at Hamburg,1 I requested Mr FitzSimons at Philadelphia, and Mr King at New-York, to enquire for a suitable person to succeed him. I also wrote to Mr Cabot at Boston making the same request.2 The two former gentlemen informed me that they found no fit character in Philadelphia or New-York. Last Friday I received the inclosed letter from Mr Cabot, strongly recommending Samuel Williams of Salem.3 His name did not occur to me, and if it had occurred, I should have hesitated to have originally presented it to you; tho’ merely because Mr Williams is my nephew; for a man more trust-worthy or more able to execute the office of consul will not often be found. He is about six & thirty years old, was liberally educated, as soon as he left college engaged in mercantile business with his father, and ever since has pursued that course of life. He has been in Europe about three years, in France, in England, & I think at Hamburg.4 It seemed to me so very desirable to substitute an American Citizen to Mr Parrish, under the circumstances of his removal, that I feel myself happy in recommending a successor for the propriety of whose conduct I can undertake to be responsible. With the highest respect I am, sir, your most obt servant
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. For GW’s reply, see his second letter to Pickering on 25 July.
1. See Pickering to GW, 24 May, and n.4.
2. Pickering wrote George Cabot from Philadelphia on 11 June: “(Private.) … The President has determined to make a change in the consulate at Hamburg. Do you know of any respectable American citizen, of a mercantile character, who would be willing to accept the appointment? It has, I take it, been a lucrative place, even by the fees of office; although these could be of little consequence to a merchant of Mr. Parish’s great wealth and extensive dealings. Yet there have been repeated complaints against him for taking exorbitant fees (as seven dollars instead of two for every certificate), which, considering his established reputation and riches, appears unaccountable. Of this, however, an explanation would have been asked, if other causes of a political nature had not influenced the decision. The change will be softened to Mr. Parish, if a worthy American succeeds him; and in this light I have placed the matter in my letter, advising him of the President’s determination.
“Pray inquire among your friends, and favor me with an answer” ( 107–8). Pickering’s letters to Thomas FitzSimons and Rufus King have not been identified.
3. The previous Friday was 15 July. The enclosure was a letter from Cabot to Pickering written at Brookline, Mass., on 8 July: “I have enquired diligently for a character to supply the vacancy at Hamburg, & all my friends unite in the belief that Mr Samuel Williams of Salem is a very suitable man—his reputation for integrity & good sense is thoroughly established & I fully believe his appointment wou’d be thought a wise one by those who know him—he has been for some time past in France & is now in England where his Brother Timothy … thinks it in the highest degree probable that he woud readily accept the trust” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
4. Samuel Williams (c.1760–1841) served as the U.S. consul at Hamburg, 1797–98, and U.S. consul at London, 1798–1801. He later became a London banker. His parents were Pickering’s sister, Lydia Pickering Williams (1736–1824), and George Williams (c.1731–1797), a merchant sometimes elected to the Massachusetts legislature.