1. Neither the draft of Pickering’s letter to David Humphreys nor Humphreys’s communications have been identified. Pickering may have enclosed a draft of either his letter to Humphreys of 7 Dec. or that of 9 December. In the 7 Dec. letter, Pickering acknowledged Humphreys’s letter to him of 30 April 1796 regarding complaints of U.S. ship captains about the staff at the “Consulate at Lisbon.” Pickering also noted that Humphreys’s recommendation of John Montgomery as “Consul with some one of the Barbary States” would have been stronger had Humphreys been able to ascertain “his character and talents.” Pickering judged Montgomery “inadequate to the Consulate of Algiers.” Pickering’s letter also discussed the salary of Joel Barlow (temporary consul to Algiers), news of a vessel “bound to Algiers with naval Stores for the Dey,” reports of negotiations between the United States and Tunis, and concerns for the safety of Capt. Richard O’Bryen. The remainder of the letter mostly pertained to French captures of American vessels. Pickering wrote: “But in the meantime our commerce in the west Indies especially is subjected to greater violences than we ever experienced from the British. Indeed the proceedings of the Agents of the Republic in that quarter outrage common sense as well as common honesty” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).

In his letter of 9 Dec. to Humphreys, Pickering wrote that “On the 7th the Polacre Brigantine Independent … was to sail from Philadelphia for Algiers; and I suppose she has departed, laden with naval Stores for the Dey to the value of above thirty thousand dollars.” Pickering noted that a copy “of a letter from the President to the Dey, are making out to accompany a long letter which I have written to you which is now copying, to be forwarded by the first conveyance that shall offer.” Pickering added that he was sending Humphreys GW’s annual message of 7 Dec. as well as his correspondence with French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801). For more on the naval stores being transported to Algiers, which GW discussed in his letter to Hassan Bashaw, dey of Algiers, dated 3 Dec., see GW to the Dey of Algiers, that date, n.4. The “long letter” being copied out may be Pickering’s letter to Humphreys of 7 December.

2. The letter to Pickering from Joseph Sterlitz, dated 12 Sept. 1796, has not been identified, but Pickering replied to it when he wrote Sterlitz on 10 Dec.: “I received your letter of September 12th and a duplicate a few days past, in which you request a commission for your uncle and partner Philip Mark, who in May 1794 was appointed Consul of the United States for the Circle of Franconia in Germany; the commission formerly sent him being in the English language; and the laws of Germany not admitting a commission written in any language except the German or Latin. The President of the United States has assented to the request of Mr Mark; and I have now the pleasure to inclose you a commission for him in the Latin language, and bearing the same date with the one in English formerly transmitted.

“It is not necessary to apply to Congress, to determine the jurisdiction of a Consul: but the assent of the Senate is necessary to an appointment; and if that body agrees to the President’s nomination of a Consul for any extent of Country, that determines his jurisdiction, so far as the same depends on the Government of the United States. What would be the President’s view of the extension desired by mr Mark, I do not know; but if its advantages were clearly stated, and no other candidates presented living in the districts which mr Mark wishes to have added to his consulate, the extension might probably be made” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).

In May 1794, GW had appointed Philip Mark as U.S. consul for Franconia at Nuremberg, but Mark’s credentials were refused because his commission, dated 29 May 1794, was not in Latin or German (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 28 May 1794, and n.1 to that document). A Latin translation of Mark’s commission, in DLC:GW, is docketed: “Latin copy of Philip Marck,’s Commission dated 29 May 1794 This passed the Great Seal on the 12 Decr 1796.”

One of the five great stem duchies of medieval Germany, Franconia was divided during the Napoleonic Era between the kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden. The region formerly known as Franconia mostly comprises the northern and northwestern sections of present-day Bavaria and sections of Baden-Württemberg.

Joseph Sterlitz was a partner with Philip Mark in the New York mercantile firm of P. Mark & Sterlitz, located in 1796 at 205 Pearl Street. The firm sold a variety of Dutch imports (see Daily Advertiser [New York], 8 Feb. 1796).