From George Washington to John Marshall, 15 July 1796
To John Marshall
Mount Vernon 15th July 1796
Dear Sir,
I have received your letter of the 11th instant, and regret that present circumstances should deprive our Country of the services which I am confident your going to France, at this time, would have rendered it.1
It is difficult to fill some offices with characters which would fit them in all respects. Another case of this sort is now before me—namely—that of Surveyor General. A gentleman well qualified to discharge the duties of this Office was appointed, but has declined accepting it.2 Several others have been mentioned, but the recommendations of them have gone more to the general respectability of their characters, than to their Scientific knowledge; whilst both are equally essential. For it is a trust, which in the execution, requires skill to arrange, instruct, Inspect, and report correctly, the conduct of others; and integrity to resist the temptation which opportunities, and an overweening fondness for speculating in Lands, may throw in his way.
Among the characters from the State of Virginia who have been presented to my view on this occasion—are Generals Wood & Posey3—and Colonels Tinsley and Anderson;4 the last of whom is, I believe, an Inhabitant of Kentucky; and having been in that line, the presumption ought to be, that his Mathematical knowledge (which should extend beyond common Surveying) is adequate to the duties which would be required; but how he is in other respects, and what may be the course of his Politics, I know nothing; and but little of those of the other three—particularly of Tinsley’s.
The object therefore of writing this letter to you is, to ask confidentially, such information as you possess—can acquire—and give me, respecting the qualifications of these Gentlemen; or of any other fit character that may occur to you for Surveyor General; accordant with the ideas I have expressed above. The Office is important & respectable; of cour⟨se⟩ the Incumbent, besides his Scientific abilities, should possess a celebrity of character that would justify the appointment.
To learn your sentiments of the characters, and on the points I have mentioned, will be in time when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you, on your way to Philadelphia5—With very great esteem & regard, I am—Dear Sir Your Obedient Servant
Go: Washington
ALS, NNGL; ADfS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. “Private” is written on the cover of the ALS and also appears on the two other variants.
1. For the letter dated 11 July that conveyed Marshall’s decision to decline appointment as U.S. minister to France, see GW to Marshall, 8 July, n.2.
2. Simeon DeWitt had declined his nomination as surveyor general (see Timothy Pickering to GW, 27 June, and n.2 to that document).
3. Thomas Posey, Revolutionary War officer and a brigadier general in the 1793 campaign against the Northwest Indians, settled in Kentucky in 1794. He later served as lieutenant governor of that state, U.S. senator from Louisiana, and governor of the Indiana Territory. For Posey’s interest in a federal appointment, see James Madison to GW, 25 May 1796, and n.3 to that document.
4. Richard Clough Anderson (1750–1826), a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia line during the Revolutionary War, had served as the surveyor general to divide western lands reserved for Continental army veterans from Virginia. He settled near Louisville, Ky., in 1784.
5. For another failed attempt to find a surveyor general and the subsequent selection of Rufus Putnam, see GW to James Wood, 12 Sept., and n.3 to that document; see also Pickering to GW, 29 Sept. (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
Marshall believed William Heth to be a suitable nominee for surveyor general (see Edward Carrington to GW, 10 Oct., in DLC:GW).