George Washington Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Washington, George" AND Author="Washington, George" AND Recipient="United States Senate" AND Recipient="United States Senate" AND Period="Washington Presidency"
sorted by: author
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0359

From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 2 March 1797

To the United States Senate

United States
March 2d 1797.

Gentlemen of the Senate,

I nominate Joel Barlow of the State of Connecticut, to be Consul-General of the United States of America, for the City & Kingdom of Algiers.

John Gavino to be Consul of the United States of America for the port of Gibraltar, in the room of James Simpson appointed Consul for Morocco.1

Frederick Folger of Maryland, to be Consul of the United States of America for the port & district of Aux-Cayes, in the Island of St Domingo.

Procopio Jacinto Pollock of Pennsylvania, to be Consul of the United States of America for the port of New-Orleans.2

Charles Jackson to be district attorney of the United States of America for the State of Georgia.3

David Lenox of Pennsylvania to be the Agent of the United States of America, to reside in the Kingdom of Great-Britain, pursuant to the Act for the relief & protection of American seamen.4

Go: Washington

LS, DNA: RG 46, entry 52; LB, DLC:GW.

The Senate received this message from George Washington Craik on this date and ordered that it “lie for consideration.” The nominations were approved on 3 March (Senate Executive Journal description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends , 228–30, 232). For the recommendations of several of the nominees, see Timothy Pickering to GW, 1 March.

1On 20 April 1797, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering wrote Gavino, enclosing his commission as consul for Gibraltar “and for such other places as shall be nearer thereto than to the residence of any other Consul or vice-Consul” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801). In another letter of 20 April, Pickering sent James Simpson his commission as consul for Morocco (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).

2Procopio Jacinto Pollock served as consul at New Orleans until 1798 (see Smith, America’s Diplomats and Consuls description begins Walter Burges Smith II. America’s Diplomats and Consuls of 1776–1865: A Geographic and Biographic Directory of the Foreign Service from the Declaration of Independence to the End of the Civil War. Washington, D.C., 1986. description ends , 103, 207).

Born in New Orleans, Pollock was the son of Oliver and Margaret O’Brien Pollock. He received his education in Europe and later resided in Philadelphia. In 1796, Pollock sought to “visit the Spanish Dominions, and to cultivate the Spanish language.” As a result, Pennsylvania governor Thomas Mifflin recommended him to the governor of Havana (Pa. Archives description begins Samuel Hazard et al., eds. Pennsylvania Archives. 9 ser., 138 vols. Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1949. description ends , 9th ser., 2:1136). Pollock was living in the vicinity of Baltimore in 1800 and evidently later removed to Puerto Rico, where he engaged in the cultivation of coffee (see Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser, 8 Nov. 1800; see also Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical, Relating to Interior Pennsylvania, for the Year 1883 [Harrisburg, Pa.], 1:98).

3Charles Jackson served as U.S. district attorney for the district of Georgia until he resigned in the spring of 1798 (see Senate Executive Journal description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends , 275).

Born in Newton, Mass., Jackson (1767–1801) graduated from the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University) in 1788. He later moved to Savannah, where he worked as an attorney. In March 1798, around the time that he resigned as district attorney, Jackson announced his plans to move to New York (see Columbian Museum & Savannah Advertiser, 30 March 1798). He died at a plantation on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

4The “Act for the relief and protection of American Seamen,” passed by Congress on 28 May 1796, authorized the president to appoint agents in Great Britain and other foreign ports to aid impressed and detained U.S. citizens (1 Stat. description begins Richard Peters, ed. The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845 . . .. 8 vols. Boston, 1845-67. description ends 477–78).

Pickering wrote Lenox on 24 March, advising him of his appointment and enclosing his commission. Pickering also provided Lenox with written instructions pertaining to his appointment. He directed him to “visit those ports and places which are the principal scenes for impressing or detaining American Seamen.” While Lenox’s annual salary (which included personal and traveling expenses) was set at $2,500, Pickering allowed him “Every necessary disbursement of money to obtain the liberation of our impressed or detained seamen, and in providing for the support of such of them as shall be sick or disabled” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).

Index Entries