From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 9 May 1796
To the United States Senate
United States 9. May 1796
Gentlemen of the Senate
I nominate James McDowell to be Inspector of the Revenue for the sixth survey in the District of virginia vice James Brackenridge resigned.1
L[S], DNA: RG 46, entry 52; copy, DLC:GW.
Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., had written GW on 6 May: “The Secretary of The Treasury has the honor to submit to The President, recommendations in favor of several Candidates for the office of Inspector of the Revenue for the 6th Survey of the District of Virginia, vacant by the resignation of James Brakenridge Esqr.” (LB, DLC:GW). The enclosed recommendations have not been identified.
1. The Senate received this message on 10 May and confirmed the nomination on 11 May ( 207–8).
James McDowell (1770–1835), of Rockbridge County, Va., was a son-in-law of GW’s acquaintance William Preston (1729–1783). McDowell’s children included a namesake son, who became governor of Virginia, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Thomas Hart Benton, noteworthy as U.S. senator from Missouri.