To George Washington from Clement Hall, 15 January 1790
From Clement Hall
North Carolina Chowan County Jany 15th 1790
Sir.
This Letter with the Inclosed Recommendation will be handed to your Excellency by the honourable Samuel Johnston Esquire, who is appointed a senator for this State, in the Congress of the United States, It is Subscribed by several Gentlemen of Distinction amongst whom are the two Speakers of the General Assembly, and two of the Judges of the superior Court of Law and Equity in this state; Should their Recommendation Merit your Excellency’s attention, and should ⟨I be⟩ considered Competent to the Trust of Surveyor for Edenton District, hope to Meet with your Excellency’s Sanction to that appointment, In discharge of which important public Trust, should that Office be conferred on me, hope will be attended with General Satisfaction. I am Sir. respectfully your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servant
Clem. Hall
ALS, DLC:GW.
Clement Hall was the son of Clement Hall, a prominent North Carolina clergyman and author. During the Revolution he served as a lieutenant, captain, and brevet major with North Carolina forces. After the war he received a military grant of 3,840 acres of land for his services and became a member of the North Carolina assembly in the mid—1780s. On 30 Jan. Hall wrote a second letter to GW explaining that “on the most accurate calculation I have been able to make, I find from a concurrence of Circumstances which attends our navigation to the Port of Edenton, the profits of the post for which I solicited in that Letter would be too inconsiderable to answer the purpose I had in view, viz., that of repairing a much diminished fortune during the absence of eight years in the service of my Country, so as to put it in my power to support genteelly an Aged Mother and two sisters who are now dependent on me. Permit me therefore to drop the first object, and to repeat my solicitation for the appointment of Marshal to the Federal Court, should your Excellency think the recommendation which accompany’d my first letter entitles me to that place Otherwise I shall gratefully accept whatever else your Excellency shall think proper to confer in that way” (DLC:GW). Hall apparently received no federal appointment.