From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, 6 April 1802
To the Senate
Gentlemen of the Senate
I nominate Henry Potter of North Carolina, now a judge of the 5th. Circuit court to be judge of the District court of North Carolina become vacant by the death of John Sitgreaves.
Th: Jefferson
RC (DNA: RG 46, EPEN, 7th Cong., 1st sess.); endorsed by a Senate clerk. PrC (DLC). Recorded in SJL with notation “nomn H. Potter judge.”
Meriwether Lewis delivered this nomination for HENRY POTTER to the Senate on 6 Apr., where it was immediately read and ordered to lie for consideration. On the next day, the Senate confirmed it and TJ signed the commission. NOW A JUDGE: Potter was one of TJ’s interim appointments, and the Senate confirmed him as a judge of the Fifth Circuit Court on 26 Jan., the date on his permanent commission for that judgeship. JOHN SITGREAVES had served as district court judge from the time of his appointment in December 1790 until his death on 4 Mch. 1802 (FC of commissions in Lb in DNA: RG 59, MPTPC; , 1:401, 405, 418–19; ; , Pres. Ser., 7:95). For Nathaniel Macon’s earlier recommendations of Potter, see Vol. 33:620–1 and Vol. 34:109–10, 176–7.