To George Washington from Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 18 February 1795
From Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
Treasy Dept Feby 18. 1795.
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor respectfully to submit to The President of the United States, certain documents, by which it appears that John Muir Collector for the District of Vienna in Maryland, has neglected his duty in failing to collect (or to institute in season, suits for the recovery of) bonds for duties due to the United States.1
This Collector has moreover failed to pay certain drafts drawn on him by the Treasurer of the United States, for monies appearing by returns to the Treasury to be on hand, and in this respect he is found to be in the same predicament as the Collectors of York & Tappahannock, who were superseded.2
The Secretary is firmly of opinion that the good of the public service requires that this officer should be displaced, & from enquiries which he has made of Mister Murray, of the House of Representatives, he is induced to believe that James Frazier is a fit character to succeed to the office.3 All which is most respectfully submitted.
Olivr Wolcott jr
Secy of the Treasy
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The enclosed documents have not been identified.
2. For discussion of treasury drafts on Muir, see Alexander Hamilton to George Gale, 20 Dec. 1794 ( , 17:451–52). About the dismissal of Abraham Archer, collector at Yorktown, Va., see Hamilton to GW, 16 June 1794, and n.3 to that document; for the dismissal of Hudson Muse, collector at Tappahannock, Va., see Muse to GW, 27 Jan. 1794, and n.3 to that document, and Hamilton to GW, 10 Feb. 1794.
3. On this date GW sent to the Senate a nomination of James Frazier as collector and inspector of the revenue for the District of Vienna, “vice John Muir, superceded” (LS, DNA: RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–95, Senate Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations; LB, DLC:GW). The Senate approved the nomination on 20 Feb., and GW signed Frazier’s commissions on 21 Feb. ( , 172; , 326).
James Frazier retained this post until he resigned in January 1805, but he had difficulties with his accounts while collector, and after his resignation, he was imprisoned for a time as an insolvent debtor (, 2:570). , Finance
, 34:281; Frazier to [Albert Gallatin], 15 Oct. 1804, and Frazier to James Madison, 3 Jan. 1805, DNA: RG 59, Letters of Application and Recommendation during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson; report of Robert Wright, 2 July 1812,