RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 5 Oct. and “to be Consul at Marseilles” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures: (1) Joel Barlow to TJ, 29 July, recorded in SJL as received from Paris on 5 Oct., but not found. (2) Fulwar Skipwith to TJ, 30 July, from Paris, stating: “The bearer Mr. Jno. Jones Waldo of Massachusettes is the Gentleman in whose favor Mr. Livingston and myself solicited some time ago the Commercial Agency at Marseilles in consequence of this Government refusing to accredit Mr. Cathalan in that character for reason of his being a french Citizen. Mr. Waldo being on the point of embarking for the U. States, and in the intention of presenting himself to you, I take the liberty of recommending him to your notice as a person of the most amiable mind, of unblemished character, and as a merchant of regular and solid acquirements. And should you deem it fit to confer on him an appointment to any commercial Agency whatever, I beg to add my firm persuasion of his conduct being such as to afford the Public and you intire Satisfaction. I have the honor to remain with constant respect and attatchment, Sir, Your Mo Ob Servant” (RC in DNA: RG 59, LAR; endorsed by TJ as received 5 Oct. and so recorded in SJL).

John Jones Waldo (ca. 1769–1803) graduated from Harvard College in 1787, in the same class as John Quincy Adams and William Cranch. He became involved in transatlantic shipping, initially between Boston and Bristol. In February 1801, John Adams named him commercial agent at Nantes. The Senate confirmed the appointment, but TJ withheld Waldo’s commission, treating the case as one of Adams’s late-term nominations that must be “considered as Null.” In February 1803, Waldo’s financial situation came before the bankruptcy commissioners in Boston. He was bankrupt at the time of his death in Bordeaux in December of that year (Boston Independent Chronicle, 19 July 1787, 24 Mch. 1803; Boston Gazette, 16 Nov. 1789, 14 Feb. 1803, 29 Mch. 1804; Boston Columbian Centinel, 28 May 1791, 9 June 1792, 4 June 1803; Boston New-England Palladium, 3 June 1803; Boston Democrat, 25 Jan. 1804; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States . . . to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:381, 385; Vol. 33:173n, 671, 672, 677).

Robert R. LIVINGSTON, writing to Madison on 31 Dec. 1801, and Fulwar SKIPWITH, in a letter to TJ in October of that year, both mentioned Waldo’s desire for a commercial agency in France (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962–, 33 vols. Sec. of State Ser., 1986–, 9 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984–, 6 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009–, 1 vol. description ends , 2:360; Vol. 35:526–7). Waldo had also solicited support from Thomas Sumter, Jr., and Levi Lincoln, who had “a family connection” to Waldo through his wife, Martha Waldo Lincoln (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, New York and Oxford, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; Vol. 36:575).