To Thomas Jefferson from William Cocke and Joseph Winston, 26 March 1804
From William Cocke and Joseph Winston
Washington 26th March 1804
Sir
The undersign’d beg leave to Recommend John Williams Esqr of the State of Tennessee as a Genteelman of Legal abilities Undoubted integrity and well qualified to fill the Office of a Judge in the district of new Orleans he is a firm friend to the present Goverment of his Country and we beleave that if he Should be honour,d with the Appointment he will make a prudant and upright Judge
Wm Cocke
Jos. Winston
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 27 Mch. and “Williams John to be judge of Orlean” and so recorded in SJL.
Joseph Winston (1746-1815) moved in 1766 from his native Virginia to North Carolina, where he served as an army major during the Revolutionary War. He was an intermittent member of the North Carolina Senate and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1793, 1803, and 1805 (
).