ALS, DLC:GW.

John Blagge was a New York City merchant. He again approached GW on 10 Sept. on his “wish to be held in Consideration as a Candidate for the Office of Marshall of the District of New York fearing least I might be thought too importunate. . . . The Office in question being connected with no small share of responsibility, it of consequence becomes necessary that the Reputation & Establishment in Society of the individual pretending to it should be fully known; to this End Sir, (as I have not the Honor of a personal acquaintance with you,) permit me to request; that reference may be had to the Senators of this State, to the Honorable Mr John Jay General Knox, Col. Hamilton, Samuel Osgood Esquire, and Col. Wadsworth, or either or all of them” (DLC:GW). Blagge received no federal appointment at this time—the post of United States marshal for New York going to William Stephens Smith—but in June 1794 Henry Knox appointed him a naval agent for New York City (Knox to Hamilton, 25 June 1794, in Syrett, Hamilton Papers, description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. 27 vols. New York, 1961–87. description ends 16:526).