George Washington Papers

From George Washington to the United States Senate, 6 March 1792

To the United States Senate

United States [Philadelphia]
March the 6th 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate,

Appointments were made during the recess of the Senate, to carry into effect the act passed at the last Session of Congress, for repealing the duties heretofore laid upon distilled spirits, and laying others in their stead.1 And as these appointments must expire at the end of your present session, I nominate the following persons to be Inspectors of the Surveys and Ports annexed to their names respectively.2

Inspectors of Surveys.
Districts. Names of Inspectors. No. of Survey.
Massachusetts. Jonathan Jackson 2.
Leonard Jarvis 3.
Pennsylvania James Collins 2.
Edward Hand 3.
John Neville3 4.
Maryland Philip Thomas 2.
Virginia Drury Ragsdale 1.
Edward Stevens 2.
Mayo Carrington 3.
Thomas Newton Jr 4.
Edward Smith 5.
James Brackenridge4 6.
Thomas Marshall 7.
North Carolina James Read 1.
John Daves 2.
Thomas Benbury 3.
John Whitaker 4.
Joseph McDowell the younger of Pleasant Garden5 5.
South Carolina. Benjamin Cudworth 2.
Silvanus Walker 3.
 
Inspectors of Ports.
Districts. Ports. Names of Inspectors.
New Hampshire. Portsmouth Thomas Martin.
Massachusetts. Newbury Port Michael Hodge
Gloucester Samuel Whittemore
Salem Bartm Putnam.
Beverly Josiah Bachelor
Ipswich Jeremiah Staineford
Marblehead Samuel R. Gerry
Boston Thomas Melvile.
Plymouth William Watson.
Barnstable Joseph Otis.
Nantucket & Sherburne Stephen Hussey
Edgartown John Pease.
New Bedford Edward Pope
Dighton Hodijah Baylies
York Richard Trevett
Biddeford & Peperelborough Jeremiah Hill
Portland & Falmouth James Lunt
Bath William Webb
Wiscasset Francis Cook
Penobscott John Lee
Frenchman’s Bay Melatiah Jordan
Machias Stephen Smith
Passamaquody Lewis Fredk Delesdenier
Rhode Island. Newport Daniel Lyman
Providence William Barton
North Kingston Daniel E. Updike
East Greenwich Thomas Arnold
Warren & Barrington Nathaniel Phillips
Bristol Samuel Bosworth
Pawcatuck River George Stillman
Patuxet Zachariah Rhodes.
Connecticut. New London Nathaniel Richards
Stonington Jonathan Palmer Jr
Middletown Comfort Sage
Newhaven Jonathan Fitch
Fairfield Samuel Smedley.
Vermont Allburgh Stephen Keyes.
New York New York John Lasher
Hudson John C. Tenbrock
Albany Henry I. Bogert
 
Sagg Harbour Henry P. Deering.
New Jersey. Perth Amboy. John Halsted
Burlington John Ross
Bridgetown Eli Elmer
Little Egg Harbour Ebenezar Tucker
Great Egg Harbour Daniel Benezet Junr
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia William McPherson
Delaware Wilmington George Bush
New Castle [″]
Port Penn [″]
Maryland. Baltimore Robert Ballard
Chester Jeremiah Nichols
Oxford Jeremiah Banning
Vienna John Muir
Snow Hill John Gunby
Annapolis John Davidson
Nottingham George Biscoe
Town Creek Charles Chelton
Cedar Point John C. Jones
St Mary’s Robert Chesley
Lewellengsburg Jeremiah Jordan
George Town James M. Lingan.
Virginia. Hampton George Wray
Norfolk & Portsmouth Daniel Bedinger
Suffolk Lemuel Reddick
Smithfield James Wells6
Bermuda Hundred Christopher Roan
Petersburgh James Gibbon
Richmond Zachariah Rowland
Yorktown Abraham Archer
West Point Alexander Moore
Tappahannock Hudson Muse
Urbanna Peter Kemp
Port Royal George Catlett
Fredericksburg William Lewis
Yeocomico River Vincent Redman
Dumfries Richard M. Scott
Alexandria Samuel Hanson
Folly Landing William Gibb
Cherrystone Nathaniel Wilkins
South Quay Thomas Bowne
North Carolina. Wilmington Thomas Callender
Newburn John Daves
 
Beaufort John Easton
Swansborough John McCullough
Washington Nathan Keais
Edenton Thomas Benbury.
Hartford James Murdaugh
Bennett’s Creek John Baker
Plymouth Thomas Davis Freeman
Windsor William Benson
Skewarky Henry Hunter
Murfreesborough Hardy Murfree
Plankbridge Isaac Gregory
Nixonton Hugh Knox
Indian Town Thomas Williams
Currituck Inlet Samuel Jasper
Pasquetank River-bridge Edmund Sawyer
Newbiggen Creek Elias Albertson.
South Carolina. Charleston Edward Weyman
Beaufort Andrew Agnew
Georgetown Charles Brown.
Georgia Savannah John Berrian
Sunbury John Lawson, the Younger,
Brunswick Christopher Hillary
St Mary’s James Seagrove.

I likewise nominate Richard Morris to be Supervisor of the District of New York; vice William S. Smith, resigned; And John Lawson the younger, to be Collector of the Port of Sunbury, in the State of Georgia; vice Cornelius Collins, deceased.

Go: Washington

DS, DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Executive Proceedings, President’s Messages—Executive Nominations; LB, DLC:GW.

After reading this message the Senate ordered it to lie for consideration. It was taken up on 7 Mar., when the Senate confirmed the Georgia appointments. The following day the Senate resumed consideration of the message and confirmed all of the remaining appointments (see Executive Journal, description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends 1:102–6, 111). On 9 Mar., Lear sent Jefferson a list of the appointments confirmed by the Senate (DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State).

1GW is referring to “An act repealing, after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid on distilled spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same” of 3 Mar. 1791 (Annals of Congress description begins Joseph Gales, Sr., comp. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and All the Laws of a Public Nature. 42 vols. Washington, D.C., 1834–56. description ends , 1st Cong., 3d sess., 2384–2405).

2On 4 Mar., Alexander Hamilton sent GW a “List of appointments of Inspectors of the Revenue, which took place during the recess of the Senate, as well for Ports as Surveys,” which GW incorporated into this message (DLC:GW).

3John Nevill (1731–1803), who had been appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Continental army in November 1776, was promoted to colonel in December 1777 and was brevetted a brigadier general in September 1783. In mid-July 1794, in response to Nevill’s attempts to serve processes issued by the U.S. district court at Philadelphia against distillers who had not registered the previous year, his house, Bower Hill, near Pittsburgh, was attacked and burned.

4James Brackenridge (1763–1833) was a member of the Virginia house of delegates 1789–1802, 1806–8, 1819–21, and 1823–24 and a Federalist congressman 1809–17. He also served as a brigadier general during the War of 1812 and aided Thomas Jefferson in the founding of the University of Virginia.

5In his letter to GW of 4 Mar. covering the list of interim appointments, Hamilton wrote: “The President will recollect that the Joseph McDowell who was truly contemplated is ‘the younger’ of Pleasant Garden, though described in the Commission & in the List as ‘the Elder’” (DLC:GW). For the confusion over the two Joseph McDowells, see Tobias Lear to GW, 29 May 1791, note 3, and Hamilton to Lear, 24 Feb. 1792, in Hamilton to GW, 18 Feb. 1792, note 1.

6On 30 June, Tobias Lear transmitted to Thomas Jefferson at GW’s command “the Commissn of Jas Wells, late Surveyor of the Port of Smithfield in Virga & Inspector of the Revenue for the same. Mr Wells has not returned his Commissn of Surveyorship; but he resigns both Offices of course. The reason, his being elected a Representative to the Genl Assembly. The President desires that Commissions may be made out for Copland Parker to fill the places vacated by Mr Wells” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).

Index Entries