List of Proposed Candidates for Sundry Offices, c. March 1796
List of Proposed Candidates for Sundry Offices
[Philadelphia, c.March 1796]
| New Hampshire | Pensylvania |
| [ ] Sheafe1 | William Rawle |
| William Tighlman | |
| Massachusetts | Thomas Fitzsimmons |
| Theop. Parsons | Presley Nevil |
| Chrs. Gore | Geo. Clymer |
| [ ] Dexter | Jonathan Williams |
| Timo. Edwards | |
| Connecticut | Delaware |
| James Davenport2 | George Reade |
| Amasa Learned | |
| Jera. Wadsworth | Maryland |
| John Trumbull | Wm V. Murray—if constitutional |
| Jedh Huntington | U. Forrest |
| [ ] Stoddard | |
| New York | Charles Carrol |
| James Watson3 | George Gale |
| Wm Constable4 | Wm Winder |
| Benja. Walker | |
| [ ] Kent5 | |
| New Jersey | Virginia |
| [ ] Stockton | [ ] Innis |
| [ ] Ogden | B. Washington |
| W. Short | |
| Charles Lee if compatible with the Office of Atty General | |
| Georgia | |
| Abraham Baldwin | North Carolina |
| Genl [ ] Smith | |
| Rhode Island | John Steele |
| [ ] Dexter | |
| South Carolina | |
| Vermont | William Smith—if Constitutional |
| [ ] Tichenor6 | H. W. Desausure |
| Kentucky |
Note
Quere. Will it be consistent with the Constitution to appoint Members of Congress?
Is the Office of Commissioner compatible with that of Attorney General?
D (in the writing of Oliver Wolcott, Jr.), DLC:GW. The docket on this document reads: “Secretary of the Treasury List of names.” GW’s note on the document reads: “Names of Persons for consideration to fill sundry vac[an]t Offices now of no consequence but may be preserved a while longer.” The document presumably was generated when GW was considering whom to nominate to the commissions created by the Jay Treaty, probably in March 1796 when the other cabinet members submitted their suggestions. GW’s note probably was written in April, after the nominations of the commissioners were submitted to the Senate and approved.
1. James Sheafe (1755–1829) was a Portsmouth merchant who had served in the New Hampshire legislature and who would represent New Hampshire in the U.S. House and Senate, 1799–1802.
2. James Davenport (1758–1797), who served in the commissary department during the Revolutionary War, was a judge and a state senator. He represented Connecticut in Congress from December 1796 until his death.
3. James Watson (1750–1806), a lawyer and merchant, represented New York City in the state assembly in 1791 and 1794–96 and represented the Southern District in the state senate in 1797 and 1798. He served in the U.S. Senate, 1798–1800.
4. William Constable (1752–1803) was a New York City merchant. He is best known for his speculation in the Macomb Purchase of Indian cession lands in north central New York.
5. James Kent (1763–1847), later a noted legal scholar as chancellor of New York, was at this time professor of law at Columbia College.
6. Isaac Tichenor (1754–1838), a Bennington, Vt., lawyer, was one of the Vermont agents who negotiated statehood with the Continental Congress. He served in the Vermont assembly, 1781–84; on the Vermont council, 1786–91; on the state supreme court, 1791–95; and in the U.S. Senate, 1796–97 and 1815–21. He was governor of Vermont, 1797–1807 and 1808–9.