From George Washington to the U.S. Senate, 21 May 1796
To the United States Senate
United States May 21st 1796
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I nominate
Matthew Clarkson, of Pennsylvania, to be the Commissioner on the part of the United States, agreeably to the 21st article of the Treaty of Friendship, limits and navigation between them and his Catholic Majesty, to examine and decide the claims of the Citizens of the United States for losses sustained in consequence of their vessels and cargoes having been taken by the subjects of his Catholic Majesty during the late war between France and Spain.1
Andrew Ellicott, of Pennsylvania, to be the Commissioner and
Thomas Freeman of the District of Columbia, to be the Surveyor, on the part of the United States, to run and mark the southern boundary of the United States, which divides their territory from the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida;2 agreeably to the second and third articles of the treaty of friendship limits and navigation between the United States and his Catholic Majesty.3
Go: Washington
LS, DNA: RG 46, entry 52; copy, DLC:GW.
The Senate ordered that these nominations “lie for consideration” on this date before consenting on 24 May ( 210–11).
1. For Article XXI of the 1795 treaty with Spain and deliberations regarding this nomination, see Timothy Pickering’s first letter to GW on 20 May, and notes 2 and 3 to that document.
2. See Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, and Thomas Freeman to GW, both 13 April; see also GW to the commissioners, 30 May.
3. Article II of the Spanish treaty defined the boundary “by a line beginning on the River Mississipi at the Northermost part of the thirty first degree of latitude North of the Equator, which from thence shall be drawn due East to the middle of the River Apalachicola or Catahouche, thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint, thence straight to the head of St Mary’s River, and thence down the middle there of to the Atlantic Occean.” Article III required the two countries to appoint commissioners and surveyors “to run and mark” the boundary ( 319–21; see also Pickering to GW, 14 and 15 [first letter] Sept.).