President James Buchanan Makes An Interim Appointment in the Treasury Department
An uncommon Buchanan presidential document
William Mechlin was, by 1827, a clerk for the Second auditor’s Office in the U.S. Treasury. By 1850, he had become Chief Clerk of the Treasury, and remained in that position at least into the Lincoln administration. He was involved in the recolonization in Africa of ex-slaves, and was the agent for...
William Mechlin was, by 1827, a clerk for the Second auditor’s Office in the U.S. Treasury. By 1850, he had become Chief Clerk of the Treasury, and remained in that position at least into the Lincoln administration. He was involved in the recolonization in Africa of ex-slaves, and was the agent for the government of Liberia. Interestingly, after the British burned the government buildings in Washington in 1814, the Navy Office was set up in Mechlin’s House.
Philip Clayton was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as Second Auditor of the US Treasury in 1849, and was later made Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by President James Buchanan. When the Secretary of the Treasury was absent, Clayton often took his place on a temporary basis. When the Civil War broke out, Clayton resigned his federal post and became Assistant Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America.
Uncommon manuscript document signed, as President, Washington, March 16, 1857. “William Mechlin is hereby appointed to discharge the duties of Second Auditor of the Treasury until the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Philip Clayton Esq. is filled.”
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