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Citizen Genet

Edmond-Charles Genet (8 January 1763 – 14 July 1834) was the French Ambassador to the United States from 1793 to 1794, succeeding Jean Baptiste Ternant and preceding Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet. He infamously undermined American neutrality during his tenure in the United States, recruiting American privateers for the French Navy and spreading radical sentiment in the nascent country through aiding in the formation of Democratic-Republican Societies. Genet's reputation was ruined when the Federalist Party published his correspondence with Paris, which contained insults towards Genet's rival, President George Washington, but, when the Jacobin-dominated National Convention announced that Genet would be recalled, arrested, and sent to trial for his crimes (amid the "Reign of Terror"), Alexander Hamilton persuaded Washington to grant Genet asylum in the United States, where he would spend the rest of his life. He was the great-grandfather of Edmond Genet, the first American casualty of World War I.

Biography[]

Edmond-Charles Genet was born in Versailles, France on 8 January 1763, the youngest of nine children born to the head clerk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Genet learned six languages during his childhood, and he became court translator at the age of eighteen and a diplomat at the age of twenty-five, serving in the French embassy to Russia. He was a staunch supporter of the French Revolution after coming to loathe the despotism of both Ancien Regime France and Catherine the Great's Russia, and Catherine declared him persona non grata in 1762, forcing Genet to return to Paris.

Genet in 1793

Genet in 1793

In 1793, Genet was appointed Ambassador to the United States by the Girondin-dominated National Convention, and, on 8 April 1793, he arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, where he was enthusiastically greeted by the Southern Jeffersonians. A string of parties were held in Genet's honor, and the young, handsome, charming, and flamboyant Genet encouraged his new American friends to call him "Citizen Genet" in republican style. Genet sought to secure American support or protection for France's West Indian colonies, to negotiate America's repayment of its debts to France, and to negotiate a commercial treaty with the United States. With the blessing of South Carolina's governor, Genet commissioned four new privateer ships under the protection of French law, with the ships being named the Republicaine, the Anti-George, the Sans-Culotte, and the Citizen Genêt. President George Washington, a staunch supporter of American neutrality amid the American Revolutionary War, grew concerned about Genet's actions on American soil, especially as Genet helped organize Democratic-Republican Societies to spread radical ideas in America.

Genet arrived in the capital Philadelphia a month late, but he was greeted like a hero by the locals, only to be received coldly by President Washington, who was angered at Genet's delay and his revolutionary views. Genet controversially accepted the delivery of a captured British ship at the Delaware River, angering the pro-neutrality Washington and even causing Thomas Jefferson to ask Genet to tone down his revolutionary fervor. Genet theorized that the Federalists were using Washington as a puppet to establish a monarchy in America, and he wrote bold letters home that he had "the old general" Washington on the run, and that the people were with him. Genet launched his captured ship before Washington returned to Philadelphia from a state trip, and an incensed Washington had his cabinet draw up a series of explicit orders laying out the rules of conduct between America and all European belligerents: privateers could not be armed in American ports, and prizes could not be offloaded in American ports. Genet ignored Washington, and French sailors riled up the people of Philadelphia as Genet called on the people of the city to defend true liberty and not the crypto-royalist Federalists. Genet stirred up a mob which demanded that Washington declare war on England, leading to Washington's Cabinet seeking Genet's dismissal without angering the French Republic. The New York Federalists John Jay and Rufus King published Genet's correspondence to generate a swift backlash against the French ambassador, whose disrespect towards Washington angered most Americans. In late August 1793, the Cabinet formally demanded Genet's recall, but, by then, the Girondins had been purged from the National Convention, and the Mountain-controlled Convention had already dispatched an ambassador to replace Genet and maintain friendly relations with the United States lest the two countries go to war. The ambassador carried orders to arrest Genet and send him to trial for his crimes, leading to Genet begging Washington for asylum. Alexander Hamilton persuaded Washington to accept Genet's request, and Genet remained in America for the rest of his life. He wooed the daughter of New York Governor George Clinton and retired to a life of rustic tranquility at an estate overlooking the Hudson River, dying at the age of 71 on 14 July 1834, the 45th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille.

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