Edmond-Charles Genêt

Genêt was born in Versailles in 1763. He was the ninth and final child of a French civil servant, Edmond Jacques Genêt (1726–1781), who was a head clerk in the ministry of foreign affairs.{{cite book|last1=Alderson|first1=Robert J.|title=This Bright Era of Happy Revolutions: French Consul Michel-Ange-Bernard Mangourit and International Republicanism in Charleston, 1792-1794|date=2008|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=9781570037450|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru_JrzDxBJ8C&pg=PA20|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}} The elder Genêt analyzed British naval strength during the Seven Years' War and monitored the progress of the American Revolutionary War. His eldest sister was Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie-Antoinette and later an educator and author. Aglaé-Louise Auguié, who was the wife of Marshal Ney of France, was Genêt's niece.

Genêt was a prodigy who could read French, English, Italian, Latin, Swedish, Greek,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPknDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT391|title=Alexander Hamilton|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2016-08-01|publisher=Head of Zeus|isbn=9781786690012|language=en}} and German by the age of 12.

At 18, Genêt was appointed court translator, and in 1788 he was sent to the French embassy in Saint Petersburg to serve as ambassador. Over time, Genêt became disenchanted with the ancien régime, learning to despise not just the French monarchy but all monarchical systems, including Tsarist Russia under Catherine the Great. In 1792, Catherine declared Genêt persona non grata, calling his presence "not only superfluous but even intolerable."{{cn|date=December 2024}} The same year, the Girondins rose to power in France and appointed Genêt to the post of minister to the United States.

File:PhiladelphiaPresidentsHouse.jpg, Philadelphia. Washington confronted Genêt in the presidential mansion in Philadelphia, then the national capital.]]

The Citizen Genêt affair began in 1793 when he was dispatched to the United States to promote American support for France's wars with Spain and Britain.

Genêt arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on the French frigate Embuscade on April 8. Instead of traveling to the then-capital of Philadelphia to present himself to U.S. President George Washington for accreditation, Genêt stayed in South Carolina. There he was greeted with enthusiasm by the people of Charleston, who threw a string of parties in his honor.

Genêt's goals in South Carolina were to recruit and arm American privateers who would join French expeditions against the British. He commissioned four privateering ships in total, including the Republicaine, the Anti-George, the Sans-Culotte, and the Citizen Genêt. Working with French consul Michel Ange Bernard Mangourit, Genêt organized American volunteers to fight Britain's Spanish allies in Florida. After raising a militia, Genêt set sail toward Philadelphia, stopping along the way to marshal support for the French cause and arriving on May 16. He encouraged Democratic-Republican societies, but President Washington denounced them and they quickly withered away. He was also hosted by the Democratic-Republican Tammany Society in 1793.{{cite book|last=Allen|first=Oliver E.|title=The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall|date=1993|page=[https://archive.org/details/tigerrisefalloft00alle/page/10 10]|publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company|isbn=0-201-62463-X|url=https://archive.org/details/tigerrisefalloft00alle/page/10|url-access=registration}}

His actions endangered American neutrality in the war between France and Britain, which Washington had pointedly declared in his Neutrality Proclamation of April 22. When Genêt met with Washington, he asked for what amounted to a suspension of American neutrality to support the cause of France. When turned down by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and informed that his actions were unacceptable, Genêt protested.{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unMFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA29|title = A Message of the President of the United States to Congress Relative to France and Great Britain Delivered December 5, 1793, With the Papers Therein Referred to, to Which are Added the French Originals, Published by Order of the House of Representatives|publisher = printed by Charles and Swaine|place = Philadelphia|year = 1793|access-date= 14 April 2016|pages = 28–29|via= Google Books}} Meanwhile, Genêt's privateers were capturing British ships, and his militia was preparing to move against the Spanish.

Genêt continued to defy the wishes of the United States government, capturing British ships and rearming them as privateers. Washington sent Genêt an 8,000-word letter of complaint on Jefferson's and Hamilton's advice – one of the few situations in which the Federalist Alexander Hamilton and the Republican Jefferson agreed. Genêt replied obstinately. President Washington and his Cabinet then demanded that France recall Genêt as its Ambassador.{{cite web|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-26-02-0629-0001|title=Founders Online: Editorial Note: The Recall of Edmond Charles Genet}}

The Mountain, having taken power in France by January 1794, issued an arrest warrant for Genêt. Genêt, knowing that he would likely be sent to the guillotine, asked Washington for asylum. Hamilton, Genêt's fiercest opponent in the cabinet, convinced Washington to grant him safe haven in the United States.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

After obtaining asylum in the United States from Washington, Genêt moved to New York State. On June 26, 1808, Genêt wrote an article, "Madison as a 'French Citizen,'" for the New York Register in an attempt to promote the prospects of his father-in-law, the incumbent Vice President George Clinton, over James Madison in the presidential election of 1808. Noting the honorary French citizenship afforded to Madison in 1792, Genêt reasoned that the Embargo Act of 1807 had been intended by Secretary of State Madison to aid Napoleon in the enforcement of the Berlin Decree, especially seeing that American trade with Britain was more important than that with France. Playing to a northeastern audience, Genêt continued that, judging by Jefferson's glorification of an agricultural lifestyle in Notes on the State of Virginia, the Embargo was also acting as a covert means to destroy New England's commercial heritage. As such, New Englanders would be forced to turn to agriculture, and Virginia's dominance of American politics would continue.Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Fred L. Israel, and William P. Hansen, eds., History of American Presidential Elections: 1789–1968, vol. 1 (New York: Chelsea House, 1985), 234-35.

File:Made. de Genet (Cornelia Clinton) (NYPL b13049824-424703) (cropped).tiff

Genêt married Cornelia Tappen Clinton in 1794, the daughter of New York Governor George Clinton. Genêt lived on a farm he called Prospect Hill located in East Greenbush, New York, overlooking the Hudson River. Living the life of a gentleman farmer, he wrote a book about inventions. Their children included:{{cite book|last1=New York (State)|title=Laws of the State of New-York,: Passed at the Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Sessions of the Legislature, Commencing November 1812, and Ending April 1815|date=1815|publisher=Websters and Skinners, at their bookstore in the White-House, corner of State and Pearl streets|pages=47–48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tBIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA48|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}

• Edmond Charles Genet (1797–1802), who died young.
• Henry James Genet (1800–1872), a member of the State Assembly in 1832 who married Martha Elizabeth Taylor (1809–1896).{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Francis Bazley|title=Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey ...|date=1910|publisher=Lewis historical Publishing Company|pages=121–122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZE-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}
• Maria Louisa Genet (1802–1888), who married Cornelius Van Buren Van Rensselaer (1793–1868), son of Col. Nicholas Van Rensselaer.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Cornelius was the son of Nicholas Van Rensselaer (1754–1848) and Elsie (née Van Buren) Van Rensselaer (1759–1844). He was also the nephew of Henry K. Van Rensselaer, Philip Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Philip Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, all of the prominent Van Rensselaer family.{{Cite journal | url = https://archive.org/details/cincinnatiqueen03compgoog | page = [https://archive.org/details/cincinnatiqueen03compgoog/page/n575 567] | title = Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788–1912 | publisher = S. J. Clarke Publishing Company | last1 = Clarke Publishing Company | first1 = S.J | last2 = Clarke | first2 = S. J. | year = 1912}}{{cite web |url=http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=3&p=surnames.van-20-rensellar |title=Van Rensselaer/Klinck – New York |publisher=Ancestry.co.uk |access-date=December 28, 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/vanrensselaer-1.html |title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer |work=Schenectady Digital History Archive |year=2009 |publisher=Schenectady County Public Library |access-date=December 28, 2012}}{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=D-cCeOEXGyoC&pg=RA1-PA273 | title = 10,000 Famous Freemasons V3, K to P | isbn = 9781417975792 | last1 = Denslow | first1 = William R | last2 = Truman | first2 = Harry S | date = 2004-09-30| publisher = Kessinger }}}}
• Charles Alexander Genet (1805–1838)
• Cornelia Tappen Genet (1808–1877), who married Andrew Conkey Getty (1810–1891).{{cite book|title=Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine|date=1968|publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|page=722|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYvjAAAAMAAJ|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}

His wife Cornelia died in 1810, and on July 31, 1814, Genêt remarried to Martha Brandon Osgood (1787–1853), the daughter of Samuel Osgood, the United States' first Postmaster General.{{cite book|last1=New York (State) Supreme Court|title=Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature, and in the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors, of the State of New-York. [1828-1841]|date=1832|publisher=New-York, Gould & Banks|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_02AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA10|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}} Together, they were the parents of:{{cite book|last1=Lamb|first1=Martha Joanna|title=History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress|date=1880|publisher=A. S. Barnes|page=331|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1s0NAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA331|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}

• Henriette Campan Genet (1815–1826), who died young.
• Edmond Charles Genet (b. 1816), who died young.
• Samuel Osgood Genet (1819–1824), who died young.
• Edme Jacques Genet (1821–1891), who married Magdelene Van Rensselaer Witbeck (1813–1900).{{cite book|title=History of the Reformed Church: At East Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York ...|date=1891|publisher=J. Heidingsfeld, printer|page=246|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4v9HAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA246|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}} They had no children.{{cite book|last1=Rensselaer|first1=Florence Van|title=The Van Rensselaers in Holland and in America|date=1956|publisher=American Historical Co.|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ1YAAAAMAAJ|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}
• George Clinton Genet (1824–1904), who married Augusta Georgia Kirtland (1838–1911).{{cite book|last1=Freeman|first1=Joanne B.|title=Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic|date=2002|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0300097557|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wmz3tNhWm7UC&pg=PA92|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}} They had no children.{{cite book|title=Genealogy of the Bostwick Family in America: The Descendants of Arthur Bostwick of Stratford, Conn|date=1901|publisher=Bryan printing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/genealogybostwi01bostgoog/page/n480 463]|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogybostwi01bostgoog|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}

He died on July 14, 1834, and is buried in the churchyard behind the Greenbush Reformed Church, about two miles east of his farm.

File:Edmond Genet on September 4, 1916.jpg

Edmond Charles Clinton Genet, who served with the Lafayette Escadrille and was the first American flier to die in the First World War after the United States declared war against Germany in 1917, was Genêt's great-great-grandson.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIjGAAAAMAAJ |title=War Letters of Edmond Genet: The First American Aviator Killed Flying the Stars and Stripes |last=Genet |first=Edmond Charles Clinton |year=1918 |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |editor-last=Channing |editor-first=Grace Ellery |oclc=459298282}}

• An elementary school in East Greenbush, New York, is named Citizen Genet Elementary School, formerly Genet Middle School.{{cite web|url=http://egcsd.org/genet-elementary/about-citizen-genet-elementary-school/|work=egcsd.org|title=About Citizen Genet Elementary School|access-date=January 4, 2019}}
• Genêt is portrayed by Cyril Descours in Episode V of the 2008 miniseries John Adams.{{cite web |last=Breig |first=James |date=14 October 2010 |title=History: Genet's night on television |website=Troy Record |url=https://www.troyrecord.com/2010/10/14/history-genets-night-on-television/ |accessdate=8 August 2021}}

• Franco-U.S. relations

Notes

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Sources

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Ammon, Harry. The Genet Mission. New York: W.W. Norton, 1971.
• Berkin, Carol. A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism (2017) pp 81–150.
• Campbell, Wesley J. "The Origin of Citizen Genet's Projected Attack on Spanish Louisiana: A Case Study in Girondin Politics." French Historical Studies 33.4 (2010): 515–544. [https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2316&context=law-faculty-publications online]
• Childs, Frances Sergeant. French Refugee Life in the United States, 1790–1800: An American Chapter of the French Revolution Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1940.
• Elkins, Stanley, and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Link, Eugene Perry. Democratic-Republican Societies, 1790–1800. New York: Columbia University Press, 1942.
• Sheridan, Eugene R. "The Recall of Edmond Charles Genet: A Study in Transatlantic Politics and Diplomacy". Diplomatic History, Vol. 18 (Fall 1994), 463–68.
• Sioli, Marco. "Citizen Genêt and Political Struggle in the Early American Republic." Revue française d'études américaines (1995): 259–267, in English.[https://www.persee.fr/doc/rfea_0397-7870_1995_num_64_1_1582 online]
• Thomas, Charles Marion. American Neutrality in 1793: A Study in Cabinet Government. New York: Columbia University Press, 1931.
• Unger, Harlow Giles. The French War Against America: How a Trusted Ally Betrayed Washington and the Founding Fathers. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.

• {{FadedPage|id=Genêt, Edmond Charles|name=Edmond Charles Genêt|author=yes}}
• [https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL79661A/Edmond_Charles_Genet Works by Edmond-Charles Genêt] at the Open Library
• {{find a Grave|23891453}}
• [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/AHR/3/4/Origin_of_Genets_Projected_Attack*.html The Origin of Genet's Projected Attack on Louisiana and the Floridas – (AHR 3:650‑671)]
• Information about Citizen Genêt can be found in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20081030101517/http://www.albanyinstitute.org/collections/library/Research_and_Resources/FindingAids/Genet%20CL543.pdf Genêt Family Papers], which contains manuscripts, letters, correspondences, compilations, circulars, and photographs related to Edmond Charles Genêt and his diverse career as diplomat, inventor, farmer, and correspondent with the leaders of American government, society, and scientific thought, in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20081026013759/http://www.albanyinstitute.org/z-%20AIHA%20website/6-library/library.main.htm Albany Institute of History & Art Library].

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Category:1763 births

Category:1834 deaths

Category:18th-century French diplomats

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Category:People from Versailles

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