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EDMOND CITIZEN GENET Autograph Letter Signed 1782 To U.S. Rep. Henry Laurens

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,500.00 USD
EDMOND CITIZEN GENET Autograph Letter Signed 1782 To U.S. Rep. Henry Laurens
Autographs
1782 Edmond-Charles Genêt “Citizen Genêt” Writes To Representative Henry Laurens at Calais During Peace Talks
EDMOND-CHARLES GENET, “CITIZEN GENET” (1763-1834). 1782 French Chief of Foreign Affairs, who is best known as the Rabble-rousing First French Minister to the United States, 1793 and the “Citizen Genêt Affair”.
February 14, 1782-Dated, Autograph Letter Signed, “Genet” as “Chief of Foreign Affairs”. Edmond Genet was the scion of pre-Revolutionary French gentry. After an aristocratic upbringing and education, in 1781 Genet followed his father into the French Foreign Ministry at the extraordinary young age of 19. In November 1782, Henry Laurens received instructions from Congress to join Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams in Paris to negotiate a Peace Treaty with the British, officially ending the American Revolutionary War.

This original Letter is dated in 1782, being boldly written deep rich brown ink, completely in French, Signed “Genet.” In this letter Genet has written to Henry Laurens, stating that he has just received a letter, which was just received, and that he (Genet) did not know that Laurens had already left. Also, that he has sent along a package under the care of Mr. Desridellier... “I will write to you at Calais with the attachment - Genet” while as Chief of Bureau of Foreign Affairs. It is an impressive looking, vivid and historic double paged letter, in overall choice quality, measuring 6” x 9” and appears to be docketed in the hand of Henry Laurens. The addressed outer panel has been removed from blank reverse second page outer leaf, not affecting the context or pages of this letter. It reads (to our best ability to translate French), in full:

“Monsieur - I have just received the letter you did me the honor to write the 10th this month and I hasten to let you know that not having been informed at all of your early departure I have sent ... under the care of my friend Mr. Moux ... the package that you await from Mr. Buidgou. I shall write to Mr. Henry Laurens at Mr. Pierre Userwood Calias.

Mr. Le Moux is to ask your address at Calais and I shall be at the ... of my ... if you ... and ... to give you the evidence attachment respectful with which I have the Honor - Sir - Your very humble and very obedient servant - Genet - Head Office of Foreign Affairs - 1782”


Henry Laurens succeeded John Hancock as President of the Second Continental Congress (1777-1778). Laurens also ran the largest Slave trading house in North America. In the 1750s alone, his Charleston, South Carolina Slave trading firm oversaw the sale of more than 8,000 Enslaved Africans. He was for a time, the Vice-President of South Carolina and a diplomat. During the Revolutionary War, in 1779 the Continental Congress sent Henry Laurens to negotiate a treaty with the Dutch. He left Philadelphia in August 1780 and was captured by the British off of Newfoundland. Laurens threw his papers overboard, but the British succeeded in fishing out a draft of the treaty. They charged Laurens with high treason and took him to England, where he was confined in the Tower of London from October 1780 until December 1781. Although the fifty six-year-old Laurens was taken seriously ill, the English officials gave him no medical attention. They charged him for all of his upkeep at the tower, even including the salaries of his warders (a common practice at the time). Laurens was placed in solitary confinement and was not allowed writing materials. Even so, he frequently managed to smuggle out letters to the American press. Laurens resisted the efforts of his British friends to bring him to their side, but at the same time he felt neglected by Congress. While in the tower he wrote two petitions to the English authorities that were considered too submissive by some Americans back home, including James Madison, who called for an annulment of Laurens’s diplomatic commission. Benjamin Franklin and the British statesman Edmund Burke fought to secure his release, and in December 1781 Laurens was freed in exchange for General Charles Cornwallis, who had surrendered to George Washington at York-town, Virginia. In November 1782 Laurens received instructions from Congress to join Franklin, Jay, and John Adams in Paris to negotiate a Peace treaty with the British. During this period Laurens was also acting as an “unofficial minister” from the United States to England, so he was ultimately not present when the final Peace treaty was signed on September 3, 1783.

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 warship 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 which would join French expeditions against the British. He commissioned four privateering ships in total: the Republicaine, the Anti-George, the Sans-Culotte, and the Citizen Genêt. Working with French consul Michel-Ange 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 18. He encouraged Democratic-Republican Societies, but President Washington denounced them and they quickly withered away. 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. When turned down by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and informed that his actions were unacceptable, Genêt protested. 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 Democratic-Republican Jefferson agreed. Genêt replied obstinately.

The Jacobins, having taken power in France by January 1794, sent an arrest notice which asked Genêt to come back to France. Genêt, knowing that he would likely be sent to the guillotine, asked Washington for asylum. It was Hamilton – Genêt's fiercest opponent in the cabinet – who convinced Washington to grant him safe haven in the United States.Genet challenged Washington's authority by threatening to appeal to the American people, and the U.S. government demanded (1793) his recall. Before he could go back to France, his party, the Girondists, had fallen, and his return would have meant the guillotine. Washington therefore refused to allow his extradition. Genet remained in the United States and married the daughter of Governor George Clinton of New York.