CHARLES EDOUARD (1765-1834). A French diplo mat, born at Versailles. His father was the chief of the Bureau of Correspondence of the ment of Foreign Affairs, and the youth, with the rank of captain of dragoons, was attached to the Bureau as interpreter in 1775. He early veloped remarkable powers as a linguist, and at the age of twelve translated from the Swedish into French the Ilistoire d'Erie X/V., roi de. Suede (1777), and Recherches stir l'ancien peuple nois (1778). In 1779 and 1780 he was sively attached to the French embassies at Berlin and Vienna. and in 1781 succeeded his father in the Department of Foreign Affairs, which tion he retained until 1788. In 1788 he aecom: panied the Comte de Segur to Saint Petersburg, as secretary of the French Embassy, remaining in charge after Segur's retirement until 1792, when he was given his passports at the demand of the Empress Catharine II. In Paris Genet allied himself to the Girondists, and in November, 1792, was named Ambassador to Holland, whence he was transferred in the following spring as `Minister Plenipotentiary to the Congress of the United States.' His mission, it was expected, would induce the United States to declare war against Great Britain, and he came' with the inten tion not only of accomplishing that purpose, but of raising a volunteer army to regain Louisiana from Spain and of commissioning privateers in Ameri can ports. He landed at Charleston, S. C., April 8, 1793. He was enthusiastically welcomed and feted at Charleston and Philadelphia, and, en couraged by the expressions of sympathy and friendship for France which he heard on all sides, he immediately began to deal out commissions for privateers, and seek recruiting agents. Wash
ington, however, by the unanimous advice of his Cabinet, had issued a proclamation of neutrality on April 22d, and OR June 5th Jefferson, the Sec retary of State, notified the French envoy that he must cease arming and equipping privateers in American ports. Genet replied that he was acting under the treaties of 1778, and continued to disregard Jefferson's warning. In the next few months eight privateers, commissioned by him, had, with the assistance of two French frigates, captured fifty British merchantmen, some of which had been taken within the juris diction of the United States. Genet asserted that these prizes could be condemned by French con suls in American ports, and demanded the right to enter the condemned goods duty free. His contention reached the height of absurdity when he declared that the United States Constitution did not give Washington the right to treat with him, and made the demand that an extra session of Congress be called for that purpose. These and subsequent imprudent criticisms and attacks upon Washington, and the continuance of his activities in fitting out privateers and raising recruits, lost him most of the allies he had at first possessed, and the arrest of two of his agents and the expulsion of the French consul at Boston were followed by a demand for his own recall, which was acceded to by the French Gov ernment in. the following year. The fate of his fellow Girondists warned Genet not to return to France, and he became a naturalized American citizen, settling in New York, where he married a daughter of Governor George Clinton.