The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 4.
To Shining Sea – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804.
On November 7th 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery Expedition, would reach the American shore of the Pacific Ocean – thus asserting the reason for ‘the very name given to those fighters for independence: the Continental Army’.
Part 1 – The Irish Frontier
Chapter 4 - Adams Sends Three Envoys to France, May 31st 1797
Because of the increased provocations against the United States commerce by France, President Adams and Congress began the building of a ‘Provisional Army’ while also holding out the hope of peace with France by sending three envoys to Paris to deal with the new government and the new storm over France.
General Lazare Hoche
On May 1st 1797, Secretary of State Pickering sent his report to President Adams regarding ‘General Pinckney’s mission to the French Republic’ and ‘French depredations on the Commerce of the United States’, in which Pickering compared the British captures with the many French captures, and recommended, among the following measures:
“1. that provision be made for equipping & manning the frigates …
5. that the principal seaports of the United States be put in a proper state of defence …
6. that a provisional army be organized, to consist of 30,000 men, to be in readiness for actual service, if a war should take place …
12. that provision be made … to punish those American citizens who shall fit out or serve on board privateers which shall cruise against or annoy the commerce of the United States.”
On May 16th, at the Special Session, President Adams addressed both houses of Congress that:
“… while we are endeavouring to adjust all our differences with France, by amicable negotiation, the progress of the war in Europe, the depredations on our commerce, the personal injuries to our citizens, and the general complexion of affairs, render it my indispensable duty to recommend to your consideration effectual measures of defence …
A naval power, next to the militia, is the natural defence of the United States … our sea coasts, from their great extent, are more easily annoyed, and more easily defended, by a naval force than any other …
It remains for Congress to proscribe such regulations as will enable our seafaring citizens to defend themselves against violations of the law of nations, and at the same time restrain them from committing acts of hostility against the powers of war. In addition to this voluntary provision for defence by individual citizens, it appears to me necessary to equip the frigates, and provide other vessels of inferior force, to take under convoy such merchant vessels as shall remain unarmed …
The greater part of the cruisers, whose depredations have been most injurious, have been built, and some of them partially equipped, in the United States … if a mode can be devised, by the wisdom of Congress, to prevent the resources of the United States from being converted into the means of annoying our trade, a great evil will be prevented. With the same view, I think it proper to mention that some of our citizens resident abroad have fitted out privateers, and others have voluntarily taken the command, or entered on board of them, and committed spoliations on the commerce of the United States. Such unnatural and iniquitous practices can be restrained only by severe punishments …
To guard against sudden and predatory incursions, the situation of some of our principal seaports demand your consideration; and as our country is vulnerable in other interests beside those of its commerce, you will seriously deliberate, whether the means of general defence ought to be increased, by an addition to the regular artillery and cavalry, and by arrangements for forming a provisional army.”
Congress would pass ‘an act to prevent citizens of the United States from privateering against nations in amity with, or against citizens of, the United States’; ‘an act to provide for the further defence of the ports and harbors of the United States’; ‘an act directing a detachment from the militia of the United States’ – to organize, arm, equip and hold in readiness to march at a moment’s warning, 80,000 militia; and ‘an act providing a naval armament’, that would cause 3 of the 6 frigates, authorized by the Naval Act of 1794, to be manned and employed.
President Adams signed this last act into law on July 1st, creating the United States Navy – as President Washington had earlier envisioned. The USS United States had recently been launched on May 10th 1797 at Philadelphia, and would be followed by the launching of the USS Constellation on September 7th at Baltimore, and the launching of the USS Constitution on October 21st at Boston.
On May 31st, Adams nominated Charles Pinckney, along with John Marshall and Francis Dana to be envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary to the French Republic. When Dana couldn’t serve due to ill health, he was replaced by Elbridge Gerry on June 20th.
On June 21st, Pickering would submit to Adams his requested report that ‘American vessels have been captured since the 1st of October 1796, by the armed vessels of Spain, Great Britain and France’. Of Spain, he wrote that ‘there have, probably, been a number of captures by Spanish cruisers’. Of Great Britain, he wrote that ‘captures and losses by British cruisers, the Secretary presumes, have not been numerous’. But of France, he gave a detailed report of all of the reported incidences and listed the 316 American vessels captured by the French!!!
By July of 1797, Marshall and Gerry had left the United States to travel to Europe as Adam’s peace commissioners to the government of France. They were first to meet Pinckney in the Netherlands before travelling to Paris. Pinckney was at The Hague, where he had gone after the French government had refused to receive him as American ambassador, threatened him with imprisonment and expelled him from France in January 1797.
Marshall arrived in Amsterdam after being delayed by a British blockade of the Netherlands, and joined Pinckney at The Hague, where they awaited the arrival of Gerry, before proceeding to Paris to meet with the members of the Directory.
In a letter to General Washington on September 15th, Marshall wrote that:
“you have observed the storm which has been gathering in Paris. The thunderbolt has at length been launched at the heads of the leading members of the legislature, and has, it is greatly to be feared, involved in one common ruin with them, the constitution and liberties of their country.”
Marshall proceeded to report on the coup d’etat of September 4th, known as the ‘Coup of the 18 Fructidor’, run by Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, that:
“Since the election of the new third [during March and April of 1797, elections were held for one third of the legislature, as provided for in the new constitution – 205 out of 216 were defeated, only 11 were re-elected] there were found in both branches of the legislature a majority in favour of moderate measures, and, apparently, wishing sincerely for peace. They have manifested a disposition which threatened a condemnation of the conduct of the directory towards America, a scrutiny into the transactions of Italy, particularly those respecting Venice and Genoa, an enquiry into the disposition of public money and such a regular arrangement of the finances as would prevent in future those dilapidations which are suspected to have grown out of their disorder …
Carnot and Barthelemy, two of the Directory, were with the legislature. The cry of a conspiracy to re-establish royalism was immediately raised against them. An envoy was dispatched to the army of Italy to sound its disposition. It was represented that the legislature was hostile to the armies, that it withheld their pay and subsistence, that by its opposition to the Directory it encouraged Austria and Britain to reject the terms of peace which were offered by France and which but for that opposition would have been accepted, and finally that it had engaged in a conspiracy for the destruction of the constitution and the republic and for the restoration of the royalty … To support the general charge of a conspiracy in favor of royalty, I know of no particular facts alleged against the arrested members except Pichegru [i.e. former General Jean-Charles Pichegru] and two or three others …
The story at large is still more improbable … because Pichegru is made in the first moment of conversation to unbosom himself entirely to a perfect stranger who had only told him that he came from the Prince of Conde and could not exhibit a single line or testimonial of any sort to prove that he had ever seen that Prince or that he was not a spy employed by some enemies of the General. This story is repelled by Pichegru’s character which has never before been defiled. Great as were the means he possessed of personal aggrandizement he retired clean handed from the army, without adding a shilling to his private fortune … Yet this improbable and unsupported tale seems to be received as an established truth by those who the day before his fall bowed to him as an idol …
Indeed sir, the constitution has been violated in so many instances that it would require a pamphlet to detail them. The detail would be unnecessary for the great principle seems to be introduced that the government is to be administered according to the will of the armies and not according to the will of the nation.”
General Washington replied to Marshall on December 4th that:
“it is laughable enough, however, to behold those men, amongst us, who were reprobating in the severest terms, and sounding the tocsin upon every occasion that wild imagination could torture into a stretch of power, or unconstitutionality in the executive of the United States, all of a sudden become the warm advocates of those high handed measures of the French Directory which succeeded the arrestations of the 4th of September; and this too without denying that the barriers of the constitution, under which they acted have been overleaped, but do it on the ground of tender mercy and an unwillingness to shed blood. But so it always has been and I presume ever will be, with men who are governed more by passion and party views than by dictates of justice, temperance and sound policy.”
Pinckney and Marshall decided to leave immediately for Paris without Gerry, but, en route, they received news that Gerry would soon arrive. On October 4th, Gerry arrived at Paris, and on the 6th, the three commissioners would request a meeting with the new minister of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand, to present their credentials.
But the French government they were sent to meet would be a different government when they arrived.
4.1 - The French Coup d’Etat of 18 Fructidor and the Dutch Expedition to Ireland in 1797
After the failed attempt of the French expedition to Ireland in December 1796, the British government would place Ulster under martial law – guns were seized and houses burned in a campaign to disarm the province, and by June 1797, over 100 United Irishmen leaders would be arrested and in prison. The Northern Star’s office was attacked, its proprietors were arrested, and its presses were destroyed.
A secret committee of the United Irishmen now appointed Edward Lewins their special envoy to France – to thank the Directory for the Bantry Bay attempt, to ask for another expedition of 20,000 men and 100,000 arms, and to ask for a commitment from France to insist on Irish independence in any peace negotiations with Britain.
Lewins was to give to the French, information on the strength and position of the British defences – 18,000 regulars, 20,000 militia (although 1/3 of the militia were Irishmen sympathizers), and 25,000 (Orangemen) yeomanry; and was to inform them that they could expect help from 100,000 Irishmen on their arrival. Plus, a mutiny broke out in the British navy in April (lasting until June) as men refused to sail until their petition for better conditions and better wages had been answered – later to be blamed on the Irish component of 50% or more on board the mutinous ships!
On May 29th, French General Hoche met Lewins, and the next day, sent his report to the Directory for a second expedition. Carnot replied that the Directory had not abandoned the Irish, but that Britain was clearly master of the seas, and France could not then spare the necessary troops and ships to combat such supremacy; but he would happily permit Hoche to organize the despatch of arms and some troops from Holland. Taking up an offer from the Batavian Republic, Hoche, Tone and Lewins met with General Daendels and with the Batavian Committee of Foreign Affairs at the Hague on June 28th.
Note: Wolfe Tone had left Ireland, travelled to France and was placed on Hoche’s staff. Daendals was a former Dutch patriot, who had been forced to flee the Netherlands, then joined the French Army when the French overthrew the old Dutch Republic and replaced it with the Bavarian Republic.
On July 1st, Hoche received his orders to take command of the Irish expedition, and to assemble a force of 8,000 men that had been retained near Brest; and he then sent Tone to the Texel to accompany the Dutch fleet. Hoche professed to believe that there was only enough infantry to guard the west coast of France, with no cavalry or artillery, and so he ordered an infantry division of 6,000 men, a chasseur division of 3,000 men, and an artillery division of 1,000 men from his army to march – nominally, on Brest, but in reality, on Paris! On July 9th, under the pretext of moving some of his troops to Brest for the expedition against Ireland, and by an arrangement made only with Barras, Hoche began a march to Paris with a force of 10,000 men.
Note: After the French elections in March and April of 1797, to replace 1/3 of the members of both of the legislative houses, the old ‘Conventionists’ members were almost all defeated by new members who were in ‘Opposition’ to the ‘Thermidoreans’. (Only 13 out of 216 ‘conventionists’ were re-elected – and one of these was Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon.) The triumvirate in the Directory – Reubel, Reviellere and Barras – now sought to eliminate the ‘opposition’ members with a coup.
On July 16th, Barras (and the triumvirate) nominated Hoche to be the new Minister of War; on the 18th, nominated Talleyrand to be the new minister of foreign affairs – both, over the opposition of Carnot; and Barras also had Fouche organize a secret police.
On July 18th, when Hoche’s forces arrived near Paris, the Councils became alarmed, since the Constitution forbade the entry of troops within the city; and Carnot, the president of the Directory, inquired severely of Hoche. When Barras would not take any responsibility for Hoche’s army’s movement, a confused Hoche had to withdraw – becoming the scapegoat for the failed attempt at a coup d’etat. The council then found that Hoche was not yet thirty – the age required by the constitution for ministers, and Hoche now had to renounce his appointment as war minister, and he left Paris in disgust. While the Directory ordered him on July 28th, to continue his march to Brest, Hoche refused to embark and he returned to his command of the Army of the Sambre et Meuse.
The first attempt at a coup d’etat (using Hoche) by the Triumvirate had failed, and Barras now turned to his other general – Bonaparte. At the request of Barras, Bonaparte sent General Augereau to Paris, where the Directory appointed him to command the Military Division of Paris.
Note: After having put down the Jacobin uprising in Paris in October 1795 – while under the command of Barras, General Napoleon Bonaparte (who changed his name from Buonaparte) was then given the command of France’s Army of Italy on March 2nd, 1796 – a few days after he had married Josephine de Beauharnais, the former lover of Barras.
On September 4th, Augereau’s troops occupied the city of Paris, arresting Pichegru, the president of the Council of 500, Barbe-Marbois, the president of the Council of the Ancients, and the Director Barthelemy, and attempted to arrest Director Carnot, who was able to avoid assassination and escaped. The next day, on evidence supplied by Bonaparte, Pichegru was charged with treason, and the results of the election were annulled.
Thirty-two newspapers and journals were shut down, the journalists and editors were arrested and, along with sixty-five other leading opposition deputies, were condemned to exile in Guiana. The Jacobins were back in power, but this was merely the first step in the surrender of France to a dictatorship.
And unfortunately, the United Irishmen were now dependent on the Jacobins for help with their rebellion against the British.
On September 3rd, Daendels dispatched Tone to meet with Hoche with new proposals for the Irish expedition – the first landing of 20,000 men at Lough Swilly in the north of Ireland would be followed by 15,000 troops sent to Scotland to create the impression that England herself was under attack, forcing the British to withdraw troops from Ireland for home defence.
On September 13th Tone arrived at Hoche’s headquarters at Wetzlar but Hoche did not like the plan of a second landing and promised to give an answer in 3 or 4 days and to then send Tone to Paris with his decision. Tone, however, was more worried about the deteriorating physical condition of Hoche, who died on September 19th from consumption (tuberculosis).
De Winter, the Vice-Admiral of the Batavian fleet at Texel, now decided that any attempt to join the French forces at Brest was impractical, and he abandoned the plan for an Irish expedition.
On October 8th, De Winter sailed his fleet out of Texel, on orders to conduct a sweep of the southern North Sea in search of weak British naval forces that could be overwhelmed by his fleet. On October 11th, the British North Sea fleet attacked and defeated De Winter’s fleet off the Dutch coast near the village of Camperduin.
[next week - chapter 5 - Talleyrand Becomes French Foreign Minister, July 15th 1797]
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For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 - 1814.