right|250px|thumb|François, marquis de Barbé-Marbois, in 1835
by Jean François BoisselatFrançois Barbé-Marbois,
marquis de
Barbé-Marbois (31 January 1745 – 12 February 1837) was a
French politician.
Early career
Born in
Metz, where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the
Marquis de Castries. In 1779 he was made secretary of the French legation to the
United States. When the minister
Chevalier de la Luzerne returned to France in 1783, Barbé-Marbois remained in America as chargé d'affaires. That year he married Elizabeth Moore, the daughter of
William Moore, former governor of
Pennsylvania.
In 1785 he became
intendant of the
colony of
Saint-Domingue under the
Ancien Régime.
In the Revolution
At the close of 1789, he returned to France, and then placed his services at the disposal of the
French Revolutionary government. In 1791 he was sent to
Regensburg to help the
Marquis de Noailles, the French
ambassador. Suspected of
treason, he was arrested on his return but soon freed.
In 1795 he was elected to the
Council of the Ancients, where the general
moderation of his attitude, especially in his opposition to the
exclusion of nobles and the relations of
émigrés from public life, brought him under suspicion of being a royalist, though he pronounced a
eulogy on
Napoleon Bonaparte for his
success in Italy.
At the
Royalist coup d'état of the
18th Fructidor (4 September) 1797), he was arrested and transported to
French Guiana. Transferred to the island of
Oléron in 1799, he was set free by
Napoleon Bonaparte after the
18 Brumaire Coup. In 1801, under the
Consulate, he became councillor of state and director of the
Trésor public (Treasury), and in 1802 a
senator.
In 1803 he negotiated the
Louisiana Purchase treaty by which
Louisiana was ceded to the
United States, and was rewarded by the
First Consul with a gift of 152,000
francs.
Empire, Restoration, and July Monarchy
Loyal to the
First Empire, he was made grand officer of the
Legion of Honour and a
count in 1805, and in 1808 he became president of the
Cour des Comptes. His career as Head of the Treasury ended in 1806. In return for these favours, he heaped praise upon Napoleon; yet, in 1814, he helped to draw up the act of abdication of the emperor, and declared to the
Cour des Comptes, with reference to the invasion of France by the
Sixth Coalition:
"...united for the most beautiful of causes, it is long since we have been as free as we are now, in the presence of the foreigner in arms."
In June of that year, under the
First Restoration, Barbé-Marbois was made
Peer of France by
King Louis XVIII, and confirmed in his office as president of the
Cour des Comptes. Deprived of his positions by Napoleon during the
Hundred Days, he was appointed
Minister of Justice under the
Duc de Richelieu (August 1815), tried unsuccessfully to gain the confidence of the
Ultra-Royalists, and withdrew at the end of nine months (10 May 1816).
In 1830, when the
July Revolution brought
Louis Philippe and the
Orléans Monarchy, Barbé-Marbois went, as president of the
Cour des Comptes, to compliment the new king, and was confirmed in his position. He held his office until April 1834.
Works
In 1829 he wrote the book
Histoire de la Louisiane et la cession de cette colonie par la France aux Etats-Unis de l'Amérique septentrionale ; précédée d'un discours sur la constitution et le gouvernement des Etats-Unis ("History of Louisiana and of Its Cession to the United States of Northern America; Preceded by a Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States").
He published various texts, including:
- Reflexions sur la colonie de Saint-Domingue ("Thought on the Colony of Saint-Domingue", 1794)
- De la Guyane, etc. ("On [French] Guiana", 1822)
- Journal d'un deporté non jugé ("Diary of a Non-Tried Deportee" , 2 vols., 1834)
Written in 1780, while secretary to the French Legation to the US Army: "D'Complot du Benedict Arnold & Sir Henri Clinton contre Eunas` States du America General George Washington" One of the first accounts of Arnold's treason, was not published until 1816.
Trivia
In 1780, Barbe-Marbois sent a questionnaire to the governors of all 13 former American colonies, seeking information about each state's geography, natural resources, history, and government.
Thomas Jefferson, who had just finished his final term as Virginia's governor, responded to this query with a manuscript that later became his famous "
Notes on the State of Virginia."
