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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 6 0 Browse Search
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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Envoys to France. (search)
On his arrival in France, late in the year, with the letter of recall and his own credentials, the Directory refused to receive him. Not only so, but, after treating him with great discourtesy, the Directory peremptorily ordered him to leave France. He withdrew to Holland (February, 1797), and there awaited further orders from home. When Mr. Adams took the chair of state, the United States had no diplomatic agent in France. The French party, or Republicans, having failed to elect Jefferson President, the Directory (q. v.) determined to punish a people who dared to thwart their plans. In May, 1797, they issued a decree which was tantamount to a declaration of war against the United States. At about the same time President Adams, observing the perilous relations between the United States and France, called an extraordinary session of Congress to consider the matter. There had been a reaction among the people, and many leading Democrats favored war with France. A majority of the
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), French decrees. (search)
n Jay in England to make a treaty with Great Britain aroused the French to a sense of the importance of observing its own treaty stipulations with the United States, which had been utterly disregarded since the war with England began. On Jan. 4, 1795, a new decree was issued, giving full force and effect to those clauses of the treaty of commerce (1778) with the United States respecting contraband and the carriage of enemies' goods. When news of the failure of the Americans to elect Jefferson President reached France, the Directory issued a decree (March 2, 1797) purporting to define the authority granted to French cruisers by a former decree. It was intended to annihilate American commerce in European waters. The treaty with America was declared to be so modified as to make American vessels and their cargoes liable to capture for any cause recognized as lawful ground of capture by Jay's treaty. They also decreed that any American found serving on board hostile armed vessels shou
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Lyon, Matthew 1746- (search)
le afterwards, and held the rank of colonel while serving as commissary-general of militia. In 1778 he was deputy secretary to the governor of Vermont; and after the war he built saw-mills and grist-mills, a forge, and a mill for manufacturing paper, where he had founded the town of Fairhaven, in Rutland county. Lyon served in the State legislature, and was a judge of Rutland county in 1786. He established the Freeman's Library (newspaper), which he conducted with ability. From 1797 to 1801 he was a member of Congress, and gave the vote which made Jefferson President of the United States. For a libel on President Adams, in 1798, he was confined four months in jail and fined $1,000. In 1801 he went to Kentucky, and represented that State in Congress from 1803 to 1811. Ruined pecuniarily by the building of gunboats for the War of 1812-15, he went to Arkansas, and was appointed territorial delegate to Congress, but did not live to take his seat, dying in Spadra Bluff, Aug. 1, 1822.