Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Volney, Constantin Francois Chasseboeuf Boisgirais, Comte de 1757-1820

Author; born in Craon, France, Feb. 3, 1757. When war with France seemed to be inevitable, in 1798, suspicions of the designs of Frenchmen in the country were keenly awakened. Talleyrand, who had resided awhile in the United States, was suspected of having acted as a spy for the French government, and other exiled Frenchmen were suspected of being on the same errand. It was known that Frenchmen were busy in Kentucky and in Georgia fomenting discontents, and it was strongly suspected that M. de Volney, who had explored the Western country, ostensibly with only scientific views, was acting in the capacity of a spy for the French government, with a view to finally annexing the country west of the Alleghany Mountains to Louisiana, which France was about to obtain by a secret treaty with Spain. These suspicions led to the enactment of the alien and Sedition laws (q. v.). The passage of the alien law alarmed Volney and other Frenchmen, and two or three ship-loads left the United States for France. He died in Paris, France, April 25, 1820. [103]