The French Spy

Thousands gathered at pier side to cheer the arrival of the 34-gun French frigate sailing into Charleston, South Carolina, on April 8, 1793. The cheers doubled, tripled in volume as a colorfully dressed young Frenchman appeared at the ship's bow, doffing his feathered chapeau to wave at the throng. He was the celebrated Adjutant General Edmond-Charles Genêt; he had sailed to the United States as the first minister plenipotentiary, or ambassador of the French Republic to the United States of America. No one cheered more than the beautiful 19-year-old governor's daughter, who all but swooned when he kissed her hand at a reception later.
Genêt arrived just as Americans were rebelling again-the third time in less than 30 years. As before, they were fighting taxation-- by the British in1765 and 1776; now, in '93 by their own elected government under George Washington. As before, the French had come to help them. "Citizen" Genêt, as he was called by French revolutionaries, was also a master spy with two sets of instructions. One--the usual diplomatic instructions--directed him to establish warm diplomatic relations with America. A second, secret set, however, directed him to ferret out his "mole" in the Washington administration-Thomas Jefferson-and help Jefferson unseat George Washington in a treasonous coup. The American and French governments would then unite in a powerful new trans-Atlantic empire stretching across all of North America. Incredible but true. Updated with French government documents once thought lost. Startling!