Henry Knox

by Mark Puls

  Farming was just one of a myriad of businesses that Knox was set to explore. His years spent planning large government projects had led him to believe that he could take on monumental tasks. As war secretary, he had planned the nation's fortifications, orchestrated military expeditions, planned coastal defenses, and established the U.S. Navy. No enterprise seemed to be beyond his abilities. He was accustomed to overseeing an army and giving commands. As he looked over the Waldo patent, he envisioned workers toiling in a variety of enterprises: lumberyards, fisheries, cattle breeding, brick-making, farming, shipbuilding, lime burning, and other crafts. Three years earlier, he had sent a French mineralogist by the name of Monvel to inspect the land and determine the natural resources. He reported that limestone was plentiful along with thirty-one other minerals, thirty-two varieties of trees, and seventy-five different plants and herbs. Marble was also plentiful. Knox planned to carve a community out of wilderness, and he drew up plans for roads, churches, schools, libraries, shops, post offices, and homes, believing the land would yield a fortune if settlers planted roots and built up the area.

  Yet unlike the government projects, he had to come up with the private funds to make his land and business ventures profitable before he was buried beneath mortgages, taxes, bills, and lawsuits. Already highly leveraged, Knox began to sell off even more land and to borrow from friends, such as Benjamin Lincoln. He placed advertisements in New England newspapers touting the region's healthy climate in an effort to attract settlers who might boost the value of property. In the meantime, Knox made few concessions to curtail his grand lifestyle.

  The controversial diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, commonly known as Talleyrand, made a trip to Montpelier. After the French monarchy fell, Talleyrand fled to England where he lived with John B. Church, the brother-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. He was forced to leave England due to an expulsion order by William Pitt, and Church financed his trip to the United States and set up a meeting with Hamilton. Washington declined to receive him to avoid an awkward situation with France. Talleyrand made the trip to Knox's home in an effort to establish ties with influential American leaders.

  That July, a Frenchman by the name of George Washington Motier Lafayette arrived in Boston as a political refugee. The son of the Marquis de Lafayette, he had been accompanied to America by his tutor, Felix Frestel. The young Lafayette traveled simply under the name George Washington Motier in order to conceal his identity.

  Shortly after victory at Yorktown in 1781, the elder Lafayette had returned to Paris. When the stirrings of revolution began in France, Lafayette took a lead in the reform movement and was elected in 1789 to the legislature, the Estates-General. In June of that year, Louis XVI agreed to share power with the legislature, which was soon replaced by the National Assembly. Lafayette was elected to the assembly, where he presented a declaration of rights that he had cowritten with Thomas Jefferson. Lafayette was so enthralled with the spirit of liberty and equality that he denounced his noble title in 1790.

  But the upheaval soon flamed out of control as idealism gave way to bloody carnage. Heads of murdered aristocrats were placed on pikes, and the bodies of nobles were dragged through the streets of Paris. Lafayette became dismayed at the revolution's violence. He rescued the queen, Marie Antoinette, from the hands of a mob in October 1789 and valiantly worked to save other aristocrats. The Jacobin party finally issued an order for Lafayette's arrest in 1792, which forced him to flee for safety. He was arrested in Rochefort, Belgium, and was imprisoned by the Austrian army. President Washington made repeated diplomatic appeals in vain to secure Lafayette's release.

  In late August 1795, Knox made a business trip to Boston and was sought out by Lafayette's son, who instantly made a favorable impression. As the young student talked, Henry found him to be "a lovely young man, of excellent morals and conduct.“4 He was moved as he listened to the plight of Motier, who had come to America seeking help from his namesake, George Washington, but was uncertain whether he should contact the president. As a member of the Lafayette family, he had been deemed an enemy to the French government, and Washington could not acknowledge him without insulting France.

  Knox wrote a confidential note to Washington on Motier's behalf. He had not written to the president since leaving the government and opened the correspondence by confessing to an uneasy "reluctance to break in upon your affairs." He then continued with encouraging words, telling Washington that the political storm over the controversial Jay's Treaty was finally subsiding in New England. In recent months, the president had been subjected to severe criticism for his approval of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain that had been negotiated by John Jay. Washington argued that the accord had averted another war with England. Nevertheless, riots erupted in Boston as angry demonstrators marched in the streets, crying that the treaty failed to stop the British practice of attacking American ships and impressing merchant seamen. In a port town such as Boston, many families had lost loved ones on the high seas. Feeling betrayed by the treaty, they demanded war with England.

  Among the graffiti scrawled in protest was the cry: "Damn John Jay! Damn every one that won't damn John Jay! Damn every one that won't put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jay!!!“5

  Knox told Washington that protests had been fueled by Republican critics of the administration who enthusiastically supported the French Revolution. "The experience the good Citizens have had of their president, and their confidence in their government, has caused them to reflect—then to conclude and tacitly to acknowledge that the treaty although not so favorable as their wishes dictated; was not, so injurious to France and their own country as they had been led to believe.“6

  Knox told the president that he had found happiness in his wilderness retreat and that his prospects looked promising: "Mrs. Knox and my family and myself are entirely satisfied with our situation—we are surrounded with plenty."

  In Philadelphia, Washington read Henry's words and denoted a tone of apprehension over their strained relationship. The president responded on September 20 in an unequivocally warm tone: "My dear Sir: I received with great pleasure the letter you wrote me from Boston . . . as I always shall do any others you may favor me with. This pleasure was increased by hearing of the good health of Mrs. Knox and the rest of your family, and the agreeableness of your establishment at St. George's in the Province of Maine." Washington entreated Knox to spend his winter in Philadelphia, and thanked him for his heartening thoughts on the public reaction to Jay's Treaty. The president waxed philosophically over his ongoing conflict between "upright intentions" and the "approbation of my constituents." He confided that he could not publicly meet with Motier but would pay for him to attend college. "Assure [Motier] in the strongest terms, that I would be to him as a friend and father.“7

  The Knox family spent its summers in Montpelier and winters in Boston. In January 1796, Knox traveled from Boston to Philadelphia to bury his brother. He had placed William in the Pennsylvania Hospital in that city on January 14, 1795, two weeks after stepping down as war secretary. He had been William's father figure since he was three years of age in 1759, when Henry was just nine years old. They had grown up together and had faced an adult world at each other's side. But there was little Henry could do to help William as his mental condition worsened except to pay for his care. He died on December 30, 1795.

  If Knox indeed did miss public life, he was too tied up in his financial ventures to return to government duty. He kept an interest in political news. On February 21, he sent Washington a list of candidates to help settle a border disagreement with Great Britain. The U.S. boundary was in dispute because of confusion over the true path of the St. Croix River. Instead of selecting one of Knox's choices for the appointment, Washington nominated Henry on March 31, 1796, as one of the commissioners, and the Senate confirmed the appointment on April 1.8

  In writing to Knox on April 4, Washington acknowledged that "before t
his will have reached you, you must have seen in the gazettes, that I have taken the liberty (without a previous consultation) to nominate you the commissioner.“9

  With his business projects just getting off the ground, Knox felt he had no choice but to decline the appointment. In writing to Washington on April 14, he explained in an initial draft of the letter that "I shall have sixty workmen employed during the summer, in erecting mills and other buildings, opening slate and marble quarries, and in keeping lime and bricks. These and other things are experiments to raise a revenue while my lands are gradually selling at the least nimble prices.“10

  But Knox decided to omit this paragraph in the final draft of the letter and instead concisely wrote: "The appointment of commissioner would mar most effectually my plans for the summer and which are on an expensive train of execution.“11 Knox also told Washington that the duty of the commissioners created a conflict of interest due to his landholdings in Maine, and offered words of encouragement: "No chief magistrate ever possessed in a degree greater the affection and respect than you.“12

  Aside from his business interests, a personal dilemma forced Henry to bow out of any appointment. Two of his children came down with a disorder that was then called putrid sore throat and was later named diphtheria. The highly contagious disease caused children to vomit and suffer nausea, chills, and fever and to experience a sore throat and trouble swallowing. Henry and Lucy could do nothing to save three-year-old Augusta Henrietta and twenty-month-old Marcus Bingham. Both died on April 23, 1796. Six-year-old George also became ill. Four days later, the Columbia Centinel noted the deaths of the two children and the illness of a third against a tragic backdrop of repeated deaths in the Knox family: "Seven healthy, blooming children have been torn almost as suddenly from the same fond parents, who, with lacerated hearts, hang over the bed of another child, laboring under the same disease.“13

  Upon learning of the deaths of the Knox children, Washington wrote to the grieving parents on June 8 with "my sincere condolence on your late heavy loss. Great and trying, as it must be to your sensibility, I am persuaded after the first severe pangs are over you both possess fortitude enough to view the event, as the dispensation of providence, and will submit to its decrees, with philosophical resignation.“14

  Just as Knox had done so many times before, he threw himself into his work. He continued to plan projects as if he had a gnawing need to carry out large ideas and feel expansive. He soon employed more than 100 men in occupations such as quarrymen, brick-makers, carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, farmers, gardeners, laborers, and millwrights. By the summer of 1796, his shipyards started building vessels to ship goods used in his businesses. He decided to use nearby Brigadier Island as an isolated breeding ground for improved strains of cattle and sheep. He imported sheep from England that were bred for their heavy wool and crossed them with domestically bred animals with success.

  Henry continued to have faith in the inevitable profitability of the estate and had few reservations about spending future earnings on present expenses. He was generous to a fault, and too fond of entertaining for his limited income. During one hospitable mood, he opened his house to the entire Tarratine clan of the Penobscot Indians and set out a banquet of beef, pork, corn, and bread. The Indians stayed for several days until Knox's pantry became bare. He finally had to politely ask his guests to leave.

  Knox kept himself constantly set in motion by pursuing one project after another and hosting nightly dinners as an escape. If the twin deaths in the spring of that year had not already been painful enough, in December George Washington Knox died shortly before turning seven years old, after years of poor health. Lucy was inconsolable, and Henry felt that she once again had suffered a permanent emotional wound that would never heal. After refraining from writing to Washington for several months, he felt obligated to notify the president that his namesake had died. Writing from his winter home in Boston, Henry wrote on January 15, 1797, saying that the boy had "always been sickly, having been born premature, but we flattered ourselves that his health would increase with his years. Unfortunate indeed have we been in the death of eight children, requiring the exercise of our whole stock of philosophy & religion [and every] other principle of support. However I hope we may say with propriety that God tempers his wounds to the shorn lamb. We find ourselves afflicted by an irresistible but invisible force to whom we must submit—But the conflict is almost too great for the inconsolable mother who will go mourning to her grave.“15 He told Washington that his financial prospects had been improving and that his land had doubled in value since his move to Thomaston.

  Washington was preparing to leave the presidency when he responded to Henry on March 2 with words of solace: "From the friendship I have always borne you, and from the interest I have ever taken in whatever relates to your prosperity and happiness, I participated in the sorrows which I know you must have felt for your late heavy losses. But is not for man to scan the wisdom of Providence. The best he can do, is to submit to its decrees. Reason, religion and philosophy, teaches us to do this, but 'tis time alone that can ameliorate the pangs of humanity, and soften its woes."

  As he moved toward retirement, Washington described himself as a "wearied traveler who sees a resting place, and is bending his body to lean thereon," stating that there were but a "few intimates whom I love, among these, be assured you are one.“16 Two days later, George Washington stepped down from office and walked away from power.

  In his inauguration speech on March 4, 1797, John Adams alluded to the controversy surrounding his election and the French government's open and very public support of Thomas Jefferson's candidacy. If France had been able to influence the American election, Adams said, then "[it] may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves.“17

  Adams faced an undeclared naval war with France, whose seamen continued to attack and seize American ships on the high seas in response to Jay's Treaty with Britain. France refused to recognize the American ambassador, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and even threatened to have him arrested, which forced him to flee to the Netherlands.

  The strained relations with France weighed on Knox's mind as he wrote to John Adams, his friend of nearly three decades. "I doubt whether I ought to congratulate you on being elevated to the chief magistracy of the United States," he cautioned, "for it is questionable, very questionable, whether there are not more thorns than roses in the situation." Henry suggested that Adams send Thomas Jefferson to France to restore harmony between the two countries. "I entertain so good an opinion of Mr. Jefferson's patriotism, as to believe he would not hesitate, and much less refuse the offer.“18

  In a confidential letter to Knox written on March 19, Adams claimed that he sought the presidency only to prevent unqualified candidates from leading the country. "To see such a character as Jefferson, and much more such an unknown being as Pinckney, brought over my head, and trampling on the bellies of hundreds of other men infinitely his superiors in talents, services, and reputation, filled me with apprehensions for the safety of us all." Adams shared Knox's apprehensions that full war could erupt with France. "I have it much at heart to settle all disputes with France, and nothing shall be wanting on my part to accomplish it.“19

  Knox maintained an interest in national affairs as the country continued to veer toward hostilities. He realized that if America and France went to war with each other, his life would take a drastic turn. If called into service, he would have to abandon his plans for the Maine property and once again leave his family and the comforts of home for the rigors of military life. As tensions in the country rose, however, he could take pride in the fact that during his tenure as war secretary, he had been able to maintain the army, build fortifications, and begin the construction of harbor and coastal defenses—all of which suddenly became vitally important as the threat of a French invasion loomed. And perhaps most important of all, Knox had been able to help establish a navy. On May 10, 1797, one of th
e original six frigates that he had helped plan was launched in Philadelphia under the command of Captain John Barry. Knox could read with pleasure the newspaper reports that chronicled one of the greatest spectacles that anyone in the capital could ever remember as an immense crowd of 30,000 showed up at Front and Water streets to witness the event. Critics claimed the vessel would split apart once afloat due to its excessive weight. At one o'clock the restraining blocks were knocked away from the keel and the 1,500-ton vessel slid into the Delaware River to great cheers. The hull remained firm, and Knox's gamble had paid off.

  President Adams did not send Jefferson to France but instead recommended to Congress that a three-man delegation be dispatched. Adams delivered a belligerent speech to the House of Representatives on May 16, denouncing France for refusing to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina as the American ambassador and treating the United States as a colony rather than a sovereign country. The president recommended expanding the U.S. Navy and the militia as "effectual measures of defense.“20 In June, the secretary of state reported that France had captured 300 American commercial ships.

  The quarrel continued to need remedy. The three-man American delegation of John Marshall, a U.S. Representative from Virginia, along with Elbridge Gerry and Pinckney arrived in Paris on October 4, 1797, where they received a cold reception. The French foreign minister turned out to be Talleyrand, who had previously toured America and been a guest in the homes of several prominent leaders, including Knox and Alexander Hamilton.

  The resilient Talleyrand had returned to France after the Reign of Terror and found his way back into the good graces of the French Directory, which served as the executive branch of the government. He obtained the highly coveted appointment as foreign minister, and hoped to capitalize on his public position by extorting money from foreign ambassadors seeking an audience with the Directory. He told a friend: "I have to make an immense fortune out of it, a really immense fortune." During his first two years as foreign minister, he collected an estimated 13 to 14 million francs.21