James Swan (financier)

James Swan

James Swan (* 1754 in the county of Fifeshire , Scotland ; † July 31, 1830 in Paris ) was a colorful figure from the 18th and 19th centuries who lived in Boston. He is said to have paid the entire national debt of his country, the still young United States , to France from his own assets. Out of principle, he spent 22 years, more than a quarter of his life, in a Paris prison.

Life

James Swan was born in Fifeshire, Scotland in 1754. He must have come to America as early as 1765 in his youth. He was thirsty for knowledge and spent his free time reading books. As an apprentice he worked at Thaxter & Son in Boston , where he got to know some other employees who became well known afterwards. Among them were Benjamin Thompson , who was later ennobled by the Bavarian king to Count Rumford, and Henry Knox , a lifelong friend and later general in the Continental Army .

After that, Swan was an employee. Outraged by the inhumanity aboard the slave ships, he published a dissuasive pamphlet "A Dissuasion to Great Britain and the Colonies, from the Slave Trade to Africa" ​​in 1772, which was printed a year later. In this pamphlet he attacked slavery and the slave trade for religious, moral and economic reasons, referring to the Bible . The colonies debate with England sparked his enthusiasm. At the age of 18 he adopted the idea of ​​an uprising against Great Britain and stood up for the cause of human rights. Swan became a member of ' The Sons of Liberty ' and attended the Boston Tea Party in 1773. He was one of those disguised as an Indian who threw the 342 tea chests into Boston Harbor.

Career in the military and in public offices

Swan was trained in the local militia for a few months . He joined the force set up by General Joseph Warren , who made him his adjutant . Swan was by his side when Warren fell at Bunker Hill . Swan himself was wounded twice there. He then held a number of fiscal positions as treasurer ("treasurer") and general collector ("receiver-general").

He then joined in September 1776 in Ebenezer Crafts Artillery - Regiment returned to the Army and soon became the Captain transported. As such, he mostly trained recruits in cities near Boston. Commanding an artillery company in the Continental Army, Swan helped drag cannons to the heights of Dorchester in March 1776, thereby driving the British troops and the navy from Boston forever on March 17th. That year Swan also married his wife Hepzebah, the daughter of Barnaby Clark, a wealthy merchant and shipowner in Boston.

Swan was appointed secretary to the Massachusetts Board of War in 1777 . During his time as secretary, he used funds from his private fortune to provide extensive support to the Continental Army, which was in dire need of capital to arm and equip the soldiers who were arriving in the city from all parts of New England .

James Swan became a member of the Provincial Congress in 1778 and then adjutant general of the State of Massachusetts. During the Revolutionary War he rose to the rank of Colonel . During the Revolutionary War, he held positions of trust that often required great courage and cold judgment, and his demonstrated loyalty to his duties was honored with honors after his return to civilian life. He was a personal friend of Henry Knox , Lafayette, and George Washington, and communicated with them regularly. They depended heavily on his energetic efforts when they needed money and people to recruit.

Swan was also active as a writer, and On the Fisheries (1784) and Fisheries of Massachusetts (1786) appeared. He also published National Arithmetic in 1786 , an argument for closer union at the federal level.

Commercial deals and land speculation

After his money marriage, Swan bought a number of properties confiscated from friendly loyalists and was embroiled in land speculation.

At the beginning of the revolution, Swan was said to have owned 2.5 million acres in Mingo, Wyoming , McDowal Counties in West Virginia , Pike County in Kentucky, and Tazwell County , Virginia . He sold what he could of this property and sacrificed the proceeds to further the cause of American independence. In exchange for this service, the state of Virginia replaced his property claims and gave him much more, west of the Alleghenies .

After the revolution, Swan got into big business. In 1784 he acquired a group of islands off the coast of Maine , the largest of which bears his name. On Swan's Island , Swan started sawmills and built a colonial mansion for himself.

James Swan later ran into large debts as a result of bad speculation. Before that, he was considered one of the wealthiest people in Boston. He was now looking for ways to turn his misfortune around. In order to regain new fortune, the experienced trader and financier went to France in 1787.

Dodge to France

After the War of Independence was over, he began trading with France during the Ancien Régime . There his old wartime friends helped him to make trade with America advantageous. He entered the business world in Paris armed with letters of recommendation from his friends. Under the influence of Lafayette and other government officials, he made a fortune on government contracts to supply their army.

His wife went with him for a while, but later returned home.

During the rise in prices in 1789, he sent large shipments of wheat to France. Shortly afterwards he founded a rum distillery in Passy , just outside Paris, because rum was a good that had previously been imported from England. He had a partner in Paris, apparently a French named Dallard.

Swan wrote in the country the publication "Causes qui sont opposees au progres du commerce entre la France et les Etats-Unis de l'Amerique" (1790).

US war debt

In 1787, Swan, supported by Lafayette, gained influence over the US war debt against France. It totaled $ 2,024,899.93 and consisted of advances claims made during the American Revolution. “Swan decided to liquidate them. His decision was breathtakingly altruistic. He paid it out of pocket. On July 9, 1795, he reported to the United States government that 'all of the American debt has been paid and is no longer in any way,' ”according to Cheer, a Monthly Publication (Editor's Note: We have attempted additional confirmation of the Obtaining debt redemption was impossible to achieve. We repeat history with some restlessness.)

Meanwhile, copies of US foreign debt settlement correspondence between James Swan and Oliver Wolcott are being held in the US Department of State .

Revolutionary time in France

Swan seems to have maintained his position in the French capital during the years of upheaval. During the time of the persecution, the plan matured in Swan to settle the outlawed but trusted nobility on his lands in America. He had interested a number of immigrants in the undertaking and had received considerable quantities of precious furniture, paintings, tapestries and personal effects on board his ships. But before the owners could follow their property onto his ships, they had become victims of the guillotine .

James Swan owned, among other things, a famous ship called "Sally". It was built in 1791 and used in the trade in salt and substitute materials between Wiscasset and Le Havre . The ship's captain was called Stephan Clough and he sailed the ship to France once in 1793 to deliver a load of lumber. When Captain Clough arrived in Paris he was instructed by Swan to take on board a cargo of furniture, tapestries, family silver and precious paintings belonging to Marie Antoinette and other members of the royal family. A local legend says that Marie Antoinette was supposed to board Captain Clough's ship to escape the guillotine.

The loaded ships set sail with their treasures and arrived safely in Boston, where the furnishings adorned Mrs. Swan's villa. Some of it later ended up in General Henry Knox's mansion when Swan's son married his youngest daughter and moved to Thomaston, Maine .

Return to the USA

After James Swan made another fortune abroad, he returned to the United States in 1794. He paid off all his debts and was respected for his charity and generosity. He worked as a trading agent for the French Republic, which was dependent on supplies of all kinds of goods from America in the turmoil of its revolutionary times. France was at war with European powers.

In 1796 Swan was in Boston, supplying the distressed French garrisons arriving from Martinique and Guadeloupe .

A second time in France

In 1798 Swan went back to Europe and used his connections and knowledge to get involved in trading on a grand scale.

Swan moved his property from Paris to his wife in Boston a few years later and probably intended to return home after 10 years when legal disputes broke out.

Dispute

James Swan had a lengthy argument with a Hamburg company, Lubbert & Dumas, with which he had been doing business since 1792. In 1803, Dallard, Swan & Company recognized a debt of 235,000 francs , agreeing with Lubbert that the payment should be made under a settlement of claims Swan had against the French government. In 1807 an arbitration took place, which showed that Swan was declared debtor of a sum of 625,000 francs.

But there are also sources with allegations that he was allegedly owed a sum of two million francs, the amount of which he denied.

In culpability

In 1807, a law was passed whereby foreigners who did not permanently reside in France could be locked up for debts and arrested even if a lawsuit was pending if they did not have enough assets in France to cover the claim or if they did not provide collateral . Although culpable detention had been abolished in 1793, this new law was based on the assumption that foreigners could abandon their French creditors if they lost in court by disappearing, which they wanted to prevent. 1808 Swan was on this legal basis Arrest taken. He had exchange for 600,000 francs adopted , some of which discounted the value of 58,000 francs from Paris bank Audinet & Slingerland ( Note .: and apparently not redeemed by him at maturity had been). ( Note: as a result, the bank will presumably have held itself harmless from the exhibitor Lubbert. )

Swan denied the legality of the detention, arguing that the law could not apply retrospectively. But on March 22, 1809, the Supreme Court ("Cour de Cassation") confirmed the arrest. Although at this stage he could easily have afforded to pay the man and thus leave the cell at any time, Swan refused to give in because he saw the claim as unfair. He would rather stay in prison than give up his beliefs. The refusal to pay remained in St. Pélagie prison and nothing more was heard from him except rumors until 1816.

This is how legends arose about a fitting and luxurious arrangement of his cell, the renting of a house directly opposite for his family, who kept a carriage, went to the theater and gave evening dinners in which a free chair reminded the absent host. Obviously, these stories have to be compromised.

His friend Lafayette tried in vain to change his mind, Swan was stubborn to the end. He lived in a small cell in the prison and was treated with great respect by the other prisoners. They moved aside their small ovens where they cooked their food so that he could have more space for physical exercise. Swan is said to have been the cause of the liberation of many poor fellow prisoners with advice.

He threatened his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law several times with disinheritance if they should pay his debts to get him released.

Petition to Parliament

In February 1816 Swan presented the Chamber of Deputies a petition , which he published, as well as newspapers asked in letters to support them. Hyde de Neuville , who presented the petition, pointed out that Swan had been in captivity for eight years and that there had been controversial decisions as to whether foreigners might not have the right to release after five years, just like locals. Piet replied that the case had been decided by a court in Paris, a court in Orléans and the Court of Cassation and that Swan's refusal to provide collateral was the cause of his detention. A third speaker, Pasquier, recalled the case of Lord Massareene , who, though disposing of £ 8,000 a year, was defiant enough to stay in prison in Paris for twenty years rather than obtain collateral.

The Chamber refused to interfere. But a few months later, Hyde filed a bill allowing male debtors at 65 and women at 60 to be released instead of both having to wait until they were 70. Game and usury , he was told by the prison administration of St. Pélagie, were the main causes of incarceration. The law was considered at first reading , but in January 1817 the government wrung the matter out of Hyde's hands. She produced a proposal according to which the grant for incarcerated debtors was increased by their creditors from twenty to forty francs per month, the prisoners were to be released after three years with the payment of a third of their debt and simultaneous provision of security for the rest, and foreigners and local residents alike five years would be released. This last ruling was protested by Piet, who argued that a Chinese who had been released after five years had returned home. Further objections were made to the law, which was referred back to committee and never heard from again.

Meanwhile, Swan turned to the chamber twice. He mentioned the case of a Portuguese named Matheus who, after losing 5,000 louis d'or in a gaming room, was forced to sign bills of exchange for twenty times that amount and, although he offered to pay much more than his real debt, with him five Years in St. Pélagie before he was released. He attributed his own imprisonment to usury. He denied the reports in the Paris newspapers that he was very rich because the 700,000 francs that would be asked of him would be the ruin of his large family. Lubbert, he also alleged, owed him a large sum, although no counterclaim had been attempted and Lubbert had rejected very reasonable terms for a compromise.

Swan was based on principles: "Considerations far superior to interest can alone dictate such conduct, and can make a man prefer to liberty an obstinacy instigated by honor and the goodness of his cause." (Freely translated: "Interests far superior considerations alone can dictate such behavior and make a person prefer the freedom of stubbornness, instigated by the honor and excellence of his cause.") He spoke of himself as a sixty year old, the criminal intrigue deprived of his freedom and legal quibbles prevented him from getting it back. He was determined to have the claims of both sides fully clarified, relying on the goodness of the ruler and the wisdom of the chamber. He condemned Piet, his competitor's advisor, who had disregarded the quiet of the House like his own lawyer, Perignon, and he accused Lubbert of his relative, Timothy Lubbert, of convicting the main customs office of fraud.

Lubbert wrote a reply and Swan a reply, after which it was quiet for twelve years. Swan, who had the pamphlet Address on Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce published in Boston in 1817 , published in 1828 observations on the current state of European manufacturing , trade and finance.

In 1819, he wrote An Address to the President, Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States , in which he vehemently advocated a change in monetary policy when the United States suffered an economic crisis and depression.

Swan's 70th birthday in 1824 didn't change his detention. In 1829 the duel was renewed. Lubbert did the first trick this time and Swan responded with A Word in Reply to the Pamphlet Published by M. Lubbert, styling himself of Bordeaux, but a Citizen of Hamburg .

The fate of Swan was mentioned among others in the two-volume work Les hermites en prison… by Étienne de Jouy and Antoine Jay , published in Paris in 1823 . Both authors were sent to St. Pélagie Prison for three months for allegedly writing an article advocating regicide. In their first volume they later described life in prison and told the stories of other prisoners. One of the most touching and meaningful stories was that of James Swan. Further information about him was given in the sequel.

July Revolution

The French July Revolution of 1830 gave Swan freedom again. On July 28, twenty-two years after Swan's stepping into St. Pélagie, mobs broke into the prison to rescue the political prisoners while a riot broke out inside. 257 debtors, 168 of them armed, forced their way out, Swan among them. 63 waited until the next day and 26 preferred to stay in the walls.

On July 31, 19 gave up and Swan was about to do the same when an apoplexy (stroke) struck him down on Rue d'Echiquier. He was carried to a house and died there. So the man who had witnessed and cheered the first revolution lived only to see the second and to benefit briefly from it.

Like Lord Massareene, he had a patriarchal beard and must have been noticed on the streets of Paris during his three days at liberty for it. He had left the prison with his comrades in protest. Swan seemed happy in challenging his believer and he despised thwarting his antagonist's idea as an unfair game.

When he was free, his only wish was to hug his friend Lafayette, which he did on the town hall steps. The following morning he went back to St. Pélagie to find himself a prisoner again, for what else could he do? He found his former friends lost, his wife was dead, and all living conditions had changed. His long imprisonment had robbed him of the desire to return to an outside world that was alien to him. His health was broken and his fortune was gone.

Fifteen of his old companions were arrested again immediately after order was restored, 101 were gradually apprehended and 96 were kept free.

Review

Had he lived two years longer, he would have benefited from a new law that stipulated 10 years as the maximum imprisonment period for foreigners and release for seventy-year-olds.

His relentless creditor was forced to advance twenty francs a month to support Swan's maintenance. This means that more than 5,000 francs have been paid in 22 years, good money that has been thrown after bad. But in terms of stubbornness, the two process leaders were on the same level.

Swan's family

His wife Hepzebah came from a well-to-do family. Her marriage resulted in four children:

• Hepzibah Clark Swan.
• Christine Keadie Swan.
• Sarah Webb Swan.
• James Keadie Swan.

All of these children married into respected families in Boston or elsewhere at the time.

Swan's only son, James, who was born in 1783 and educated at Harvard College, moved to Thomaston, Maine after marriage and died childless. Mrs. Swan's daughters had large families and many offspring. Mrs. Swan died in 1826 and was buried in Dorchester.

Asset aspects

Villa in Dorchester

James Swan, after returning from France in 1794, decided to build a villa on part of the Dorchester property that he had bought in 1780 for the inexpensive sum of 18,000 pounds.

This land was the former property of Nathaniel Luke , a Tory who fled with the British troops and their fleet in 1776. The architect Charles Bulfinch planned a house with French elements for the Swans, which was to be built on an exposed rock on the corner of Dudley and Howard Streets. James Swan wrote in a letter to John Hancock : "I have built an elegant and very expensive house on it, including an inn, two stables and a hayloft, with a servant's room and a dovecote."

In their villa with its gracefully curved and columned portal and its elegant decoration inside, the Swans were the top couple of society in Dorchester until 1798, entertaining well-known personalities from both sides of the Atlantic. The Swan House was a focal point for New England and France social circles from 1796 through the mid-1820s. John Hancock, Henry Knox, the Marquis de Lafayette, and many more daytime celebrities came to visit the mansion.

It was here that Mrs. Swan received Lafayette as her guest of honor during his triumphant tour of America in 1825 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution.

All over Dorchester and Boston people were talking not only about the figures of light riding up the rocky ledge to the Swan House, but also about the so-called “Marie Antoinette Room” in the house, whose dazzling decor was pervaded by a mystery. Everyone in town knew that James Swan had shipped a treasure trove of French furniture, curtains, paintings, silver dishes and other items from France to Dorchester.

Mrs. Swan spent the rest of her years here. After her death the house saw a number of new owners. In the 1880s, "the round house," as the locals called it, was torn down. Only a few photos and legends remained to testify the splendor of the villa on the boulder.

Swan's Island

After buying the Burnt Coat archipelago in 1786, Swan immediately began to settle this property with tenants and commissioned the construction of a villa. He wanted to use it as a summer home for his family and their aristocratic guests, as the Knox family did at Thomaston. He never went into the villa because when it was finished he was already in France.

Swans Island was entrusted by him to a manager, Joseph Prince, for $ 500 a year, who, with the support of his family, ran the store and mills until his departure, around 1800. After Prince's departure, the property was managed by the various agents and later by the various lawyers instead of Swans. There is no record of Mrs. Swan or any of her children interested in the property.

testament

The Hancock County Registry of Deeds holds the will of James Swan, which he made in prison on September 9, 1824, and which was recorded on May 7, 1831. He named his wife Hepzibah, his sister Margaret, his brother Cowper, his brother-in-law John Nixson and his daughters Hepzibah, Christina Keadie, Sarah Webb, married to William Sullivan, and his son James Keadie as heirs. Mrs. Swan and Mrs. Sullivan were appointed executors .

In his last will, he donated large sums of money to his children and the city of Boston to establish an institution called the Swan Orphan Academy. He was not implemented because his property in the USA was declared insolvent . Swan owed $ 158,082.61 after the deduction of his assets. His property was hopelessly over-indebted when the will was opened, but later some property belonging to Swan was discovered.

literature

• Howard C. Rice: James Swan: Agent of the French Republic 1794-1796. In: The New England Quarterly. Vol. 10, No. 3 (September 1937), pp. 464-486.
• JG Alger: Americans at the First Bastille Celebration . In: The Atlantic Monthly , Vol.LXIV, July 1889 (English)
• Mary Caroline Crawford: The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees . Article “A Victim of two Revolutions” The Project Gutenberg EBook (English)

Web links

• History of Swan's Island (PDF; 83 kB; English)
• Swan House (English)
• Swan's villa in Dorchester

Individual evidence

1. ↑ books.ai ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ historycooperative.org ( Memento of May 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Swan, James . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 6 : Sunderland - Zurita . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1889, p. 4 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
4. ↑ chicago-scots.org
5. ↑ archives.gov ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ piranesia.net ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ mises.org (PDF)
8. ↑ daileyrarebooks.com