1795 - Political Events

Political Events

French forces under the command of General Pichegru enter Amsterdam January 19; the French cavalry charges across the ice January 23 and captures the Dutch fleet lying frozen in the Texel; the stadholder Willem V takes refuge in England; a British army completes its retreat from the Lowlands with Scottish-born brigade leader Ralph Abercromby, 60, commanding the rear column (he is made a knight of the Bath upon his return and given command of British forces in the West Indies); and a treaty imposed by the French at The Hague May 16 recognizes a Batavian republic, which will continue until 1806.

France signs a treaty with the grand duchy of Tuscany February 9 guaranteeing Tuscan neutrality.

The Treaty of Basel March 5 removes Prussia from the war against France. Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse-Cassel soon follow suit.

Royalists (Chouans) and republicans in Brittany agree to a cease-fire January 3, and the royalists agree April 20 to recognize the republic and cease their efforts to restore the monarchy.

Thermidoreans at Paris bring the Reign of Terror's chief prosecutor Antoine-Quentin Fouquier-Tinville to trial; he claims he was only obeying orders from the Revolutionary Tribunal when he prosecuted Girondists, Hébertists, and so many other "counterrevolutionaries," sending them to the guillotine. But his defense fails and he goes to the guillotine at Paris May 7 at age 48.

Orders go out for the arrest and deportation of revolutionist Bertrand Barère, but he escapes to Bordeaux. Royalists in southern France kill 700 unarmed "terrorists" in the Marseilles prison fortress of Saint Jean June 5.

The duchy of Luxembourg surrenders to the French June 7 after 82 years of Austrian rule.

Louis XVII dies of scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymph glands) in the Temple prison at Paris June 8 at age 10, his body encrusted with scabies sores. Since Louis XVII has been deprived of fresh air and exercise, kept in the dark for long periods of time, and barely fed, his health has deteriorated, and his body is dumped in a mass grave, but rumors abound that another boy has died and that the young king has somehow been spirited to safety. More than 100 men will claim in years to come that they are the surviving Louis XVII, and it will be 205 years before modern technology proves that the mummified heart of the uncrowned king, stolen by a royalist physician who conceals it in a handkerchief, was really his; the boy's uncle and regent Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence, proclaims himself Louis XVIII, but he remains abroad and will not assume the throne until 1814.

Rich Parisians try to take over the Convention by force of arms October 15, but the Convention calls upon the dissolute rake Paul François Jean Nicolas, 40, comte de Barras, to defend it. Barras met the Corsican artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte during the siege of Toulon in 1793, has installed his Martinique-born Creole mistress Marie Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Bonaparte's bed (he dislikes the name Rose and will change it to Josephine), and gives Bonaparte and other Jacobin officers command of forces defending the Convention. Bonaparte drives the mob from the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot," killing about 200 on "The Day of the Sections" October 5 (13 Vendemaire). The Convention promptly names Bonaparte commander of the Armée d'Interieur for having saved the Tuileries Palace with his artillery cannonade from the Church of St. Rochelle. The Convention dissolves October 26 after voting that relatives of émigrés may not hold office. The five-man Executive Directory that will govern France until 1799 takes power, and its most powerful member is the comte de Barras.

London sends a new lord lieutenant (viceroy) to Ireland in March: former lord of the Admiralty and then of the treasury, John Jeffreys Pratt, 36, 2nd earl of Camden, arrives at Dublin, exhibits open hostility to the idea of Catholic emancipation (representation of Roman Catholics in the Irish Parliament) and imposes repressive measures that will soon antagonize also the Society of United Irishmen, whose Ulster Presbyterians will look for French support of their efforts to obtain independence from Britain (see 1796).

Britain's George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, now 32, is formally married at London April 8 to Princess Caroline (Amelia Elisabeth) of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 26, although he still considers himself married to Mrs. Fitzherbert (see 1785; 1794). The prince surrounds himself with dissipated rakes, scoundrels, gamblers, racing jockeys, actresses, men of fashion, and beautiful women from various walks of life; there are rumors that the match is bigamous, but they do not reach Parliament or the king (see 1811).

The second Treaty of Basel gives Santo Domingo (Saint Domingue) to France; negotiated by Manuel de Godoy (who is granted the title "Prince of the Peace") and signed June 22, it returns territory in Catalonia and Guipuizcoa to Spain.

Explorer Alejandro Malaspina tries in September to influence Spanish politics with proposals and memoranda that reflect poorly on Prime Minister Godoy (see exploration, 1794). Malaspina has earlier concluded that instead of plundering her American and Asian colonies economically, Spain should develop a trading bloc based at Acapulco to carry on international trade, but Godoy persuades the Council of State headed by Carlos IV to arrest Malaspina on charges of plotting against the state and authorities seize him November 23 (see 1796).

Russia, Prussia, and Austria partition Poland for a third time October 24 (see 1794; second partition, 1793). Russia takes the remainder of Lithuania and the Ukraine, Prussia takes Mazovia and its city of Warsaw, Austria obtains the remainder of the Krakców region north of the Vistula and east to the Bug. Stanislaw II Augustus abdicates November 25 at age 63 after a 31-year reign in which his country has lapsed into anarchy. The Czartoryski palace at Pulawy is destroyed and the family estates confiscated; Prince Adam Czartoryski goes to St. Petersburg, joins the Russian government service in an effort to recover his property, and becomes friendly with the grand duke Alexander, to whom he will become a close adviser (see 1814).

Persian invaders led by Agha Mohammad Khan sack the Georgian capital Tiflis (Tblisi) and burn it to the ground (it has been destroyed several times in its 1,337-year history). Georgia's king Aragvi is rescued in battle by 300 warriors who sacrifice their lives to save him, but Agha Mohammad is crowned shahanshah (king of kings) and reincorporates Georgia into the Persian Empire.

Warren Hastings wins acquittal April 23 on charges of "high crimes and misdemeanours" while governor general of Bengal from 1773 to 1784 (see 1788). His trial has lasted 7 years, during which time he has been made the scapegoat for offenses committed by the East India Company; half the royal family and the entire House of Lords has witnessed the longest and most expensive legal proceeding in British history, and the judgment is unanimous on all 21 counts that concern his personal honor, but the £80,000 with which Hastings returned from India has vanished, most of his large salary having gone to help friends and relatives, repurchase his lost family estates, and pay staggeringly high legal expenses.

The British send a representative to the Burmese capital of Amarapura to negotiate with the king Bodawpaya, who has created tensions by campaigning in Assam (see 1794; Anglo-Burmese War, 1824).

The Chinese emperor Qianlong (Ch'ien-lung), now 85, announces October 15 that he has designated his fifth son, Yu Yan, as his successor (see 1796).

The British begin seizing Dutch colonies September 16, beginning with the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon at the invitation of the deposed stadholder Willem V, who is tried for high treason September 29. A British force of 15,000 sails for the Caribbean in November under the command of General Ralph Abercromby with orders to seize the rich French sugar islands (see 1796).

The Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified February 7 declares that federal courts may not try any case brought against a state by a citizen of another state or foreign government.

Congress amplifies its 1792 Insurrection Act February 28 in response to last year's Whiskey Rebellion. It authorizes the president to call in the militia of other states when a state legislature asks for outside help to suppress an uprising (or when a legislature cannot be convened and a governor makes the request) (see 1807).

Robert Rogers of Rogers' Rangers fame dies in poverty at London May 18 at age 63.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay returns from London to his native New York May 28, learns that he has been nominated as candidate for the state's governorship, wins election June 5, resigns his office as chief justice June 29, and is sworn in July 1 (see 1794). The text of Jay's Treaty is published July 2, and political opponents denounce the governor, but the "Camillus Papers" written by Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King with help from Jay defend the treaty. South Carolina-born John Rutledge, 55, has served as associate justice and is nominated to succeed Jay as chief justice. He presides over the August term, but he is so bitter in his denunciation of Federalists after publication of the terms of Jay's Treaty that the Senate refuses to confirm him in December (see Ellsworth, 1796).

The Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney's treaty) signed October 27 permits U.S. ships to store cargo at New Orleans. U.S. Minister to Britain Thomas Pinckney, 45, has negotiated the treaty with Spain, which grants free navigation of the Mississippi.

Former postmaster general Timothy Pickering, who has served as secretary of war since early in the year, is appointed acting secretary of state August 20, and is commissioned to that office December 10. Now 50, he will serve until his dismissal in May 1800 (see XYZ Affair, 1798).

The Treaty of Greenville settles disputes on the American frontier between U.S. settlers and tribesmen (see 1794). The Shawnee chief Tecumseh tells other chiefs that the treaty has been negotiated with all the tribes in the Ohio Valley and assures them that unceded lands will remain theirs (see Treaty of Fort Wayne, 1809).

The Yazoo land fraud stirs political passions in Georgia when it comes to light that the state's legislators have accepted $500,000 in bribes to allow four land companies to acquire most of the lands that will later constitute the state of Mississippi (the Yazoo River runs through the region). Much of the legislature will be defeated in next year's election, the new lawmakers will rescind the act that permitted the sale and offer to return the money, but third parties will have acquired a good deal of the land and will refuse the money, maintaining their claims to the property which they have purchased quite legally (see 1802).

Continental Army general (and three-term New Hampshire governor) John Sullivan dies at Durham, New Hampshire, January 23 at age 54; Revolutionary War soldier Francis Marion at his Berkeley County, South Carolina, plantation February 27 at age 62; former Continental Army colonel William Prescott at his Pepperell, Massachusetts, farm October 13 at age 69; former British general Sir Henry Clinton at Gibraltar December 11 at age 57. He distinguished himself in the American Revolution and last year was appointed governor of Gibraltar.