american philosophical society library, one of the oldest, one of the very oldest history organizations, our nation. and in beginning this january, official, he will take on the reins this august organization as its new ceo. patrick is a scholar of early american history and the author of several articles and four books, including frontier country, the politics, war and early pennsylvania frontier rebels, the fight for, independence in the american west and other presidency. thomas jefferson and the american philosophical society. and most recently, the work will be the form will form the the bulk of his talk this evening the scientist turned spy andre michaux thomas jefferson and the conspiracy of 1793. i very much appreciate you all taking the time to be here this evening for your wonderful support of this august

institution. and i hope now you'll join me in a very warm welcome for my friend patrick spero. well, thank you, jamie, for that very generous introduction. i thought you were done with the clap. and then you went on so and it's great, actually, to be back here. i was reminiscing earlier, my first visit to this site was the virginia historical society. at the time when i was working on that first book, frontier country politics of war in early pennsylvania, and that book among things, studied something called dunmore war, which is probably fairly well known with this audience, but i was looking in particular at how pennsylvania and virginia were actually in a conflict at the same time over who would control pittsburgh, virginia, as it was want to do. i'm a pennsylvania. and you know like the state claims to a whole vast parts of the country and they said pittsburgh was part of virginia.

of course pennsylvania said no, but a lot of records of that was here. but in any case, it's been i don't know, over. 15, 16 years since i've been here. and seen the transformation. and so thank you all for giving me a round of applause. but i have to say, having walked through here today, you owe jamie bosket a huge round of applause. the change that he's in, whether we're. so i want to talk tonight about my book front, the scientist turned spy. i've got all the books conflated now. i head. and what i want to do is talk a little bit first about how i came to write the that i did and then share with you some of my findings. so the story of this book actually begins with with this document. i should ask why. sure. hands how many people have heard of andre michaux before? all right. so when i was a librarian at the american philosophociety,

you know,'s a large library. it's got a lot ofistrative functions. i would say 90% of my job was spent behind the computer screen, the desk, glued glued to the computer, dealing with email and various other but every once in a while, the greatest of the job was when we got to take out the treasures and give a tour that showcas the incredible collection that we have, the philosophical society, and one of my favorite documents to share was this one. was the andre michaud subscription list. and the reason i, i likair is because this is a national but it also tells reallyk about. teresting story. so what i want to do is sha with you what i would tell vips who would come to the philosophical society for four treasures tour. east what i would them beforotehis book. and then i'll tell you what? then i will tell you what i say book. so to begs document is oft isn thomas jefferson's half hand at the time, 1793, jefferson was the secretary

state, but he was also vice president of the american philosophical society, which wa most distinguishedrned,est and which had also begun. develop a library around it the society, supported research and what this shows in this top half is a project that jefferson was trying to fund. and you can see there, the top portion says, whereas andrew michaux was andre, a native of france. and it happened in the united states has undertaken to explore the interior country of north america from the mississippi ong missouri, west really to the pacific ocean. so this is lewis and clark. ten years before lewis and clart middle section there where that arrow is, it says the sahilosophy society. well, we'll raise money. the proceeds thereof will fund this expeditiosshe ocean. and then what you're looking at beneath there are the people who orted this project. so jferson wrote this. and then he brought it around to

all of his friends in philadelphia to say, i found mebody who wants to take transcontinental expedition. will you support it? and here you can see some of the signatures on the to george washington $100. john adams beneath h in the middle there is thomas jefferson dollars. beneath him is alex an hamilton. and above him you can probably see docks. and then to the right is james madison. so three of virginia sons are on this, but also the first four presidents. so this document believed to be the ne to contain the first fourdents signatures on it. they all were in at the declaration and they all worked at the constitution. now, the mosrkable part of this document story is there was only rediscovered. in 1979 when a high school intern was going through an old vault, the philosophical society. he found a scroll roll rolled up with a red ribbon on it, realized, well, this is probably above my pay grade to open this and decided to take it to the

librarian's office who unfurled it and realized they had a national treasure on his hands. now i often got asked, you know. so. so what happens? they raised all this money. what happened? this expedition. i've never heard of andre michaux or this expedition. and i'd usually summarize it by what we wrote on our own. what the apes wrote on their website. ultimately, the expedition was called off due to diplomatic difficulties with france, which uch of the territory to be explored. so i want you to remember this summary. diplomatic difficulties with frs whit did not happen and that they owed much of the territory to be explored. this is important so the story of how i came to write this book is this. this document always fascinated me and i it was the pandemic. my my life had gotten waylaid like else. one of the things that also happened was i have three children, all of their soccer canceled. and so all of a sudden i had my evenings and i started thinking,

well, i something to do. and at almost the time the director of development at the aps, hey, you know that document you always talk about the me show subscription list. it'd be really if you would give a talk about that subscription list at an event in california in september of 2020. and i thought, this is great. i really would like to dive into this more to figure out what the whole story is behind document. so as you know, september 20, 20, i probably did not travel to california. and instead of giving a 20 minute talk in san francisco, i ended up writing a 400 page book and i'm now here giving you a 40 minute talk about what i found. so that was the spark for the book. it really was. it was supposed to be a talk. and i wanted to range the talk around four questions. and these are the questions that end up forming the core of the book. so who was andre michaux and what is the real story of this description list d what really happened?

and probably most importantly, did it matter? what's the legacy and so i want to share with you now some the findings that i uncovered during my expedition, if you will, into the past. but if you want the full answers, i understand there's a book signing afterwards out in the hall. so. so who was andre michaux, who was jaime mentioned? i think andre michaux show is probably the greatest scientific explorer, a natural historian of his generation that you've never heard of before. in fact, there is no no likeness of him you're looking at. here is an image i found in the aps library in another french botanist papers, who decided to sketch what? a botanist would look like in the field, conducting research. and so this was actually really helpful for me when i was trying to imagine me showing all these expeditions, because you can see here, i don't know if you can make it out, but he's got a gun over, his shoulder, he's got a pickax in his right hand. he's got all this treasure and specimen behind him. and this is how i pictured michaux throughout the story. so i hope maybe you will, too.

i'm too. i'll tell you a little bit more about michaux. michaux was born in france in 1746. he was born outside of rissi. so you'reng at vici here he was born on an area called sartori, which at the time wre a number of farms this was land that was by the king of france, who then lseit out to individuals. and often these individuals had gaed the favor or inuprt of the king. and so if you had one of these rm you could rely on a faly lucrative income. why? because you fed vici and there were a l omales at vici all the time to feed. and any excess you had you could then bring to market. you could also feed your own family. sartori is actually that forest down there on the bottom that is now forest that was all farmland before. so you can get a sense of how close michaux was toiverside. now, misha's father anticipated that his son just follow in his footsteps.

this is, you know, monarchical autocratic, hierarchical france, as far as he was concerned, this is a great living. it's an inheritance that he wanted to pass on to his son. and michaux, for all intents and purposes followed in his father's, followed in his father's footsteps, in eventually took over the farm and everything was going swimmingly for michaux. and as. see this is a theme in me shows life. everything seems to be going really well. he marries he has a young son named francois andre and then the happens. tragedy strikes me michaux whose wife dies just months after childbirth, leaving a widower, a young single father and most of all, what becomes clear in misha's life story is that he had a passionate love for his wife and. he never again. there's no record of him ever again finding a friend. and he's sent into this deep

dark depressive abyss. there are accounts of his neighbors and his friends worried about michaux, and they feared that he was going to do something drastic and his friends were inviting him over for dinner they're all trying to raise his spirits and nothing seems to work until he's invited over to a botanist who is working at versailles. and that botanist was working on that top area there, if you can see kind of a cross-check. that'sro. he invited michaud over. he heard about michaud. he understood michd d a farm and he asked me, sure, if you do me a favor, he'd receive these new seeds from afar. and he wanted to see me. sure can conduct an experiment to see if they would grow in french soil, michaud agreed. and next thing he knew the work consoled him and also consumed him. michaud realized he had found his passion. he was a scientist and this sparked that interest in him and the botanist. at first i realized that he had somebody had incredible aptitude. michaud blew me away with his ability to conduct this

experiment, and soon he takes michaud under his wing and he becomes his protege. and after he spends a month in vici studying under him, he sent to paris to study at the royal garden. there. and then they are so impressed with him they send michaud over to london to study in the botanical gardens in the uk he returns from london and he sent out in some very early kind of apprenticeship what are called botany expeditions. that's when a botanist goes out to conduct experiment in the pyrenees and then he returns to paris and he's hungry for adventure. he's hungry to prove who he is and what he can do. and that coincides in 1782 with the arrival or the of a diplomatic to the middle east. the french are sending an envoy who are supposed to go to baghdad to conduct diplomacy, to establish a castle. and they and michaux lobbies to be appointed on this expedition and the crown and

marie-antoinette in particular agrees to underwrite his cost to the middle east. and so michaux spends three years traveling throughout the middle east. he travels all the way up to the caspian sea and returns to paris, and he returns ladened with all of these treasures. he carries back with him. he can. he's the person that's believed to be the first person to create a french to persian dictionary. he carries back something called the michaux. and i read about this. michaux stone is described as 50 pounds, and it had this this kind of ancient hieroglyphics on it that nobody could interpret. actually, nobody could actually crack it until the mid-19th century, but everybody knew it was valuable because it had sort of data on it. when i went to paris to conduct research and to kind of walk in me shows footsteps, and they had stone out. the stone was only about this big, but it's 50 pounds, which is pretty incredible. and he has hundreds of new specimens and seeds. he arrives back at the court of france and. they're blown away by him.

and king louis, the 16th, decides to appoint michaux as his royal botanist, and michaux thinks, oh, this is great. i finally made it. i can now myself as a botanist, i'm going to a steady stream of income and i pursue botany. however i wish. and the king says to him, i don't think so. and he says, what do you mean? he says, because i've just got to travel to the far east and i've actually see there is so much more in asia to discover. i want to go there. the environment can be similar to france. i can find all these new treasures there to bring back. and king says, no, no, i have different plans for you, young man. you were to head west, travel across the atlantic ocean to the united states. why? there are several reasons that the king decided to send michaux over to the united states, michaux agrees to. of course he, is in the patra under the patronage of the king of france at the time. france, this is the first time france had really had to eastern

north america. and it had been offered incredible amount to the french. so first off, as many of you probably know, france had just fought almost 30 years of constant warfare. the seven years war also as the french and indian war, followed by the american revolution, the support of the united states during the american revolution, and as a result, the french force were largely depleted. they had depleted their force in order to provide their military, especially they turned the navy with the stores necessary to sustain these wars. and so the king said to me, show i need you to go to united states and try and discover american oats that are hardy enough that can be planted in france so we can replenish our forests. the other hope for the other objective was that because the british controlled eastern america for so long, french had largely not had access to that area and the french were hopeful that there are all these crops and plants and even animals that

could be exported from the united states and import into france that would transform french agriculture to strengthen their economy, but also to provide greater sustenance for those in france. this was a period of time which remained a real threat. and they hoped they believed their crops in america that we could be sent to france and imported into their soil and transform french agriculture. and then the third objective, which was actually the one michaux had the most interest in, was to find new plants that were incredibly beautiful. and so that was the third objective that michaux had so we show travels across atlantic ocean in 1785 he'll arrives in york city this is where they think he's going to open up his first botanical garden. and he meets a number of new yorkers and he immediately realizes this is not place for him. he why you all laughing? i haven't got to the punch line

yet. he writes, and this is a quote that, new york city people are cold and only care about money, not science. it's and and so he starts to explore other areas of the country. the other thing he's frustrated with, he does not find the horticulture, the plant life that he's looking for in this expedition. and so he starts traveling around north america to try and find a different spot. and of course, one of the places he visits is virginia he's carrying with him letters of introduction from lafayette and others. and he finds himself at mount vernon to meet george washington. he and george washington spend a on is taken. michaux he's one of those stories where as far as we can tell, washington had no idea michaux was going to show up on his doorsteps. but he shows up and he's carrying a letter introduction from lafayette. so, of course, washington's going to invite him in. and then washington, all these stories about the middle east

that michaux is regaling him with. and he says, you know, if you need any help, if you want to use mount vernon as a site for experimentation, i can give you some area if you if you'd like it. so they really hit it off. and michaux eventually sends washington a number of pistachio nuts and other plants that that washington plants are. well as he's traveling throughout north america, he eventually lands in charleston, south, and he realizes the charleston, south carolina, provides with the base that he wants to work. and so he opens a botanical garden in charleston, south carolina. and about the same time, he also opens a second garden in new jersey. it's only it's a smaller garden in new jersey. he has 110 acres, 111 acres in south carolina. so by 1785, andre michaux, this frenchman, has opened two large botanical gardens in north america, one in new jersey that actually took an act of the new jersey state legislature to create because foreigners were not allowed to own any land at

the time. but in recognition of the french support for the american revolution, they decided to allow michaux to open a garden and 110 acres from charleston, south carolina, which served as me, shows base of operations. and as you can see here, michaux from that south carolina hub took a number of eeditions throughout north america, the way his pattern was basically evy spring would lach an expedition to a new area return and then spend the fall and winter monthtaking those plants and those specimens, planting them, cultivating them and keeping up with his scientific work. and here you can see he traveled through florida. he went to the bahamas. everything is going swimmingly from his show. he may have been reluctant to come to the united states, but after a couple of years, he is completely smitten with the united states. this is where he's making incredible discoveries. he's writing back to france. he ends up sending 50,000 living specimens across, the atlantic ocean to france. it's really remarkable. but going back to that pattern

in me shows life where everything seems to be going well until it isn't anymore. in he's completely waylaid by events of his control. as we all probably know, eventually the french revolution happens by 1791, the king has been deposed. he is no longer able to fund me. shows, expeditions. michaux himself has run out of his own personal money. he's in dire financial straits. he's going to former bankers and financiers in charleston and boston in new york city, trying to find somebody who would keep him in the united states. south carolina goes far. they know he how desperate michaux and how vital the work he is doing is. south carolina offers him citizenship. in exchange, they will give him citizenship if he'll stay in the united states, they will fund his garden. he refuses because he refuses to become an american citizen. he may like the united states, but he is a frenchman. first and foremost.

so michaux is in dire straits. he decides, you know, the best thing for him is to in fact, one of the funny stories is he receives a letter from his supervisor in france and he says, we can't support you anymore. it's time for you to come home. you have end this project. and he shows he writes to a friend. he says, you know, i just pretended i never received letter. so we may be able to relate to that in some respects. so finally he goes, what can i do? i've got to get out of charleston. so he starts selling some of his property. in fact, he starts to sell some of those he'll enslave bvd to fund a major an expedition all the way up to the hudson bay. so michaux takes an expedition just him in three native american guides travel all the way up to almost the hudson bay and back and michaux arrives back in the united. it's now the winter of seven december 1792, and he knows that

he's going to be recalled again and he's trying to think, how can i what can i do to stay here? and looks at this map? and he writes, he looks at all of his expeditions and he realizes, u know, i've done a lot of eastern north, but i haven't yet crossedhat mississippi river and gone all the way to the pacific ocean. and i've just sie he's just successfully done this hudson bay expedition, he has the confidence, he believes thate can successfully do a transcontinental expedition with just three or four native american guides. and so he thinks, well, if i want to do this, where how can i do this? and he realizes there's the philosophical society michaux had become very close to his scientific work with many members of the american philosophical society, which was this incredible scientific organization, greatest thinkers, were at. the philosophical society, people like william bartram, benjamin smith, barton, thomas jefferson, david rittenhouse. benjamin franklin was the founder of the society and its first president. so this a scientific center

similar to the french academy of sciences which we show no knew about. so he arrives in december 1792 in philadelphia he meets with a group of apes members and he says i have a great idea for you. i want to travel across this continent. i will make discoveries that you can't even imagine, discoveries that will be useful to the united states and to mankind. and i will share with you my if you underwrite this expedition and the apes members say. huh? we've heard this idea before. we you know. have you ever heard of thomas jefferson? he's been talking about doing for almost a decade, as early as 1783, jefferson had been trying to fund a transcontinental expedition. fact, in 1783, he appointed he reached out to george rogers clark, conqueror of the west, to see if clark would undertake an expedition to the pacific ocean, he tried to raise money, particularly through the virginia, but he couldn't receive any funding. so it died 1791, 92.

he'd approached the apes. he said, do you think we can raise the money through the apes to do this? the apes to reach out and find somebody who could undertake this expedition? one of the people they approached the idea with was meriwether lewis. jefferson said he didn't think lewis was up to the task yet. they they by the time he probably wasn't. but he meets andre michaux these members say you've to meet thomas jefferson, you've got to talk to him. jefferson hears this idea, but he also hears about the expeditions michaux has undertaken. he's heard about this incredible expert mission to the middle east, where michaux had confront. he had been robbed. he fought off pirates he'd encountered dangerous animals, horrendous weather. he'd heard about his travels, the hudson bay, just three or four native american guides realizes if somebody is going to undertake this expedition successfully, it andre michaux. and he also realizes michaux might provide him the cover necessary to succeed because at the time, jefferson is acutely aware of the tensions that have

developed between the united states and native american communities, especially those in the ohio and points west, who are fearful that this new country is just an aggrandizing power, that is going to colonize and subjugate them. and jefferson is very worried that if he sends an american envoy out there, they're going to assume that's what's going on. so he thinks that if i can send a frenchman out there, this will look suspicious. so jefferson, with this idea, decides to try and raise the money for real and what the subscription list is all about. the societies successfully raises the equivalent of $1.75 pedition.o underwrite this and this is how you create a number of committees to do this. and after they success raismone they decide to create a third committee, a committee that was going to outline the mission purpose, the priorities the michaux should have as he travels west and at the head of this new committee. it's it's the luminaries of

american science it's got benjamin rush on it it's got somebody named caspar wistar it's got thomas jefferson, it's got david rittenhouse. they decide to write instructions to m. and what you're looking at here once in thomas jefferson's hands and this is by the aps libra are the instructions to andre michaux. hese are very long, detanstructions, but i want to highlight what their priorities are for so the first priority and this empha and again in these instructions they observe to you that the chief objects of your journey most convenient route of communication between the u.s. and the pacific ocean. hokly can we reach the pacific ocean? this is about communication. this is about trade. this is about commer they want to find a fast spread out to the pacific, not to explore the fastest route to the pacific, and then if you're to you to find a mammoth.eally want

and if have a chance, we also want y find allama. now, the reason they do this very important. i'm happy to talk about it later. but the point i want to make here is think about who andre michaux was. he was a botanist when he first was appointed royal. the royal botanist, he said to the king, i want to travel to asia to pursue science for its own sake. and now he's got a bunch of americans telling him to find the fastest so the united states can have greater commercial to the pacific and to find a mammoth and a llama. so michaux and the apes get into this actually other little fun fact. jefferson also tells me show or the instructions tell me show that you should keep a journal just like lewis and clark did. but to make sure that the most important information is tattooed on his skin in the event that if were to die and his body returned, they would have access to that knowledge. or if he did lose his journals,

he would have it, you know, lose it. so so let me show here's this. and he writes and aps has this correspondence. he says, no, no, this is not the plan. i want to travel on my own accord. i'm going to explore. i'm pursuing natural history for its own sake. i am not willing be an employee essentially of the aps. he's particularly worried about how this might be perceived in france if he's getting paid by the apes and pursuing u.s. interest. how are the french going to interpret his actions? i should remind this is also the time where a lot of people were losing their heads, so they are locked in negotiations. they come to loggerheads is a total stalemate. and then once again in the show's life, an unexpected event completely redirects some. this man arrives in philadelphia. can anybody recognize him. who said that? edmond ginny, this is the first

diplomatic representative, the french revolutionary government, to arrive in the united states. he arrives in charleston to greet. he arrives in philadelphia. he is there to advocate for the french revolution. his objective is to try to try and convince the united states, especially their citizens to support the french revolution. this is a time in which the french revolution itself is a great controversy. the united states is still is challenged with how to deal with the french revolution. the french are looking to the united states as their allies. they say, you know, we support you during your revolution. this is a sister revolution. you should be supporting at the same the british, the spanish, the european monarchies see the french revolution as this great threat to tradition and their institutions. so the french are at war with great britain and spain and here in philadelphia, george washington, the president, the united states is struggling with how to navigate this foreign

dilemma. his heart in some respects is with the french revolution, though he's very concerned about the way things are unfolding in paris at this very moment. at the same time, he is a he exercises. he knows that this is a very dangerous period of time for the united states, its foundations are extraordinarily fragile. and if it were to enter into a confer allied with france, then great could very easily take back north america. their their forts in the northwest are well manned. they control the seas with the british navy and so shepard washington's decides to issue a neutrality proclamation to say we are going to stay out of this conflict altogether. much to the frustration of the french who feel like that. is the united states turning their back on them. so january in philadelphia with the objective to try and american citizens to lobby the government to be more supportive of the french revolution. he also carries with them secret

instructions that he hopes will force the united states to side with france if they won't do so by their own convictions. he has instructions to mobilize angry frontiersmen in kentucky to invade louisiana, which is at a time controlled by spain. their belief is that if these invade new take control of spanish louisiana, they will erect a republic, an independent republic aligned with france and most importantly, those in europe will consider an act of the united states, not a group of independent, rabble rousing kentuckians. all right. and so ginny arrives in philadelphia with these instructions. and within days of arriving in philadelphia, he meets andre michaux, and he says, oh, andre so you're planning to go out west kentucky on that route? you see i'm to be a scientist

and everybody thinks you're a scientist. is there any way you might go out there and meet with some kentucky frontiersmen and see they'll do this invasion? michaux the loyal frenchmen that he is agrees much to his use. again, once again, extraordinary, reluctant. even jinny writes about, you know, i don't think he really wanted to do it, but he was very loyal to france and. he did it. and so ginny and michaud construct a plan to travel out to kentucky, in which michaux is going to travel under the guise of science. some people may be aware of this project with the apes and when he goes out to kentucky, he's to meet george rogers clark. that person jefferson had approached years ago for the transcontinental expedition at the time. george rogers clark. frustrated with the lack of support that he had received from the u.s. government after, the american revolution, and he had indicated he was willing to renounce his allegiance to the united states and conduct an

invasion of spanish louisiana if he received the support of the french government. so, ginny decides this is a great plan, but i need some special cover for michaux. and he hears and he becomes very close friends with thomas jefferson, as you probably in this debate about the french revolution. jefferson is a great supporter of the french. he's a great supporter of the french revolution. he believes the united states should be more supportive of the french. so on july the fifth, 1793, junior meets jefferson at his house and remember, jefferson is ry cse to janay and janaye is decides that he can trust jefferson and he the secretary oftatehis entire plot. and you can see here, this is jefferson'tes that meeting. and i highlighted the key parts here. ese things not as secretare state, but as mr. jefferson meaning he was talking to as a frie, did not in official

capacity. ask me to write a letter introduction. i took back letter and i wrote another one exanaysked him to do so now andre michaux has letter of introduction from the secretary state in which the secretary state is saying this is a botanist traveling to conduct science. please allow him to travel freely, freely throughout your state and meet with people he should not be under any suspicion. yeah, well, how about this thinking for a second? this is the secretary of state. i would compare this to if the secretary of state knew when russia going to invade ukraine, decided not to say anything to. their administration. so what happens? michaux ends up going out kentucky and i know we're short on time, so i'll summarize very quick. quickly michaux travels, and if you want to know the full story that's that's the book in the lobby that's all part of my plan. so to me show travels out to

kentucky. he meets george clerk clerk is manages to raise troop of 2000 men they creatown uniforms. they muster, they train. there are reports that the iron iron forges kentucky are burning brighter smelting cannons for the invasion. they build a whole flotilla of boats that are tasked with traveling down the mississippi river for the invasion. they have plans everybody's talking about it and everything looks like the launch is going to happen in the spring of 1793 or four, but then the spanish catch wind of what's happening. they're able to keep this largely just in kentucky. it's pretty remarkable. but there's a spanish spy who's part of this and leaks this information to the spanish ambassador stationed in philadelphia that spanish ambassador immediately goes to. yes, i hear the jefferson, the

secretary of state. isn't that who you tell about this plot, jefferson says, oh, my god, he reports it to washington, says, you don't know, you can't believe what's happening out west. and jefferson writes all these stern letters to the governor that you've got to tamp this down. it creates a huge crisis. washington it's a crisis in his presidency that isn't well studied. i talk a lot about it in the book, but what washington is really trying to sort out is what is the executive in power to do in a situation like this? does he have the authority to tamp down this potential rebellion? does he have the authority to use the u.s. that is stationed out there to, clamp this down. he isn't certain. there's cabinet debates about it. something the president doesn't, something that's local states have the authority and the right to do. so ultimately, washington decides that he does have the authority to order the u.s. army to tamp this down if it's necessary. and the reason, he says, is because his number one duty is to protect the united

constitution. this invasion successful could fundamentally undermine not just his administration, but the republic itself. now, it never comes to that because he issues a number of very stern proclamations. arthur st clair is the governor out there who makes it clear that the federal government means business, that they're going to arrest people, going to be tried, they could even be executed. and so it kind of just dissipates. and this rebellion never comes to pass. and i have to tell you, this is kind of an anticlimactic ending to the story. it was challenging me as a historian and as author to say, well, i was sucked into this story and it all just ends. so that's it. so that fourth question i told you about, you know, who was andre michaux? what's the story of the subscription list and the story behind it? what really happened, which was clearly far more far more of the story than the original website said, but did it really matter? and there i was blown away with all the ways i found that it did. so let me just share with you

some of the lasting legacies of this story this conspiracy. so first, what is the legacy of andre michaux? so in north america ends up discovering over a thousand new species of plants. he has a remarkable record of discovery, of modernizing work. but it doesn't just end the united states. what ends up happening. he has to go back to paris eventually. and in paris, he to take another expedition and as you can see here, he goes through africa. he ends up in madagascar where he realizes the biodiverse city in madagascar is even more impressive than what he saw in the south. and he decides to create another botanical garden in madagascar once again, things are going swimmingly for me. show. but this time tragedy strikes this time the most severe of all tragedies. he's stricken with some of local virus and he dies in madagascar. but for those in the field of

botany looms very large. he is credited with over a thousand new species of plants. the legacies at the this to me is one of the more interesting parts of the story it's something i didn't know about some of it. so first off, thepirit that animated the ape in 1793 continues to animate the institute today. the society has always been knowledge.e boundaries of in 1803 during the lewis and clarkxpedition when jefferson finally succeeds in realizing this vision. e first thing he does is he tells meriwether lewis, go to the apes and meet with their scientists. you can learn what it is so you can learn scientific medical treatments that you're going to need on this expn. so the apes was esl to the launch of the lewis and clark expedition. y we are the stewards of the perhaps even more notably in the instructions that jefferson wrote for lewis. lewis and clark. he used these instructions for michaux as his first draft, and the editors of the papers of thomas jefferson have shown that

there are verbatim copies language from this in the instructions to lewis and clark. so it's clear is was by his side and he's referring back to it as he wrote out those instructions for lewis and clark. and today society in that same spirit of michaux. and lewis and clark continues to fund research around the world. you can see there that we have funded research in over seven continents. again, spurring new discoveries h the work of botanist expeditions and other types of field work. thl things the legacies for the united states. and this was perhaps my most surprising discoveich is i started this own expedition into the past by asking abis ment. and little did i know that a question about this document would take me to the middle east, take me tohe hudson bay, would take me to a that threatened the foundations united states in the early republic and ultimately to a question abo citizens ship and this is probably the finding

that most surprised me because citizenship at this time. it was it was an undefined idea. everybody in the united states, most people the united states had been subjects before the american revolution. this idea of being a citizen was a new concept. and so just as washington was trying to figure out what authority i have as an executive, so were americans saying, what is this a citizenship mean? and one of the things that emerge during this conspiracy is that those in kentucky had a very different idea of citizenship than those in philadelphia, especially people like washington. and many of the founders had. we were able to see in the arguments those in kentucky had to justify their action. and what they said time and again is that citizenship ends at the borders of the country as soon as an american citizen leaves the united states, they are not bound by any laws or obligations to this country. they are basically an independent citizen of the

world. and for washington, he said, no, no, no. we have policies. people have to be bound by the policies of the united states. and so in 1795, washington along with congress and this is at the period of the really the first party system where there's incredible partizan divide within the united states agree that they had to pass a law that further clarifies the duties, obligations and limitation on citizenship, making it clear that americans cannot conduct this type of efforts that george rogers clarke's and other did in kentucky, that that would be against law, that citizens have to be bound by the policies and laws of the united states wherever they are. so little did i know that this one document would lead me on a journey to something as fundamental and essential to our country today as the meaning of citizenship. d r me that iwh doing history is all about. that's why places like this exist. i mean, think about this is the story of one document unraveling

this incredible story. and at the apex, we have 14 million pages of documents. there's incredible treasure trove here at. the virginia historical museum of history and culture. just think about how many more stories resting in our archives, waiting to be told. thank you. so was kentucky a at this point? yes, it had just been made state and it was it's basically the first governor, isaac shelby. so a big part of the story is that those in kentucky are arguing what it means be a state, what powers do the state have and you as you know, there's a growing, you know, states rights mentality is developing in kentucky as recognizing the results.

a year after all this, there are a number of conventions that are held in which many the people involved in this conspiracy write petitions arguing to the federal government that they need greater support and if not, they will become perhaps independent. a lot of threats about independency. so they just be been made a state. and that's a big part of the story as well. what happened to his son? we shall andre michaux. thank you. yeah, i never knew how much i can tell because. i was watching my my watcher, so. yeah. francois andre michaux, this is great. you're going to get me to tell us something. i always like to tell it, but i couldn't. so francois andre michaux. so when. when michaux goes to the middle east, he decides his son is too young. so he puts him with his sisters who care for him. when we show goes to north america, francois andre is now a teenager and he wants his son to in his footsteps, just like his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps. michaux, of course, decided to go his own path so andre's with him at his side for much of this period of time.

he's involved in a very serious accident in which his eye is struck with a bullet and it looks like his eye may be lost. and so michaux tries to treat him. anybody, i guess, with the best way in the 1790s was to treat a wound this infected in your eye. bleed bleed yourself red that's the way to treat the eye. so so so he almost loses out. he sent back to paris where he receives a medical treatment. his eye is saved. france. andre in his father's footsteps. he returns the united states and becomes an incredible botanist himself. he travels all the areas that his father traveled. he a number of books, if you've heard the name michaux, it's perhaps because i published a journal. but his travels to the united when his son francois andre dies there, no michaux left. and so francois andre decides to give the entire estate to the american philosophical. so society received this incredible gift in the late 19th

century. and they said. what should we do with this corpus? how how can use it? and we should use it to serve the idea of michaux in francois andre in france, while andre was a member of the. so they said what we use this for it's interesting at this period of time in the united states because the industrial revolution, the united states itself had now gone through its own. and this is the very early days of the forestry, their desire to conserve the natural environment in the united states. and so the apes decides to, use this fund to hire a lecturer to travel around pennsylvania for preserving forests in the states in the state which really had been denuded the landscape because of both farming industrial revolution and so this this lecturer would around and historians have written about and he started off with a very small audience maybe two or three. and then it grew larger and larger because he was this incredibly lecturer and.

after several years, the state creates the department of forestry and they appoint him the first director of forestry and the state. he then in honor of francois andre michaux, to name the first state forest michaud forests in pennsylvania in recognition of those funds that were used to support this endeavor. thank you for that question question. so if andre was botanist, royal botanist, obviously he was working for the french king. well, when the french king was overthrown by the revolution. witness how did they have any authority over michaux and to be able to call him home? yeah, that's a really good question. so basically michaux needed

money and i write about this in the book, you know, a michaux people have asked me in the past, well, did michaux support the french revolution or not? he supported the french revolution, but he was not he wasn't there at the center of it. but we've seen in his writing he was a he received patronage from the crown. he knew how to perform that art. he relied on the for funding without the french government, whether it was the crown or the revolutionary government, he needed their support and so his goal with the deposition of the king was actually to get reappointed by the french revolutionary government, to receive funding for them to continue on in the united states. he could have stayed in the united states, but that's the part where you can really see above all else. michaux is loyal frenchman and he he wants to get the support of the french government. he's pretending that he's still working for the french government because he hopes that doing so he can then say, look, i'm serving you now. you've got to pay me. and in fact, one of the things

he's constantly negotiating is can he get a formal appointment? can he start getting paid again? and the reason he to paris is because the money never comes. also, the other reason he decides to return to paris is he is to to do this transcontinental trip across the united states. and he and his friends in the united states, especially those in philadelphia, they say to him, andre, we'd love you to do this. but let's be honest, you're probably not going to make it back. you've got to go to paris and publish all of you found and make sure your herbarium which is well, that's where these thousand new species are documented. take that are, bury him and save it somewhere for posterity. got to go back and do that and so we show agrees with the idea that he's going to go back to united states and do this hopefully with some funding from the french government. the fact is, one of the things you realize, well, we show is that he's driven, he's determined. his friends describe him as a stoic who only talks science. you know, he in his letters, there's not a lot of personality that comes out.

you can just see him as this very driven, the one he loves expeditions and barton izing. he struggles with publishing. and so for years he's trying to publish he can't publish. he's financial straits and that's actually he goes off to africa and never returns again. so let's talk about a little different of a direction, but i want to share that as well. when you talked about the citizen in going from a subject to citizenship, are you referring to the 14th amendment? no, no, no. that's later. so before the american revolution most colonists were considered subjects of the crown which meant you paid your obedience, loyalty, not just to the british parliament, but most importantly to the british king. so were subjects you were, you know, subject to the king underneath the king. the idea of citizenship, which is born out of the democratic revolution, the american revolution, and the creation of a republic is the idea that in

some ways you all are equal citizens, you know, equal individuals under, this government. the idea is that the citizen is what is used to describe that that new political conception of the individual, that they're a citizen, not a subject to a crown. you're independent of that. and in fact, the idea of citizenship really sweeps across the atlantic ocean because after the french revolution, those in france start describing themselves, citizens and some people start describing themselves as citizens of the world that they no longer are subject, in fact, to any country. but this this transnational category of individuals who all share the same values values. okay. i think that's going be all we have time for tonight. so if you'll all join me in giving a speaker another round of applause for fantastic call and, patrick is going to be in commonwealth hall shortly after the lecture where you can enjoy a reception and purchase copies of the book, answer any more questions that you might have.

thank you for your support. great. thank you all.

washington journal continues. host: journalist and professor, author of the new book "a different russia: khrushchev and kennedy on a collision course." start at the end if you would. right when nikita khrushchev learned john f. kennedy had been assassinated he cried. why? guest: it was one of the marvelous interesting in my judgment fascinating aspects of nikita khrushchev that he had a dream and the dream was that if he could sit down with an american president, he figured that he and the president could solve all the problems of the world.

all he needed was that opportunity. and he got that opportunity only once in june of 1961 in vienna when they met at the summit, the summit that was greeted with enormous expectation and ended in the deepest disappointment. and khrushchev took it into his mind that he wanted to somehow or another take kennedy to the cleaners, he was going to get his way, he wanted to rewrite the strategic balance of the world which favored the u.s.. he wanted to favor russia, the soviet union and he did have that moment with kennedy which led to the cuban missile crisis, which led the world to the edge of a nuclear war. afterward, they reached an agreement on an atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty.