William Carmichael (diplomat)

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William Carmichael
United States Chargé d'Affaires to Spain
In office
February 20, 1783 – September 5, 1794
PresidentGeorge Washington
Preceded byJohn Jay
Succeeded byWilliam Short
Personal details
Bornaround 1739
American
Occupationstatesman and diplomat

William Carmichael (c. 1739–1795) was an American statesman and diplomat from Maryland during and after the Revolutionary War. He participated in Benjamin Franklin's mission to Paris in 1776-8, represented Maryland in the Continental Congress in 1778 and 1779 and was the principal diplomat for the United States to Spain from 1782 to 1794.

Biography

Early life

Carmichael was born sometime around 1739 at the family home (Round Top) in

Committee of Correspondence during the Chestertown Tea Party. But by the time the Revolutionary War began, he had decamped to London
, England, and soon after, in 1776, made his way to Paris, carrying letters to the Continental Congress sewn inside the cover of a pocket dictionary.

Early Career (1776–1792)

Coat of Arms of William Carmichael

In 1776 the Congress named Carmichael as a Secret Agent, first as an assistant to

Frederick II of Prussia in Berlin. He returned to America in February 1778 and the Maryland Assembly sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was elected the American Philosophical Society in 1780.[1]

Carmichael clashed repeatedly with many of his fellow countrymen, particularly Arthur Lee and John Jay, and his tenure in Congress was a brief and stormy one. His true milieu was the world of European courts and high society, and his principal value to his native country was as an astute and well-informed observer of European political intrigues. In 1779, then, Carmichael returned to the Old World, this time to

Chargé d'Affaires
, remaining in this post at the Spanish royal court until illness forced his replacement in 1794.

Late years

In 1792, President

Treaty of San Lorenzo or Pinckney's Treaty, Thomas Pinckney having stepped in to complete the negotiations. Carmichael was also involved in negotiations to free American mariners who had been taken captive by the Dey of Algiers, a situation that later led to the Barbary Wars
.

William Carmichael died in Madrid, Spain on February 9, 1795, and is buried in the Protestant cemetery there. He left a Spanish wife and daughter, who returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and were eventually compensated by the U.S. Congress for Carmichael's services. His great-nephew was the pro-Confederate judge and politician Richard Bennett Carmichael.

References

  1. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-03-31.

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
United States Chargé d'Affaires to Spain

1783–1794 		Succeeded by
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