Instruction secrette pour le Colonel Fulton, [1796 July 21].

1 item (4 p.) ; 22 cm.

French

Purchased from William Reese Co. on the Hall Park McCullough Fund, 2003.

Pierre-Auguste Adet was French minister plenipotentiary to the United States from 1795 to 1797. General George Rogers Clark was an American officer who was commissioned by France in 1793 to lead an army against the Spanish in Louisiana and the Floridas in order to secure the Mississippi River for French trade. Colonel Samuel Fulton was an American citizen employed as a spy for the French.

Manuscript certified copy in unidentified hand, signed by Samuel Fulton, of secret instructions from Pierre-Auguste Adet directing Fulton to go to South Carolina and Georgia to gauge sympathy and support for France and "insurgents in Florida". Fulton is directed to gather intelligence about the insurgents, about Spanish occupation of Florida and Louisiana, and about the attitude of the public in the Carolinas, Georgia and Kentucky towards the Jay Treaty and the possibility of Florida and Louisiana joining the French Republic. Fulton is also ordered to gather information from General George Rogers Clark. A certified copy of a declaration from Adet vouching for Fulton's loyalty to the French government follows, also signed by Samuel Fulton.

October 07, 2004

Pierre-Auguste Adet, Instruction Secrette pour le Colonel Fulton. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Pierre-Auguste Adet, Instruction Secrette pour le Colonel Fulton. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.