DU PONT
DU PONT
dismissed from the public service and the publi-
cation of the " Ephemerides " was prohibited.
Though persecuted at home, Du Pont's abilities
found recognition abroad in the shape of unsolic-
ited honors from tlie kings of Poland and Sweden
and the margrave of Baden. In 1774 Du Pont was
called to Poland by King Stanislaus Augustus to
devise and carry out comprehensive plans for
national education, but later in the year when
Turgot became comptroller-general of finances, he
was appointed inspector-general of commerce and
recalled to France. In this position he was known
as " the right arm of Turgot," being active in all
the reforms established by the latter. The much-
talked-of ' " Report on Municipalities, ' ' reaUy a
plan for a liberal constitution, was the work of
Du Pont. Turgot's successor, Maurepas, put
Du Pont upon the retired list in 1776, whence he
was recalled by Necker in 1778. Du Pont, who
had always sided strongly with the Americans
during their struggle for liberty, was placed in
charge by Vergennes of the secret negotiations
which resulted in the treaty of 1783, by which the
independence of the United States was formally
recognized by Great Britain, and, in 1786, of the
negotiation of the conimercial treaty between
France and England, being made councillor of
state in acknowledgment of these services. Later,
when Tliomas Jefferson was United States min-
ister to France, Du Pont, as inspector-general of
commerce, amicably settled with him the com-
mercial difficulties between the two countries,
prominent among them being the annoyances and
wrongs to which American commerce was sub-
jected from the French custom-houses and from
the management of the Royal tobacco monopoly.
He was secretary-general of the assemblies of
notables of 1787 and 1788 and formulated most of
the reforms there proposed, thereby bringing upon
himself the hatred of the clergy, the personal in-
terference of Louis XVI. alone saving him from
being disgraced anew and banished from Paris
upon the accession of Archbishop Brienne to the
ministry. He was a member of the States-gen-
eral from Nemours at the beginning of the revo-
lution, and was twice president of the constituent
assembly, where he favored a constitutional mon-
archy and Avas the author of the thorough fiscal
reforms adopted. At the dissolution of the as-
sembly he edited the " Correspondence Patri-
otique " and published a number of pamphlets
upholding the constitution and demanding the
enforcement of the laws; prominent among these
were the letters denouncing Petion, the mayor of
Paris. Du Pont, with his son, was at the Tuile-
ries among the defenders of Louis XVI., Aug. 10,
1793. Marked for death in consequence, he was
secreted by the astronomer Lalande and his assist-
ant, Harmand, in the dome of the observatorv of
Paris until September 2. Avhen he made his way
to Cormeilles, where he spent a month in disguise,
not reaching home, Bois-des-Fosses, until Novem-
ber 9, and then only after an arduous and danger-
ous journey. He wrote the " Philosophie de
rUnivers " while hidden there but was cast into
prison, July 20, 1794, and had it not been for
Robespierre's death (July 28) he would have been
guillotined. Upon his release he renewed his
opposition to the Jacobins, publishing the " Plai-
doyer de Lycias," in which the horrors of the
times were compared with a passage in Greek
history, the " Constitution pour la republique
Fran^aise " (1795), etc. He also founded the His-
torien, a political journal. He was a member, and
later president, of the Council of the ancients in
1797, was again imprisoned by the Jacobins, who
destroyed his property and came near transiJorting
him to Cayenne. In 1799 he emigrated with his
family to the United States, where he was honor-
ably received. At Jefferson's request he wrote a
work on National education in the United States,
the plans therein proposed, though never adopted
in this country, having been partially carried out
in France. In 1802 he returned to France, and
was there instrumental in bringing about the sale
of Louisiana to the United States (1803). He
declined office under Napoleon but was president
of the Paris chamber of commerce, rendered much
service to various charitable institutions and was
an active member of the French institute. In 1814
he was secretary of the provisional government,
but on Napoleon's escape from Elba came back to
America, joining his sons at Eleutherean Mills,
near Wilmington, Del. He married, Jan. 26, 1766,
Nicole-Charlotte-Marie-Louise Le Dee de Ren-
court (died 1784). His second wife, who survived
him, was Fran^;oise Robin, widow of, the cele-
brated Poivre. Among his later works were : aS*?*)-
le droit de Marque des cuirs (1804) ; Sur la Banque
de France (1806), seized by the French police
and republished in London (1811) ; Memoires sur
differens sitjets d'JIistoire NaturcUe (1807) ; Examen
de Malthus et lettre a Say (1817), his last work.
He died at Eleutherean Mills, Del., Aug. 7, 1817.
DU PONT, Samuel Francis, naval officer, was
born at Bergen Point, N.J., Sept. 27, 1803; son of
Victor I\Iarie Du Pont de Nemours and Gabrieile
Josephine (de la Fife de Pelleport) Du Pont. He
was appointed from Delaware a midshipman in
the U.S. navy, Dec. 19, 1815, and was commis-
sioned lieutenant, Ajjril 28, 1826, commander,
Oct. 28, 1842, captain, Sept. 14, 1855, rear-admiral,
July 16, 1862. His first shij) was the FranlUn in
the European squadron, 1817, from which he was
transferred to the Erie. In 1821 he was in the
Mediterranean on the Constitution, was ordered
home for examination, 1822, and went afterward
to the West Indies and the coast of Brazil on the
