BRISSOT DE WARVILLE (Jacques-Pierre) and Étienne CLAVIÈRE. D - Lot 11

BRISSOT DE WARVILLE (Jacques-Pierre) and Étienne CLAVIÈRE. De la France et des États-Unis, ou De l'Importance de la Révolution de l'Amérique pour le bonheur de la France, des rapports de ce royaume et des États-Unis, des avantages réciproques qu'ils peuvent retirer de leurs liaisons de commerce, & enfin de la situation actuelle des États-Unis. London, s.n., 1787. In-8, xxiv-xlviii-344 pp. half-brown speckled basane with corners, smooth spine with brown title, red speckled edges; worn binding with a split jaw and dull corners (period binding). ORIGINAL EDITION of this "work dedicated to the American Congress, and to the friends of the United States, in both worlds". The work received tacit permission, despite very liberal remarks on French domestic policy and an introduction in which Brissot attacks censorship and advocates freedom of the press. THE MANIFESTO OF THE GALLO-AMERICAN SOCIETY. Founded in 1787 by Brissot, Clavière and personalities such as Saint-John de Crèvecoeur, its aim was to promote economic relations between France and America (without excluding England), and to spread in France the ideals of political liberty of the American Republic. The book is extremely detailed on the commercial side, commodity by commodity. JACQUES-PIERRE BRISSOT (1754-1793), an "AMERICANIST" who CONSIDERS THE UNITED STATES REVOLUTION AS AN EXAMPLE, was a lawyer, literary scholar, publicist with ties to the business world, politician and member of the Constitution Committee (1789), then deputy to the Legislative Assembly and the Convention, where he was a leader of the Girondins. During the American War of Independence, he was one of the principal editors of the French-English gazette Courrier de l'Europe, largely devoted to events in America. An ardent defender of the Insurgents, he published the pamphlet Testament politique de l'Angleterre (1778). A convinced Freemason, he defended the principles of liberty and militated in favor of a legal regime based on morality. He was executed under the Terror. A FINANCIALIST AND POLITICAL MAN FROM GENEVA FIXED IN PARIS, ÉTIENNE CLAVIERE (1735-1793) was exiled from Switzerland after the revolution of 1782. Connected with Mirabeau in Neuchâtel (then under Prussian rule), he became one of his collaborators, and attacked Jacques Necker's policies, before being appointed Minister of Public Taxes, a position he held from March to June 1792 and from August 1792 to June 1793. After the fall of the monarchy, he was also a member of the Provisional Council, in charge of Finance, but as a prominent Girondin figure, he was forced to commit suicide under the Terror. BRISSOT AND CLAVIERE, AN AMERICAN RELATIONSHIP. They had also established relations in Neuchâtel in 1782, and in 1787 founded the Société gallo-américaine, then, in 1788, the Société des amis des noirs: presided over by Clavière, the latter welcomed such distinguished members as the Marquis de Condorcet and the Marquis de La Fayette. In 1788, Brissot made a trip to the United States, largely financed by Clavière, with political and philanthropic aims (concerning the black question), as well as financial ones, to study investment and speculation opportunities, notably on American debt - he published an account of this trip in 1791, Nouveau voyage dans les États-Unis de l'Amérique septentrionale. In 1790, Brissot and Clavière also joined forces to form the Compagnie du Scioto, which bought land in Ohio for resale at a profit to French migrants. They were also partners in 1788 in the Compagnie royale d'assurance sur la vie, and Brissot wrote more than one libel in defense of Clavière's policies when the latter was minister.