William Eustis

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William Eustis bigraphy, stories - Massachusetts-born physician, politician, and diplomat

William Eustis : biography

June 10, 1753 – February 6, 1825

William Eustis (June 10, 1753 – February 6, 1825) was an early American physician, politician, and statesman from Massachusetts. Trained in medicine, he served as a military surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, notably at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He resumed medical practice after the war, but soon entered politics.

After several terms in the state legislature, Eustis won election to the United States Congress in 1800, serving as a moderate Democratic-Republican. He briefly returned to state politics after losing reelection in 1804, and was chosen to be Secretary of War in 1809 by President James Madison. Due in part to his inexperience at managing the army and a lack of preparedness, the military failures in the early months of the War of 1812 were laid on his shoulders, leading to his resignation.

Madison then appointed Eustis Minister to the Netherlands, a post he held from 1814 until 1818. After another period in Congress, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1822. A popular successor to long-serving John Brooks, Eustis died in office in 1825. His Boston mansion, built in the 1750s by royal governor William Shirley, is known as the Shirley-Eustis House and is a National Historic Landmark.

Netherlands minister

Eustis was next appointed minister of the United States to the Netherlands by President Madison, serving from 1814 to 1818.Pilcher, p. 108 Madison believed the post to be important for sounding out conditions in Europe due to The Hague’s historical use as a neutral ground for negotiations, and he instructed Eustis to track European diplomatic sentiment. However, the status of the Dutch declined after the defeat of Napoleon, and the post was not particularly active.Krabbendam et al, p. 262 Eustis unsuccessfully pursued claims against the Dutch for seizures of American goods and ships that had taken place during the reign of Louis Bonaparte over the Kingdom of Holland (the claims were eventually acknowledged by France).Hoekstra, pp. 121–128 Eustis and Albert Gallatin, then the US Ambassador to France, negotiated a new commerce treaty with the Dutch government in 1817; it was ratified in 1818.Walters, pp. 307–308 Eustis was at a disadvantage due to his lack of French language skill, and was recalled in 1818 after the Dutch government reduced its American delegation head to a chargé d’affaires.Nolan, p. 100Walters, p. 307 While in Europe Eustis renewed an acquaintance with the Marquis de Lafayette, with whom he had served in the Revolutionary War.Porter, p. 105

Legislator

Eustis was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) from 1788 to 1794, which he left because he was "sick of" the political gamesmanship in the body.Wright, p. 166 He was thereafter chosen to serve on the Governor’s Council for two years. In 1800 he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. During his successful campaign against Josiah Quincy,McCaughey, p. 21 Eustis was charged with either authoring, or being complicit in the production of, letters that formed a part of the 1783 Newburgh Conspiracy, a threatened uprising in the Continental Army. Eustis publicly denied being the author of the letters, but was silent on his role in the affair. (John Armstrong later admitted to writing the letters, and Eustis acknowledged some years later that he was privy to the plot.)Pickering and Upham, pp. 424–425

Eustis was a moderate Democratic-Republican who did not seek the significant reforms more radical Republicans wanted.Ellis, p. 22 He demonstrated this by voting against President Thomas Jefferson’s repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, a Federalist bill passed in the late days of the John Adams administration that had greatly expanded the number of seats on the federal bench.Ellis, pp. 15, 50 In 1802 Eustis was reelected, defeating John Quincy Adams, and in a rematch of the 1800 election with Quincy, Eustis was defeated by fewer than 100 votes.McCaughey, p. 22 While in the House, he was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1804 to conduct the impeachment proceedings (the first such action to succeed) against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire.Carstens and Sanford, pp. 420–421 In 1804 he argued in favor of arming merchant vessels headed for the West Indies.Mayo-Bobee, p. 82