David Bailie Warden facts for kids

Quick facts for kids David Baillie Warden
Born	1772 (1772) Ballycastle, County Down, Kingdom of Ireland
Died	9 October 1845 (1845-10-10) (aged 73) Paris, Kingdom of France
Nationality	Irish, American
Education	Glasgow University
Occupation	Diplomat, scholar, author
Movement	Society of United Irishmen
Honours	Member of the Académie des sciences, Paris. Member of the American Philosophical Society.

David Bailie Warden was an important figure in Irish and American history. He was an Irish rebel who fought for a republic in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Later, he became an American diplomat, serving as a consul in Paris.

While working for the United States, Warden spoke out against unfair business practices in diplomacy. He also strongly condemned slavery. After his time as a diplomat, Warden became a respected scholar in Paris. He was known for his detailed writings on international law, geography, history, and the governments of the Americas.

Ireland and the Fight for Freedom

Early Life and Education

David Bailie Warden was born in 1772 in Ballycastle, a small town in County Down, Ireland. His family were tenants of a powerful landlord.

Warden studied at Bangor Academy and then at Glasgow University. He earned a Master of Arts degree in 1797. He also won a prize for his studies in natural philosophy. While at university, he became interested in medicine.

He also received a license to preach from the Presbytery of Bangor. Warden was a student of Rev. James Porter. Like Porter, Warden joined the Society of United Irishmen. This group was inspired by the French Revolution. They wanted to create a national government in Ireland. They decided to achieve this through a rebellion.

Leading the Rebellion

The call to fight came in County Down on June 7, 1798. Warden quickly became a local leader. He replaced an experienced rebel commander who had been arrested.

On June 9, rebels ambushed government troops at Saintfield. The next day, June 10, Warden gathered 300 men. He led them to Newtownards. The government soldiers there eventually left the town. The rebels then set up a "Republic" with a special committee. This "Republic" lasted only three days. On June 12, Warden saw the main rebel army defeated at the Battle of Ballynahinch.

Warden managed to escape. His teacher, James Porter, was hanged by the government. But influential friends helped Warden get permission for permanent exile. After weeks on a crowded prison ship, he sailed for the United States.

From America, Warden secretly wrote a book. It was called A Narrative of the Principal Proceedings of the Republican Army of the County of Down. The authorities in Ireland tried to stop it from being published.

A Disagreement with the Church

Before leaving for America, Warden asked the Bangor Presbytery for a certificate. This certificate would show he was licensed to preach. But the Presbytery refused to give it to him. They said it was for "prudence."

Warden wrote a farewell letter to them. He reminded them that they had taught ideas about freedom. He said they had taught that "the will of the people" should be "supreme law." He felt they were now acting out of fear.

Life in the United States and France

Teacher and Diplomat

In New York, Warden became a teacher. He was a principal at Columbia Academy. Later, he was a head tutor at Kingston Academy. He also taught the family of John Armstrong Jr.

In 1806, Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. President, appointed Armstrong as the American Ambassador to France. Warden went with him to Paris as his secretary.

In 1808, Jefferson made Warden a temporary consul. A consul is an official who helps citizens and promotes trade in a foreign country. In 1810, Armstrong removed Warden from his duties.

However, Warden continued to send political reports to Jefferson. Jefferson spoke highly of Warden to the new President, James Madison. He called Warden "a perfectly good humored, inoffensive man." He also said Warden was "a man of science." Many Irish exiles and other supporters also helped Warden.

In 1809, Warden became a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.

Consul in Paris

In August 1811, Warden returned to Paris as a Consul. A year later, Madison gave him more duties. Warden had to help with many claims from American shippers and merchants. These claims came from Napoleon's strict trade rules against Britain.

The new ambassador, Joel Barlow, was more understanding. Barlow had lived in Paris during the French Republic. He was also a friend of Thomas Paine.

When Barlow died in 1812, Warden managed to get himself recognized as the American "consul general." This upset other officials. The new ambassador, William H. Crawford, found Warden socializing with important French figures. In August 1814, Warden was dismissed. He never held a diplomatic job again.

Fighting Against Slavery

In 1810, Warden translated an important book. It was Henri Grégoire's De la Littérature Des Nègres (1808). This book was about ending slavery.

In his introduction, Warden wrote that Europeans were too focused on getting rich. He said they pretended that the dark skin of Black people was an excuse to treat them badly. But Grégoire's book showed that Black people had great talents and virtues. Warden argued there was no fair reason for them to lose their freedom. He remembered his teacher at Glasgow University, John Millar. Millar had taught that any agreement made at the cost of freedom should be broken.

Thoughts on Commerce

Warden stayed in France. In 1813, he published his first book. It was called On the Origin, Nature, Progress and Influence of Consular Establishments. This book was very popular among diplomats. It was seen as an important work on international law.

Warden believed that American merchants often saw consuls as their personal assistants. He felt they used consuls to recover losses and gain advantages. He thought this focus on business was harmful. He wrote that commerce had become a source of conflict. He felt that people focused on profit and loss became "selfish."

He especially regretted that Americans' republican spirit was being damaged. He felt they were too focused on "insatiable and indiscriminate pursuit of objects of traffic." He believed that people thought Americans were "avaricious and commercial."

It took many years for the State Department to agree with Warden. He argued that a consul should not be involved in business. He believed a consul's salary should be fair. He also thought a consul should be a cultural representative, not just a business one.

Cultural Ambassador and Scholar

A Wide Range of Interests

Warden wrote about many topics. These included politics, literature, medicine, chemistry, and natural science. He corresponded with many famous people. These included Alexander von Humboldt and Thomas Jefferson. In 1809, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society.

In France, Warden was friends with leading French writers and thinkers. He helped visiting American scholars. He created a link between European and American thinkers.

In 1819, he published a three-volume work. It was called A Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United States of America. This helped him get elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1826. He was asked to research volumes on North and South America for a large encyclopedia series. He wrote ten volumes over thirteen years. People described Warden as "America's cultural ambassador in France."

Warden was also very active in the Société de Géographie (Geography Society). He and Edmé-François Jomard supported studies of Mesoamerica. They set up a competition for the best new work on "American antiquities." This included maps and observations on the customs of native peoples.

Connections to Famous Thinkers

Alexis de Tocqueville visited Warden in Paris in 1831. De Tocqueville later traveled in the United States. His famous book, Democracy in America, may have been influenced by Warden's ideas. They might have also discussed Ireland. De Tocqueville later reported on Ireland in 1835. He found that conditions for most people had not improved since Warden's rebellion.

Warden never returned to Ireland. He did share articles from Irish journals with friends in the United States. He thought about writing a history of the United Irishmen. But after his diplomatic service, he seemed less involved in Irish politics.

His papers show he met Irish writers like Maria Edgeworth. However, he did not seem to regularly meet with other Irish political exiles in Paris. But in 1820, Warden did help the widow of Reverend William Jackson. Jackson was an Irish rebel who died in 1794.

Warden was a member of the Belfast Literary Society. This society avoided political topics. Warden was elected because of a journal he kept on weather and disease in America.

Warden also corresponded with William Sampson. Sampson was an Irish exile in New York. They shared an interest in more than just Ireland. Sampson was a lawyer who fought for the abolition of slavery. He also helped win a case that protected the privacy of confessions to priests. Warden shared Grégoire's praise for Sampson's work on religious tolerance.

After Ireland joined Great Britain in 1800, a new movement grew. It was led by Daniel O'Connell. O'Connell was Catholic and fought for Irish rights. He became very famous in Europe. But Warden's many letters do not mention O'Connell.

Published Works

• 180? (under the alias William Fox), A Narrative of the Principal Proceedings of the Republican Army of the County of Down.
• 1802: A sermon on the advantages of education: preached in the Reformed Dutch Protestant Church, Kingston, on the 30th of April, 1802
• 1804: The frame of the material world manifests, that there must be a god: a discourse on the ensuing words of the book of psalms: delivered before the students in Kingston Academy
• 1808: (Translator) Antoine Léonard Thomas, Eulogium on Marcus Aurelius
• 1810: (Translator) Henri Grégoire, An enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, and literature of Negroes.
• 1813: On the Origin, Nature, Progress and Influence of Consular Establishments.
• 1816: Chorographical and Statistical Description of the District of Columbia.
• 1819: A Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United States of North America 3 vols.
• 1820: Bibliotheca America Septentirionalis.
• 1825: Description Geographique et Historique du Bresil.
• 1827: Recherches sur les antiquités de l'Amérique Septentrionale.
• 1829: Notice Biographique Sur Le Général Jackson, Président Des États-Unis de l'Amérique Septentrionale.
• 1831: Bibliotheca Americana: Being a Choice Collection of Books Relating to North and South America and the West-Indies.
• 1832-1844:L'art de vérifier les dates des faits historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres anciens monuments, depuis la naissance de Notre-Seigneur, Vols. [33-37 and 39-44] written under the running title "Chronologie historique de l'Amerique."

Death

David Bailie Warden died on October 9, 1845, in Paris. He had lived there for 38 years. He never married and had no family. He was a close friend of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte. She was Napoleon's former American sister-in-law. Warden helped her when she came to Paris after Napoleon's exile.