Alphonse Pageot

Alphonse Joseph Yves Pageot came from the Pageot Desnoutières family of Saint-Domingue and was the brother-in-law of the French minister Louis-Barbé-Charles Sérurier. His connections in Washington extended beyond the legation. While serving as its secretary, he married Mary Anne Lewis, daughter of Treasury official William B. Lewis, at the White House on 29 November 1832. The couple named their son Andrew Jackson Pageot; Jackson was his godfather. ¹

Pageot’s acting leadership of the mission brought him into the breakdown of relations over France’s payment of American claims. In December 1835 he protested Secretary of State John Forsyth’s refusal to accept a communication from the Duke de Broglie in the form he had presented it, arguing that procedural objections were prolonging an already serious misunderstanding. On 2 January 1836 he notified Forsyth that his government had ordered him to relinquish his diplomatic character after the recall of the American representative in Paris. ²

He later returned to substantive treaty work. On 9 November 1843 Pageot and Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur signed an extradition convention covering specified serious crimes, with an evidentiary requirement and an exception for purely political offenses. On 24 February 1845 he signed an additional article with John C. Calhoun adding robbery and burglary. ^{3, 4}