Joseph Fauchet

Joseph Fauchet entered public life through the politics of the French Revolution. Born at Saint-Quentin in 1761, he studied at Louis-le-Grand and prepared for a legal career. His defense of the Constitution of 1791 helped bring him into government employment, including the Paris municipal administration and the executive’s secretariat, before his appointment as minister to the United States. ¹

His American work involved the urgent financial needs of the revolutionary government. A March 1794 memorandum by Edmund Randolph records Fauchet pressing for a million dollar installment on the American debt to France. Randolph questioned the practicality of the request, while Fauchet argued that even that sum would not meet France’s requirements. ²

Fauchet’s confidential dispatches later became evidence in the campaign against Randolph. After British interception, a letter reached British minister George Hammond and then members of Washington’s cabinet. Washington explained this route to Randolph on 20 August 1795, following his resignation. Federalists interpreted the dispatch as evidence of corruption; the State Department’s historical assessment rejects the charge. ^{3, 4}

Under Napoleon, Fauchet became prefect successively of the Var, Gironde, and Arno, and served in the administration of Elisa Baciocchi in Tuscany. He returned to the Gironde prefecture during the Hundred Days and represented the Var in the 1815 Chamber of Representatives. After the second Bourbon Restoration, he withdrew from public employment. He died in Paris in 1834. ^{1, 5}