Eaton, William, 1764-1811

Diplomat, adventurer, and U.S. Army officer, of Massachusetts.

Richard Dale was a naval officer.

American General.

General in the United States Army serving in the Mediterranean during the Tripolitan War.

William Eaton (1764-1811), American soldier and diplomat, best known for his exploits in the Barbary states. As U.S. consul to Tunis, he took part in the negotiations concerning some changes in the 1797 treaty with this country. In 1803, following a conflict with Tunis authorities, he was expelled from the country, and returned to the United States. Having succeeded in promoting his plan for an American intervention designed to support a rival claimant for the rule of Tripoli, Eaton arrived to the Mediterranean in 1804, with the fleet commanded by Samuel Barron, as U. S. naval agent to the Barbary States. Following the peace of 1805, Eaton returned to the United States. He obtained a grant of 10,000 acres in Maine from the Massachusetts legislature and later received about $10,000 to liquidate claims for his expense in Tripoli. In May 1807 - 1811, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Diplomat, adventurer, and army officer.

Best known for serving as consul to Tunis, William Eaton (1764-1811) was born in Connecticut to a middle class farmer. At the age of sixteen, he ran away to join the Continental Army and served for three years. After his stint in the military, Eaton graduated from Dartmouth College in 1790, and worked as a clerk in the Vermont legislature for two years. In 1792, he returned to the military with a commission to the Legion of the United States.

In 1799, Eaton was appointed the U. S. Consul at Tunis, during a tumultuous period in the relationship between Tunis and the United States due to raids along the North African coast by Barbary pirates. President John Adams appointed Eaton to negotiate more agreeable terms with the bey of Tunis, following the rejection of a previous treaty by the U. S. Congress. In the two years it took Eaton to negotiate the treaty, the demands increased and Eaton came to believe that military intervention would be more effective for securing trade than paying tribute

Eaton was ordered to leave Tunis by the bey in 1811, having failed to reach an agreement; three years later he returned on a military mission following Tripoli’s declaration of war on the United States. He made contact with Hamet Caramanly and signed an agreement for cooperation in the war (though it was never ratified). With Caramanly, Eaton led a force of U. S. Marines and mercenaries across the Libyan desert to attack the city of Derne. Eaton’s attack on the city was successful, and he prepared to march on Tripoli until being informed that the U. S. Consul-General Tobis Lear reached a peace agreement. He returned home a hero welcome, though he was disillusioned with the treaty’s agreement to pay a ransom.

In 1807, Eaton served as the principle witness in the treason trial of Aaron Burr after having met with Burr several times, though his testimony did not convince the justices and Burr was acquitted.

Army officer and diplomat.

Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1790, William Eaton taught in Windsor, Vt., and served as clerk to the Vermont House of Delegates before obtaining a U.S. army captaincy in March, 1792. As part of a build-up of western forces following Gen. St. Clair's 1791 defeat, Eaton and his company joined Gen. Anthony Wayne's army at Fort Washington near Cincinnati. Eaton remained with the western army until February, 1794, assisting in the erection of Fort Recovery and engaging in skirmishes and scouting parties. He is best known for his later service as consul to Tunis and navy agent to the Barbary States.

Biographic Sketch

William Eaton (1764-1811) played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the United States and the Barbary Powers from 1798 to 1805. After a period of service in the U. S. Army in Georgia, he was appointed U. S. Consul to Tunis, in 1798, and was instrumental in removing the obstacles to ratification of the peace negotiated by a former chargé d'affaires. In 1804, appointed Navy Agent to the Barbary States, he led an expedition in behalf of the deposed ruler of Tripoli, in an attempt to end the war between that country and the United States begun in 1801. When the success of the venture seemed almost secured with the capture of Derne, Eaton was surprised to be ordered to leave Tripoli, and to learn that negotiations by Tobias Lear for a peace, involving the ransom of American captives and maintaining the usurping ruler, were concluded.

Upon Eaton's return to America, his complaints and too outspoken denunciations of the peace with Tripoli deprived him of the sympathy that his exploits had aroused. He finally retired to his home in Brimfield, Massachusetts, and died, in 1811, a disappointed man.