Background
James Bowdoin was born on September 22, 1752, in Boston. He was the only son of Governor James Bowdoin. He was third in succession to bear the name and the last of the Boston branch of the family in the male line.
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Diplomat merchant philanthropist statesman
James Bowdoin was born on September 22, 1752, in Boston. He was the only son of Governor James Bowdoin. He was third in succession to bear the name and the last of the Boston branch of the family in the male line.
Bowdoin graduated from Harvard in 1771 and then studied at Christ Church, Oxford.
After completing his studies at Christ Church, Oxford, James Bowdoin traveled in Europe and returned to Massachusetts shortly after the outbreak of the Revolution. Unable to enter military service because of bad health, which handicapped him throughout life, he engaged in mercantile business for several years. Like the other members of the family, he seems to have been a successful businessman but his property had now reached the stage where undoubtedly he could apply to his own affairs the rules he suggested "as a friend who had had a little experience upon this subject" to George W. Erving.
He was five times elected to the General Court as representative of Dorchester, 1786-90, was a member of the state Senate in 1794 and 1801, and of the Governor's Council in 1796. He was also a member of the convention of 1788, where he spoke and voted for the ratification of the Federal Constitution.
In 1796, he moved from Dorchester to Boston. Since he was a Jeffersonian Republican, in spite of connections social and otherwise which might have been expected to draw him into the opposite party, strong Federalist predominance in the Boston district after 1801 ended any chance of political advancement in the region. In 1797, he published anonymously Opinions Respecting the Commercial Intercourse Between the United States of America, and the Dominions of Great Britain, Including Observations upon the Necessity of an American Navigation Act, which in its strictures on British trade regulations, its keen analysis of commercial principles, and its vigorous demand for a retaliatory policy is reminiscent of some of his father's pronouncements thirty years before.
In November 1804, he was appointed a minister to Spain by President Jefferson and sailed for his post the following spring, his health in the meantime having become so seriously impaired that he dared not risk a journey to Washington for a farewell interview with the President. The Administration was then engaged in devious negotiations with Spain regarding the possible acquisition of West Florida, the western boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, and sundry spoliation claims.
On reaching the Spanish coast in the summer of 1805 he learned that his predecessor had been successful in negotiating a treaty and that relations with Spain were so unsatisfactory that he deemed it inadvisable to proceed to Madrid, a decision which met the approval of the President and Secretary of State. He spent some time in England and then in Paris. On March 17, 1806, negotiations were transferred to Paris, where he was empowered, together with General Armstrong, minister to France, to conduct new negotiations respecting Florida.
This, of course, meant that all transactions would be dominated by Napoleon whom Bowdoin described as "the wonder, the dread, the admiration of Europe. "Spain, he had already discovered, was "so completely under control of this government that it has but the semblance of independence, and it may be considered as little more than a department of France with the Prince of Peace its perfect".
His experience during the next two years was unfortunate. He failed to maintain working relations with his colleague, and his letters disclose frequent annoyances and rebuff. Negotiations failed, Napoleon's ruthlessness, foresight, and deceit completely baffling the American diplomats who were as unsuited for such a contest as Massachusetts militia officers would have been for Austerlitz or Wagram.
He returned to America in 1808, receiving, however, friendly assurances of confidence and esteem from the President. The remainder of his life was given to study and the improvement of his agricultural property, especially the estate at Nashawn Island, Buzzard's Bay, where his death occurred three years later.
One of his last activities was the translation of Louis Daubenton's Instruction pour les bergers et pour les proprietaires de troupeaux (1810), an edition of which he printed at his own expense in the interest of the growing woolen industry.
He is reported to have been increasingly active in various philanthropic activities during his last years. He had already donated land and money to the college which had been named in honor of his father and he made additional bequests in his will, including a collection of paintings and drawings made while abroad, his library and scientific apparatus.
Dying without issue, he made the college residuary legatee and following the death of his nephew, James Temple Bowdoin, a reversionary interest in the estate brought a further notable increase to its resources in 1844, although not without troublesome litigation.
James Bowdoin died on 1811 on Naushon Island in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.
James Bowdoin was five times elected to the General Court as representative of Dorchester, 1786-90, he was a member of the state Senate in 1794 and 1801, and of the Governor's Council in 1796. His other achievement was in publishing in 1797 his written work titled Opinions Respecting the Commercial Intercourse Between the United States of America, and the Dominions of Great Britain, Including Observations upon the Necessity of an American Navigation Act, which contained a keen analysis of commercial principles in regards to British trade regulations. He also translated Louis Daubenton's Instruction pour les bergers et pour les proprietaires de troupeaux (1810), an edition of which he printed at his own expense in the interest of the growing woolen industry. His later years were signified by an active participation in philanthropic activities. For example, he donated land and money to the college which had been named in honor of his father and he made additional bequests in his will, including a collection of paintings and drawings made while abroad, his library and scientific apparatus. Another Bowdoin's achievement was in his election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1786.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
In his political affiliation James Bowdoin was a Jeffersonian Republican.
Quotations: "Avoid all speculations with a view to accumulation. You will find the legal interest of money upon good securities, or investments in the public stocks of the U. S. for your productive capital, and the lands of the U. S. from their gradual increase in value will be the best plan of appropriating such sums as you may not require for your immediate support. A man who is not and cannot be at the beginning and end of active commercial concerns ought never to be engaged in them . "
Bowdoin was unable to enter military service because of bad health, which handicapped him throughout life.
James Bowdoin married on May 18, 1781, his cousin Sarah, daughter of his father's half-brother, William Bowdoin.
7 August 1726 - 6 November 1790
14 September 1731 - 23 October 1809
1750 - 25 October 1809
1761 - 24 May 1826
American diplomat and U.S. Consul in London, from 1801 to 1804.
