Background
Jonathan Williams was born on May 26, 1750 in Boston, the son of Jonathan Williams, a prosperous merchant, and Grace (Harris) Williams, daughter of Benjamin Franklin's sister, Anne.
Jonathan Williams was born on May 26, 1750 in Boston, the son of Jonathan Williams, a prosperous merchant, and Grace (Harris) Williams, daughter of Benjamin Franklin's sister, Anne.
Having received their early education in the Boston schools, Jonathan and a brother were sent to London in 1770, to complete their training and make contacts under Franklin's tutelage.
When Franklin became a commissioner of the Continental Congress to France in 1776, Williams gave up the promising business connections he had made in London and joined his kinsman. He was immediately employed by the commissioners as their agent at Nantes to inspect the arms and other supplies they were having shipped from that port. Congress had already appointed a commercial agent there, Thomas Morris, whose constant drunkenness made him totally unfit for work.
Morris, a half-brother of Robert, was jealous of Williams and would not cooperate with him. Affairs at Nantes got into such a tangle that Franklin and Silas Deane in desperation sent John Ross, a Philadelphia merchant temporarily in France, to make an investigation. Ross, assured that reports of Morris' debauchery were not exaggerated, advised Williams to assume control until William Lee, who had been asked by Congress to join Morris, should arrive. Through this attempt to carry on temporarily the vital work of making shipments, selling prizes, etc. , Williams became involved in the controversy which arose between Deane and Arthur Lee, and was charged by Lee with plotting to supersede all other officials at Nantes and with appropriating for private purposes 100, 000 livres of public money.
The charges were found false by a committee of merchants at Nantes and were never considered by Congress, but Franklin was so incensed at the Lees' unjustified denunciations that he made no further attempt to place Williams in public service, though he was several times employed to purchase supplies. He remained in Europe engaged in various business ventures until Franklin returned home in 1785.
Williams accompanied Franklin to America, and a few years later established a home at Philadelphia, where his rating as a well-to-do merchant, joined with his relationship to Franklin, found him ready acceptance. He became in 1796 associate judge in the court of common pleas, and acquired reputation, also, as a scientist. He had worked with Franklin in some of his later experiments and published in 1799 a treatise entitled Thermometrical Navigation. Other results of his experimentation appeared in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, of which he was at various times secretary, councillor, and vice-president.
His scientific interests brought him into contact with Thomas Jefferson, who, impressed by Williams' theoretical knowledge of fortifications, acquired while he was in France, appointed him in 1801 inspector of fortifications and superintendent at West Point, with the rank of major.
Shortly afterward, Congress established the military academy, and Williams, as the ranking engineer at West Point, became automatically its first superintendent. His interest in military education, as in all questions of national defense, was deep, but in his attempts to make a first-rate school he labored under so many handicaps that the academy cannot be said to have prospered. The number of instructors, fixed by Congress, was too small, and there were frequent changes; many subjects considered by Williams to be essential for military education were not included; the buildings and equipment were inadequate; a library hardly existed and the war department refused to purchase scientific books on the plea that so many changes in scientific thought were occurring that textbooks could not be sufficiently up to date to be useful.
Dissatisfied with his rank and limited control over cadets who were not in the engineering corps, Williams resigned in 1803, but at Jefferson's insistence accepted reappointment in 1805, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of engineers and with complete authority over all cadets.
His work at West Point was additionally impeded by the fact that his duties as the ranking engineer of the army called him frequently away on long trips of inspection. He also had charge of some construction work, notably the defenses of New York harbor, which he personally planned and supervised. In his absences the academy barely continued to exist. With the retirement of Jefferson, Williams suffered another blow. A Federalist, he had always been distrusted by the secretary of war, Henry Dearborn; under Madison's secretary of war, William Eustis, the antagonism of the war department toward the Military Academy increased. Supplies and funds were withheld; new cadets were not appointed when vacancies occurred.
Williams specifically recommended to both Jefferson and Madison two things - removal of the academy to Washington, where it would be near the controlling authority, and centralization of control in the hands of the President. Jefferson approved of both recommendations, but neither was heeded by Congress or considered by Madison and Eustis.
On July 31, 1812, Williams resigned from the army, embittered because of his failure at West Point and also because at the outbreak of the war he had not been given command of the fortifications at New York. During the war he became brevet brigadier-general of New York militia and was on a committee in Philadelphia for preparing adequate defenses for the Delaware. He was elected to Congress in 1814, but did not live to take his seat.
While in the army, he published The Elements of Fortification (1801), a translation from the French made for the war department; Manoeuvres of Horse Artillery (1808), a translation of the work by Tadeuz Kosciuszko. He was instrumental, also, in the founding, during his service at West Point, of the Military Philosophical Society to promote military science and history.
On September 12, 1779, he married Mariamne, daughter of William Alexander of Edinburgh, Scotland.
