Nathaniel Niles was born on December 27, 1791 in Fairlee, Vermont, United States. He was the son of Nathaniel Niles, pioneer settler of Fairlee, Vermont, dubbed by his contemporaries "the Athenian of the East Side of the Green Mountain. " His mother, Elizabeth (Watson) Niles, daughter of Judge William Watson of Plymouth, Massachussets, if less famous than her husband was hardly less talented and devout. Judge Samuel Niles of Braintree, Massachussets, was Nathaniel's grandfather, and Dr. Samuel Niles, famous New England clergyman, his great-grandfather. The founder of the Niles family came from England soon after the Massachusetts colony was established.
Education
Graduating from the Harvard Medical School in 1816, Nathaniel practised medicine for several years in Boston and then went to Paris for further study.
Career
When William C. Rives, American minister at Paris, resigned in 1830 to return to the United States, he left Niles in charge of the legation. Niles was officially appointed secretary of legation on November 9, 1830, and remained until 1833, when a new chargé d'affaires replaced him.
Losing interest in a medical career, he returned to America and sought another opening in the diplomatic service.
For more than a year he worked hard collecting information and negotiating with high officials, and when Henry A. P. Muhlenburg, the new American minister, arrived at Vienna to take over his work in 1838, Niles was able to report substantial progress. At Vienna the Count de Sambuy, Sardinian minister to Austria, suggested to Niles the desirability of forming diplomatic relations between Sardinia and the United States, which at this time had no relations with any of the Italian states. Niles reported the conversation to the State Department and was immediately given power to negotiate such a treaty, if it could be done within three months. He reached Turin in September 1838, and on November 26 a most-favored-nation treaty of commerce and navigation was signed. It was transmitted to the Senate, which voted for its ratification notwithstanding the fact that it had not been consulted as to the negotiations. This treaty stood until superseded in 1871 by the treaty with Italy following the union of the Italian states.
In 1839 Niles left the foreign service, but went again to Sardinia as chargé d'affaires from January 4, 1848, to August 20, 1850. During this period he submitted two interesting projects to the State Department, one involving the building of a Panama canal, to be under international control, the cost of construction and maintenance to be borne by the chief maritime nations; the other, a scheme for the exchange, free of duty, between the United States and Italy, Switzerland, and other European countries, of cheap editions of the national literature of each country in the original language, the main object of which was to promote international good feeling through mutual understanding of national cultures.
From 1850 until his death Niles's home was in New York City.
Achievements
Niles was appointed special diplomatic agent to Austria-Hungary, to find a market for American tobacco and to induce the Austrians to lower the high barriers against American commerce.
Connections
In Paris Niles married an accomplished French woman, Mme. Rosella Sue, widow of Dr. Sue, physician to King Louis XVIII.
