Jonathan Russell was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on February 27, 1771, the son of Jonathan and Abigail (Russell) Russell. He attended the local schools and graduated from Rhode Island College (now Brown University) with a Bachelor of Arts in 1791 and a Master of Arts in 1794. He studied law and was but did not practice. He engaged in the mercantile business, importing goods from Europe for sale in America. In 1801, he was appointed U.S. Collector of Customs for the Port of Bristol.

In 1811, President James Madison appointed Russell as Chargé d’Affaires in Paris. He acted as Minister to France following the departure of John Armstrong Jr. and before the arrival of Armstrong’s successor, Joel Barlow. He soon transferred to England, where he was Chargé d’Affaires and acting Minister when the United States declared war in 1812. The United States and its allies fought the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the United States Congress ratified the peace treaty on February 17, 1815. Anglo-American tensions originated from long-standing differences over territorial expansion in North America and British support for Tecumseh’s confederacy, which resisted U.S. colonial settlement in the Old Northwest. These escalated in 1807 after the Royal Navy began enforcing tighter restrictions on American trade with France and impressed sailors who were originally British subjects, even those who had acquired American citizenship.

Opinions in the U.S. on how to respond were split. Although majorities in the House and Senate voted for the war, they divided along strict party lines, with the Democratic-Republican Party in favor and the Federalist Party against. News of British concessions made to avoid war did not reach the U.S. until late July, when the conflict was already underway. At sea, the Royal Navy imposed an effective blockade on U.S. maritime trade, while between 1812 and 1814, British regulars and colonial militia defeated a series of American invasions on Upper Canada. The April 1814 abdication of Napoleon allowed the British to send additional forces to North America and reinforce the Royal Navy blockade, weakening the American economy. In August 1814, negotiations began in Ghent, with both sides wanting peace; the trade embargo had severely impacted the British economy, while the Federalists convened the Hartford Convention in December to formalize their opposition to the war.

In August 1814, British troops captured Washington before American victories at Baltimore, and Plattsburgh ended fighting in the north in September. In the Southeastern United States, American forces and Indian allies defeated an anti-American faction of the Muscogee. In early 1815, American troops repulsed a major British attack on New Orleans, which occurred during the ratification process of signing the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the conflict. Russell was one of the five commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Ghent with Great Britain in 1814, which ended the War of 1812. In 1817, he was Minister to Sweden and Norway from January 18, 1814, to October 16, 1818. He returned to the United States in 1818 and settled in Mendon, Massachusetts.

In November 1820, Russell was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He served in the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821 – March 3, 1823), and was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the first individual to hold this position. In 1822, Russell authored a pamphlet accusing John Quincy Adams, one of Russell’s fellow negotiators at Ghent in 1814, of favoring British interests in those treaty talks. Russell intended the pamphlet to further Henry Clay’s presidential candidacy against Adams in the 1824 election. Adams’s responsive pamphlets were so devastating in impugning Russell’s integrity that they engendered the phrase “to Jonathan Russell” someone, meaning to refute an attacker’s falsehoods so effectively that it destroys the attacker’s reputation.

When the Marquis de Lafayette visited the United States in 1824 and 1825, his itinerary while in Massachusetts included an August 23, 1824, visit to Russell’s home in Mendon. Russell had known Lafayette since 1811 and decorated his home for a lavish celebration with the anticipation of renewing their friendship. As United States Secretary of State and a longtime friend of Lafayette, Adams was part of Layette’s traveling party. On the day of the planned visit, Adams humiliated Russell again by having the schedule changed without informing Russell so that Lafayette bypassed Mendon and traveled directly to Providence.

In 1796, Russell married Sylvia Ammidon (1773–1811) of Mendon. In 1817, he married Lydia Smith (1786–1859). He was the father of eight children, four with each wife. Russell died in Milton, Massachusetts, on February 17, 1832. He was inducted into The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2012.

For additional reading:

1. Tremblay, Bob (April 30, 2016). “A Hand in Treaty of Ghent.” The Milford Daily News. Milford, MA.

2. Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Boston, MA.

3. Tucker, Spencer, ed. (2012). The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Vol. I: A–K. Santa Barbara, CA.

4. Brown University (1914). Historical Catalogue of Brown University, 1764–1914. Springfield, MA: F. A. Bassette Company. p. 62..

5. United States Congress (1950). Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1767.

6. Metcalf, John G. (1880). Annals of the Town of Mendon from 1659 to 1880. Providence, RI: E. L. Freeman & Co. p. 506.

7. Stone, Kurt F. (December 29, 2010). The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members. pp. 410–411.

8. Teele, Albert Kendall, ed. (1888). The History of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1887. Boston, MA: Rockwell & Churchill. p. 549.

9. Bartlett, John Russell (1879). Genealogy of that Branch of the Russell Family, which Comprised the Descendants of John Russell of Woburn, Massachusetts, 1640–1878. Providence, RI: Providence Press Company. pp. 38, 52–53.

10. United States Congress. “Jonathan Russell (id: R000531).” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

11. The papers of merchant, diplomat, and Massachusetts Congressman Jonathan Russell, Class of 1791, provide information on an early critical period of American politics and diplomacy. Included are records, notes, and correspondence for the period 1795-1830, during which Russell was a member of the United States Commission to draw up the Treaty of Ghent following the War of 1812 and, later, Minister to Sweden and Norway. There are also several hundred letters from Russell to President James Monroe and 22 from Monroe concerning commercial and diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe. Some 120 letters Russell exchanged with John Quincy Adams span from 1798 to 1823. Format(s): Manuscripts, Letters, Documents Library: John Hay