One of Jefferson’s most prolific correspondents was a little-known Franco-German named Philippe Reibelt, at different times a spy, archivist, failed land speculator, bookseller, and would-be government official. It should come as no surprise that the largest portion of his and Jefferson’s exchange of letters—165 in total!—involved Reibelt’s efforts to add to the president’s groaning bookshelves. Yet their correspondence reveals much else about Reibelt and his unsuccessful efforts to find a place in a country that he believed pointed to a more just and hopeful future for humanity.

Reibelt first made himself known to Jefferson in November 1802, having landed in Norfolk, Virginia. He identified himself as a native of the Palatinate, the formerly Germanic region on the left bank of the Rhine River that was now part of France. As agent for a woman, Louise Françoise Félix, who had acquired a grant of land in Ohio from the Polish hero of the American Revolution Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Reibelt needed papers from Jefferson, who was Kosciuszko’s stateside attorney. It is apparent, however, that Reibelt was more than an agent. He was actually the spouse of Madame Félix. Why he chose to obscure this fact in his representations is unclear, as it would have had no impact on his dealings with Jefferson. Although the president presumably handed over the papers to Reibelt, there is no evidence that the two actually met or that Jefferson would have taken any special notice of a foreign land speculator. Reibelt’s efforts to cash in on western lands came quickly to grief. Within a year, he was back east, pleading to Jefferson for help: first for introductions, then for a position in New Orleans, and finally for loans of money. Jefferson replied to none of these entreaties. A year later Reibelt reintroduced himself as Baltimore-based agent for a European bookselling concern. Eureka! Jefferson responded immediately (while also noting in his epistolary record that Reibelt was now “a book seller”). A four-year period of correspondence commenced.

Their initial exchange reinforces much of what we know about Jefferson’s bottomless appetite for books. Reibelt’s strategy was risky but effective: he sent boxes of books to the president and billed for any volumes that Jefferson decided to keep. A first shipment of three cases yielded sales of 13 titles to Jefferson for about $84 and another 10 titles to the State Department for $114.50. In this and subsequent transactions Reibelt helped Jefferson acquire French works in science, art, and literature, and Latin works on politics and geography. Jefferson also ordered for his family ancient classics and editions of French and English favorites, such as Laurence Sterne, Molière, and John Milton. Although Reibelt’s tenure as a bookseller only lasted for about a year, he did in excess of $500 of business with Jefferson, and a delayed shipment that Reibelt consigned to other Baltimore merchants was worth almost another $200.

Through this correspondence emerge details about the cultured, anxious man who is so prominent in our series. Reibelt was surely well educated, and he had evidently been excited by the revolutionary fervor accompanying the French armies that swept over the Rhine valley in the 1790s. By his own account he served as a political attaché to a French army general, a role either coterminous or deriving from his work as a secret agent on behalf of France, which registered him under the pseudonym “Gleichen” as one of the country’s informants in German lands. Having been dispatched to propagate revolutionary principles among German merchants, intellectuals, and politicians, he was entrusted with organizing the city of Speyer. He then took charge of the archives of the Helvetic republic in Lucerne. Reibelt shared with Jefferson transcripts of testimonials from 1799 by officers in the Swiss government, praising his services and requesting that he be allowed to remain archivist. Whether by his own choice or by orders from French authorities, Reibelt did not stay in Lucerne. Three years later he emigrated to the United States.

Despite the small level of success he achieved selling books, at least to one customer, Reibelt seems to have loathed commerce. He continued, nevertheless, to nurture a relationship with his principal patron, whom he addressed in ever more flowery terms: “Venerable Chef des Republicains!” or “Venerable Chef des tous les hommes eclaires!” He sent to Jefferson gifts of prints, a recently bred form of Italian maize called quarantino, and a magnet that, once recharged, became in Jefferson’s estimation “probably the most powerful magnet” in the United States. After visiting Monticello in the summer of 1805, during which he aided in the demonstration of a hydraulic pump, Reibelt discussed plans for buying a farm in the area. Yet, the life of a farmer likely appealed to him no more than the life of a business man. He aspired for something greater.

America, however, proved a rough environment in which to fulfill his hopes. Turning his sights again on the west, Reibelt lobbied for a position in Orleans Territory and in early 1806 received an appointment through the War Department to run the U.S. trading factory at Natchitoches, a French settlement at the very edge of U.S. territorial control. The appointment could not have been more ill-suited. Believing that he would be serving as U.S. agent to Native Americans in the area, in charge of cultivating alliances and pacifying potential hostilities, Reibelt found himself instead a mere trader of goods. He never took up the post, and Jefferson had no choice but to rescind the appointment. Reibelt instead stayed mostly in New Orleans, from which he sent to Jefferson several lengthy reports. In early 1807 Reibelt attached himself to U.S. commanding general James Wilkinson, who was cracking down on any suspected associates of Aaron Burr in the city. Reibelt worked as a spy for Wilkinson, whose repressive approach did little to endear the administration to local residents. Jefferson, unaware of these activities, recommended Reibelt to territorial governor William C. C. Claiborne as “a very learned man, a sincere republican,” and “honest.” Claiborne complied, appointing Reibelt as a judge in Avoyelles Parish, a position that, along with a small farm, Claiborne hoped would make Reibelt “comfortable.” Almost immediately, however, Reibelt was chafing at the small responsibilities of his new job and lobbying Jefferson to supplement it with a federal appointment. Early in 1808, the territorial legislature voted to oust him from the judgeship for, in Claiborne’s words, exercising “an authority unknown to law.” Reibelt protested to Jefferson that the removal constituted revenge for his work for Wilkinson. It also seems to have sounded the death knell for his American dreams. In the spring of 1809, he and his family moved to Havana. He died there in October, having planned a trip to the United States and a hoped-for visit with Jefferson. Reibelt’s widow, left with four small children, also indicated to Jefferson that she would be returning to the United States, but there is no evidence that she ever did.

While praising Reibelt to Claiborne, Jefferson indicated his fears that the émigré was “not calculated to make his way in this world.” Reibelt’s struggles offer some confirmation of this assessment. Still, he was successful in one endeavor, cultivating a powerful and interested patron. Jefferson found in Reibelt a connection to the finer aspects of Europe: improvements in scientific understanding most of all, but also artistic and cultural adornments rarely present in rustic America. That connection proved insufficient. Having failed, like so many others, at land speculation, Reibelt craved something more than the simple, grinding life of a small-time merchant or a farmer or a backwoods judge. Instead, he sought roles similar to the ones he had performed on Europe’s revolutionary stage. By attaching himself to Jefferson, he could recommit himself to the republican ideals then fading in Napoleonic Europe. Alas, Reibelt’s America dreams were too big and, due to his penchant for political intrigue, too misshapened for a country more welcoming to commercial strivers than to idealists.

Further Reading:

Reibelt’s correspondence is in Volumes 39, 41, and 44-48, and will appear in every subsequent volume. His final letter to Jefferson is in Volume 1 of the Retirement Series, and a letter from Madame Reibelt is in Volume 2.