Edward Stevens (diplomat)

Edward Stevens (c. 1755 – September 26, 1834)^[1] was an American physician and diplomat.

Stevens was born in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. Stevens's father, the merchant Thomas Stevens,^[1] would also become the adoptive father of an orphaned Alexander Hamilton.^[2] According to Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton,^[3]people would often say that Edward Stevens and and Hamilton looked like brothers.Alexander later found out that Thomas Stevens was Hamilton's biological father, making Edward and Alexander half-brothers.^[2] Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, who knew both men in adulthood, noted that the men were strikingly similar in appearance and concluded that they must be brothers. Ron Chernow says many aspects of Hamilton's biography make more sense given Stevens's paternity. It would explain why Hamilton was adopted into the Stevens family while his brother, James, was not. It may have also been a factor in Hamilton's supposed father abandoning his family.^[4]

Stevens graduated from King's College in 1774 and continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh the next year. He enrolled in medical school starting in 1776 and graduated with an M.D. on September 12, 1777.^[1] Stevens documented his research on gastric digestion in his inaugural dissertation De alimentorum concoctione. Based on this work, he was the first researcher to isolate human gastric juices.^[1] His work confirmed that of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, who showed the digestive power of gastric juices, and helped dispel earlier theories of digestion.^[1] Stevens's work on digestion would influence Lazzaro Spallanzani.

On January 20, 1776, Stevens was admitted to the Royal Medical Society. He would later serve as its president in 1779 and 1780. Stevens conducted experimental inquiry into the color of blood and received a prize for his work. Stevens returned to St. Croix in 1783.^[1] Following the death of his wife, Eleanora, in 1792, Stevens decided to move to North America.^[5] Stevens had considered a move to Guyana, but William Thornton urged him to choose the United States.^[6] Also in 1792, Stevens married Hester Kortright Amory. Stevens ended his ten years of practicing medicine in the Caribbean and moved to Philadelphia in 1793. While in Philadelphia, he engaged in a controversy with Benjamin Rush on methods for treating an outbreak of yellow fever. Alexander Hamilton and his wife contracted the disease, and Stevens treated them with bark, wine, and cold baths, a regimen that stirred some controversy since Stevens spurned the bloodletting treatment advocated by most doctors including Rush. Upon his recovery, Hamilton became an advocate for Stevens's method.^[7] Stevens was admitted to the American Philosophical Society on April 18, 1794. Stevens's work in digestion may have influenced other researchers in Philadelphia, notably John Richardson Young. In 1795, Stevens was appointed as a professor at King's College.^[1]

Stevens served as the United States consul-general in Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) from 1799 to 1800.^[1] John Adams sent Stevens to Haiti with instructions to establish a relationship with Toussaint Louverture and express support for his regime.^[8] The Federalist administration hoped to incite a movement toward Haitian independence, but Louverture maintained a colonial relationship with France.^[9] Stevens's title, "consul", suggested a diplomat attached to a country not a colony, reflecting the administrations view of the Haitian situation.^[9] Following his arrival in Haiti in April 1799, Stevens succeeded in accomplishing several of his objectives, including: the suppression of privateers operating out of the colony, protections for American lives and property, and right of entry for American vessels.^[10] Stevens pushed for similar privileges for the British, who, like the United States (see Quasi-War) were engaged in war with France. Negotiations between Haiti and Britain were difficult given Haiti's fears of Britain's desire to take control of the colony, and Britain's fears of the Haitian slave revolt spreading to its own Caribbean colonies. In fact, Stevens had to serve as the British agent for a time since Haitian troops feared having a British official in the colony.^[11] The convention, signed on June 13, 1799, continued an armistice among the three parties, gave protections to British and American ships from privateers, and allowed American and British ships to enter the colony and engage in free trade.^[12] Stevens's correspondence with Timothy Pickering, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson provide important insight into US geopolitics during the Haitian Revolution.^[1]

Little is known of Stevens's last years. He corresponded with David Hosack, including a letter introducing his son in 1823.^[1]

References

1. CDSB 2008.
2. Kennedy 2000, p. 39.
3. Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton.
4. Chernow 2004, p. 28.
5. Johnson 2014, p. 72.
6. Johnson 2014.
7. Johnson 2014, p. 76.
8. Bender 2006, p. 108.
9. Girard 2009, p. 100.
10. Treudley 1916, p. 134.
11. Treudley 1916, p. 135-137.
12. Treudley 1916, p. 136.

Sources

• Bender, Thomas (2006). A nation among nations : America's place in world history. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 9780809072354.
• Chernow, Ron (2004). Alexander Hamilton. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-59420-009-0.
• Girard, P. R. (2009). "Black Talleyrand: Toussaint Louverture's Diplomacy, 1798–1802". The William and Mary Quarterly. 66 (1): 87–124. JSTOR 40212042.
• Kennedy, Roger G. (2000). Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199923793.
• Johnson, Ronald (2014). Diplomacy in Black and White : John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance. Athens London: The University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0820342122.
• "Stevens, Edward". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons. 2008.
• Treudley, Mary (1916). "The United States and Santo Domingo, 1789–1866". The Journal of Race Development. 7 (1): 83–145. doi:10.2307/29738186. JSTOR 29738186.