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6 REMINISCENCES OP FAMOUS GEORGIANS.
body, but one of the most active workers in the commit
tee-room, and he was serving on the foreign relations
committee when the gaze of President Madison rested
upon him in connection with the diplomatic errand in
question; and, having duly received his commission, he
engaged passage on an outgoing vessel and started to
France in 1813.
Accompanying Mr. Crawford to France as secretary
of legation went Prof. Henry Jackson, an accomplished
young educator who had recently been called to the fac
ulty of Franklin College. Professor Jackson was the
younger brother of the famous Governor James Jackson
and the father of the late Gen. Henry R. Jackson. An
intimate friendship had induced Mr. Crawford to invite
Professor Jackson to accompany him; and the board of
trustees had granted the young professor special leave of
absence for the purpose of making this trip.
Mr. Crawford remained abroad some two years; and
if not in France at the time of the battle of Waterloo he
at least appears to have witnessed the return of Napoleon
from Elba. The period was most eventful; but, even
amid the waning fortunes of the empire, the court of
France was surpassingly brilliant. Despite the republi
can basis on which the government was supposed to rest an
oriental monarch could not have surrounded himself with
greater pomp than attended the appearance of Napoleon
upon the throne. And the imperial magnificence was
never greater than when William H. Crawford arrived
upon the scene.
It was on this occasion that the American ambassador
received from the emperor an involuntary tribute the like