1796 - John Marshall goes to France

     The future chief justice, John Marshall, boarded the square rigger Grace, on July 17, and sailed for France as an official envoy of the Federal government. (for more, click here)

      Marshall would conduct his official duties in Paris at the same time Napoleon's foreign minister, Talleyrand, was secretly working out the details of the Treaty of San Illdefonso with Spain in which Spain returned the Louisiana Territory to French control.