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'''François Barbé-Marbois''', [[Marquess|marquis]] de '''Barbé-Marbois''' (31 January 1745 – 12 February 1837) was a French politician.
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Born in [[Metz]], where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the [[Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries|Marquis de Castries]]. In 1779 he was made secretary of the French legation to the United States. In 1780, Barbé-Marbois sent a questionnaire to the governors of all thirteen former American colonies, seeking information about each state's geography, natural resources, history, and government. [[Thomas Jefferson]], who was then finishing his final term as Virginia's governor, responded to this query with a manuscript that later became his famous ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]''.<ref>R.E. Bernstein, ''Thomas Jefferson'', p. 50.</ref>
Barbé-Marbois was elected a Foreign Honorary Member to both the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members,
In 1785 he became [[intendant]] of the [[French colonial empires|colony]] of [[Saint-Domingue]] under the ''[[Ancien Régime]]''.
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At the close of 1789, he returned to France, and then placed his services at the disposal of the [[French Revolution]]ary government. In 1791 he was sent to [[Regensburg]] to help the [[Emmanuel Marie Louis, marquis de Noailles|Marquis de Noailles]], the French [[Ambassador (diplomacy)|ambassador]]. Suspected of [[treason]], he was arrested on his return but soon freed.
In 1795 he was elected to the [[Council of the Ancients]], where the general [[Moderate|moderation]] of his attitude, especially in his opposition to the [[French nobility|exclusion of nobles]] and the relations of ''[[émigré]]s'' from public life, brought him under suspicion of being a royalist, though he pronounced a
During the anti-[[House of Bourbon|Royalist]] ''
[[Image:Louisiana Purchase 150th anniversary 3c 1953 issue.jpg|thumb|300px|U.S. postage stamp (c. 1953) commemorating the [[Louisiana Purchase]]; Barbé-Marbois is pictured alongside [[James Monroe]] and [[Robert Livingston (1746-1813)|Robert Livingston]]]]
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