174 ROSENGARTEN— MOREAU de SAINT MERY. [April 20, 



and encouragement he recorded in his diary. He tried to get Jeffer- 

 son to recommend to Congress protection for his infant industry. 

 In 1791 he offered his country house to Washington as a home during 

 the session of Congress and " hoped the country which owes its 

 Hberty to your wisdom and miUtary talent will owe her wine to 

 your generosity." 



In 1793 the Legislature of Pennsylvania chartered a company to 

 promote the cultivation of vines, with a capital of $20,000 in $2 

 shares; in 1800 the stock was fixed by a law passed by the Legisla- 

 ture at $1 a share down, and the balance of the $20 in easy instal- 

 ments. Later he advertised that apprentices, black or white, would 

 be received, with terms of payment, and the promise of a gift of 

 vines that they could take home and start the industry wherever they 

 lived. In 1802 the company received its charter and organized. 

 Among the stockholders were Thomas McKean, Robert Morris, 

 Genet, Duponceau, Stephen Girard, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron 

 Burr, Jared Ingersoll, Muhlenberg, Bartram and other notable people 

 of the 385 subscribers to the stock of the Pennsylvania Vine Co. 

 Legaux was elected superintendent at a salary of $600 a year with 

 residence and living at the farm. Expenses soon outran receipts, the 

 managers quarreled with Legaux, litigation brought ruin, and he, 

 harassed, worried, disappointed, became a mere servant where he 

 had once been a genial host, finally succumbed and broken in spirit 

 died in 1827, and was buried at Barren Hill. Thus sadly closed 

 another one of the frequent failures of French enterprises in the 

 L'nited States.^ 



Moreau de St. Mery kept a journal, cited by Pichot in his " Souve- 

 nirs intimes de Talleyrand," in which he speaks of Talleyrand's 

 frequent visits to his book store, meeting there N^oailles, Rochefou- 

 cauld, Omer Talon, Volney and others less famous. 



While the host dined meagerly on rice and milk cooked in his 

 store, Talleyrand enjoyed drinking his own old Madeira, and was 

 the life of the party. When Blacon called him monseigneur all 

 the company burst into a hearty laugh. Talleyrand urged Napo- 

 leon to erect a statue of Washington in Paris and to give France the 



'^Philadelphia Press, September g, 1899, article by Samuel Gordon Smythe. 



