J. Meredith Read
John Meredith Read, Jr. (February 21, 1837, Philadelphia – December 27, 1896, Paris) was a United States diplomat and author.
Biography
J. Meredith Read was the son of Philadelphia jurist John Meredith Read, Sr. He was a graduate of Brown University, where he received the degree of A.M. in 1866, graduated from Albany Law School in 1859, studied international law in Europe, was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia, and afterward moved to Albany, New York. He was Adjutant General of New York from 1860 to 1866, was one of the originators of the “Wide-Awake” political clubs in 1860. He was chairman in April of the same year of the committee of three to draft a bill in behalf of New York State, appropriating $300,000 for the purchase of arms and equipments, and he subsequently received the thanks of the war department for his ability and zeal in organizing, equipping, and forwarding troops.
J. Meredith Read was the first U. S. consul general for France and Algeria in 1869-1873 and 1870-1872, and acting consul general for Germany during the Franco-Prussian War. His work representing German interests in Paris lasted several months after U.S. minister to France Elihu Washburne ceased being official representative of the German government in June 1871.[1] After the war, he was appointed by General Ernest Courtot de Cissey, French minister of war, to form and preside over a commission to examine into the desirability of teaching the English language to the French troops.
In November 1873, he was appointed U. S. minister resident in Greece. One of his first acts was to secure the release of the American ship Armenia and to obtain from the Greek government a revocation of the order that prohibited the sale of the Bible in Greece. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, he discovered that only one port in Russia was still open, and he pointed out to Secretary of State William M. Evarts the advantages that would accrue to the commerce of the United States were a grain fleet dispatched from New York City to that port. The event justified his judgment, since the exports of cereals from the United States showed an increase within a year of $73,000,000. While minister to Greece, he received the thanks of the U.S. government for his effectual protection of persons and interests of the United States in the dangerous crisis of 1878. Soon afterward the United States Congress, from motives of economy, refused the appropriation for the legation at Athens, and Read, believing that the time was too critical to withdraw the mission, carried it on at his individual expense until his resignation on September 23, 1879.
In 1881, when, owing in part to his efforts, after his resignation, the territory that had been adjudged to Greece had been finally transferred, King George created him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, the highest dignity in the gift of the Greek government. After 1881, he continued residing in Paris.[1] Read was president of the social science congress at Albany in 1868, and vice president of the one at Plymouth, England, in 1872. He wrote Historical Enquiry concerning Henry Hudson, which discussed Hudson's origins, and the sources of the ideas that guided that navigator (Albany, 1866). Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy; from Roman Times to Voltaire, Rousseau and Gibbon was published in 1897. He also made contributions to current literature, including 
Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1892). "Hudson, Henry". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
Notes
- 1 2 Fuller, Joseph V. (1935). "Read, John Meredith, diplomat". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Read, John, planter". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.