Tobias Lear is best known as George Washington's personal secretary, but he was also a man of great financial ambition. In 1792, Lear had plans to use his connections to strike it rich through the purchase of land along the thriving Potomac river and court foreign investors. Later, Lear moved from personal secretary to the unofficial American consul to Santa Domingo. Still trying to strike it rich, Lear tried to profit from his unofficial and nonsalaried position. But when the capital city was destroyed by the French navy, Lear returned to Virginia and spent the next year petitioning Congress to forgive his mounting personal debts that he insisted were earned while patriotically serving his country. Congress refused, but in 1803 President Jefferson offered Tobias Lear a lucrative opportunity to be the Consul General to the infamous Barbary coast of North Africa. The mission was dangerous, but the salary and expenses were enticing. Most importantly, it was another opportunity for Lear to conduct his private business.
Lear and his new wife were supposed to board the ship Philadelphia, but plans changed and they sailed on the on the USS Constitution to Algiers instead. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia and it's 300 crew members were captured and held hostage. Lear had a leading role in the negotiations for the release of the hostages during the Treaty of Tripoli for which he received a healthy fee. Colonel Lear remained in Algiers for nine profitable years. His primary job was to keep peace with the Dey of Algiers, a man who was known to execute those who displeased him by decapitation. But in 1812, Tobias Lear fell out of favor with the dey and was forced to flee the country back to the United States.
James Madison was embroiled in the War of 1812, but still gave this a brief mention in his state of the union address that year. He did not mention Lear by name, but no doubt the men of Congress were aware of this man.
"With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs remain on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with that Regency has suddenly and without cause been banished, together with all the American citizens found there. Whether this was the transitory effect of capricious despotism or the first act of predetermined hostility is not ascertained. Precautions were taken by the consul on the latter supposition."Just four years later, Lear was said to have committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. Aside from his life-long desire to profit from political appointments, he was accused of destroying many of George Washington's letters and diary entries which he kept possession of for about a year after Washington's death while working on a biography with Washington's nephew Bushrod Washington. Lear denied that he destroyed the documents, but a letter from Lear to Alexander Hamilton was later found. The letter showed Lear offering to suppress some of Washington's documents that he thought should be withheld from further inspection.
Here is a letter from Tobias Lear to James Madison, where he discusses among other things his hurried leave from Algiers. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-05-02-0176
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29454
http://www.seacoastnh.com/history/rev/lear.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Lear
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Interview_with_the_Dey.png
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