William Carmichael (diplomat)

William Carmichael
United States Ambassador to Spain
In office February 20, 1783 – September 5, 1794
President	George Washington
Preceded by	John Jay
Succeeded by	William Short
Personal details
Born	around 1739 Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Died	February 9, 1795 Madrid, Spain
Nationality	American
Occupation	statesman and diplomat

William Carmichael (c. 1739–1795) was an American statesman and diplomat from Maryland during and after the Revolutionary War. He participated in Benjamin Franklin's mission to Paris in 1776-8, represented Maryland in the Continental Congress in 1778 and 1779 and was the principal diplomat for the United States to Spain from 1782 to 1794.

Carmichael was born sometime around 1739 at the family home (Round Top) in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, on the Chester River just opposite Chestertown. Apparently, he was sent to Europe for his education, at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He was living in Chestertown in 1774, and was a member of its Committee of Correspondence during the local controversy over dutiable tea (the so-called "Chestertown Tea Party"). But by the time the Revolutionary War began, he had decamped to London, England, and soon after, in 1776, made his way to Paris, carrying letters to the Continental Congress sewn inside the cover of a pocket dictionary.

In 1776 the Congress named Carmichael as a Secret Agent, first as an assistant to Silas Deane. He is credited with befriending the Marquis de Lafayette and recruiting the teenage aristocrat to the American cause; when Lafayette traveled to America, he carried with him a letter of introduction from Carmichael to George Washington's aide Tench Tilghman, a fellow Marylander from the Eastern Shore. Carmichael later represented American interests at the court of Frederick II of Prussia in Berlin. He returned to America in February 1778 and the Maryland Assembly sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

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