1799 and 1800. He was elected as a Republican1 to the Eighth Congress.
During the 1790s the Hammonds involved themselves in French diplomat Edmond-Charles Genet's schemes to launch a military assauld against Spanish East Florida, but their association ended when Spanish authorities arrested Abner Hammond in St. Augustine.
In 1802 he was elected to Congress, where he renewed his acquaintance with President Jefferson He served from March 4, 1803, until February 2, 1805.
He engaged in extensve mercantile transactions which brought him into touch with South American trade and gave him a knowledge of both French and Spanish.
In 1805, Hammond was appointed by President Jefferson Military and Civil Governor of Upper Louisiana (Missouri). In the spring of that year he
1. Appleton's Encyclopedia says Democrat. The Democratic-Republican Party or Republican Party was an American political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Political scientists use the former name, while historians prefer the latter one; contemporaries generally called the party the "Republicans." The opposing party were the Federalists who supported a strong central government and federal bank.
