Anson Burlingame
Encyclopedia
Anson Burlingame was
an American lawyer, legislator, and diplomat, born in New Berlin
, Chenango County
, New York
. In 1823 his parents (Joel Burlingame and Freelove Angell) took him to Ohio
, and about ten years afterwards to Michigan
. Between 1838 and 1841 he studied at the Detroit branch of the University of Michigan
, and in 1846 graduated from Harvard Law School
. On June 3, 1847 he married Jane Cornelia Livermore. They had sons Edward Livermore Burlingame (born 1848) and Walter Angell Burlingame (b. 1852), as well as a daughter Gertrude Burlingame (b. 1856).
constitutional convention in 1853, of the state senate from 1853 to 1854, and of the United States House of Representatives
from 1855 to 1861, being elected for the first term as a Know Nothing and afterwards as a member of the new Republican Party, which he helped to organize in Massachusetts. He is a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon
fraternity (Sigma chapter).
of South Carolina
viciously assault
ed Senator Charles Sumner
of Massachusetts
in the Senate chamber with his metal-tipped cane; three days previously, Sumner had delivered a vituperative oratory criticizing President Franklin Pierce
and Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (Bleeding Kansas
). In particular, Sumner acidly lambasted Brooks' uncle, Senator Andrew Butler
, who was not in attendance when the speech was read, describing slavery as a harlot, comparing Butler with Don Quixote for embracing it, and mocking Butler for a physical handicap. Three days later, Brooks advanced upon Sumner while he worked at his desk in the Senate chamber and beat him into unconsciousness, ripping his desk from the floor in the process. Brooks continued to strike Sumner's prone and unconscious form until he snapped his heavy gutta percha cane in two. He received no official censure from his colleagues in the House of Representatives, and was indeed hailed as a hero in much of the South.
Shortly afterwards, Burlingame delivered what The New York Times
referred to as "the most celebrated speech" of his career: a scathing denunciation of Brooks' assault on Sumner, branding him as "the vilest sort of coward" on the floor of the Senate. In response, Brooks challenged Burlingame to a duel
, stating he would gladly face him "in any Yankee mudsill of his choosing". Burlingame, a well-known marksman, eagerly accepted, choosing rifles as the weapons and the Navy Yards on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border in Niagara Falls, NY as the location (in order to circumvent the US ban on dueling). Brooks, reportedly dismayed by both Burlingame's unexpectedly enthusiastic acceptance and his reputation as a crack shot, neglected to show up, instead citing unspecified risks to his safety if he was to cross "hostile country" (the Northern states) in order to reach Canada. Burlingame's solid defense of a fellow Bostonian colleague greatly raised his stature in his home state of Massachusetts.
On March 22, 1861 President Abraham Lincoln
appointed Burlingame as Minister
to the Austrian Empire
, but Burlingame, who had championed the Hungarian Lajos Kossuth
and his drive for independence from the Austrian Empire, was not acceptable and did not serve.
On June 14, 1861 Lincoln instead appointed Burlingame as minister to the Qing Empire
. Burlingame worked for a cooperative policy rather than the imperialistic policies of force which had been used during the First
and Second Opium War
s and developed relations with the reform elements of the court. On November 16, 1867 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to head a Chinese diplomatic mission to the United States and the principal European nations. The mission, which included two Chinese ministers, an English and a French secretary, six students from Peking, and a considerable retinue, arrived in the United States in March 1868. Burlingame used his personal relations with the Republican administration to negotiate a relatively quick and favorable treaty. In a series of speeches across the country, he displayed eloquent oratory to advocate equal treatment of China and a welcoming stance toward Chinese immigrants. On July 28, 1868 it concluded at Washington, D.C. a series of articles, supplementary to the Reed Treaty of 1858, and later known as the Burlingame Treaty
.
Burlingame died suddenly at Saint Petersburg
on February 23, 1870 and was buried in Boston.
, but left before graduation to accompany his father to China as his private secretary. He studied at Heidelberg
, Germany, in 1867-1869, taking the degree of Ph.D.
, and afterward studied at Berlin
. He traveled extensively in Japan and China in 1866, and afterward in Europe. He was on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune
in 1871, and on that for the revision of the American Cyclopaedia in 1872-1876. He was a contributor to periodical literature, and associated in the preparation of several histories and other works. In 1879 he became connected editorially with the publishing-house of Charles Scribner's Sons
, New York, and in 1886 was appointed editor of its new magazine
. He translated and edited Art Life and Theories of Richard Wagner (New York, 1875).
, and Burlingame, Kansas
, are both named after Anson Burlingame. The Kansas Free-State party rewarded his anti-slavery efforts by renaming a small railroad town after him. The ranch
which Burlingame purchased in San Mateo
on the San Francisco Bay retained his name and was eventually developed after his death.
an American lawyer, legislator, and diplomat, born in New Berlin
New Berlin, New York
New Berlin, New York is the name of two locations in Chenango County, New York:*New Berlin , New York*New Berlin , New York...
, Chenango County
Chenango County, New York
Chenango County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 50,477. The county's name originates from an Oneida word meaning "large bull-thistle." Its county seat is Norwich.-History:...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In 1823 his parents (Joel Burlingame and Freelove Angell) took him to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and about ten years afterwards to Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Between 1838 and 1841 he studied at the Detroit branch of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and in 1846 graduated from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. On June 3, 1847 he married Jane Cornelia Livermore. They had sons Edward Livermore Burlingame (born 1848) and Walter Angell Burlingame (b. 1852), as well as a daughter Gertrude Burlingame (b. 1856).
Early career
He practiced law in Boston, and won a wide reputation by his speeches for the Free Soil Party in 1848. He was a member of the MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
constitutional convention in 1853, of the state senate from 1853 to 1854, and of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1855 to 1861, being elected for the first term as a Know Nothing and afterwards as a member of the new Republican Party, which he helped to organize in Massachusetts. He is a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...
fraternity (Sigma chapter).
Burlingame vs. Preston Brooks
On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston BrooksPreston Brooks
Preston Smith Brooks was a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina. Brooks is primarily remembered for his severe beating of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate with a gutta-percha cane, delivered in response to an anti-slavery speech in which Sumner compared Brooks'...
of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
viciously assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
ed Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in the Senate chamber with his metal-tipped cane; three days previously, Sumner had delivered a vituperative oratory criticizing President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
and Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
). In particular, Sumner acidly lambasted Brooks' uncle, Senator Andrew Butler
Andrew Butler
Andrew Pickens Butler was an United States Senator and one of the authors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.-Biography:...
, who was not in attendance when the speech was read, describing slavery as a harlot, comparing Butler with Don Quixote for embracing it, and mocking Butler for a physical handicap. Three days later, Brooks advanced upon Sumner while he worked at his desk in the Senate chamber and beat him into unconsciousness, ripping his desk from the floor in the process. Brooks continued to strike Sumner's prone and unconscious form until he snapped his heavy gutta percha cane in two. He received no official censure from his colleagues in the House of Representatives, and was indeed hailed as a hero in much of the South.
Shortly afterwards, Burlingame delivered what The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
referred to as "the most celebrated speech" of his career: a scathing denunciation of Brooks' assault on Sumner, branding him as "the vilest sort of coward" on the floor of the Senate. In response, Brooks challenged Burlingame to a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, stating he would gladly face him "in any Yankee mudsill of his choosing". Burlingame, a well-known marksman, eagerly accepted, choosing rifles as the weapons and the Navy Yards on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border in Niagara Falls, NY as the location (in order to circumvent the US ban on dueling). Brooks, reportedly dismayed by both Burlingame's unexpectedly enthusiastic acceptance and his reputation as a crack shot, neglected to show up, instead citing unspecified risks to his safety if he was to cross "hostile country" (the Northern states) in order to reach Canada. Burlingame's solid defense of a fellow Bostonian colleague greatly raised his stature in his home state of Massachusetts.
Minister to China
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
appointed Burlingame as Minister
Envoy (title)
In diplomacy, an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary is, under the terms of the Congress of Vienna of 1815, a diplomat of the second class, ranking between an Ambassador and a Minister Resident....
to the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
, but Burlingame, who had championed the Hungarian Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.-Family:Lajos...
and his drive for independence from the Austrian Empire, was not acceptable and did not serve.
On June 14, 1861 Lincoln instead appointed Burlingame as minister to the Qing Empire
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. Burlingame worked for a cooperative policy rather than the imperialistic policies of force which had been used during the First
First Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
and Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
s and developed relations with the reform elements of the court. On November 16, 1867 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to head a Chinese diplomatic mission to the United States and the principal European nations. The mission, which included two Chinese ministers, an English and a French secretary, six students from Peking, and a considerable retinue, arrived in the United States in March 1868. Burlingame used his personal relations with the Republican administration to negotiate a relatively quick and favorable treaty. In a series of speeches across the country, he displayed eloquent oratory to advocate equal treatment of China and a welcoming stance toward Chinese immigrants. On July 28, 1868 it concluded at Washington, D.C. a series of articles, supplementary to the Reed Treaty of 1858, and later known as the Burlingame Treaty
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty, also known as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868, between the United States and China, amended the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 and established formal friendly relations between the two countries, with the United States granting China most favored nation status...
.
Burlingame died suddenly at Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
on February 23, 1870 and was buried in Boston.
Family
His son Edward Livermore Burlingame was born in Boston on 30 May 1848. He entered HarvardHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, but left before graduation to accompany his father to China as his private secretary. He studied at Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Germany, in 1867-1869, taking the degree of Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
, and afterward studied at Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
. He traveled extensively in Japan and China in 1866, and afterward in Europe. He was on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
in 1871, and on that for the revision of the American Cyclopaedia in 1872-1876. He was a contributor to periodical literature, and associated in the preparation of several histories and other works. In 1879 he became connected editorially with the publishing-house of Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
, New York, and in 1886 was appointed editor of its new magazine
Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
. He translated and edited Art Life and Theories of Richard Wagner (New York, 1875).
Legacy
Burlingame, CaliforniaBurlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
, and Burlingame, Kansas
Burlingame, Kansas
Burlingame is a city in Osage County, Kansas, United States. It is part of the Topeka, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 934.-History:...
, are both named after Anson Burlingame. The Kansas Free-State party rewarded his anti-slavery efforts by renaming a small railroad town after him. The ranch
Rancho San Mateo
Rancho San Mateo was a Mexican land grant in present day San Mateo County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pio Pico to Cayetano Arenas. Rancho San Mateo extended from the foothills to the bay and included Coyote Point, about one-half the present city of San Mateo, all of Burlingame and most...
which Burlingame purchased in San Mateo
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
on the San Francisco Bay retained his name and was eventually developed after his death.