Elihu B. Washburne

Elihu B. Washburne
25th United States Secretary of State
In office March 5, 1869 – March 16, 1869
President	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	William H. Seward
Succeeded by	Hamilton Fish
United States Minister to France
In office March 16, 1869 – March 4, 1877
Appointed by	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	John Adams Dix
Succeeded by	Edward F. Noyes
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 1st district
In office March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1863
Preceded by	William Henry Bissell
Succeeded by	Isaac N. Arnold
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 3rd district
In office March 4, 1863 – March 6, 1869
Preceded by	Owen Lovejoy
Succeeded by	Horatio C. Burchard
Personal details
Born	Elihu Benjamin Washburne September 23, 1816 Livermore, Maine, U.S.
Died	October 23, 1887 (aged 71) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Greenwood Cemetery (Galena, Illinois)
Political party	Whig, Republican
Spouse(s)	Adele Gratiot
Alma mater	Harvard Law School
Profession	Politician
Religion	Presbyterian

Elihu Benjamin Washburne (September 23, 1816 – October 23, 1887) was an American politician and diplomat. A member of the Washburn family of Maine, which played a prominent role in the early formation of the United States Republican Party, Washburne served as a congressman from Illinois before and during the American Civil War, and was a political ally of President Abraham Lincoln and General (later President) Ulysses S. Grant.

As a leader of the Radical Republicans, Washburne opposed the Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson and supported African American suffrage and civil rights. Washburne was appointed United States Secretary of State in 1869 by President Grant, out of respect for his championship in the House during the Civil War, and to give Washburne diplomatic clout after being appointed minister to France. Washburne's tenure as Secretary of State lasted for only eleven days, but he would serve as minister to France for the next eight years, where he became known for diplomatic integrity and for his humanitarian support of Americans and Germans in France during the Franco-Prussian War.

Early life

Elihu Benjamin Washburne was born on September 23, 1816 in Livermore, Maine.^[1] He was the third oldest of eleven children born to Israel and Martha (née Benjamin) Washburn. Washburne's family went into financial trouble and in 1829, Israel had to sell his general store.^[1] Washburne's family was forced to rely on farming for food, and Washburne and his brothers had to fend for themselves. At the age of 14, Washburne had added the letter "e" to his name, as was the original ancestral spelling, and left home in search of education and a career.^[1]

Legal career

Washburne studied law at Kent's Hill Seminary starting in 1836. In March 1839, Washburne transferred to Harvard Law School.^[2] A year later, in 1840 he graduated and passed the Bar.^[2] Afterwards, Washburne left Massachusetts and moved west to Galena, Illinois, hoping to make his fortune.^[2]

Political career

Washburne, a resident of Galena, Illinois, represented northwestern Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1869. While in Congress, he was also a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee.^[3]

American Civil War

Supported Abraham Lincoln

He was known for his courage, and met President-elect Abraham Lincoln upon his arrival in Washington, D.C. on February 23, 1861.^[4] At the beginning of the American Civil War, an assassination attempt was feared, and other Republican Party leaders were afraid to take on this duty. Washburne and his brothers had hidden the whereabouts of President-elect Lincoln by personally cutting telegraph wires in key locations.

Radical Republican leader

Originally a Whig, Washburne was an early member of the Republicans and a leader of the Radical Republicans. He was among the original proponents of legal racial equality. As a congressman, he served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After the Civil War, Washburne advocated that large plantations be divided up to provide compensatory property for freed slaves.

Sponsored Ulysses S. Grant

Washburne was an early supporter of Ulysses S. Grant, a fellow resident of Galena, helping to secure Grant's promotions to brigadier general and lieutenant general. Representative Washburne was one of only a few men in Washington D.C. who had previously known Grant.^[5] Washburne kept close ties to Grant through his brother Major General Cadwallader C. Washburn during the Vicksburg Campaign when Grant was a Major General of Volunteers in the Union Army.^[6] On August 30, 1863 Grant, now Major General of the Regular Army, had assured Washburne, an abolitionist, in a letter that he himself believed the purpose of the Civil War was to end slavery within the United States.^[7]

Secretary of State

When Grant became president in 1869, he appointed Washburne to succeed William H. Seward as Secretary of State, with the understanding that he would hold the post only briefly and then serve as minister to France, with the added prestige of having been Secretary of State.^[8] He became ill after becoming secretary and served for only eleven days in March 1869; it remains the shortest term of any Secretary of State. Washburne's successor Hamilton Fish, Grant's second appointment, would last for the rest of Grant's two terms in office and briefly into the term of President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Minister to France

As Minister to France, Washburne played a major diplomatic and humanitarian role the during the Franco-Prussian War.^[9] This was the first major war in which all belligerents appointed protecting powers to represent their interests in enemy capitals, and the United States agreed to be the protecting power for the North German Confederation and several of the German states.^[10][11] Washburne arranged for railroad transportation to evacuate 30,000 German civilians who had been living in France, and was responsible for feeding 3,000 Germans during the Siege of Paris. Although the State Department gave him permission to evacuate the American Legation at his discretion, Washburne chose to remain in Paris through the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of Paris. ^[12][13]

Washburne was the only diplomat from a major power to remain in the French capital through the Siege of Paris. As protecting power, he transmitted messages between the French and German governments. He was permitted by the Germans to receive sealed diplomatic communications from outside the city, a privilege that was denied to the smaller neutrals. Washburne was also entrusted with the protection of seven Latin American consulates that lacked diplomatic representation in France. The French Republic finally exchanged chargés d'affaires with the German Empire in June 1871, after an eleven-month breach in diplomatic relations between France and Germany. Washburne, who had lost 17 pounds during the ordeal, returned immediately to the Carlsbad springs, which he had been visiting when he learned of the start of the war.^[13][14]

Washburne's tireless efforts set a precedent for the role of protecting power in future wars. He received special honors from German Emperor Wilhelm I and German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, as well as from the French leaders Léon Gambetta and Adolphe Thiers.^[15]

Retirement

Washburne retired from government in 1877 and returned to Galena, although he was mentioned as a presidential candidate at the Republican conventions in 1880 and 1884. In 1882, Washburne published a biography of former Illinois governor Edward Coles^[16] Washburne then moved to Chicago, Illinois, and served as president of the Chicago Historical Society from 1884 to 1887. In 1887 Washburne published Recollections of a Minister to France.^[15]

Notable relatives

Three of Washburne's brothers (Cadwallader C. Washburn, William D. Washburn, and Israel Washburn, Jr.) also became politicians. His son, Hempstead Washburne, was mayor of Chicago from 1891 to 1893.

Honored

Washburne Street at 1230 south in Chicago is named in honor of Elihu Washburne.

See also

• Elihu Benjamin Washburne House

References

1. Dictionary of American Biography (1936), p. 504
2. Carroll (1883), Twelve Americans Their Lives And Times, pp. 402-404
3. An American in Paris, American Heritage
4. Vidal (2000)
5. Catton (1969), p. 3
6. Catton (1969), p. 26
7. Catton (1969), p. 8
8. Bunting III (2004)
9. David McCullough, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, Simon & Schuster, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4165-7176-6
10. Levie, Howard (1961). "Prisoners of War and the Protecting Power". American Journal of International Law 55.
11. Newsom, David D., ed. (1990). "Appendix A: The United States as a Protecting Power, by Country and Date". Diplomacy Under a Foreign Flag : when nations break relations. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312040512.
12. Hill, Michael, ed. (2012). Elihu Washburne: the Diary and Letters of America's Minister to France during the Siege and Commune of Paris. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781451665307.
13. Washburne, E. B. (1887). Recollections of a Minister to France, Volume I. New York: Scribner.
14. Washburne, E. B. (1887). Recollections of a Minister to France, Volume II. New York: Scribner.
15.  Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "Washburne, Elihu Benjamin". Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company.
16. Washburne, Elihu Benjamin (1882). Sketch of Edward Coles. Negro Universities Press. p. 253.

Sources

• Bunting III, Josiah (2004). Ulysses S. Grant. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 0-8050-6949-6.
• Catton, Bruce (1969). Grant Takes Command. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
• Dumas Malone, ed. (1936). Dictionary of American Biography Washburne, Elihu Benjamin. New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons.
• Vidal, Gore (2000). Lincoln: A Novel. New York: Vintage Press. ISBN 0-375-70876-6.

External links

• An Online Biography of Washburne
• United States Congress. "Elihu B. Washburne (id: W000176)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.. Includes Guide to Research Collections where his papers are located.
• Israel, Elihu and Cadwallader Washburn: A Chapter in American Biography

"Elihu B. Washburne". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-03-18.