ANSON BURLINGAME

AND THE FIRST CHINESE MISSION TO FOREIGN POWERS

THE EVOLUTION OF A DIPLOMATIST

NSON BURLINGAME was pre-eminently

A

a man of his generation in America. From both lineage and training he derived qualities that in his maturity revealed him as a product of the formative period when the United States was passing from the position of a remote agricultural community to assume, through expansion of territory and the development of its natural resources, a place among the great nations of the world. Like most of the men who became leaders in this time of transition, he was descended from the early English settlers in America, inheriting from that sturdy stock a temper which made for independence in action and ideas. His ancestors, who first came in the Puritan period to Rhode Island, had their share in the French-Indian War on this continent, and subsequently fought in the

War of American Independence, his mother's grandfather being Colonel Israel Angell, of Washington's army. The son of Joel Burlingame, a settler and farmer on the frontier, he was born in New Berlin, Chenango County, New York, November 14, 1820. Before he was three years old his father removed to Seneca County, Ohio, to occupy a farm in what was, a century ago, the forest country of the Western Reserve. Joel Burlingame is described by one of his neighbours there as "a devout Methodist, an earnest freemason, a school teacher, ambitious but impracticable. He spent his time attending two-day meetings, quarterly meetings, and camp-meetings, and had little love for the hard work required to improve a farm in the wilderness. He was a man of fine personal appearance, and his general knowledge and fine conversational powers gave him favour in every cabin, while his vehement prayers and eloquent exhortations gave him notoriety among the pioneer Christians. I think he was instrumental in building the first school, as I know he was active in the erection of the first church in Seneca County."1

Anson is described by the same writer, who was his playmate in these early days, as "hand

1 "Personal Recollections of Anson Burlingame," by General W. H. Gibson, in the Toledo Commercial, March 1, 1870.

some, jolly, and lovable in childhood, as he was earnest, energetic, and devoted in manhood. The first ten years generally determine future character. Anson Burlingame during these years was a poor boy surrounded by Christian influences and guided by the spirit of a father full of love toward God and all men. In recurring to these days I am unable to recall a single act of meanness, unkindness, or cruelty on the part of little Anson." A boy of his genial yet ardent temperament would readily become the companion of such a father-whose predilection for preaching was not, however, unaccompanied by an appreciation of discipline which restrained that companion from going wild. The youth participated in various expeditions about Lake Superior and the upper Mississippi, some of them made for purposes of surveying in the Northwest Territory, and others to negotiate compacts with the Indians beyond the border. His schooling, therefore, was supplemented by a close companionship with nature and with men. When the family removed to Detroit he attended the academy in that town, and subsequently the Branch University of Michigan, located in the county of that name, where he chiefly shone in lyceum debates.

The attraction of a professional career in

which he might exercise mental powers that were distinctly above the average brought him in 1843 to the Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated as Bachelor in 1846. He began at once to practise at the Massachusetts bar in association with an older partner, Mr. Briggs,1 and, already confident of support from the friends he had made in Boston, entered immediately into the public life of the city of his adoption. He rose rapidly to local prominence as a ready speaker, and became through this gift a political factor of importance in the State. These were the palmy days of stump oratory in America, when some reputation for eloquence was deemed essential to political success. Amongst the multitude of vigorous orators it required ability of a high order to be recognised as the spokesman of a party on the platform. "It was the magnetism of Mr. Burlingame," wrote Mr. Blaine, who first knew him at this period, "that made him pre-eminently effective before an assemblage of the people. What we mean precisely by magnetism it might be difficult to define, but it is undoubtedly true that

1 A son of George Nixon Briggs, who, after serving six terms in Congress, was elected seven times successively (1843-50) governor of Massachusetts. He was the "Governor B." of the "Biglow Papers," who "is a sensible man;

He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks."