WASHBURNE, Elihu Benjamin, (brother of
Israel Washburn, Jr., Cadwallader Colden Washburn, and William Drew Washburn), a
Representative from Illinois; born in Livermore, Androscoggin County, Maine,
September 23, 1816; attended the common schools; printer’s apprentice;
assistant editor of the Kennebec Journal, Augusta; studied law at Kents’ Hill
Seminary in 1836 and at Harvard Law School in 1839; was admitted to the bar in
1840; moved to Galena, Jo Daviess County, Ill., in 1840 and commenced the
practice of law; delegate to the Whig National Conventions in 1844 and 1852;
unsuccessful candidate for election in 1848 to the Thirty-first Congress;
elected as a Whig to the Thirty-third Congress and reelected as a Republican to
the eight succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1853, to March 6, 1869,
when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Commerce (Thirty-fourth and
Thirty-sixth through Fortieth Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Fortieth
Congress); appointed as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Grant,
but resigned a few days afterward to accept a diplomatic mission to France; upon
the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War he protected with the American flag
the Paris legations of the various German states; remained in Paris during the
siege and was the only foreign minister who continued at his post during the
days of the Commune; protected not only Germans but all the foreigners left by
their ministers; served as Minister until 1877, when he returned and settled in
Chicago, Ill.; engaged in literary pursuits; died in Chicago, Ill., October 23,
1887; interment in Greenwood Cemetery, Galena, Ill. - Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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