Background
John Appleton was born on February 11, 1815 in Beverly, Massachusetts, United States, the son of John W. and Sophia (Williams) Appleton, and a descendant in the direct line from Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Massachussets.
John Appleton was born on February 11, 1815 in Beverly, Massachusetts, United States, the son of John W. and Sophia (Williams) Appleton, and a descendant in the direct line from Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Massachussets.
Appleton graduated from Bowdoin College 1834.
In the summers of 1835 and 1836 he attended the Harvard Law School.
Admitted to the Cumberland County bar on June 20, 1837, he started to practise with Edward Fox who had been his fellow student and who was later United States district judge. Appleton had not been long in practise, however, before he was seized with political ambitions. On July 4, 1838, the young man delivered the oration of the day at the largest Democratic gathering that Portland had ever seen, while John Neal harangued the Whigs near by on Munjoy's Hill.
The Daily Eastern Argus of the following day records that there were 130 Democratic speeches, 116 of which were by volunteers! Appleton's oration was described as "all that could have been wished. " The same journal observed nothing in the speech which "could offend the most refined and delicate taste . .. while the principles of democracy were enforced and defended with an energy which evinced how deeply they were felt and sacredly believed by the orator. "
In view of this effusion it is not surprising to learn that the orator of the day became shortly after attached to the editorial staff of the Daily Eastern Argus. He was later appointed by Gov. Fairfield to be register of probate for Cumberland County, but this service apparently did not prevent his going on with his editorial work.
In 1845, at the invitation of George Bancroft, then secretary of the navy, Appleton became chief clerk in the Navy Department, and there he remained until 1848 when he was transferred to the State Department then headed by James Buchanan. He was there for a few weeks only when President Polk appointed him to the inconspicuous and uncoveted post of chargé d'affaires in Bolivia.
On his way to fulfill his new mission, Appleton was shipwrecked and narrowly escaped death. The journey inland was on horseback over mountains, and the post proved on arrival scarcely more agreeable than the journey thither. Living conditions were unattractive, diplomatic amenities were few, and there was little work to attend to. Appleton projected a book on the young republic, then closing the first generation of its independence. But his ambition flagged, and on the accession of Zachary Taylor to the presidency, he resigned (May 4, 1849) and returned to Portland to take up the practise of law with Nathan Clifford.
In 1851 Appleton successfully opposed William Pitt Fessenden for the Thirty-second Congress. His majority was 40 votes in 12, 000 cast. He was not highly conspicuous in Congress, and congressional life seems not to have been wholly to his liking. He retired at the end of his first term on March 3, 1853.
In 1855 he accepted an appointment as secretary of the legation at London under his old chief, James Buchanan, now minister to the court of St. James's. Buchanan retired a few months after Appleton's arrival and procured Appleton's appointment as chargé d'affaires ad interim. Appleton did not elect to remain longer, however, and returned to take an active part in Buchanan's successful campaign for the presidency.
The election over, Appleton took charge for a few months in 1857 of an administration paper known as the Washington Union, but this he was obliged to relinquish for reasons of health.
On April 4, 1857, he accepted the assistant secretaryship in the State Department, where he remained for the three succeeding years until June 8, 1860. Here he seems to have worked hard and effectively. There is considerable evidence that the most important dispatches of the day came from his pen.
In 1860 he accepted the post of minister to Russia and took up his residence at St. Petersburg. Upon Lincoln's election the following November, he resigned and returned to Portland. The severity of the Baltic winter had aggravated an old tendency to tuberculosis.
He lived on in Portland for nearly four years of lingering illness. His last years were oppressed by the thought that by remaining in Washington in the closing days of Buchanan's administration he might have exercised some influence toward averting the war.
On November 27, 1840 he married Susan Lovering Dodge of Salem. They had one son.