Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869-1877; Volume 1
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History of the English settlement in Edwards County, Illinois : founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris
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Recollections Of A Minister To France, 1869-1877; Volume 2
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America's Aid to Germany in 1870-1871: An Abstract From the Official Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, U. S. Ambassador to Paris
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Elihu Benjamin Washburne was an American politician and diplomat.
Background
Elihu Benjamin Washburne was the third of eleven children born to Israel and Martha (Benjamin) Washburn at Livermore, Me. After the failure of the father's country store in 1829 the large family was forced to rely on a small and not-too-fertile farm for subsistence, and as a result several of the brothers, among them Elihu, were early forced to fend for themselves. Leaving home at the age of fourteen, he added an "e" to his name in imitation of his English forebears and embarked on the road of education and hard work which led him to a position not the least prominent among five brothers - Israel, Cadwallader C. , William D. , Elihu, and Charles - notable for their service to state and nation.
Education
In 1885 Washburne received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Bowdoin College.
Career
A short experience at farm work convinced him that he was not destined for an agricultural career; he disliked his three months of school teaching more than anything he ever turned his hand to; a newspaper publisher to whom he apprenticed himself failed, and while he was working for another printer a hernia incapacitated him for further typesetting. These experiences led him to the decision to study law, and accordingly, after several months in Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Kent's Hill, followed by an apprenticeship in a Boston law office, he entered the Harvard Law School in 1839, where he came under the influence of Joseph Story. Armed with membership in the Massachusetts bar and a few law books, he turned his face westward in 1840, resolved to settle in Iowa Territory. His brother Cadwallader, who had already settled at Rock Island, Ill. , persuaded the newcomer that Illinois was a more favorable location than Iowa, and that the most likely place for a briefless lawyer was the boom town of Galena, where lead mines had recently been opened. Within a month after his arrival Washburne had begun to make a living and some political speeches. He presently formed a connection which was to be of considerable importance, both personally and professionally, with Charles S. Hempstead, the leader of the town's dozen lawyers. The latter, partially paralyzed, needed clerical assistance in his practice and in return threw sundry minor cases to his quasi-partner. This association lasted for a year, after which Washburne practised independently until 1845, when he entered an actual partnership with Hempstead. Washburne's connection by marriage with Missouri, indirect though it was, commended him to the attention of Thomas Hart Benton on his entry into Congress eight years later, and was of no disadvantage in launching his career. His moderate earnings from the law were transmuted into a comfortable competence by careful investments in western lands, and he gradually turned his energies into political channels. He became a wheelhorse of the local Whig party, placed Henry Clay in nomination for the presidency at Baltimore in 1844, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress four years later. He was more fortunate in 1852, and in the following year began sixteen years of service in the House which covered the periods of the Civil War and reconstruction. He kept a sharp lookout for the interests of his section (particularly directed toward preventing the misappropriation of public lands to the uses of railroad speculators) and at the same time cast a keen and malevolent eye upon those who would raid the federal treasury. The lobbyist or the known corruptionist fared badly at his hands, and his last long speech in the House (January 6, 1869), on a pension bill, was one of a number of blasts against those who were at the time leading Congress along forbidden paths. For a time he was chairman of the committee on commerce and for two years, chairman of the committee on appropriations, where his efforts to keep down expenses made him the first of a long succession of "watchdogs of the treasury. " Physical disabilities kept him from active military duty during the Civil War but he used his talents in Congress to aid his personal and political friend Lincoln, and to forward the military fortunes of his fellow townsman and protégé, Ulysses S. Grant. He was the sole person to greet Lincoln on his secret arrival in Washington for the inauguration in 1861. He proposed Grant's name as brigadier-general of volunteers and sponsored the bills by which Grant was made successively lieutenant-general and general. When war gave way to reconstruction, Washburne found himself in the forefront of the Radicals and a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. He turned against Lincoln's successor and when members of the vindictive party "competed with one another in phrasing violent abuse of Andrew Johnson . Elihu Washburne deserved one of the prizes". His early sponsorship of Grant continued through the campaign of 1868, when Grant heard the news of his election over telegraph wires run to Washburne's library in Galena. His staunch support was rewarded by appointment as secretary of state in Grant's cabinet, a post which he assumed March 5, 1869, resigned March 10, and vacated March 16. It is probable that this was a courtesy appointment preliminary to his designation, March 17, as minister to France, and designed to give him prestige in the French capital. His connection with the Grant administration remained close and he and Grant were friends until the spring of 1880, when an abortive boom for Washburne ran foul of Grant's own futile aspirations for a third term. Washburne himself immediately adhered to Grant's candidacy, though apparently without great enthusiasm, and remained at least outwardly loyal to his former chief. During the convention he himself received as many as forty-four votes, and it was later contended by his friends that with Grant's support he could have received the nomination which went to Garfield. Be that as it may, Grant vented his disappointment on Washburne and the two never met again. Meantime he had rendered capable service through very trying times in Europe. On his retirement from public life he devoted himself to historical and literary activities, serving as president of the Chicago Historical Society from 1884 to 1887 and publishing, in addition to the Recollections of a Minister, several works of some historical value, particularly sketches of early Illinois political figures, prepared for the Chicago Historical Society. For the same society he edited "The Edwards Papers", a selection from the manuscripts of Gov. Ninian Edwards of Illinois.
Achievements
As minister to France he witnessed the downfall of the empire of the third Napoleon and, remaining until the autumn of 1877, rounded out the longest term of any American minister to France down to that time. He was the only official representative of a foreign government to remain in Paris throughout the siege and the Commune, and his two volumes of memoirs, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869-1877 (1887), constitute a valuable account of those exciting days. In addition to his service to his own country, during the war he made himself useful by looking after the interests of German residents of France. Washburne Street at 1230 south in Chicago is named in honor of Elihu Washburne.
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Connections
In 1845 he married, July 31, one of his benefactor's relatives, Adèle Gratiot, a descendant of the French settlers around St. Louis. Seven children were born to them.
