The Different Systems of Penal Codes in Europe: Also, a Report on the Administrative Changes in France, Since the Revolution of 1848 1854
(Originally published in 1854. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1854. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Henry Shelton Sanford was a wealthy American diplomat, businessman.
Background
He was born on June 15, 1823 at Woodbury, Connecticut, United States. A descendant of Thomas Sanford who was in Dorchester, Massachussets, as early as 1634 and later settled in Milford, Connecticut, he was the only son of Nehemiah Curtis and Nancy Bateman (Shelton) Sanford. From his father, a manufacturer, he inherited an ample fortune.
Education
He attended Washington (later Trinity) College, Hartford, for two years, but was obliged by ill health to abandon his formal studies in 1841.
Career
In 1847 he began his diplomatic apprenticeship as an attache at St. Petersburg. In 1848 he went to Frankfort as acting secretary of legation, and the following year to Paris as secretary of legation, a post which he held until early in 1854, acting as charge d'affaires in 1853. In connection with this service he published The Different Systems of Penal Codes in Europe; also a Report on the Administrative Changes in France (1854).
He resigned after the arrival of the new minister, John Young Mason, when the latter discarded the plain civilian dress prescribed by Secretary Marcy. In 1861 Sanford was appointed minister resident to Belgium, where he served for eight years, enjoying cordial relations with the court, discharging special duties in the purchase of military supplies, and observing the activities of Confederate agents.
On May 20 and July 20, 1863, at Brussels, he signed on behalf of the United States the Scheldt Treaties relating to import duties and to the capitalization of the Scheldt dues. In 1868 he signed a naturalization convention with Belgium, a consular convention, and an additional article, concerning trademarks, to the commercial treaty of July 17, 1858. After his return to the United States in 1870 he bought a large tract of land on the St. John's River in Florida, establishing himself in a commodious house on a plantation which he called "Belair, " and setting out extensive orange groves. Three miles from "Belair" he built a sawmill and a store, the beginnings of the town of Sanford. The place was at first regarded as a "Yankee nest" and there was some local bitterness against Sanford's early attempt to bring in Negro laborers, whereupon he established a colony of Swedish immigrants at New Upsala, near by.
In 1880, interesting British capital, he formed a company to promote the development of the Sanford region. Shortly after the creation, in 1876, of the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa, under the leadership of Leopold II, King of the Belgians, Sanford was appointed a member of its executive committee. It was through his exertions as the Association's representative that on Apr. 22, 1884, the United States recognized the flag of the Association "as that of a friendly government. " This was the earliest form of recognition, and King Leopold was much gratified.
At the Conference of Berlin (1884 - 85), Sanford sat as associate delegate of the United States with John A. Kasson, American minister to Germany, and with Kasson he signed the General Act of the Conference, establishing the status of the Congo Free State.
In 1890 Sanford discharged his last diplomatic service and participated for the last time in the affairs of Africa, when, on July 2, at Brussels, he signed with Edwin H. Terrell, minister to Belgium, the General Act between the United States and other powers for the repression of the slave trade and the restriction of commerce in firearms and liquor in Africa. He died in the following year, at Healing Springs, Va.