George Rublee was an American editor and diplomat. He had been serving as ambassador to Switzerland for seven years.
Background
George Rublee was born in Berkshire, Franklin County, Vt. , the son of Alvah and Martha (Kent) Rublee. Attracted by reports of rich farming land in the Middle West, his father journeyed to Wisconsin in 1839 and settled at Sheboygan, where his family joined him the following year.
Education
In 1850 he entered the University of Wisconsin, then in its first year as a preparatory school, housed in one small building, with a faculty of one teacher. Later he was compelled to withdraw from college on account of poor health.
Career
Lacking the rugged physique necessary for his father's occupations, lumbering and farming, Rublee taught school near his home until, at the age of twenty, before he decided to go to college. While attending the university he supported himself by setting type on one of the Madison newspapers. After studies he returned to his home in Sheboygan, he again taught in a district school. He began his newspaper work by reporting the sessions of the state legislature during 1852 and 1853 for the Wisconsin Argus, a Democratic weekly paper that published a daily edition while the legislature was in session.
In the spring of 1853, during the temporary absence of its editor, Rublee became editorial writer on the Wisconsin State Journal, a Madison daily, established the previous year by David Atwood. The following year Rublee bought a half-interest in the paper, which he retained until he went abroad in the diplomatic service fifteen years later.
His political activities began with the movement against the extension of slavery that led to the birth of the Republican party. At the first state convention of that party, held in Madison on July 13, 1854, Rublee was one of the secretaries. During 1856-57 he was state librarian.
From 1859 to 1869, Rublee served as chairman of the Wisconsin Republican state committee, and in 1868 was a delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated General Grant for the presidency. President Grant appointed him minister to Switzerland in 1869, a post that he held for seven years. Studious in his tastes, he acquired a considerable knowledge of the German language and literature during his residence in Switzerland.
After resigning his diplomatic position, he returned to Wisconsin in 1877 and again became chairman of the Republican state committee. When the Republican state convention adopted a weak plank on "Greenbackism, " Rublee, as chairman of the state committee with the support of some of the other Republican leaders, issued an address to the Republican voters demanding the resumption of specie payments. He carried the Republicans to victory on this issue.
During 1877 he contributed articles to the Evening Wisconsin, the leading Republican evening newspaper in Milwaukee. He went to Boston in 1879 to act as temporary editor of the Daily Advertiser, but, although urged to remain in journalism in the East, soon decided to return to Wisconsin.
In 1881 he organized a company to purchase the Daily Milwaukee News, a Democratic morning paper. With Rublee, a stanch Republican, as editor, its name was changed to the Republican and News. The following year the company bought the Milwaukee Sentinel, then the oldest as well as the most important morning paper in the state. He died in 1896.
Achievements
Connections
In 1856 or 1857 Rublee married Kate Hopkins of Washington County, N. Y. , one of whose brothers, James C. Hopkins, became United States judge for the western district of Wisconsin. At his death he was survived by two sons.