18 Facts About Anson Burlingame

Anson Burlingame was born in New Berlin, Chenango County, New York.

Anson Burlingame practiced law in Boston, Massachusetts, and won a wide reputation by his speeches for the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Anson Burlingame was a member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1853, of the Massachusetts State Senate from 1853 to 1854, and of the United States House of Representatives from 1855 to 1861, being elected for the first term as a Know Nothing and afterwards as a member of the new Republican Party, which he helped to organize in Massachusetts.

Anson Burlingame was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Anson Burlingame was brutally assaulted in the Senate chamber by Representative Preston Brooks, who was hailed as a hero by the pro-slavery South.

Shortly afterwards, Anson Burlingame delivered what The New York Times referred to as "the most celebrated speech" of his career: a scathing denunciation of Brooks' assault on Sumner, branding him as "the vilest sort of coward" on the House floor.

Anson Burlingame eagerly accepted; as the challenged party, he had his choice of weapons and location.

Anson Burlingame worked for a cooperative policy rather than the imperialistic policies of force which had been used during the First and Second Opium Wars and developed relations with the reform elements of the court.

Anson Burlingame used his personal relations with the Republican administration to negotiate a relatively quick and favorable treaty.

Anson Burlingame worked successfully to include a clause permitting Chinese to become citizens, which was barred by American law.

Subsequently, Anson Burlingame negotiated treaties with Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia.

Anson Burlingame died suddenly at Saint Petersburg on February 23,1870, while negotiating terms for a treaty with Russia.

Anson Burlingame was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Anson Burlingame's grandson, Roger Burlingame, was an author of fiction, nonfiction, and biographies.

The success of the Communist Revolution of 1949 led to animosity between the two countries and Anson Burlingame's reputation was as a naive and euphoric advocate of China.

The ranch which Anson Burlingame purchased in San Mateo on the San Francisco Bay retained his name and was eventually developed after his death.

Anson Burlingame's portrait, painted by Albion Harris Bicknell, hangs in historic Faneuil Hall, Boston.

In 2018, upon the 150th anniversary of the Burlingame Treaty, a new bust of Anson Burlingame sculpted by Zhou Limin was unveiled at an international ceremony held at the Burlingame Public Library in Burlingame, California.