Biography of Anson Burlingame


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Burlingame (bur'ling-am), Anson. An American diplomatist. Born in Chenango County, NY, 1820. He was elected member of Congress by the Republicans of the fifth district of Massachusetts in 1854, 1856, and 1858. In 1861 he was sent as minister to China and, in 1867, appointed ambassador from China to the United States and to the great powers of Europe. In 1868 he visited this country at the head of a Chinese embassy, and concluded a liberal treaty between the United States and China, which was promptly ratified by the Chinese government. The embassy afterwards visited London, Paris, Berlin, and lastly St. Petersburg, where Burlingame suddenly died, February 1870.