The New Student's Reference Work/Burlingame, Anson

Burlingame (bûr′lĭn-gām), Anson, an American statesman, born at New Berlin, New York, in 1820. He studied at the University of Michigan, and at the Harvard Law School, and began the practice of law in Boston. In 1853 he was elected to the senate of Massachusetts, and one year later to Congress, helping to form during the following year the new Republican party. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him minister to China. In 1867 he intended to give up his position and return to America, but the regent of the Chinese Empire appointed him special Chinese ambassador to the United States and the countries of Europe, to make treaties between China and other nations. In July, 1868, he succeeded in getting new articles added to the old treaty between China and the United States, which gave the citizens of each country many privileges in the other, such as religious freedom and the right of founding schools. This is known as the Burlingame treaty. Mr. Burlingame then secured special treaties between most of the European powers and China, and was at St. Petersburg, negotiating a Chinese treaty with Russia, when he died in 1870.