Wad-Was: Wade through Washburn

See below for annotated biographies of anti-slavery Whigs. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

WADE, Benjamin Franklin, 1800-1878, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Senator, strong and active opponent of slavery. In 1839, opposed enactment of stronger fugitive slave law, later calling for its repeal. Demanded the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. U.S. Senator, March 1851-1869. Opposed Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854. Supported passage of the Confiscation Act, which prevented escaped slaves from being returned to their former owners by the Union Army. Reported a bill in the Senate to abolish slavery in U.S. Territories in 1862. Voted for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, pp. 310-311; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 303; Blue, 2005, pp. 11-13, 213-237; Filler, 1960, pp. 103, 151, 229; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 23, 25, 48-49, 54, 71, 116, 132, 143-144, 172, 189, 216, 217, 227, 228, 230; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 499; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 431; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

WADE, Benjamin Franklin, senator, born in Feeding Hills, near Springfield, Massachusetts, 27 October, 1800; died in Jefferson, Ohio, 2 March, 1878. His ancestor, Jonathan, came from Norfolk, England, to Massachusetts in 1632. His father, James, a soldier of the Revolution, moved to Andover, Ohio, in 1821. The son's education was received chiefly from his mother. He shared in the pioneer work of his new home, and in 1823, after aiding in driving a herd of cattle to Philadelphia, went to Albany, New York, where he spent two years in teaching, also beginning the study of medicine with his brother, and at one time working as a common laborer on the Erie canal to obtain funds. On his return to Ohio he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began practice in Jefferson. He formed a partnership with Joshua R. Giddings in 1831, and in 1835 was elected prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula County, which office he held till 1837. In that year he was chosen as a Whig to the state senate, where, as a member of the judiciary committee, he presented a report that put an end to the granting of divorces by the legislature. In 1839 he was active in opposition to the passage of a more stringent Fugitive-Slave Law, which commissioners from Kentucky were urging on the legislature. The law passed, but his forcible speech against it did much to arouse state pride on the subject and to make it a dead letter. His action cost him his re-election to the Senate, but he was chosen again in 1841. In February, 1847, he was elected by the legislature president-judge of the 3d judicial district, and while on the bench he was chosen, on 15 March, 1851, to the U. S. Senate, where he remained till 1869. He soon became known as a leader of the small anti-slavery minority, advocated the homestead bill and the repeal of the Fugitive-Slave Law, and opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854, the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution of 1858, and the purchase of Cuba. After the assault on Charles Sumner, Robert Toombs avowed in the Senate that he had witnessed the attack, and approved it, whereupon Mr. Wade, in a speech of great vehemence, threw down the gage of personal combat to the southern senators. It was expected that there would be an immediate challenge from Toombs, but the latter soon made peace. Subsequently Mr. Wade, Zachariah Chandler, and Simon Cameron made a compact to resent any insult from a southerner by a challenge to fight. This agreement was made public many years afterward. Wade was present at the battle of Bull Run with other congressmen in a carriage, and it is related that after the defeat seven of them alighted, at Wade's proposal, being armed with revolvers, and for a quarter of an hour kept back the stream of fugitives near Fairfax Court-House. This incident, as narrated in the journals, made a sensation at the time. Mr. Wade labored earnestly for a vigorous prosecution of the war, was the chairman and foremost spirit of the joint committee on the conduct of the war in 1861-'2, and was active in urging the passage of a confiscation bill. As chairman of the committee on territories, he reported a bill in 1862 to abolish slavery in all the territories. He was instrumental in the advancement to the portfolio of war of Edwin M. Stanton, whom he recommended strongly to President Lincoln. Though he cordially supported the administration, he did not hesitate to criticise many of its acts, and after the adjournment of the 38th Congress he issued, with Henry Winter Davis, what became known as the Wade-Davis manifesto, condemning the president's proposed reconstruction policy. Mr. Wade became president pro tempore of the Senate, and thus acting vice-president of the United States, on 2 March, 1867, succeeding Lafayette S. Foster. He advised President Johnson to put on trial for treason a few of the Confederate leaders and pardon the rest, and was radical in his ideas of reconstruction. In the impeachment of President Johnson he voted for conviction. In 1869, at the close of his second term, he was succeeded in the Senate by Allen G. Thurman, and he then returned to his home in Jefferson, Ohio. He was one of the chief members of the Santo Domingo commission in 1871, and then became attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was chairman of the Ohio delegation in the Cincinnati national convention of 1876, and earnestly advocated the nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes, but after his accession to the presidency Mr. Wade bitterly condemned his course in relation to the southern states. Though Mr. Wade had been called “Frank Wade” in Ohio, from his middle name, he was known in Congress and throughout the country as Ben or “Old Ben” Wade. He was popularly looked upon as one of the bulwarks of the National cause in the darkest hours of the Civil War, and was widely admired and respected for his fearlessness, independence, and honesty. His rugged and forcible style of oratory always commanded attention. See his “Life,” by Albert G. Riddle (Cleveland, Ohio, 1888).—His son, JAMES FRANKLIN, entered the army on 14 May, 1861, as 1st lieutenant of the 6th U. S. Cavalry, and rose in rank till at the close of the war he was major and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. He became lieutenant-colonel on 20 March, 1879, and colonel of the 5th U.S. Cavalry on 21 April, 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 310-311.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 1, pp. 303-305:

WADE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (October 27, 1800-March 2, 1878), senator from Ohio, the tenth of eleven children of James and Mary (Upham) Wade, was a native of Feeding Hills, a hamlet near Spring field, Massachusetts. His father traced his descent from Jonathan Wade of County Norfolk, England, who emigrated in 1632 and became an honored citizen of Medford, Massachusetts Bay Colony. His mother was the daughter of a Baptist clergyman of West Spring field. Decius S. Wade [q. v.] was his nephew. Reared amidst the poverty and hard ships of a New England farm, Wade received little education in childhood, save that acquired from his mother and at a local school in the winter months. With his parents he moved in 1821 to the frontier community of Andover, Ohio, where two of his brothers had gone a year earlier. For the next few years he was by turns a farmer, drover, laborer, medical student, and school teacher in Ohio and New York state, but about 1825 he settled down to th e study of law in Canfield, Ohio, and in 1827 or 1828 was admitted to the bar. Diffidence in public speaking threatened his ambitions at the outset, but perseverance gradually made him a vigorous advocate, and partners hips with Joshua R. Giddings [q. v. ] in 1831 and Rufus P. Ranney [q.v.] in 1838 brought him a wide and successful practice in northeastern Ohio. On May 19, 1841, he was married to Caroline M. Rosekrans of Ashtabula and they took up their residence in Jefferson, Ohio, his place of practice. She bore him two sons, James F. and Henry P. Wade, and with them survived him.

Once established in the law, Wade turned his attention to politics and public office. After a term (1835-37) as prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula County he was elected to the state Senate in 1837. There he identified himself with the anti-slavery element; his outspoken opposition to a more stringent fugitive-slave law in Ohio is said to have been responsible for his failure to be reelected in 1839. But he was returned to the Senate for a second term in 1841 and was chosen by the legislature in 1847 to sit as president-judge of the third judicial circuit. His forceful and business-like methods on the bench, together with his rising popularity, commended him to the Whigs in the legislature and in 1851, apparently without effort on his part, he was elected to the United States Senate. Twice reelected as a Republican, he served until March 3, 1869.

Wade's entrance into the Senate in the early fifties was eventful in the history of slavery and the Union. Rough in manner, coarse and vituperative in speech, yet intensely patriotic, he speedily became a leader of the anti-slavery group in Congress. At heart an abolitionist, he supported a move in 1852 to repeal the Fugitive- slave Law (Congressional Globe, 32 Congress, I Session, p. 2371) and denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (Ibid., 33 Congress, 1 Session, pp. 337-40). He also opposed the several efforts to win Kansas for slavery and almost every other measure or device for the promotion or protection of the system. When the controversy in the Senate became intensely personal and Wade was much involved, he entered into a secret compact (1858) with Simon Cameron and Zachariah Chandler [qq.v.] whereby they pledged themselves to make their own the cause of any Republican senator receiving gross personal abuse, and to "carry the quarrel into a coffin" (Riddle, post, pp. 215-16). He was an ardent supporter of the proposed homestead legislation of the period, saying in 1859 that it was "a question of land to the landless," while the bill to buy Cuba was "a question of niggers to the nigger less" (Congressional Globe, 35 Congress, 2 Session, p. 1354). During the secession crisis of 1860-61 he took his stand on the Republican platform of 1860, and as a member of the Senate Committee of Thirteen voted against the Crittenden proposals (Senate Report No. 288, 36 Congress, 2 Session), holding that the time for compromise had passed.

With the outbreak of war, Wade became one of the most belligerent men in Congress, demanding swift and decisive military action. Personally a fearless man, he played a dramatic part in momentarily stemming a portion of the Union retreat from Bull Run (July 21, 1861). When the army was reorganized he pressed vigorously for another forward movement, and when McClellan delayed, Wade became one of his sharpest critics. With Senators Chandler and J. W. Grimes he was instrumental in setting up the Committee on the Conduct of the War. From the moment of its creation the Committee, under Wade's chairmanship, became a violently partisan machine, suspicious of the loyalty of those who ventured to dissent from its wishes and bent upon an unrelenting prosecution of the war. Its members worked in close cooperation with Secretary of War Stanton, a kindred spirit whom Wade had urged for that office, but they were generally critical of the President. Like other Radical Republicans in Congress, Wade seemed temperamentally incapable of understanding Lincoln and deplored his cautious and conservative policies. He himself favored drastic punitive measures against the South, including legislation for the confiscation of the property of the Confederate leaders and the emancipation of their slaves (Congressional Globe, 37 Congress, 2 Session, p. 3375; Edward McPherson, The Political History of the United States ... during the Great Rebellion (1864, pp. 196 ff.). He was not overburdened with constitutional scruples where measures that he favored were concerned. At the same time he decried the President's "dictatorship" and found Lincoln's clement reconstruction policy, announced on December 8, 1863, particularly obnoxious. When he and Henry Winter Davis [q.v.] attempted to counteract it by a severe congressional plan, embodied in the Wade-Davis bill, and Lincoln checked this by a "pocket veto," announcing his reasons in a proclamation (July 8, 1864), their indignation was unbounded. The result .. his Wade-Davis Manifesto (August 5), a fierce blast, condemned the President's "executive usurpation" as a "studied outrage on the legislative authority" and insisted that in matters of reconstruction Congress was "paramount and must be respected" (Appletons' American Annual Cyclopaedia ... 1864, 1865, pp. 307-10). Previously Wade had joined with others in indorsing the Pomeroy circular, designed to replace Lincoln with Salmon P. Chase (G. F. Milton, The Age of Hate, 1930, p. 28), but when that project collapsed and the Manifesto aroused a storm of disapproval in Ohio, he gave his support to Lincoln in the closing weeks of the election contest in 1864. But he continued to resist the President's reconstruction policy, characterizing it as "absurd, monarchical, and anti-American" (Congressional Globe, 38 Congress, 2 Session, p. 1128).

The accession of Johnson to the presidency in April 1865 was hailed by Wade and his faction as a godsend, and they hastened to make overtures to him in behalf of their own measures. When to their surprise he took over Lincoln's policy, Wade dubbed him either "a knave or a fool," and contended that to admit the Southern states on the presidential plan was "nothing less than political suicide" (H.K. Beale, The Critical Year, 1930, pp. 49, 314). From December 1865 onward, along with Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, and other vindictive leaders, he waged a persistent campaign against Johnson, pressing for the enactment of the congressional program, including the Civil Rights, Military Reconstruction, and Tenure of Office bills. At the opening of the session in December 1865 Wade promptly introduced a bill for the enfranchisement of negroes in the District of Columbia (Congressional Globe, 39 Congress, 1 Session, p. 1), and supported negro suffrage in the campaign of 1866, although he was willing to readmit the Southern states if they ratified the fourteenth amendment within a reasonable time (Ibid., 39 Congress, 2 Session, p. 124). His methods during the period leave the impression that he, like Stevens, was ready to resort to almost any extremity in order to carry through the congressional policies or gain a point.

The Radicals succeeded in having Wade elected president pro tempore of the Senate when that office became vacant (March 2, 1867). According to the statute then in force, he would have succeeded to the presidency in the event of Johnson's removal. But it appears that the prospect of Wade's succession really became an embarrassment to them, for many of the conservatives felt that he would be no improvement and might prove less satisfactory than Johnson (Diary of Gideon Welles, 1911, volume III, 293; Oberholtzer, post, II, 13411.). Wade himself voted for Johnson's conviction despite the fact that he was an interested party. So expectant was he of success that he began the selection of his cabinet before the impeachment trial was concluded (Adam Badeau, Grant in Peace, 1887, pp. 136-37; C. G. Bowers, The Tragic Era, 1929, pp. 188-89). Thwarted in his presidential ambitions by Johnson's acquittal, and having failed of reelection to the Senate, Wade sought the second place on the ticket with Grant in 1868. However, after leading on the first four ballots in the Republican convention, he lost the nomination to Schuyler Colfax.

Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1869 Wade resumed the practice of law in Ohio. He became general counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad and served for a time as one of the government directors of the Union Pacific. In 1871 Grant appointed him a member of the commission of investigation which visited Santo Domingo and recommended its annexation (Report of the Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo, 1871). Seven years later he died in Jefferson, Ohio.

[The chief documentary sources for Wade's public career are the Congressional Globe and the "Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War," Senate Report No. 108, 37 Congress, 3 Session, (3 volumes, 1863); Senate Report No. 142, 38 Congress, 2 Session, (3 volumes, 1865). A. G. Riddle, The Life of Benjamin F. Wade (1886), is too brief and uncritical to be of much historical value. Short sketches of Wade's life are to be found in L. P. Brockett, Men of Our Day (1872), pp. 240-62 a contemporary eulogistic account; The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery ... of ... Ohio, volume I (1883), 293-94; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); New York Herald and New York Times, March 3, 1878. J. F. Rhodes, History of the U. S. (9 volumes, 1893-1922); and E. P. Oberholtzer, A History of the U. S. since the Civil War (4 volumes, 1917-31) contain numerous references to Wade, as do the biographies of his political contemporaries. D. M. DeWitt, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1903) is useful for the post-war period. This work, like the more recent studies of the war and reconstruction eras, is hostile to Wade and his faction.]

A.H.M.



WARD, Marcus Lawrence, (November 9, 1812-April 25, 1884), governor of New Jersey, congressman, philanthropist. In 1856 he first took an active part in politics, embracing with vigor the cause of the newly formed Republican party. Because of his intense anti-slavery convictions, he went to Kansas in 1858 to take part in the struggle against the admission of slavery there, but found too much mob violence for his taste. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In 1865 he was elected governor of New Jersey by a large majority.

(M. D. Ogden, Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey, volume I (1915); W. H. Shaw, History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey (1884), volume I; The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey of the Nineteenth Century (1877).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 352:

WARD, Marcus Lawrence, governor of New Jersey, born in Newark, New Jersey, 9 November, 1812; died there, 25 April, 1884. He received a good education and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was originally a Whig, aided in forming the Republican Party, and was a delegate to the National Republican Conventions in Chicago in 1860 and in Baltimore in 1864. During the Civil War he frequently visited the camps and battle-fields to alleviate suffering, and for his many services was called the Soldiers' Friend. He devised a system by which communication could be transmitted without cost from the soldier on the field to his family, and also established a free pension bureau, which he maintained at his personal expense. In recognition of his patriotism the government gave to the hospital that he equipped in Newark the name of the " U. S. Ward hospital," which after the war was converted into a home for disabled soldiers. In 1862 he was defeated as a candidate for governor of New Jersey, but he held this office in 1865-8. In 1866 he was chosen chairman of the National Republican Committee. He was afterward elected to Congress as a Republican, serving from 1 December, 1873, till 3 March, 1875. In the latter year he declined the office of Indian Commissioner. Governor Ward was an early member of the New Jersey Historical Society, of the Newark Library Association, and the New Jersey Art Union, aided education in the state, improved the condition of the state prison, and was an active philanthropist. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 352.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 1, pp. 432-433:

WARD, MARCUS LAWRENCE (November 9, 1812-April 25, 1884), governor of New Jersey, congressman, philanthropist, was the son of Moses and Fanny (Brown) Ward. His paternal ancestor, John Ward, came with his widowed mother from England and settled in 1635 at Wethersfield, Connecticut; in 1666 he became one of the founders of Newark, New Jersey. Here his descendant, Moses Ward, was for many years a successful manufacturer of candles, and here Moses' son Marcus was born. Educated in local private schools, he became a clerk in a variety store in Newark and later entered his father's establishment, becoming in time a partner in the firm of M. Ward & Son. In this connection he became widely known throughout the state and made a private fortune.

From his early years Ward took an interest in everything concerning his native city. He became a director in the National State Bank in Newark in 1846, was long chairman of the executive committee of the New Jersey Historical Society, and aided in the formation of the Newark Library Association and the New Jersey Art Union. In 1856 he first took an active part in politics, embracing with vigor the cause of the newly formed Republican party. Because of his intense anti-slavery convictions, he went to Kansas in 1858 to take part in the struggle against the admission of slavery there, but found too much mob violence for his taste, and soon returned to Newark and his business. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency.

Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War he began to devise means to ameliorate the condition of the families of those New Jersey soldiers who by death or illness had left their wives and children destitute, and also the condition of such soldiers themselves as needed better hospital accommodations than the Government had prepared. With his own funds, and assuming direct oversight of the project, he took possession of a whole floor in the Newark Custom House, employed eight clerks, and there laid plans for carrying out his patriotic and benevolent ideas. He established a kind of free pension bureau, through which he secured soldiers' pay and transmitted it to their families. He founded a soldiers' hospital in his city-The Ward U. S. Hospital, the foundation of the later Soldiers' Home. In 1862 he consented to run as a Republican candidate for governor, but was defeated by the Democrat Joel Parker [q.v.]. He was a delegate in 1864 to the convention at Baltimore that renominated Lincoln; in the same year he became a member of the Republican National Committee, and continued as such until the nomination of General Grant for the presidency. In 1865 he was elected governor of New Jersey by a large majority. During his administration of three years (January 16, 1866-January 18, 1869) he secured the passage of a public-school law, an act eliminating partisanship in the control of the state prison, and other measures of reform. After a few years of retirement he was elected in 1872 representative in Congress from the sixth New Jersey district and served from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1875. He was renominated in 1874, but was defeated in a Democratic tidal wave. Declining the federal office of commissioner of Indian affairs, he now retired to private life. After two trips to Europe he visited Florida, where he contracted the malarial fever which brought his death.

On June 30, 1840, Ward married Susan, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Longworth) Morris, by whom he had eight children; two sons, with their mother, survived him. The younger son, Marcus L. Ward, Jr., who outlived his brother, put the family fortune to a unique use by establishing at Maplewood, New Jersey, in memory of his father, the Ward Homestead, with accommodations for 120 bachelors and widowers who have been prominent in the business or Social life of New Jersey and are over sixty-five years of age. The Homestead is like a large country club in appearance, and has a large endowment fund.

[M. D. Ogden, Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey, volume I (1915); W. H. Shaw, History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey (1884), volume I; The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey of the Nineteenth Century (1877); Proceedings New Jersey Historical Society, 2 series VIII (1885), IX (1887); John Livingston Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living (1854), volume IV; Harper's Weekly, December 9, 1865; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); New York Times, April 26, 1884.]

A. V-D.H.



WASHBURN, Cadwallader Colden, (April 22, 1818-May 14, 1882), soldier, congressman, governor of Wisconsin, anti-slavery Republican congressman. Washburn's excellent reputation, and his early adherence to the principles upon which the Republican party was founded, brought him an unsolicited nomination and election to Congress in 1854. He sat in three successive congresses, his brother Israel [q.v.] represented a Maine district, and his brother Elihu an Illinois district. The three brothers, to the satisfaction of their respective constituencies, lent one another much aid, particularly on local matters. His outstanding act was to oppose vigorously a House plan to pacify the South by so amending the Constitution as to continue slavery indefinitely. His participation in the Washington Peace Convention of 1861 showed his desire to prevent war.

(Gaillard Hunt, Israel, Elihu and Cadwallader Washburn (1925); David Atwood and others, "In Memoriam: Hon. Cadwallader C. Washburn," Wisconsin Historical Society Collection, volume IX (1882); C. W. Butterfield, "Cadwallader C. Washburn," Northwest Review (Minneapolis), March 1883).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 371-372:

WASHBURN, Cadwallader Colden, lawyer, born in Livermore, Maine, 22 April, 1818; died in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, 14 May, 1882, worked on his father's farm in summer and attended the town school in winter until about 1835, when he went to Hallowell and was employed in a store. He also served in the post-office, and during the winter of 1838-'9 taught in Wiscasset. In the spring of 1839 he set out for the west and settled at Davenport, Iowa, where he joined the geological survey of that state under David Dale Owen. Toward the close of the year he entered the law-office of Joseph B. Wells, having previously studied under his uncle, Reuel Washburn, in Livermore, Maine, and was admitted to the bar on 29 March, 1842. In 1840 he was elected surveyor of the county of Rock Island, Illinois, the duties of which he performed while preparing for his profession. He moved to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 1842, and in 1844 entered into partnership with Cyrus Woodman, agent of the New England Land Company, but their law-practice gradually diminished as they paid greater attention to financial matters. They dealt largely in the entry of public lands for settlers and the location of Mexican land-warrants. In 1852 the firm established the Mineral Point Bank, which never suspended specie payments and during its existence had a high reputation. On the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Washburn was chosen as a Whig to Congress, and served with re-elections from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1861. He then declined a renomination, but was sent as a delegate from Wisconsin to the Peace Congress that was held in Philadelphia in 1861. At the beginning of the Civil War he raised the 2d Wisconsin Cavalry, and was commissioned its colonel, 10 October, 1861. His first service was under General Samuel R. Curtis in Arkansas. Among his acts at this period were the dislodging of a Confederate force that was preparing to obstruct the progress of the National Army at the crossing of the Tallahatchie, and the opening of the Yazoo pass; and he was conspicuous in the battle of Grand Coteau, where he saved the 4th Division, under General Stephen G. Burbridge, from annihilation by an overwhelming force of the enemy. He was commissioned brigadier on 16 July, 1862, and on 29 November, 1862, major-general of volunteers. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg, and on its surrender was given command of the 13th Corps and sent to the Department of the Gulf. On 29 November, 1863, he landed on the coast of Texas with 2,800 men and compelled the evacuation of Fort Esperanza, a bomb-proof work, which was cased with railroad iron, surrounded by a deep moat filled with water, manned by 1,000 men. and mounted ten guns. This fort was at Pass Cavallo, and guarded the entrance to Matagorda bay. In April, 1864. he was ordered to relieve General Stephen A. Hurlburt, in command at Memphis, of the district of West Tennessee. This post he held almost continuously until his resignation on 25 May, 1865. General Washburn was sent as a Republican from the 6th District of Wisconsin to Congress, and served with re-election from 4 March, 1867, till 3 March, 1871. In the autumn of 1871 he was elected governor of Wisconsin and held that office for the years, beginning 1 January, 1872. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the office in 1873, and afterward for the U. S. Senate. On retiring from office, he directed his attention to the care of his property. The timber lands that he had purchased soon after he settled in the state had become very valuable, and he operated extensively in lumber. In 1876 he erected an immense flouring-mill in Minneapolis, where first in this country was introduced the "patent process" and the Hungarian system. It was destroyed by an explosion in 1878, but he at once replaced it with one more capacious. He was also one of the largest owners of the water-power at St. Anthony Falls, and a heavy stock-holder in the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad. General Washburn was actively interested in the Wisconsin Historical Society, and was its president for several years. He founded, in connection with the State University of Wisconsin, the Washburn observatory, which, with its instruments, cost more than $50,000. The legislature of the state made him a life regent of the university, which in 1873 conferred upon him the degree of L.L. D. His country-house of Edgewood, near Madison, worth $20,000, he presented to the Dominican Sisters for use as a school for girls. In his will he bequeathed $50,000 to found a public library at La Crosse, and $375,000 for the establishment of an orphans' home in Minneapolis. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 371-372.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 1, pp. 405-496:

WASHBURN, CADWALLADER COLDEN (April 22, 1818-May 14, 1882), soldier, congressman, governor of Wisconsin, pioneer industrialist, was one of the seven sons (an eighth died in infancy) of Israel and Martha (Benjamin) Washburn. His ancestry on both sides went back to early Massachusetts Puritans on the paternal side to John Washburn who settled in Duxbury in 1632-and his two grandfathers, Captain Israel Washburn and Lieutenant Samuel Benjamin, served with distinction in the Revolutionary War. In 1809 Washburn's father, who had left the ancestral home in Raynham, Massachusetts, three years before, bought a farm and a store at Livermore, Androscoggin County, Maine. Here he married and brought up his numerous brood of children, which included, besides the boys, three girls; Members of so large a family could not stay for long under the parental rooftree; hence, in 1839, equipped with what education he could get from the town schools, and deeply impressed by the advice of Reuel Washburn, a lawyer uncle, Cadwallader borrowed enough money to pay his way to the West, and was soon in Davenport, Iowa. Here, and across the Mississippi in Illinois, he taught school, worked in a store, did some surveying, and read law. In 1842 he opened a law office at Mineral Point, Wisconsin a small town not far from Galena, Illinois, where his brother Elihu B. Washburne [q.v.] had settled two years before. The foundation of his great fortune was soon laid. In 1844 he formed a partnership with Cyrus Woodman, an experienced land agent, and gradually abandoned the law for the far more lucrative business of entering public lands for settlers. Before long he partners owned in their own right valuable pine, mineral, and agricultural lands, and for a short time they operated the Mineral Point Bank. After 1855, when the partnership was amicably dissolved, Washburn carried on his now extensive operations alone. Even politics and the Civil War did not interfere seriously with the normal growth of this pioneer fortune. Proud of his honesty, and of the record of his bank, which never suspended specie payments and liquidated by meeting every obligation in full, Washburn rarely won the ill will of his neighbors; but his judgment on business matters was sound, and the opportunities for making money in a rapidly developing country were abundant. Washburn's excellent reputation, and his early adherence to the principles upon which the Republican party was founded, brought him an unsolicited nomination and election to Congress in 1854. He sat in three successive congresses, in each of which, by an odd coincidence, his brother Israel [q.v.] represented a Maine district, and his brother Elihu an Illinois district. The three brothers, to the satisfaction of their respective constituencies, lent one another much aid, particularly on local matters, but the representative from Wisconsin achieved no very great national prominence. His outstanding act was to oppose vigorously a House plan to pacify the South by so amending the Constitution as to continue slavery indefinitely; but his participation in the Washington Peace Convention of 1861 showed his desire to prevent war. When war came nevertheless, his record was admirable. He raised the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, became its colonel, and by the end of 1862 was a major-general. His command saw hard service in most of the campaigns west of the Mississippi River, and participated in the fighting around Vicksburg. When the war ended, he was in charge of the Department of Western Tennessee, with headquarters at Memphis. After the war, as a rich man and a former major-general of volunteers, Washburn was clearly marked for a political career if he desired it, but politics never absorbed his chief interest. He served two more terms in Congress, 1867-71, as a thoroughly regular Republican, and one term, January 1, 1872, to December 31, 1873, as governor of Wisconsin. He would probably have welcomed a seat in the United States Senate, or a cabinet appointment, but these honors were denied him, and he was content to devote his later years to the operation and expansion of his vast industrial enterprises. His pine lands brought him into the lumber business and his shrewd acquisition of water-power rights at the Falls of St. Anthony (Minneapolis) on the upper Mississippi enabled him to become one of the nation's foremost manufacturers of flour. In 1856 he helped organize the Minneapolis Mill Company, of which his younger brother, William D. Washburn [q.v.] became secretary. Some fifteen years later C. C. Washburn was one of the first to adopt the "New Process" of milling, which created a demand for the spring wheat of the Northwest and completely revolutionized the flour industry in the United States. Like his great rival, Charles A. Pillsbury [q.v.], he was prompt in substituting rollers for millstones. In 1877 Washburn, Crosby & Company was organized, and two years later reorganized, with Washburn, John Crosby, Charles J. Martin, and William E. Dunwoody [q.v.], as partners. Naturally Washburn's wealth drew him into many other lines of business. He was, for example, one of the projectors and builders of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad. His private life was saddened, though not embittered, by the insanity of his wife, Jeannette Garr, a visitor to the West from New York City, whom he married January 1, 1849. She became an invalid after the birth of their second child in 1852, and although she survived her husband by many years her mind was never restored. Perhaps as an outlet to his feelings, Washburn took much satisfaction in his philanthropies, among which were the Washburn Observatory of the University of Wisconsin, the Public Library at La Crosse (his residence after 1859), and an orphan asylum in Minneapolis. He suffered a stroke of paralysis in 1881, and died a year later at Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

[A manuscript sketch of C. C. Washburn's life, prepared by his brother Elihu, together with an extensive collection of Washburn and Woodman papers, is in the possession of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. See also Gaillard Hunt, Israel, Elihu and Cadwallader Washburn (1925); David Atwood and others, "In Memoriam: Hon. Cadwallader C. Washburn," Wisconsin Historical Society Collection, volume IX (1882); C. W. Butterfield, "Cadwallader C. Washburn," Northwest Review (Minneapolis), March 1883; Biographical History of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin (1892); C. B. Kuhlmann, The Development of the Flour-Milling Industry in the U. S. (1929); W. C. Edgar, The Medal of Gold (1925); New York Times, May 1s, 1882; Republican and Leader (La Crosse), May 20, 27, 1882.]

J. D. H-s.



WASHBURN, Elihu Benjamin, 1816-1887, statesman, lawyer. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman from December 1853 through march 1869. Called “Father of the House.” Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 370-371; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 504; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 750; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

WASHBURN, Elihu Benjamin, statesman, born in Livermore, Maine, 23 September, 1816; died in Chicago, Illinois, 22 October, 1887, wrote his family name with a final “e.” He was educated at public schools, and, after working on his father's farm, entered the office of the “Christian Intelligencer” in Gardiner in 1833 as a printer's apprentice. The paper was discontinued a year later, and he was chosen to teach in the district school. In May, 1835, he entered the office of the “Kennebec Journal,” at Augusta, where he continued for a year, during which time he rose gradually until he became an assistant of the editor, and acquired his first knowledge of political life during the sessions of the state legislature. He then decided to study law, and entered Kent's Hill Seminary in 1836. After a year in that institution he began his professional studies in the office of John Otis in Hallowell, who, impressed by his diligence and ambition, aided him financially and took him into his own home to board. In March, 1839, he entered the law-school at Harvard, where among his class-mates were Richard H. Dana. Charles Devens, and William M. Evarts. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, and at once determined to establish himself in the west. Settling in Galena, Illinois, he there entered into law-partnership with Charles S. Hempstead, and, being a strong Whig, made speeches in behalf of that party, which had nominated William H. Harrison for the presidency. In 1844 he was a delegate to the Whig national convention in Baltimore that selected Henry Clay as its candidate, and on his return he visited that statesman in Washington. Meanwhile his business increased, and he was frequently called upon to practise in the supreme court of the state. In 1848 he was nominated for Congress in the Galena District, but was defeated by Colonel Edward D. Baker. In 1852, as a delegate to the National Whig Convention, he advocated the nomination of General Winfield Scott, and in the same year he was elected to congress, serving thereafter from 5 December, 1853, till 6 March, 1869. He soon gained an excellent reputation, and, on the election of Nathaniel P. Banks as speaker in 1855, was given the chairmanship of the committee on commerce, which he held for ten years. He was selected by the house to accompany William H. Seward, representing the Senate, to receive Abraham Lincoln when he arrived in Washington after his election. From the length of his continuous service he became recognized as the “Father of the House,” and in that capacity administered the oath as speaker to Schuyler Colfax three times, and to James G. Blaine once. From his continual habit of closely scrutinizing all demands that were made upon the treasury and persistently demanding that the finances of the government should be administered with the strictest economy, he acquired the name of the “Watch-dog of the Treasury.” He was a steadfast friend of Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, and every promotion that the latter received was given either solely or in part upon the recommendation of Mr. Washburne. Subsequently he originated the bills that made General Grant lieutenant-general and general. Mr. Washburne was a member of the joint committee on reconstruction and chairman of the committee of the whole house in the matter of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He opposed all grants of the public lands and all subsidies to railroad companies, and resisted with all his power what he called “the greatest legislative crime in history”—the bill that subordinated the first mortgage of the government on the Pacific Railroad to the mortgage of the railroad companies. He also opposed “log rolling” river and harbor bills, all extravagant appropriations for public buildings, all subsidies for steamship lines, and all undue renewals of patents. Among the important bills that he introduced was the one that provided for the establishment of national cemeteries. At the beginning of his administration President Grant appointed Mr. Washburne Secretary of State, which office he resigned soon afterward to become minister to France. This place he held during the Franco-Prussian war, and on the withdrawal of the German ambassador, the latter was ordered by Count Bismarck to turn over his archives to the American legation. At the request of Bismarck, and with the permission of the French minister of foreign affairs, he exercised his official influence with remarkable tact and skill for the protection of the Germans in Paris and acted as the representative of the various German states and other foreign governments. When the empire was overthrown, Mr. Washburne was the first foreign representative to recognize the new republic. He remained in Paris during the siege, and was at his post when the Commune ruled the City. He visited the venerable archbishop Darboy of Paris when he was hurried to prison, and succeeded in having the prelate moved to more comfortable quarters, but failed to prevent his murder. He retained the respect and good-will of the French during all the changes of government, and the emperor of Germany recognized his services by conferring upon him the Order of the Red Eagle. This he declined, owing to the provision of the U. S. constitution that prevented its acceptance, but on his resignation in 1877 the emperor sent him his life-size portrait, and he was similarly honored by Bismarck, Thiers, and Gambetta. On his return to this country he settled in Chicago, and in 1880 his name was brought forward as a candidate for the presidency, but he refused to have it presented to the convention. He was president of the Chicago historical society from November, 1884, till his death, and was frequently invited to lecture on his foreign experiences. He wrote a series of articles on that subject for “Scribner's Magazine,” which were expanded into “Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869-1877” (2 vols., New York, 1887). His collection of pictures, documents, and autographs he desired to be given to the city of Chicago, provided they should be exhibited free to the general public. Efforts are being made to secure the erection of a suitable building in Lincoln park for their exhibition. Mr. Washburne edited “History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois” (Chicago, 1882); and “The Edwards Papers” (1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 370-371.

American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 1, p. 504:

WASHBURNE, ELIHU BENJAMIN (September 23, 1816--October 23, 1887), congressman, cabinet member, diplomat, historian, was the third of eleven children born to Israel and Martha (Benjamin) Washburn at Livermore, Maine. After the failure of the father's country store in 1829 the large family was forced to rely on a small and not-too-fertile farm for subsistence, and as a result several of the brothers, among them Elihu, were early forced to fend for themselves. Leaving home at the age of fourteen, he added an "e" to his name in imitation of his English forebears and embarked on the road of education and hard work which led him to a position not the least prominent among five brothers-Israel, Cadwallader C., William D. [qq. v.], Elihu, and Charles-notable for their service to state and nation.

A short experience at farm work convinced him that he was not destined for an agricultural career; he disliked his three months of school teaching more than anything he ever turned his hand to; a newspaper publisher to whom he apprenticed himself failed, and while he was working for another printer a hernia incapacitated him for further typesetting. These experiences led him to the decision to study law, and accordingly, after several months in Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Kent's Hill, followed by an apprenticeship in a Boston law office, he entered the Harvard Law School in 1839, where he came under the influence of Joseph Story [q.v.]. Armed with membership in the Massachusetts bar and a few law books, he turned his face westward in 1840, resolved to settle in Iowa Territory.

His brother Cadwallader, who had already settled at Rock Island, Illinois, persuaded the newcomer that Illinois was a more favorable location than Iowa, and that the most likely place for a briefless lawyer was the boom town of Galena, where lead mines had recently been opened. Within a month after his arrival Washburne had begun to make a living and some political speeches. He presently formed a connection which was to be of considerable importance, both personally and professionally, with Charles Hempstead, the leader of the town's dozen lawyers. The latter, partially paralyzed, needed clerical assistance in his practice and in return threw sundry minor cases to his quasi-partner. This association lasted for a year, after which Washburne practised independently until 1845, when he entered an actual partnership with Hempstead. In this year he married, July 31, one of his benefactor's relatives, Adele Gratiot, a descendant of the French settlers around St. Louis. Seven children were born to them. Washburne's connection by marriage with Missouri, indirect though it was, commended him to the attention of Thomas Hart Benton [q. v.] on his entry into Congress eight years later, and was of no disadvantage in launching his career.

His moderate earnings from the law were transmuted into a comfortable competence by careful investments in western lands, and he gradually turned his energies into political channels. He became a wheel-horse of the local Whig party, placed Henry Clay in nomination for the presidency at Baltimore in 1844, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress four years later. He was more fortunate in 1852, and in the following year began sixteen years of service in the House which covered the periods of the Civil War and reconstruction. He kept a sharp lookout for the interests of his section (particularly directed toward preventing the misappropriation of public lands to the uses of railroad speculators) and at the same time cast a keen and malevolent eye upon those who would raid the federal treasury. The lobbyist or the known corruptionist fared badly at his hands, and his last long speech in the House (January 6, 1869), on a pension bill, was one of a number of blasts against those who were at the time leading Congress along forbidden paths. For a time he was chairman of the committee on commerce and for two years, chairman of the committee on appropriations, where his efforts to keep down expenses made him the first of a long succession of "watchdogs of the treasury."

Physical disabilities kept him from active military duty during the Civil War, but he used his talents in Congress to aid his personal and political friend Lincoln, and to forward the military fortunes of his fellow townsman and protege, Ulysses S. Grant. He was the sole person to greet Lincoln on his secret arrival in Washington for the inauguration in 1861 (Hunt, post, pp. 229-30). He proposed Grant's name as brigadier-general of volunteers and sponsored the bills by which Grant was made successively lieutenant-general and general. When war gave way to reconstruction, Washburne found himself in the forefront of the Radicals and a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. He turned against Lincoln's successor and when members of the vindictive party "competed with one another in phrasing violent abuse of Andrew Johnson ... Elihu Washburne deserved one of the prizes" (Ibid., p. 238).

His early sponsorship of Grant continued through the campaign of 1868, when Grant heard the news of his election over telegraph wires run to Washburne's library in Galena. His stanch support was rewarded by appointment as secretary of state in Grant's cabinet, a post which he assumed March 5, 1869, resigned March 10, and vacated March 16. It is probable that this was a courtesy appointment preliminary to his designation, March 17, as minister to France, and designed to give him prestige in the French capital. His connection with the Grant administration remained close and he and Grant were friends until the spring of 1880, when an abortive boom for Washburne ran foul of Grant's own futile aspirations for a third term. Washburne himself immediately adhered to Grant's candidacy, though apparently without great enthusiasm, and remained at least outwardly loyal to his former chief. During the convention he himself received as many as forty-four votes, and it was later contended by his friends that with Grant's support he r:ould have received the nomination which went to Garfield. Be that as it may, Grant vented his disappointment on Washburne and the two never met again.

Meantime he had rendered capable service through very trying times in Europe. As minister to France he witnessed the downfall of the empire of the third Napoleon and, remaining until the autumn of 1877, rounded out the longest term of any American minister to France down to that time. He was the only official representative of a foreign government to remain in Paris throughout the siege and the Commune, and his two volumes of memoirs, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869-1877 (1887), constitute a valuable account of those exciting days. In addition to his service to his own country, during the war he made himself useful by looking after the interests of German residents of France. On his retirement from public. life he devoted himself to historical and literary activities, serving as president of the Chicago Historical Society from 1884 to 1887 and publisi1ing, in addition to the Recollections of a Minister, several works of some historical value, particularly sketches of early Illinois political figures, pre-pared for the Chicago Historical Society. For the same society he edited "The Edwards Papers" (Collections, volume III, 1884), a selection from the manuscripts of Governor Ninian Edwards [ q.v.] of Illinois.

[Gaillard Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn (1925); J. V. Fuller, "Elihu Benjamin Washburne," in S. F. Bemis, The American Secretaries of State, volume VII (1928); G. W. Smith, "Elihu B. Washburne," in Chicago Historical Society Colts., volume IV (1890); Encyclopedia of Biography of Illinois, volume II (1894); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); General Grant's Letters to a Friend, 1861-1880 (1897), ed. by J. G. Wilson, being letters to Washburne; Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the U.S., 1870-77; Chicago Tribune, October 24, 1887; Washburne Papers (101 volumes), MSS. Division, Library of Congress]

L. E. E.



WASHBURN, Israel, (June 6, 1813-May 12, 1883), lawyer, congressman, governor of Maine, was a brother of Elihu B. Washburne, Cadwallader C. Washburn, and William D. Washburn [qq.v.]. In 1850 was elected, and for the next ten years represented the Penobscot district, first as a whig and later as a Republican. During part of that time his brothers Cadwallader and Elihu were all in the House, representing Wisconsin and Illinois respectively. His part in founding the Republican party was his most distinctive work in Washington. On May 9, 1854, the day after the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed the House, he called a meeting of some thirty anti-slavery representatives at the rooms of two Massachusetts congressmen; this group took further steps toward organizing a new party and Washburn is a strong contender for the honor of having been the first to suggest the name "Republican." He used it publicly shortly afterwards in a speech at Bangor. Washburn steadily and strongly opposed the extension of slavery.

(Gaillard Hunt, Israel, Elihu and Cadwallader Washburn (1925); In Memoriam: Israel Washburn, Jr. (1884); L. C. Hatch, Maine, a History (3 volumes, 1919); Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power (3 volumes, 1873-77).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 370:

WASHBURN, Israel, governor of Maine, born in Livermore, Maine, 6 June, 1813; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 May, 1883. He was descended from John Washburn, who was secretary of Plymouth colony in England and who came to this country in 1631 and settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts. His grandfather, Israel, served in the Revolutionary war and attained the rank of captain. He was repeatedly elected to the legislature, and was a member from Massachusetts of the convention which ratified the constitution of the United States. In 1806 Israel, son of the foregoing, moved to Maine, where he taught at first, but in 1808 settled at White's Landing (now Richmond), on Kennebec River, where he engaged in ship-building. He established a trading-post at Livermore, Maine, in 1809, at what is now called The Norlands, and soon afterward settled there. Israel, the subject of this sketch, was educated at public schools and by private tutors, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1834. Settling in Orono, Maine, he soon acquired a large practice, and in 1842-'3 was a member of the legislature. In 1850, he was sent to Congress, serving as a Whig from 1 December, 1851, to 1 January, 1861, when he resigned, having been chosen governor of Maine. Declining a re-election, he was appointed in 1863 by President Lincoln collector of customs at Portland, Maine, which office he held until 1877. He was president of the board of trustees of Tufts College, and was elected to the presidency of that institution in 1875, but declined. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Tufts College in 1872. Governor Washburn was a member of historical and genealogical societies, and, in addition to many of his addresses and speeches, which have had a wide circulation, published "Notes, Historical. Descriptive, and Personal, of Livermore, Maine" (1874). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 370.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 1, pp. 502-503:

WASHBURN, ISRAEL (June 6, 1813-May 12, 1883), lawyer, congressman, governor of Maine, was a brother of Elihu B. Washburne, Cadwallader C. Washburn, and William D. Washburn [qq.v.]. They were born in Livermore, Maine, the sons of Israel and Martha (Benjamin) Washburn. Their father sat in the Massachusetts legislature from 1815 to 1819. The failure of his store in 1829 prevented Israel, eldest of eleven children, from attending college, but he studied law with his uncle, Reuel Washburn, and in 1834 was admitted to the bar. He made his home at Orono until 1863, when he moved to Portland. He held several local offices and sat in the Maine legislature in 1842 during the Northeast Boundary dispute. In 1848 he was defeated for Congress but in 1850 was elected, and for the next ten years represented the Penobscot district, first as a whig and later as a Republican. During part of that time his brothers Cadwallader and Elihu were all in the House, representing Wisconsin and Illinois respectively.

His part in founding the Republican party was his most distinctive work in Washington. On May 9, 1854, the day after the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed the House and ten weeks after the original meeting at Ripon, Wisconsin, he called a meeting of some thirty anti-slavery representatives at the rooms of two Massachusetts congressmen; this group took further steps toward organizing a new party and Washburn is a strong contender for the honor of having been the first to suggest the name "Republican." He used it publicly shortly afterwards in a speech at Bangor. Washburn steadily and strongly opposed the extension of slave1'y; in 1856 he supported Nathaniel P. Banks [q.v.] for the speakership; for a time he was chairman of the committee on ways and means.

On January 1, 1861, he resigned from the House to succeed Lot M. Morrill [q.v.] as governor of Maine; later that year he was reelected. He has been ranked with John A. Andrew and Oliver P. Morton [qq.v.] among "the great war governors of the North" (Hamlin, post, p. 357), because of his contribution to Maine's excellent war record. Immediately upon the call for volunteers, he summoned the legislature to meet in special session and, though Maine was asked for only two regiments, that body provided for ten, appropriating a million dollars. By 1862, however, recruiting had slackened, and Washburn wrote Lincoln that he would have to resort to drafting to secure "three-year" men. He declined renomination for the governorship and in 1863 was appointed collector of the port of Portland. He was several times disappointed in his cherished ambition of a Senate seat, partly through the opposition of James G. Blaine [q.v.]. In 1878, he lost his collectorship, after planning to buy a newspaper to attack the Blaine group. From March 3 of that year until his death he was president of the Rumford Falls & Buckfield Railroad.

Washburn has been described as a "solid, hard-working man of sound knowledge and of rigid integrity" (Hunt, post, p. 40). Short, serious, and spectacled, he was less impressive than his brothers i; appearance. He was quick-tempered, was a good story-teller, and had a strong love of literature. He wrote Notes, Historical, Descriptive, and Personal, of Livermore ... Maine (1874), read papers on the "North-Eastern Boundary" and on Ether Shepley before the Maine Historical Society (Collections, I series, VIII, 1881), and was a frequent contributor to the Universalist Quarterly. He was a trustee oi Tufts College from its opening in 1852 until his death, declining an offer of the presidency in 1878. On October 24, 1841, he married Mary Maud Webster of Orono, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. She died in 1873 and he married in January 1876 Rebina Napier Brown of Bangor. He died in Philadelphia, whither he had gone for medical treatment, and was buried in Bangor.

[Gaillard Hunt, Israel, Elihu and Cadwallader Washburn (1925); In Memoriam: Israel Washburn, Jr. (1884); L. C. Hatch, Maine, a History (3 volumes, 1919); Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power (3 volumes, 1873-77); J. S. Pike, First Blows of the Civil War (1879); C. E. Hamlin, Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin (1899); Francis Curtis, The Republican Party, a History (2 volumes, 1904); F. A. Shannon, Organization and Administration of the Union Army, (2 volumes, 1928), I, 272; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); New England Historical and Genealogical Register, January 1884; New York Herald, May 13, 1883; Daily Eastern Argus (Portland), May 14, 1883.]

J.B.P.

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.