Abstract
Anson Burlingame, lawyer and politician, was elected to the Congress of the United States from Massachusetts in 1855 as a member of the Know Nothing Party. Later he changed his allegiance to the new Republican Party of which he was one of the founders in Massachusetts. He served in the House for three successive terms winning some slight fame as a member of the House Committee on Foreign AiFairs and wide notoriety for his speech against Preston Brooks, assailant of Charles Sumner. An ardent supporter of Lincoln, Burlingame himself failed of re-election in 1860. In reward for his faithful party service, President Lincoln appointed him Minister to Austria. When it proved that he was persona nan grata to the Austrian Government, the President then offered him the post of Minister to China. Burlingame promptly accepted and arrived in China in October of 1861.
