Elihu Washburne

Ulysses Grant’s man in Washington

by Charles Francis

Lincoln “has doctrines, not hatreds and is without ambition except to do good and serve his country.”

The above statement comes from an address entitled Railsplitter, and was made by congressman Elihu Washburne on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of Abraham Lincoln for the Republican nomination for President.

Elihu Washburne, who will always be associated with Galena, Illinois as well as Livermore, Maine, knew what he was talking about for the simple reason that he had known Lincoln for more than a dozen years, and had been one of his chief supporters in his un- successful run for the United States Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. In fact, Elihu Washburne, along with two of his brothers, Israel and Cadwallader, had been among the more influential figures in the establishment of the Republican Party. After Lincoln was elected to the nation’s highest office, Elihu Washburne would become the chief promoter in the nation’s capital of the military career of none other than Ulysses S. Grant. Later, Grant would appoint Washburne Secretary of State and then minister to France.

Elihu Benjamin Washburne was a member of one of the most remarkable families this country has ever pro- duced. He and his four brothers, all of whom were born in Livermore, left a mark on the country that has never been equaled by any other children of the same parents. And, most remarkably, only one of them made Maine his sphere of operation. While Israel made his mark in Maine political circles, the rest of the Washburne brothers moved farther afield to establish themselves in politics and business in places like Wisconsin and Minnesota. Of all of the Washburne siblings, however, it was Elihu who played the most significant role during the turbulent Civil War years with his support of Ulysses S. Grant.

Elihu Washburne was born in Livermore in 1816. After attending grammar and common schools in Livermore, Washburne apprenticed in the printing trade, moving on to become an assistant editor at the Whig-supported Kennebec Journal in Augusta, while study- ing law at the same time. In 1839 he left Maine to continue his study of the law at Harvard. Then, in 1840 he went west, settling in Galena, Illinois.

Washburne opened an office in Galena, and proceeded to make friends with two of the town’s best-known residents. One was Charles Hempstead, Galena’s foremost Whig attorney. (Washburne would eventually marry Hempstead’s niece, Adele Gratiot, who, because she spoke fluent French, would be an invaluable helpmate to him, especially when he became minister to France.) The other was a then down-and-out shopkeep, Ulysses S. Grant, who had served as a captain in the army during the Mexican War.

Politically, Washburne campaigned for Whig candidates running for office, and even ran a successful campaign for the United States Congress as a Whig in 1852. By the mid-1850s, however, Washburne was an avowed Republi- can. In fact, he had been a delegate to the founding of the party in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he and his brother Cadwallader had helped define the party’s initial platform. (Back in Maine, Israel Washburne had, along with Hannibal Hamlin, been doing much the same at the state level.

Elihu Washburne was a member of Congress from 1853 until 1869. As such, he was in Washington during what some historians identify as the most important years in the country’s development. When Lincoln made his run for the presidency in 1860, Washburne served as one of his chief advisers on matters in the nation’s capital. Then, when Lincoln became president, Washburne was one of his strongest and most vocal House supporters. It was also at this time that he became one of the chief advocates for Ulysses S. Grant to be named commander of the Union army.

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During the first stages of the War Between the States, the Union army went through a variety of commanders like Joseph Hooker and George McClellan, none of whom seemed able to make any real progress towards bringing the conflict to an end. Most sources credit Elihu Washburne with keeping Grant’s name in the Washington eye at this time so that he was elevated to a command position in the west, and then to overall commander of the Union army. In addition, when rumors of Grant’s drinking began to surface, along with criticism of his strategy which seemed to bring about an exceptional number of Union casualties, it was Washburne who was his most vocal supporter.

Elihu Washburne resigned his position in Congress in 1869 to accept an appointment as President Grant’s Secretary of State. It was an appointment that only lasted a few days, however. Washburne was later to say that it was a position he really did not want and was not suited for. Grant then made him Ambassador to France.

Elihu Washburne served as America’s representative in Paris during the period of the Franco-Prussian war. At one point during the conflict, Paris came under siege. At that time, Washburne distinguished himself by protecting the lives of German civilians when they came under attack by irate Parisians. Later, when the government of Napoleon III fell to the violence of the Paris Commune, Washburne was the only foreign diplomat to remain in Paris, where he made the American flag the chief protection of an untold number of foreign nationals.

At the end of Grant’s second term of office, Elihu Washburne retired from public life. He and his wife moved to Chicago, where he devoted himself to writing the memoirs of his experiences in France and to his position as the president of the Chicago Historical Society.

Elihu Washburne died in Chicago in 1887. Today his home in Galena is a state historical site run by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Back in Livermore the Washburne family home, Norlands, proudly displays portraits and memorabilia of Elihu Washburne and the other members of the Washburne family that so distinguished themselves during the mid-nineteenth century.