The New Student's Reference Work/Washburne, Elihu Benjamin

Wash′burne, Elihu Benjamin, an American statesman, was born at Livermore, Me., in 1816. He studied law and began his practice at Galena, Ill., in 1840. He was in Congress from 1852 to 1869, and was called the Father of the House for his long service. He was minister to France during the Franco-Prussian War, and at the request of Germany very skillfully protected Germans who were residing in France at the time. He wrote Recollections of a Minister to France. He belonged to a family of statesmen, two of his brothers being in Congress with him, and the governors of Wisconsin and Maine, and another brother was United States minister at Paraguay. Elihu Washburne died at Chicago, where he spent the last years of his life, Oct. 22, 1887.