Bigelow, John, 1817-1911

John Bigelow, diplomat, journalist, and author, was born on November 25, 1817, at Malden, New York. He was trained as a lawyer and admitted to the New York Bar in 1838. His law practice grew slowly, prompting Bigelow to begin writing for literary magazines and newspapers. This work introduced him to influential politicians and helped him receive an appointment as inspector of Sing Sing Prison, New York. Bigelow's life was punctuated with political appointments. He was Consul-General to Paris during the Civil War and was Minister to France in 1865. He is known for helping Josiah Gregg write his book on pioneer life, The Commerce of the Prairies. He died in New York City in 1911.

From the description of Letter, 1887 Dec. 10. (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 47137824

John Bigelow, diplomat, journalist, and author, was born on November 25, 1817, at Malden, New York. He was trained as a lawyer and admitted to the New York Bar in 1838. His law practice grew slowly, prompting Bigelow to begin writing for literary magazines and newspapers. This work introduced him to influential politicians and helped him receive an appointment as inspector of Sing Sing Prison, New York. Bigelow's life was punctuated with political appointments. He was Consul-General to Paris during the Civil War and was Minister to France in 1865. Throughout his life he traveled extensively in Europe and wrote numerous books on political figures in the United States and American history. He is known for helping Josiah Gregg write his book on pioneer life, The Commerce of the Prairies. He died in New York City in 1911.

From the guide to the John Bigelow Letter, December 10, 1887, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)

John Bigelow (1817-1911) was an American author, editor and diplomat.

From the description of John Bigelow papers, 1839-1912. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122534127

From the guide to the John Bigelow letters, 1847-1899, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)

Lawyer; author; editor, New York Evening Post, 1848-1861; consul-general, Paris, 1861-1865; U.S. minister to France, 1865-1866; New York secretary of state, 1875.

From the description of Letter : Paris, [France], to Monsieur Delestre, 1865 May 5. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 27159095

John Bigelow was an editor and diplomat.

From the description of Correspondence, 1888-1906. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122632874

John Bigelow was an author, editor, and statesman; born in Malden, New York, and educated at Trinity College, he was accepted to the New York bar and practiced law. He shared editorship of the New York Evening Post with William Cullen Bryant, and became known for his anti-slavery and free trade editorials. He served as United States minister to France during the Civil War, and was praised for preventing French recognition of the Confederacy; he later served as New York's Secretary of State. Bigelow was also an author, and was responsible for publishing Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and a complete collection of his works. He was instrumental in the development of the New York Public Library.

From the description of John Bigelow letter to My dear sir, 1862 Nov. 22. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 74150120

Author.

From the description of John Bigelow correspondence, 1865-1910. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79450660

John Bigelow was a newspaper editor, Civil War-era diplomat, and author. He was born in Bristol (now Malden), New York, and, when not in Europe, lived in New York City near Gramercy Park, or at his home, "The Squirrels," at Buttermilk Falls (now Highland Falls), New York. After a period of studying law, teaching, and writing for the newspapers, Bigelow was appointed an inspector at Sing Sing State Prison in 1845 with the help of then New York State Assemblyman Samuel J. Tilden. Bigelow, influenced by Tilden, had joined the Free-Soil Democrats in 1844.

Leaving Sing Sing in 1848, Bigelow became co-owner and co-editor, with William Cullen Bryant, of the New York Evening Post. During his years at the Post, Bigelow married Jane Poultney (1850); traveled to Jamaica (1850), Haiti (1853), and Europe (1858-1860); began reading works of Emanuel Swedenborg in 1854; and campaigned for John C. Frémont, the Republican Party's first presidential candidate, in his 1856 race.

From 1861-1864 Bigelow served as President Lincoln's consul to Paris where his efforts were aimed at influencing the French in favor of the Union cause. While in Paris Bigelow managed to stop the sale of ships being constructed in French shipyards to the Confederacy. In 1865 he was made chargé d'affaires to France, thus remaining there until 1867.

After a two month period as editor of the New York Times in 1869, Bigelow returned to Europe, living in Germany from 1879 to 1873. In 1875, back in the United States, he was appointed by Tilden, now governor of New York, to be chairman of the Erie Canal Investigating Commission. The Commission was formed to investigate the activities of the "Canal Ring," a group of state officials and contractors who were diverting money meant for the maintenance of the Erie Canal. That same year, 1875, Bigelow, now a member of the Democratic Party, was elected New York Secretary of State.

After the 1870s Bigelow spend most of his time writing and editing. His remaining public responsibilities included his role as an executor of the Tilden Trust and in the founding of The New York Public Library; traveling to Panama in 1886 to prepare a report of the progress of the Panama Canal as a guest of the Panama Canal Company and a representative of the New York Chamber of Commerce; in 1888 he was commissioner of the United States section of the Brussels International Exhibition; and in 1893 he was a delegate to the New York Constitutional Convention.

Bigelow was the author of numerous books and articles. These included biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel J. Tilden, William Cullen Bryant, and others; a campaign biography of John C. Frémont; an autobiography; books and articles about French and American history and foreign relations, Swedenborgianism, Haiti and Jamaica, and a variety of other topics.

From the guide to the John Bigelow papers, 1839-1912, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)

John Bigelow (1817-1911) was a diplomat, editor and author. Appointed American consul-general at Paris in 1861, he became U.S. minister to France in April 1865. Bigelow had a special interest in French history and biography. His Life of Benjamin Franklin (1874) reproduced the founding father’s famous Autobiography from a manuscript he discovered and first printed in 1868. His editorial triumph was an edition of the Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin (10 vols., 1887-88). He also edited the Writings and Speeches of Samuel J. Tilden (1885, 1908). Bigelow was born on November 25, 1817, the son of Asa Bigelow and Lucy Isham. He attended Washington (now Trinity) College in Hartford, CT, but left in his junior year for Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., where he graduated in 1835. Three years later in 1838 he was admitted to the bar, and obtained public office as an inspector of Sing Sing prison. In 1844 Bigelow joined the Free-Soil Democrats, largely due to the influence of Samuel J. Tilden. In 1848 he was invited by William Cullen Bryant to become part owner and editor of the New York Evening Post . In this position, which he held until 1861, Bigelow was uncompromising in his advocacy of abolition and free trade.

On a visit to Europe in 1858, Bigelow befriended Richard Cobden, John Bright, William M. Thackeray and Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, who paved the way for his success as an American diplomat. He won an appointment as consul-general in Paris in 1861, and at the end of the Civil War he became the American minister to France, a position he held until September of 1866. While in Europe Bigelow established close personal ties to the press in France, Austria and Germany. He provided a corrective lens to the European outlook, that was dependent upon Great Britain for American news. In this way he overcame British propaganda favoring the Confederacy, and exposed and defeated a scheme to gain French support for the American South. He also warned Louis Napoleon against supporting the European imperial adventure in Mexico, while urging a slow response by Washington.

Bigelow returned to the United States in 1867, but held no political office until 1875, when Governor Samuel J. Tilden appointed him to the commission that broke up the New York canal ring. The same year he was elected New York secretary of state, an office he held for only one term. Afterwards, with the exception of appointments as U.S. commissioner to the Brussels Exposition of 1888 and as a delegate to the New York constitutional convention in 1893, Bigelow devoted himself to writing and editing. He died on December 19, 1911.

From the guide to the John Bigelow correspondence, 1888-1906, 1888-1906, (American Philosophical Society)

Epithet: USA Minister in Paris

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001439.0x0000a6

Bigelow was a journalist with the NEW YORK EVENING POST; U.S. Consul in Paris, 1861-64, and Minister to France, 1864-67; chairman of the Erie Canal Investigating Commission, 1875; New York Secretary of State, 1875-77; executive and trustee of the estate of Samuel Tilden; president of the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library; and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

From the description of John Bigelow, 1817-1911 papers, 1816-1911. (New York State Historical Documents). WorldCat record id: 155435551