Burlingame,

Burlingame, ANSON, American diplomatist, born in 1820 at New Berlin, New York, was educated at Harvard, and after settling as a lawyer at Boston, became a prominent member of the Free-soil party. Elected to the Massachusetts senate in 1853, he entered congress in 1854. He was sent as United States minister to China by President Lincoln; and when, in 1867, he was returning home, the regent, Prince Kung, made him special Chinese envoy to the United States and the great powers of Europe. As such he succeeded (1868) in securing the acceptance and ratification by the United States and China of the Burlingame treaty, by which China officially accepted the principles of international law. He subsequently visited England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Prussia, and Russia as Chinese envoy, and died at St Petersburg, 23d February 1870.