Bigelow, John
Name: John Bigelow
Achievements: Successfully publicized the Union cause in Europe during American Civil War
Born: November 25, 1817; Malden-on-Hudson, New York, NY
Died: December 19, 1911; New York, NY (Aged 94)
Field & Discipline: Literature; Government & Politics; Writer; Diplomat
Language: English
Father: Asa Bigelow
Mother: Lucy Isham
Siblings: 2 brothers; 2 sistes
Spouse: Jane Poultney
Children: 8
Education: Allen Fisk’s Walnut Grove Academy, Troy; Washington College, Hartford, Connecticut;
Union College, Schenectady, New York
Major Work:
“France and the Confederate Navy, 1862-1868” (1888)
Life & Times:
Bigelow qualified as a lawyer in 1838 and spent a year teaching in a girl’s school before joining a law firm in New York. He had no contacts in New York so supported himself by writing articles and lecturing in private schools, and became increasingly involved with Democratic politics.
When a Democrat was elected as governor of New York in 1844, Bigelow was appointed Inspector of Sing Sing, the largest prison in New York. During his three year period in the job, Bigelow worked to institute reforms and to establish a culture in which rehabilitation featured at least as much as punishment.
In 1848 he became partner to the poet [worked with] WC Bryant* on the New York Evening Post. Bryant was anxious to be rid of his editorial duties and although his lack of capital meant that Bigelow only had a small share in the paper, the job enabled him to give up his law practice. Articles appeared supporting prison reform, abolition of slavery and capital punishment.
In 1850 he went to Jamaica to gather material about the rehabilitation of former slaves. In 1853 Bigelow’s much-loved infant old son died after an accident and later that year Bigelow became a convert to the doctrines of [a follower of] Swedenborg*.
He and Bryant mounted a campaign against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise which removed the guarantee of no slavery in the new territory of Nebraska. In 1858 Bigelow took his family on an eighteen-month trip to Europe and spent most of his time in Paris, where he made friends with the English politician [a pal of] Cobden*. He met the writer Saint-Beuve and was presented to [presented to] Napoleon III* at a ball. In England he met the radical politician [met] Bright*. He was also elected to the Garrick Club, where he made friends with the writers [a pal of] Dickens*, [a pal of] Thackeray*, [a pal of] Trollope* and [a pal of] Oliphant*. In Scotland he attended the inauguration of [knew] Gladstone* as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
In 1861, after the Civil War had begun in America, thanks to his friend Secretary of State [a pal of] Seward* Bigelow was appointed US Consul General in Paris. The South had already sent three agents to Europe to solicit help for their cause. The biggest danger was that Confederate ship-building would be financially supported, and ships then used to break the blockade on southern ports mounted by the North. Bigelow made full use of the contacts with French journalists and liberals he had established on his earlier visit to France, and his contribution to averting French intervention of behalf of the Confederates was crucial. He wrote articles for the liberal press in Europe and he succeeded in getting British diplomats to block support for Confederate ship-building. He later wrote up this episode in an important study entitled “France and the Confederate Navy, 1862-1868” (1888).
Bigelow was upgraded to US Minister to France in 1865. He advised Napoleon III against the attempt to set up a French empire in Mexico. He also warned against hasty US intervention in Mexico and became unpopular in America for the way in which he continually criticized the belligerence of the US stance towards Mexico. In 1866 he returned to private life in America and 1868 published an edited version of [edited autobiography of] Franklin’s* autobiography, having discovered Franklin’s lost original manuscript in Paris. Bigelow had great admiration for Franklin and later published a life of Franklin and a ten-volume edition of his complete works.
Bigelow lived in Germany for three years from 1870. In 1875 he re-entered public life to support his old friend Samuel Tilden as presidential nominee for the Democrats. In the same year, Bigelow accepted an invitation from the Democrats to run for Secretary of State for New York in order to help Tilden introduce reforms. Bigelow was elected in 1876. In 1884 he was offered the city chamberlainship at a large salary but turned it down. He also refused an offer to run for the city comptrollership for moral reasons. He refused a post at the Treasury offered to him by President Cleveland.
In 1886 Samuel Tilden died and Bigelow was charged with fulfilling his bequest for the establishment of a public library in New York City. After Tilden’s relatives contested the will, Bigelow was active in raising the money and setting up what is now the New York Public Library.
He visited the canal enterprise in Panama in 1886, then being run by the Panama Canal Company headed by [work related to] De Lesseps*. After that company went bankrupt, Bigelow encouraged the US to become involved.
He continued to travel and to write and in 1890 published a biography of Bryant.
Assessment: Bigelow’s most important work was in publicizing the Union cause in Europe during the Civil War.
Oneliner: John Bigelow, American literary editor
Bibliography:
- Clapp, Margaret, Forgotten First Citizen, John Bigelow, Greenwood Press, New York, 1968.