John Bigelow
| John Bigelow | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
November 25, 1817 Malden-on-Hudson, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 1911 (aged 94) New York City |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Tunis Poultney |
| Children |
John Bigelow, Jr. Poultney Bigelow |
John Bigelow (November 25, 1817 – December 19, 1911) was an American lawyer and statesman.
Born in Malden-on-Hudson, New York, John Bigelow, Sr. graduated from Union College in 1835 where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and the Philomathean Society, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. From 1849 to 1861, he was one of the editors and co-owners of the New York Evening Post.
Bigelow began his political career as a reform Democrat, working with William Cullen Bryant in New York. In 1848, his antislavery convictions led him to leave the party, and he joined the Free Soil Party, supporting the candidacy of John C. Fremont for President in that year. In 1856, he led other former Democrats into the new Republican party. After the party's nominee, Abraham Lincoln, was elected President in 1860, Lincoln appointed him American Consul in Paris in 1861, progressing to Chargé d'Affaires and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Napoleon III. In this capacity, working together with Charles Francis Adams, the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Bigelow helped to block the attempts to have France and the United Kingdom intervene in the American Civil War in favor of the Confederacy, and thereby played a material role in the Union victory. In 1865, he was appointed American Ambassador to France. After leaving this position, he went to Germany, where he lived for three years, through the period of the Franco-Prussian War, and became a friend of Otto von Bismarck.
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