Benjamin Moran (b.
Franklin County,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, 1820 – d.
Braintree, Essex, on 20 June 1886) worked at the United States Legation (later the US Embassy) in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
from 1853 to 1874.
Moran first visited
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1851. In 1853, around the time that
James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
, who was from the same county in Pennsylvania as Moran, became US ambassador in London, Moran returned to England, becoming a temporary clerk at the legation. In 1854, he gained a permanent post and, in 1857, he was appointed Assistant Secretary, a post he kept until 1864, when he was promoted to Secretary, serving until 1875.
[Parker, Franklin; Parker, Betty J.: The Forgotten George Peabody (1795-1869), A Handbook A-Z of the Massachusetts-Born Merchant, London-Based Banker, & Philanthropist: His Life, Influence, and Related People,Places, Events, & Institutions., 1995, p. 4]
pdf file
30.5 MB From 1857, he kept a private diary which was subsequently published; the diary is of interest mainly because it documents how the US Civil War was seen in the UK.
Buchanan was elected President and
George M. Dallas
George Mifflin Dallas (July 10, 1792 – December 31, 1864) was an American politician and diplomat who served as mayor of Philadelphia from 1828 to 1829, the 11th vice president of the United States from 1845 to 1849, and U.S. Minister to the ...
became Ambassador in London, where Moran stayed. From the end of 1858, Moran was co-owner of the London-based ''
Spectator
''Spectator'' or ''The Spectator'' may refer to:
*Spectator sport, a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches
*Audience
Publications Canada
* ''The Hamilton Spectator'', a Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, ...
'' magazine, which he used to promote Buchanan's views against a generally hostile, anti-slavery British press. His co-owner was John McHenry, an American businessman who was also based in London, and they arranged the purchase through a nominee,
Thornton Leigh Hunt
Thornton Leigh Hunt (10 September 1810 – 25 June 1873) was the first editor of the British daily broadsheet newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph''.
Life
Hunt was the son of the writer Leigh Hunt and his wife Marianne, ''née'' Kent. As a child ...
, to disguise their connection. They dramatically altered the tone of the magazine, its circulation declined substantially and there were several occasion when Moran had to pump additional funds into the venture. Having paid £4200 for it, they sold for £2000 in January 1861, by which time
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
had taken over from the vacillating Buchanan.
In 1875, he was made Minister Resident to
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
and, since this was the first instance of this kind of promotion in US diplomatic history, some regard him as the first American career diplomat. When the office of Minister Resident was discontinued in 1876, Moran was made Chargé d'Affaires at
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, serving until 1882 when ill health forced him to resign and return to England. He never went back to the US, settling, instead, at Braintree in Essex, where he died at nearby Bocking Hall.
[Bennett
, John]
Benjamin Moran's journal
acwrt.org.uk (The American Civil War Round Table (UK)), 24 December 2011, first published in: "Crossfire", the magazine of the ACWRT (UK) no. 57 - August 1998)
References
Further reading
Moran, Benjamin (1853) ''The Footpath and Highway: Or, Wanderings of an American in Great Britain, in 1851 and ’52'', Lippincott, Grambo & Co.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moran, Benjamin
1820 births
1886 deaths
19th-century American diplomats
People from Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal
American diarists
19th-century diarists