Lansing Bond Mizner (December 5, 1825 – December 9, 1893)
was an American lawyer, diplomat, and politician. Mizner served as President of the
California Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
Due ...
and was US Minister (ambassador) to
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
,
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
,
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
and
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
.
Early life
Lansing B. Mizner was born on December 5, 1825, in
Monroe County, Illinois
Monroe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 34,962. Its county seat and largest city is Waterloo.
Monroe County is included in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statis ...
, son of Henry Caldwell Mizner, who died when Lansing was 4. His stepfather,
James Semple
James Semple (January 5, 1798 – December 20, 1866) was an American attorney and politician. He was Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Attorney General of Illinois, an associate justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, Chargé d'A ...
, was fluent in Spanish and was appointed
Chargé d'affaires
A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
to the
Republic of New Granada
The Republic of New Granada was a 1831–1858 centralist unitary republic consisting primarily of present-day Colombia and Panama with smaller portions of today's Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. On 9 May 1834, the national flag wa ...
(present-day Colombia and Panama, and pieces of neighboring countries). The family lived in
Bogotá, Colombia for five years (1837—1842), during which Lansing also became fluent in Spanish.
He studied at
Shurtleff College
Shurtleff College was a Baptist liberal arts school in Alton, Illinois until 1957.
History
Founded in 1827 by Reverend John Mason Peck (a Baptist missionary) as Rock Spring Seminary in St. Clair County, Illinois, and relocated to Alton, Illino ...
.
Career
At the age of 22 he entered the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, and served in the
Mexican War on the staff of General Shields. He arrived in California by way of New Orleans and Panama May 20, 1843 (not 1849), settled at Benicia, and became a partner in the general merchandise firm of Semple, Robinson & Co. He was admitted to the
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
the same year.
He was a member of the
Society of California Pioneers
The Society of California Pioneers, established in 1850, is dedicated to the study and enjoyment of California art, history, and culture. Founded by individuals arriving in California before 1850 and thriving under the leadership of several gener ...
.
His adult home was in
Benicia, California
Benicia ( , ) is a waterside city in Solano County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the capital of California for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the ...
,
He served as the first Collector of Customs for the Northern District of California (San Francisco to the Oregon border). When the state government was formed in 1849, he was elected the Associate Justice of the
Solano County
Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.
Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ...
Court of Sessions. He was elected as a California State Senator in the 1865 and 1867
California Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
Due ...
s, and served as Chairman of the Commerce and Navigation and the Swamp Land Committees, and eventually President.
Afterwards, he worked for
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
's
1888 presidential campaign.
Minister to Central America
Under the administration of Harrison, Mizner was appointed in 1889 Minister to
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
, in essence the ambassador to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala (where he was based), Honduras, and Nicaragua. (
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
at that time was part of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
.) He was fluent in Spanish. When he traveled to Guatemala to take up his duties he was accompanied by his sons, the future architect
Addison Mizner
Addison Cairns Mizner (December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933) was an American architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire archit ...
and future playwright
Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner (May 19, 1876 – April 3, 1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are ''The Deep Purple'', produced in 1910, and ''The Greyhound'', produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of The ...
. He lasted in the position just over a year.
Mizner's first rebuke, from an Acting Secretary of State, was for calling for a union of the five Central American republics for protection from the more powerful Mexico to the north and Colombia to the south. (Mexico and Colombia both protested.) There was a complicated incident in which American arms were being shipped to
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
(which had just had a ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
''), and Guatemala, under
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
, objected. In July 1890, exiled Guatemalan General
Juan Martín Barrundia
Juan Martín Barrundia Flores (17 December 1845 – 28 August 1890) was a military officer and liberal politician from Guatemala. He was the son of the influential liberal leader José Francisco Barrundia. Barrundia was appointed as Secretary of ...
was on an American ship scheduled to stop at Guatemalan ports. Mizner, unable to communicate with Washington, agreed to the Guatemalan government's request he be seized. Resisting arrest, Barrundia was killed on this American ship by a bullet from one of the Guatemalan policemen who boarded the American ship. This was too much for Washington, and he was terminated in November 1890, by Secretary of State
James G. Blaine.
President William Henry Harrison justified Mizner's firing in his 1890 Annual Message.
State Department papers also detail the incident.
Barrundia left a widow and several daughters, one of whom visited Mizner's office before his removal and shot at him.
[ Barrundia's widow Transito Hurtarte appealed to the State Department for damages. The government declined.
]
Family
He built a house and kept a small farm on what is now East L St. near First St. (where th
Benicia Public Library
is currently). He installed the first flush toilet
A flush toilet (also known as a flushing toilet, water closet (WC) – see also toilet names) is a toilet that disposes of human waste (principally urine and feces) by using the force of water to ''flush'' it through a drainpipe to another lo ...
in Benicia, which the children would show off to their friends. His wife was Ella Watson Mizner. He had seven children, one daughter Minnie, married to Horace Blanchard Chase, who later would found Stag's Leap Winery, and six boys: William, Lansing, Edgar, the architect Addison
Addison may refer to:
Places Canada
* Addison, Ontario
United States
*Addison, Alabama
*Addison, Illinois
*Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois which runs by Wrigley Field
* Addison, Kentucky
*Addison, Maine
*Addison, Michigan
*Addison, New York
...
, Harvey, and Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
. He died aged 68, of heart disease, at the residence of his daughter, at Yountville, in Napa County
Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original co ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizner, Lansing Bond
1825 births
1893 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to El Salvador
Ambassadors of the United States to Costa Rica
Ambassadors of the United States to Honduras
Ambassadors of the United States to Nicaragua
Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala
American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
Military personnel from Illinois
Shurtleff College alumni
People from Monroe County, Illinois
California lawyers
19th-century American lawyers
People from Benicia, California
Republican Party California state senators
1888 United States presidential election
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison
Addison Mizner