William Bradford Reed (June 30, 1806 – February 18, 1876) was an American attorney, politician, diplomat, academic and journalist from

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, ...

. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1834 to 1835. He was elected Pennsylvania State Attorney General in 1838 and served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district in 1841. He served as U.S. Minister to China in 1857. His pro-confederacy views put him in conflict with other Pennsylvania politicians. He was a published author of multiple books including the biographies of his grandfather, General Joseph Reed and grandmother

Esther de Berdt Esther de Berdt Reed (October 22, 1746 – September 18, 1780) was active in the American Revolutionary War as a civic leader for soldiers' relief, who formed and led the Ladies Association of Philadelphia to provide aid for George Washington's tro ...

Early life and education

Reed was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Joseph Reed and Maria Ellis Watmough. He graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1825 he went to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

as a private secretary for Joel R. Poinsett and studied law. His brother was educator Henry Hope Reed.

Career

Reed began his political career as an Anti-Mason but switched to the Whig Party. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served from 1834 to 1835. He was elected

Pennsylvania Attorney General The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current Attorney General is Democrat Josh Shapiro. On August 15, 2016, then-Attorney General Kat ...

in 1838. He served as vice-president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia from 1840 to 1841. He was elected as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district in 1841. He worked as a professor of American history at the

in 1850. Between 1851 through 1856 Reed served as the

District Attorney of Philadelphia The office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia is the largest prosecutor's office in the state of Pennsylvania and oversees a jurisdiction that includes more than 1.5 million citizens of both the city and county of Philadelphia. The current ...

. In 1856, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. Reed served as Minister to China from 1857 to 1858 In China, the U.S. had been neutral in the Second Opium War of 1856–58. Buchanan appointed Reed as Minister to China because Reed helped Buchanan win in 1856 by persuading old-line Whigs to support a Democrat. Reed's goal in China was to negotiate a new treaty that would win for the United States the privileges Britain and France had forced on China in the war. Reed did well. The

Treaty of Tientsin The Treaty of Tientsin, also known as the Treaty of Tianjin, is a collective name for several documents signed at Tianjin (then romanized as Tientsin) in June 1858. The Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, Second French Empire, United Kingdom, and t ...

(1858) granted American diplomats the right to reside in Peking, reduced tariff levels for American goods, and guaranteed the free exercise of religion by foreigners in China. The treaty helped set the roots of what later became Washington's

Open Door policy The Open Door Policy () is the United States diplomatic policy established in the late 19th and early 20th century that called for a system of equal trade and investment and to guarantee the territorial integrity of Qing China. The policy wa ...

. After his return to the U.S. in 1860 he was active in

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

politics and in New York journalism. For a time he was an American correspondent of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' of London. Reed published many controversial and historical pamphlets and contributed essays chiefly to the American Quarterly and the

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived at ...

. He wrote about his grandfather Joseph Reed in the book ''Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed'' in 1847 and his grandmother Esther Reed in the book ''Life of

'' in 1853. He joined the Democratic party in 1856 and was ostracized due to his pro-confederacy views during the U.S. Civil War. He was hired to defend Confederate president Jefferson Davis in court after the

U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states t ...

was over, however Davis never went to trial. He is interred at the St. James the Less Episcopal Churchyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

References

, - , - * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, William Bradford History of the foreign relations of China Lawyers from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania faculty Pennsylvania Democrats 1806 births 1876 deaths District Attorneys of Philadelphia Pennsylvania Attorneys General Pennsylvania Whigs 19th-century American diplomats 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century male writers 19th-century American politicians Ambassadors of the United States to China Reed family (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)