William Nelson Cromwell (January 17, 1854 – July 19, 1948) was an American attorney active in promotion of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

and other major ventures especially in cooperation with

Philippe Bunau-Varilla Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla () (26 July 1859 – 18 May 1940) was a French engineer and soldier. With the assistance of American lobbyist and lawyer William Nelson Cromwell, Bunau-Varilla greatly influenced Washington's decision concerning t ...

Life and career

He was born and raised in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, in an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

household, by his mother, Sarah M. Brokaw, a Civil War widow. His father, John Nelson Cromwell, died in the

Battle of Vicksburg The siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mis ...

. He worked as an accountant for the attorney Algernon Sydney Sullivan, who paid for his education at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

and made him a partner in

Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...

in 1879. In 1898 the chief of the French Canal Syndicate (a group that owned large swathes of land across Panama),

, hired him to lobby the US Congress to build a canal across

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 Co ...

, and not across

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 coun ...

, as rivals would have it. Cromwell showed that Nicaragua had an active volcano. On June 19, 1902, three days after senators received stamps showing volcanic activity in Nicaragua they voted for the Panama route for the canal. For his lobbying efforts, he received the sum of $800,000. (about million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

today). After the

Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty ( es, Tratado Hay-Bunau Varilla) was a treaty signed on November 18, 1903, by the United States and Panama, which established the Panama Canal Zone and the subsequent construction of the Panama Canal. It was named ...

was ratified, Cromwell was paid another $2,000,000 (about million

today) – at the time, the highest amount ever paid to a lawyer.LAWYER WHO GOT A $2,000,000 FEE
in '' the Tacoma Times''; published March 2, 1904; retrieved January 27, 2015 (via

Chronicling America ''Chronicling America'' is an open access, open source newspaper database and companion website. It is produced by the United States National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National End ...

By 1907, he was a member of the

Consolidated Stock Exchange of New York The Consolidated Stock Exchange of New York, also known as the ''New York Consolidated Stock Exchange'' or ''Consolidated'',See ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', Saturday, January 13, 1912, p. 18 was a stock exchange in New York City, New York in direct ...

, one of around 13,000. One of his main pro bono activities was helping the blind. Another was the founding of "the Society of Friends of Roumania" in 1920 under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen

Marie of Romania Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred ...

. Under his tutelage, the New York-based Society promoted numerous exchanges between the two countries and published the distinguished ''Roumania – A Quarterly Review''.Ameringer, (1963)

References

External links

* 1854 births 1948 deaths Columbia Law School alumni New York (state) lawyers People from Brooklyn New York (state) Republicans 19th-century American businesspeople Sullivan & Cromwell partners Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) {{1850s-US-business-bio-stub

Life and career

References

Further reading

External links