Dangerous Diplomacy and the Ghost of Anson Burlingame

In 1870, Anson Burlingame, a renowned American abolitionist, orator, legislator, and diplomat, met a sudden and agonizing death in Russia while leading a diplomatic mission on behalf of the government of China. Newspapers around the world reported that 49-year-old Burlingame died of natural causes, but fragmented evidence that this article pieces together suggests something more sinister. An assessment of information in detailed accounts appearing in diplomatic dispatches, official reports, private letters, and medical journals in multiple languages indicate a likely assassination. Moreover, Burlingame’s symptoms, their severity, and progression from onset to death over six days, point to arsenic as the probable weapon of choice. This article argues that a conclusive determination is still possible more than 150 years later and is necessary for the sake of justice and a correction of the historical record.