Kent Lauder

In 1870, Mark Twain wrote a eulogy on behalf of his friend and mentor, Anson Burlingame: "It is not easy to comprehend at an instant's warning the exceeding magnitude of the loss to which mankind sustains in this death ... he was a very, very great man.”

Twain went on to list Burlingame's successes in his tribute, and however effusive, are by all accounts accurate. Burlingame's legacy has been largely forgotten now, eclipsed primarily by the overwhelming circumstances and people of his time, namely, the civil war and Lincoln. But during his own era, he was greatly respected and admired.

"He was a large, handsome man,” Twain recalled, "with such a face as children instinctively trust in, and homeless and friendless creatures appeal to without fear. He was courteous at all times and to all people, and he had the rare and winning faculty of being always interested in whatever a man had to say