It’s likely few Kansas residents could find the city of Burlingame (population 968) without a GPS. Even fewer, one suspects, know much about the city’s namesake. This year, the 200th anniversary of Anson Burlingame’s birth, provides an opportunity to make his acquaintance. As a Massachusetts congressman, outspoken abolitionist, and pioneering diplomat, Burlingame devoted his life to causes as relevant today as two centuries ago — racial equality, social protest and international diplomacy. Just as citizens today march for racial justice, Burlingame took a principled stand against slavery during the run-up to the Civil War. He barnstormed the country giving stirring abolitionist orations at a time when, his friend Mark Twain wrote, “it was neither very creditable nor very safe to hold such a creed.”
Source: Joco 913 News
