American statesman, born at Zanesville, OH, on the 30th of September 1824. He graduated at Brown University in 1846. In 1853 he became the editor of the Columbus, OH, Statesman. His sobriquet of “Sunset,” which clung to him through life, originated from a flowery description of a sunset published in this paper. He became secretary of legation at Lima in 1856. From 1857 to 1865 he was a member of Congress. In 1866 he became a resident of New York City, and in 1868 was elected to Congress, and re-elected three times. In 1872 he was elected as candidate-at-large for the state, and re-elected in 1874, 1876, 1878 and 1880. In 1885 he was made minister to Turkey, but returned to the United States in October of the following year, and in November was again elected to Congress. He was twice re-elected, and was a member of the House of Representatives at the time of his death. He was the founder of the life-saving service, and the author of several works on political and other subjects. He was an able debater and a man of great humor. His best-known books are A Buckeye Abroad (1862); Eight Years in Congress (1865); Why We Laugh (1876); and Three Decades of Federal Legislation (1885). He died on the 10th of September 1889. See also “In the Streets of Pera.”
