| James Biddle Eustis | |
| Jr/Sr: | United States Senator |
| State: | Louisiana |
| Term Start1: | March 4, 1885 |
| Term End1: | March 3, 1891 |
| Predecessor1: | Benjamin F. Jonas |
| Successor1: | Edward D. White |
| Term Start2: | January 12, 1876 |
| Term End2: | March 3, 1879 |
| Predecessor2: | William P. Kellogg |
| Successor2: | Benjamin F. Jonas |
| Ambassador From3: | United States |
| Country3: | France |
| Term Start3: | May 6, 1893 |
| Term End3: | May 24, 1897 |
| President3: | Grover Cleveland |
| Predecessor3: | T. Jefferson Coolidge |
| Successor3: | Horace Porter |
| Office4: | Member of the Louisiana Senate |
| Term4: | 1874-1878 |
| Office5: | Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives |
| Term5: | 1872 |
| Birth Name: | James Biddle Eustis |
| Birth Date: | 27 August 1834 |
| Birth Place: | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Cave Hill Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard Law School |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Father: | George Eustis Sr. |
| Spouse: | Ellen Buckner |
| Children: | 4 |
| Relations: | George Eustis Jr. (brother) Charles Bohlen (grandson) |
| Signature: | Signature of James Biddle Eustis (1834–1899).png |
James Biddle Eustis (August 27, 1834September 9, 1899) was a United States senator from Louisiana who served as President Cleveland's ambassador to France.
Born in New Orleans, he was the son of George Eustis (1796–1858) and Clarice (née Allain) Eustis. His father was a lawyer who served as a Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. James's brother, George Eustis Jr., was a United States representative from Louisiana.
James pursued classical studies, graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1854, was admitted to the bar in 1856.
After his admission to the bar, he commenced practice in New Orleans. He served as judge advocate during the Civil War in the Confederate Army and resumed the practice of law in New Orleans.[1]
He was elected a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives prior to the Reconstruction acts, and was one of the committee sent to Washington, D.C. to confer with President Andrew Johnson on Louisiana affairs. He was again a member of the State house of representatives in 1872, and was a member of the Louisiana Senate from 1874 to 1878.[1]
Eustis was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1873, caused by the action of the Senate in declining to seat rival claimants William L. McMillen and P. B. S. Pinchback.[2] Eustis served from January 12, 1876, to March 3, 1879; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, and was professor of civil law at the Tulane University Law School from 1877 to 1884, then called the University of Louisiana. He was again elected to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1891; he was not a candidate for reelection, and practiced law in Washington, D.C., in 1891.[1]
While a sitting senator, Eustis wrote a controversial essay for The Forum titled "Race Antagonism in the South," in which he complained that "The white man's patience is to-day taxed as ever by the unending complaints of the Negro and his friends" and that Blacks "continue to appeal to what he considers the inexhaustible sympathies of the white race" despite having "every advantage over every other laboring class in the world."[3]
The essay prompted vigorous responses from supporters of civil rights, including George Washington Cable, Albion Winegar Tourgée, Atticus Greene Haygood, and others.[4] [5] [6]
From 1893 to 1897 he was ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to France, and then settled in New York City.
Eustis was married to Ellen Buckner (1836–1895),[7] a daughter of Henry Sullivan Buckner, a cotton broker who built a mansion at 1410 Jackson Avenue in New Orleans in 1856,[8] and Catharine (née Allan) Buckner.[9] Ellen was an aunt to Mortimer N. Buckner, president and chairman of the New York Trust Company. Together, James and Ellen were the parents of:[10]
Eustis died in Newport, Rhode Island on September 9, 1899.[15] He was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.[16] [17] He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.[18]
Through his daughter Celestine, he was posthumously a grandfather of diplomat Charles Bohlen (1904–1974), who served as the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, the Philippines and France.[19]
Retrieved on February 13, 2008