page_title: Edwards Pierrepont
section_title: U.S. Minister to Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Edwards Pierrepont / U.S. Minister to Britain
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Queen Victoria
context_page_description: Edwards Pierrepont was an American attorney, reformer, jurist, traveler, New York U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Minister to England, and orator. Having graduated from Yale in 1837, Pierrepont studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. During the American Civil War, Pierrepont was a Democrat, although he supported President Abraham Lincoln. Pierrepont initially supported President Andrew Johnson's conservative Reconstruction efforts having opposed the Radical Republicans. In both 1868 and 1872, Pierrepont supported Ulysses S. Grant for President. For his support, President Grant appointed Pierrepont United States Attorney in 1869. In 1871, Pierrepont gained the reputation as a solid reformer, having joined New York's Committee of Seventy that shut down Boss Tweed's corrupt Tammany Hall. In 1872, Pierrepont modified his views on Reconstruction and stated that African American freedman's rights needed to be protected.
  In April 1875, Pierrepont was appointed U.S.
context_section_description: On May 22, 1876 President Grant appointed Pierrepont Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Britain, having replaced Robert Schenck, serving until December 1, 1877. While serving as minister to Britain, Pierrepont became interested in bimetalism, frequently traveling to France, a bimetalist country.
  On June 5, 1877 Pierrepont gave a reception for former President Ulysses S. Grant at his elaborate house on Cavendish Square. The Prince of Wales Edward Albert, Foreign Secretary Lord Derby Edward Stanley, William Gladstone and his wife Catherine, and American journalist Kate Field attended the formal affair. Although Grant was well received by the British public, a diplomatic controversy was caused when British officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli told Pierrepont that as a former head of state, Grant was nothing more than a "commoner", and could not be recognized by the government. Lord Derby, minister of foreign affairs, told Pierrepont that since Grant had no formal rank in the United States, he had none in Britain. Pierrepont countered Derby saying that first Napoleon had been elected ruler, not by  hereditary lineage, and yet the succeeding Bonaparte emperors were recognized by England: "Once an Emperor always an Emperor."  Therefore, the same precedent applied to an elected head of state: "Once a President always a President."  Grant's diplomatic recognition, although informal, came when Queen Victoria invited him to Windsor Castle. The Grants accepted, and on June 26, 1877 Pierrepont introduced the former president to the Queen. She received them in an appropriate setting, the castle's magnificent 520 feet quadrangle.
  After his tenure as Minister Plenipotentiary ended, Pierrepont returned to the United States and resumed his private legal practice in New York.
caption: Queen Victoria
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