BURRITT

Burritt, 'the learned blacksmith', of New Britain, CT, and Worcester, MA, mastered nearly fifty languages by the age of 30. He was a great advocate of cheap ocean travel and of cheap world postage to bring people together.In 1846 he formed the League of Universal Brotherhood, and organized world peace congresses, beginning at Brussels in September 1848. In 1847 he had written on the potato famine in Skibbereen and he knew Great Britain well. Lincoln appointed him US Consul in Birmingham in 1860 and all through the Civil War.