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Meet Lew Wallace: United States Minister to Turkey (1881-1885)
Soldier | Governor | Author | Ambassador | His Words | Genealogy
"I shall look back upon Ben-Hur as my best performance, and this mission near the sultan as the next best."
President James Garfield read Ben-Hur and noticed that the author possessed a familiarity with the customs and geography of the eastern Mediterranean. Garfield could not imagine a more qualified candidate to serve as U. S. Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, on May 19, 1881, Lew Wallace was appointed to fill that position.
The ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, had a reputation for being a cruel despot. During Wallace's first audience with the Sultan, he insisted on shaking the Sultan's hand. This was a request that drew much confusion and trepidation among the translators for no one was to touch the Sultan. However, the Sultan graciously consented and Wallace was able to establish a friendship with the ruler. Wallace's familiarity with the Sultan allowed him to see the Sultan in a different light and prompted Wallace to defend the ruler's character against his rumored reputation.
Because the United States was still isolationist during Wallace's foreign service, he was encouraged not to do anything that would involve the country in foreign disputes. However, Wallace managed to find purpose by assisting with humanitarian issues within the Ottoman Empire. He was prompted on one occasion to use his influence to free some wrongly imprisoned Greeks. Wallace also assisted with various concerns among the Zionists in Palestine. Naturally, he also intervened on behalf of American missionaries and merchants within the Ottoman Empire.
Wallace found enough liberty from his official duties to research his third novel The Prince of India: Or Why Constantinople Fell. His travels allowed him to better describe his book’s setting. While touring the Holy Land, Wallace, his wife, and sister-in-law, Joanna Lane, found every door open to them, courtesy of the Sultan. Wallace stated that he walked the paths described in Ben-Hur and felt as if he had already been there. The Wallaces also found time to tour Europe.
Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland won the election of 1884. Wallace, as a Republican, was obligated to resign his position as Minister. Despite the protests of the Sultan, who had offered him positions in the Turkish government so that he might stay, Wallace returned to Crawfordsville in 1885. |
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