William Bradford Reed
Harper's Weekly sketch
Member of thePennsylvania House of Representatives
In office 1834–1835
Pennsylvania Attorney General
In office April 2, 1838 – January 15, 1839
Governor	Joseph Ritner
Preceded by	James Todd
Succeeded by	Ovid F. Johnson
Member of thePennsylvania State Senate for the1st district
In office 1841–1842
Preceded by	Jacob Gratz
Succeeded by	William A. Crabb
2ndDistrict Attorney of Philadelphia
In office 1851–1856
Preceded by	Horn R. Kneass
Succeeded by	William B. Mann
Envoy toQing Empire
In office April 18, 1857 – November 11, 1858
Preceded by	Peter Parker
Succeeded by	John Elliott Ward
Personal details
Born	(1806-06-30)June 30, 1806 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died	February 18, 1876(1876-02-18) (aged 69) New York City, US
Spouses	Louisa Whelan Mary Love Ralston
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania

William Bradford Reed (June 30, 1806–February 18, 1876) was an American attorney, politician, diplomat, academic, and journalist fromPennsylvania. He served as a member of thePennsylvania House of Representatives from 1834 to 1835. He was elected Pennsylvania State Attorney General in 1838 and served as a member of thePennsylvania State Senate for the1st district in 1841. He served as U.S. Minister to China in 1857. His pro-Confederacy views put him in conflict with other Pennsylvania politicians. He was the published author of multiple books, including the biographies of his grandfather, GeneralJoseph Reed, and grandmother,Esther de Berdt.

Reed was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, toJoseph Reed and Maria Ellis Watmough. He graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1825, went toMexico as a private secretary forJoel R. Poinsett, and studied law.

His brother was educatorHenry Hope Reed.

Reed began his political career as an anti-Mason but switched to theWhig Party. He was elected to thePennsylvania House of Representatives and served from 1834 to 1835. He was electedPennsylvania Attorney General in 1838. He served as vice president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia from 1840 to 1841. He was elected a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district in 1841. He worked as a professor of American history at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1850.^[1]

Between 1851 and 1856, Reed served as theDistrict Attorney of Philadelphia. In 1856, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.^[2]

Reed served as Minister toChina from 1857 to 1858^[3] In China, the U.S. had been neutral in theSecond Opium War of 1856–58. Buchanan appointed Reed as Minister to China because Reed helped Buchanan win in 1856 by persuading old-line Whigs to support a Democrat. Reed's goal in China was to negotiate a new treaty that would win for the United States the privileges Britain and France had forced on China in the war. Reed did well. TheTreaty of Tientsin (1858) granted American diplomats the right to reside in Peking, reduced tariff levels for American goods, and guaranteed the free exercise of religion by foreigners in China. The treaty helped set the roots of what later became Washington'sOpen Door policy.^[4]

After his return to the U.S. in 1860, he was active inDemocratic Party politics and in New York journalism. For a time, he was an American correspondent forThe Times of London. Reed published many controversial and historical pamphlets and contributed essays, chiefly to theAmerican Quarterly and theNorth American Review. He wrote about his grandfather Joseph Reed in the bookLife and Correspondence of Joseph Reed in 1847 and his grandmother Esther Reed in the bookLife ofEsther de Berdt in 1853.^[1]

He joined the Democratic Party in 1856 and was ostracized due to his pro-Confederacy views during the U.S. Civil War.^[5]

He was hired to defend Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis in court after theU.S. Civil War was over; however, Davis never went to trial.^[6] he died in 1876

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905).New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)

• History of the foreign relations of China
• Lawyers from Philadelphia
• University of Pennsylvania faculty
• Pennsylvania Democrats
• 1806 births
• 1876 deaths
• District attorneys of Philadelphia
• Pennsylvania attorneys general
• Pennsylvania Whigs
• 19th-century American diplomats
• 19th-century American journalists
• American male journalists
• 19th-century American male writers
• Ambassadors of the United States to China
• Reed family (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• CS1 errors: missing title
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text via vb from the New International Encyclopedia
• Cite NIE template missing title parameter
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the New International Encyclopedia