Walewski, Alexander Florian Joseph Colonna
Diplomat. Born in Walewice, Poland, May 4, 1810. Reputed as an illegitimate son of Napoleon I and the Countess Walewska, after whose death he was sent to school at Geneva. In 1930 came to Warsaw and fought with the patriots at the battle of Grochow, and was sent to London to solicit English intervention. After the fall of Warsaw entered the French Army as captain, and at the close of 1833 was naturalized in France. Subsequently he was employed on a confidential mission to Abd-el-Kader, and held an office in Oran. In 1838 established in Paris the Messenger newspaper. which in 1840 he sold to Thiers, who sent him on a mission to Mehemet Ali. He continued in the diplomatic service under Guizot, being employed on various missions, and was attache at Buenos Aires at the outbreak of the revolution of Feb. 24. 1848. He then joined his intimate friend Louis Napoleon, who sent him in 1849 on a mission to Florence, and subsequently sent him to Naples and England. In 1855 he entered the Senate, succeeded Dronyn de Lhuys in the foreign office, and was one of the signers of the treaty of Paris of March 30, 1856. In January, 1860, he was succeeded by Thouvenel, but was made a member of the Privy Council, and on Nov. 24, Minister of State. In Jan., 1862, be was chairman of the important committee relating to the copyright of authors and artists. After De Morny's death in 1865, having resigned his place in the Senate, he succeeded him in the legislative body as a member for the department of Landes, where he owned large property, and was its president till September, 1866. He also retired from the ministry and received the title of duce. In 1867 he was reinstated in the Senate. In 1869 the emperor purchased Walewski's estates in Landes and granted a pension of 20.000 francs to his widow. Died October 27, 1868 in Strasburg.From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943