“D” is for DeLeon, Edwin [1818-1891]

  “D” is for DeLeon, Edwin [1818-1891]. Diplomat. Writer. After graduating from the South Carolina College, DeLeon co-edited a Savannah newspaper and later, in Washington, he helped found the proslavery journal, Southern Press. In 1853 he was appointed as diplomatic agent and consul general to Egypt and held the position until the outbreak of the Civil War. Jefferson Davis appointed him diplomatic agent for the Confederacy in Europe. In France he promoted the Southern cause and defended slavery as a benevolent institution in a 32 page pamphlet entitled La VeritésurLes Etats Confédérés d'Amérique [The Truth about the Confederate States of America]. After the war he travelled in Europe and the Middle East—helping to establish Egypt's telephone system. Edwin DeLeon published widely in newspapers and journals and wrote his memoirs, Thirty Years of My Life on Three Continents.