SANFORD, Henry Shelton, diplomatist, born in Woodbury, Connecticut, 15 June, 1823. He entered Washington (now Trinity) college in 1841, but was not graduated, and afterward studied at Heidelberg, where in 1854 he received the degree of J. U.D. He was secretary of the United States legation in Paris in 1849-'53, and then charge d'affaires till April, 1854. He resigned on the question of citizen's dress for diplomatic uniform, refusing to conform to Minister Nason's course, which led, on Senator Charles Sumner's motion, to the present law, enforcing Sec. Marcy's circular instruction recommending citizen's dress as a diplomatic uniform. From 1861 till 1869 he was United States minister to Belgium, where he negotiated and signed the Scheldt treaty, a treaty of commerce and navigation, a consular convention (the first ever made with Belgium), a trade-mark, and natura, lization conventions. In 1877 he was one of the founders of the International African association (now the Independent state of the Congo), and became a member of the executive committee, representing on it the English-speaking races. As its plenipotentiary at Washington he secured recognition of its flag in April, 1884, and he was sent as a delegate of the United States government to the Berlin Congo conference of 1885-'6, which opened to free-trade and neutrality a territory of 1,000.000 square miles, with a population of 50,000,000. In 1870 Mr. Sanford founded the city of Sanford, Florida, and engaged in orange-culture, introducing into Florida various new cultures, notably that of the lemon. Trinity gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1849. Various official reports of his have been published by congress, including one on "Penal Codes in Europe" (Washington, 1854), and the "Averdslood Correspondence," also published by congress, which treated very fully of several important questions of international law.