Biography

Mentioned in 18610400CharlesSumner_WHS: "Do not fail to think of Mr Monti as consul at Palermo. I doubt if you can find a better man."

"Luigi Monti, United States Consul at Palermo, Sicily, was born in Palermo, Island of Sicily, in 1830. His father was an officer in the Neapolitan army, commanding at one time the arsenal at Palermo. Young Monti was educated at the Jesuits College until fourteen years of age, when he was sent to the United States to obtain an English education, and was placed in a boarding school at Cape Cod, Mass. 

In 1848 the news of the Revolution in Sicily, and its spread all over Italy, reached the young student, and he embraced the first opportunity to take return passage in an Italian vessel bound to Sicily, where, on his arrival, he at once entered the service of the Sicilian king (Bomba) of Naples. On the suppression of this Revolution, in 1849, and the reinstatement of the Bourbon Government in Sicily, young Monti escaped to the United States, after the fruitless revolutionary attempt in January, 1850.

On reaching America, he repaired to his school in Cape Cod, and, after another year devoted to the study of English, he settled in Boston as a teacher of the Italian language. In 1854, he was appointed instructor in Italian at Harvard University, Cambridge; and in the same year, married Miss F. A. Parsons, of Boston, sister to the poet, T. W. Parsons. In 1855, Mr. Monti published a Grammar of the Italian language, and also a Reader. In 1857 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts, from the University of Harvard. In 1858-9 he published a translation of Guerrazzi's "Beatrice Cenci," and of "Isabella Orsini," besides a number of lectures on Italian Literature.

On the breaking out of the civil war in America, Mr. Monti was appointed by President Lincoln, United States Consul at Palermo, his commission dating Aug. 3d, 1861. The fact of his having been from youth a liberal, and having fought for Italian Independence, secured him in his new position, the sympathy both of the people and authorities of the government of Italy. Many of the latter had been his companions in arms, in the struggle for Italian Independence in 1848-9. Consequently, in the discharge of his Consular duties he was the more easily enabled to obtain advantages both for American travelers and our commercial and shipping interests. Indeed it may be affirmed that many serious questions have been readily and amicably settled through Consul Monti's influence with the authorities, which might otherwise have been the subjects of long disputations, especially during the war."