Israel Washburn Jr. (June 6, 1813 – May 12, 1883) was a United States political figure who was the Governor of Maine from 1861 to 1863.

[1] In 1854, angry over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Washburn called a meeting of 30 members of the US House of Representatives to discuss forming what became the Republican Party.

Republican gatherings had taken place in Wisconsin and Michigan earlier in the year, but Washburn's meeting was the first in the U.S. Capital, and among U.S.

[2] Washburn represented the district which included Bangor and the neighboring town of Orono, Maine, where he had his home and law office.

In 1862, he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Abraham Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation.