U.S. View of Canton Trade

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Historical documentation of U.S. trade with China involved in the post-American Revolutionary Era.

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The American Trader's Image of China, 1785-1840 Author(s): Stuart C. Miller Reviewed work(s): Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Nov., 1967), pp. 375-395 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3636773 . Accessed: 18/01/2013 11:39
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The American Trader's Image ofChina, 1785-1840
STUART C. MILLER is associate The author in ofsocialscience professor San Francisco StateCollege.

relationsis the belief that dealing with Sino-American toriography in high esteemduringthe early held Chinesecivilization Americans 1785-1840.Recently, Harold Isaacs, roughly yearsoftheChina trade, to his studyof contemporary Americanimagesof in an introduction this period as one of "respect,"followed the Chinese,characterized by an "age of contempt"between1840 and 1905.1Given the treatrelationsby Americanhistorians, mentof Sino-American it is difficult to imagineIsaacs comingto any otherconclusion.The pioneer works on the subject by Kenneth Latouretteand Tyler Dennett conceivedof the period before1840 as one duringwhichChina "inof awe and even of envy"in the tradersand misspiredsomething in Canton,ifnot in Americans in general.2 This interpretasionaries tion has been reiteratedby George H. Danton and Foster Rhea Dulles and appearsin manydiplomatic oftheUnitedStates.3 histories The first in 1840dramatically conflict the Anglo-Chinese destroyed esteemenjoyedby the "Middle Kingdom,"accordingto Latourette: of feeling A suddenrevulsion took place and from being respected China'sutter and admired, the British armsand heruncollapsebefore
' Harold Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds: American Images of China and India (New York, 1958), 71. 2 Kenneth Latourette, "History of the Early Relations between the United States and China," Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Transactions, XXII (1917), 124; Tyler Dennett, Americans in Eastern Asia (New York, 1922), 61. Even earlier John W. Foster articulated such an interpretation.See his American Diplomacy in the Orient (Boston, 1904),73-74. 'George H. Danton, The Culture Contacts of the United States and China (New York, 1931), 82; Foster Rhea Dulles, China and America: The Storyof Their Relations since 1784 (Princeton, 1946), 5-6; Thomas A. Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People (6th ed.; New York, 1958), 302-303; Alexander De Conde, A History of American Foreign Policy (New York, 1963),228. 375

A

PERSISTENT ASSUMPTION

in American his-

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to receive Western intercourse and idealsled to a feeling of willingness their old ideasof hergreatness withtheir sudcontempt....Contrasting America the impression of her weakness, den discovery spreadthrough fallen from her and Europe that China was decadent, dying, greatly glorious past.4 Other scholarshave been reluctant to accept such a dramaticexin reversal for this opinion. Danton, for example, atplanation tributedthe change to the influenceof the Protestant missionary darktonesin orderto explain whosereports paintedChina in rather or to elicit greatersupportfromhis his failureat proselytism there, audiencesin theWest.5S. Y. Teng, on theotherhand,reasonedthat backward in the West renderedChina increasingly industrialization the esteem she once the nineteenth undermining century, during as Hum identified Lee Rose Chinese immigration enjoyed there.6 instrument in vitiating China's respectable in the the effective image United States.7However plausible such interpretations appear to to Latourette'sfocus upon a single event,all these be in contrast as a kind of scholarsviewed the middle of the nineteenth century in the before China admired and which was turning point, respected United Statesor in theWest in general. The evidence upon which so universal an assumptionrests is neither clear norconvincing. cited the Dennett,forexample,merely of a singletrader in China to documenthis contention reminiscence thatAmericans esteemedthe Chinese. How Dennettarrived greatly at theconclusionthatWilliam Hunter'sThe "Fan Kwae" at Canton beforeTreatyDays, 1825-1844, "embodies the prevailingspiritof theAmericans towardtheChinese,"as he contended, was not spelled out.8Thomas A. Bailey mentioned"the quiet educationalprocess" that acquainted Americanswith China's great civilization,but he neitherillustrated nor explainedsuch a process.Presumably he was to the reportsof traders, and on missionaries referring diplomats, was favorable.Bailey also China, the contentof which,one infers, notedthat"the exhibition ofa Chinesegirlwithbound feetin a New Yorktheatre, and the establishment of an excellentChinesemuseum
4 Latourette,Conn. Academyof Artsand Sciences,Trans., XXIII, 124. 5Danton, Culture Contacts,83 ff. 1S. Y. Teng, "The Predispositionsof Westerners in Treating Chinese History and Civilization," Historian, XIX (1957), 326. S Rose Hum Lee, The Chinese in the United States of America (Holg Kong, 1960), 354. 1Dennett,Americansin Eastern Asia, 65, note 14.

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in Philadelphia(Nathan Dunn's collection)in 1839,contributed to the public knowledge of the middle kingdom." 9 of logicalarguments have also reliedupon a variety These scholars evidenceto support theassumption thatAmericans in lieu of specific 1840. The Yankee the Chinese before trader was "freeof admired the racial prejudicewhichalreadymarkedBritishdealingswith the him closer people of the Orient,"Dulles reasoned,whichpermitted withChinesemerchants contacts and resultedin a higherestimation of theirculture.'0Othersdeduced thata commonfearof Britishagdrovethe Chineseand Americans gression together, creating"bonds of affection and mutualrespect"betweenthem." A thirdand much advancedbyDanton asserted thatAmericans moreunusual argument in China a social system notwholly unliketheirown. Local perceived in and Chinese democracy autonomy villages and clans had a deand the examination whichoffered flavor, cisively Jeffersonian system for to the lowliestpeasantcreateda social opportunity advancement mobilityunrivaled anywhereexcept in America. The absence of in China was not wastedupon American any thirty-two quarterings traderswho saw in the "Celestial Empire" a possible ally against or so goes Danton's argument.12 Europe's closed social system, Howeverappealingor logical such assertions may be, it is importantto emphasizethatlittle,if any,evidencehas been systematically to supportthem.Hunter'sbook,mentionedearlier,could mustered also be utilizedto arguethatAmericantraders werecontemptuous of the Chinese. While Hunter did expressa profoundrespectfor the CelestialEmpire,he also voicedsomedisgust over the attitudes of his whose for the Chinese oftenled to lawlessaccompatriots contempt tionsin Canton.The onlywayto deal withthe Chinese,one American advised Hunter, was "to knock them down... theyare only tea and rice." '3 That Hunter'srespect forthe Chinesewas not necesof the Americancommunity in Canton is imsarilyrepresentative in much of his As as Thomas Randall 1791, plicit commentary. early wrotea long letterto Alexander Hamilton bitterly complainingof the official of foreigners harassment in China and of the deceit and fraud practicedby Celestials in their commercialdealings. "The Chineseare considered as very by mostpersonswho have seen them,
Bailey, Diplomatic History,302-303. 10 Dulles, China and America,5. 1Dennett, Americans in Eastern Asia, 102; Bailey, Diplomatic History,302. " Danton, Culture Contacts,13-15. 13William C. Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton before Treaty Days, 1825-1844 (London, 1882), 115.
1

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Randall concluded,"however theythink importantly contemptible,"
of themselves." 14

castdoubt upon thevalidity of the basic historical Such comments in one is able to this under discussion Indeed, paper. interpretation of statements of a similar nature an byculling array gather impressive therecordsleftbyAmericans who journeyedto China prior through to 1840. Rather than stringtogetherat random remarkswhich esteemedthe Chinese,it the beliefthatAmericantraders contradict would be more desirableto examine thisgroup in some systematic traderconceptthatis so crucial fashion.It is, afterall, the friendly admiredand respected the Chinese beto the beliefthatAmericans forethe Opium War. There were no more than a dozen American in China before1840,and theChinesewould notpermit missionaries basis. Hence some professional diplomatsto remainon a permanent doubled as Americanconsulsbeforethe Cushingmissionin traders 1844. Even the one previousofficial missionto Asia dispatchedby in was led the New Hampshiresea captain President 1832 by Jackson on China and trader, Edmund Roberts.Yet the viewsof the traders and recordedin travelbooks, diaries,letters, logs, much journals, of whichhas been preserved societies historical by along the northeasternseaboard,have been largelyignored by the historians who have generalizedabout American opinions of China during this period.'5 In orderto testmoresystematically the interpretation of a favorable traderopinion of the Chinese, a sample of fifty traderswith in China priorto 1840was selected.It was at first experience planned to distribute thissampletemporally over the fifty-five involved years and geographically among the various Americancities and towns whichsentshipsto China duringthisperiod. It was soon discovered, traderswould just about exhaust the available however,that fifty sources.In otherwords,the sample was selectedby the passage of timerather thanby the individualscholar, a typeof sampleto which the historian is oftenrestricted. Firstthe premises thatthe Yankee traderat thistimewas freeof
14Randall to Hamilton, Aug. 14, 1791, in Arthur H. Cole, Industrial and Commercial Correspondenceof Alexander Hamilton (Chicago, 1928), 129-141. See Liu Kwang-Ching,Americans and Chinese (Cambridge, 1963), for an excellent -5 bibliographical guide to these sources. While highly comprehensive,the compiler did miss some sources. In addition, there are many virtually untouched logs which occasionally contain long, chatty passages on China squeezed in between the records of navigation and business transactions.On the whole, however, these logs are not a fruitfulsource for such commentary, and working with them can be frustrating.

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and saw in China evidenceof local democracy racism, Anglophobic, and social mobilitywere testedagainst the recordscomprisingthe sample,as was the deductionthatsuch conditionsled to close SinoAmerican In orderto testa seconddeductionthatAmerifriendships. can traders and admiredChineseculture,persistent themes respected mentionedby more than ten traders, or 20 per cent of the sample, wereabstracted from theserecords in orderto construct an American traderimage of China before 1840. Finally,an evaluation of each traderin the sample,in terms of a basicallyfavorable or unfavorable estimation of Chinese society, was attempted. While slightly more thanhalf of the sampledefiedsuch a simple,dichotomous classification,the remainderfitinto one of the two categories easilyenough to provideus witha quantitative however test, crude,of theviability of the basic historical underquestionin thispaper. interpretation The assumption thatAmericantraders were freeof racial prejudicesbefore1840is supported these records. of by Only twomembers thesamplewereinterested in theracial characteristics of theChinese at all, one of whom,William Waln, was obviouslycommitted to an environmental of the in differences mankind.'6 explanation physical ErasmusDoolittledid makea feebleattempt to relatethe Chinese to the Hottentot and Turk both physically and behaviorally in a manner thathintsof a more modernracistconception.'7But Doolittle attributedwhat he considereddespicable behavior in consistently China to the despotic form of government there rather than to naturalor geneticdeterminants. This was generally truethroughout thesample,and PeterDobell, one of China's severest continucritics, cautioned his readers that the behavior of the Chinese ally egregious was "due to the nature and conductof government ratherthan to the character of the people." 18 The comments of the traders are also studdedwithfriendly references to particularChinese hong merchants. Tilden a left Bryant detailed description of a feastat the home of Paunkeiqua, whomhe of being considered a true 'Celestial' gentleman of thought"worthy
16See Waln's notebooks dated 1808 and 1813 in Waln Family Papers, MSS, Library Company of Philadelphia. 17 See Erasmus Doolittle, "Recollections of China" in Sketches by a Traveller (Boston, 1830), 256. Doolittle was probably influenced by Sir John Barrow, F.R.S., Travels in China (London, 1804), 48-50, 184. Barrow, a member of the Macartney mission to Peking in 1792-94 attempted to illustrate with elaborate drawings the physical resemblance between the Chinese and Hottentots in this widely read book, which was also printed in Philadelphia in 1805 and 1808. s As quoted in American QuarterlyReview, IX (1831), 53.

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19SullivanDorr,Thomas theChineseempire--or anyothercountry." and T. H. Perkins warm forthe hong Ward, very expressed feelings and E. C. Carrington received dictated messagesfrom merchants, and "Sam Sin Friend" long afterhis returnto Rhode Cheonqua Island.20What weakenstheargument thatthe absenceof racismpertiesis thata cursory mitted close Sino-American glanceat therecords who servedin China before1840 failsto subleftby Britishtraders Dulles' chargeof British racismand also turnsup friendly stantiate to the verysame hong merchants.21 references Moreover,a closer of the evidencein the sample makesone wonderabout examination the serious language barrierto Sino-American on what friendships a sociologistwould call a primarylevel. Communicationbetween Chinese and Americanswas restricted to pidgin English which involved such fantastic and clumsystructure that any atmetaphors to more than the most information convey rudimentary tempt a to commercial transaction was rendered necessary quite ludicrous. For example,Paunkeiqua's attempt at a theologicaldiscussionwith Tilden was so awkward, and barely intelligiblethat preposterous, the Salem trader could onlyrespondwitha "yessir."This agreement overjoyedPaunkeiqua who exclaimed: "Ayah! My flinde,now no more occasion for make talke talke dat Josh pidgin (religioussubject). Tluly now my can see you long my tinke (think) all same same."22 At any rate, it is also questionable that the relationships withthehongmerchants werenecessarily reflective of Americanattitudes toward the Chinese in general. That these merchants were of an exceptionto therule in China can be safely inferred something from theremarks of a majority of thesetraders. A morestartling conclusionis suggested however. by theserecords, Ratherthanthe Anglophobiapresumedto exist,a pattern of warm, and intimate relationsbetweenmembersof the American friendly, and Britishcommunities in China is evident.Only threetraders in
9L. W. Jenkins,ed., Bryant Parrott Tilden of Salem, at a Chinese Dinner Party, Canton, 1819 (Princeton,1944),23. ~ See letters dated Jan. 29, 1816, and Aug. 3, 1816 (both in the hand of M. P. Cushing) in Carrington Family Papers, MSS, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, R.I. "I See for example Peter Auber, China: An Outline (London, 1834), 239-246; C. Toogood Downing, The Fan-Qui in China, in 1836-37 (London, 1838), III, 98-121; Clark Abel, Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China (London, 1818), 24 ff.; Sir John F. David, The Chinese (London, 1836), I, 196-237; J. Johnson, The Oriental Voyager(London, 1807),200-221 ff. 2 Jenkins, BryantParrott Tilden, 23-24.

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in view of the sampleexpressed anyAnglophobia,and significantly, of the English drew Americans thatmutual distrust the hypothesis thesesame three, and Chinesetogether, Bull, Townsend,and Wood, wereequally hostileto the Chinese.23 thosetraders who Conversely, admired the Chinese were,withoutexception,very chummywith the English in Canton. For example, William Hunter, who was singledout by Dennett as the typicalSinophilic American trader, continuallysang paeans to the "unbounded hospitality"of the and Englishin China.24 True, Major Shaw reportedthatAmericans 25 but this was British"can barelytreateach other with civility," nowhere in the verybeginningof the trade,and it is corroborated else in the sample. On the other hand there is ample evidence to supportSilas Holbrook's description:"The two nationalslived toas brothers. Englishphysicians dailyvisitedour deck without gether of doing a good deed." Holfeeor otherrewardthanthesatisfaction the War of 1812: brook even insistedthat this spirit transcended the war between the two therewas no nations, "Notwithstanding the in and between Americans Canton."26 English hostility than such deliberatetestimonials of AngloFar more impressive in Canton,however, are themanyunconscious Americanfriendships of co-recreation withtheEnglishin the form ones in thedescriptions of boatingor cardplaying;theuse of thelibrary, and medireligious, in the British cal services intoCanton factory; Anglo-American forays in orderto presenta petitionto Chinese officials or its environs or for The names of certain traders simply sightseeing purposes. English and missionaries in these recordsthat it was appear so frequently to realize thattheywerenot Americans. difficult By 1825,American in the illegal opium trade cementedthe tacit Angloinvolvement Americanententein China.27 The close affinity betweenthesetwo was on nationals not lost the Chinese who labelled the Americans 28 "secondchop Englishmen."
and injustice in China to that of the 28 W. W. Wood, in fact,compared the tyranny East India Company. See his Sketchesof China (Philadelphia, 1840), 141-142. 24 Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 31. 25Diplomatic Correspondence(Washington,1855),III, 789. 2 [Silas Holbrook], Sketchesby a Traveller (Boston, 1830),42. 27See Hsin-pao Chang, CommissionerLin and the Opium War (Cambridge, 1964), 31 if., for a recent appraisal of the important role played by Americans in the opium trade. 1sSee William Hickey, Memoirs, 1749-1809, ed. Alfred Spencer (London, 1919), I, 198. Shaw was a little annoyed that the Chinese did not fully distinguishbetween the two English-speakingnations. See Diplomatic Correspondence,III, 763. Jefferson also

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Danton'sreasoning thatAmericans saw in China some Finally, resemblance totheir ownsocialsystem finds no support in absolutely records. thetrader On thecontrary, criticism of China'sdespotism, vindictive of law,and socialinjustice is themostdominant system in evidence. theme was to the trader whatpaganism was Despotism to theProtestant That is,all of China'sflaws wereseen missionary. as a function ofthis defect-the source from whence single "impure theblackstream of vice flows to infect the wholenation," as one trader In the of Chinawasa huge it.29 traders, expressed eyes these in which order eachofficial terrorized those underhim,repecking in and cowardice, sulting "You corruption, venality, lechery, deceit. knowin your ownhearts are servile so a setthatyoudare not you in opposition to anything, however and openyourmouths flagrant on thepart ofthemandarin," theAmerican consul berated the unjust merchants after an Italian seaman an aboard American vessel hong hadbeenexecuted for hispartin what tobe theaccidental appeared deathof a Chineseboatwoman.30 Erasmus Doolittleexpressed the trader view of China'ssocial system mostsuccinctly whenhe described it as a "representative whereyou maysee the despotism, of better thanin a curbarking at a beggar." 31 'image authority' Each trader had hisownanecdote to illustrate theoppressive intobe found in China.Shaw noted that hisChinese servant had justice beenputintothestocks for weeks for his "chop" merely misplacing or official into theforeign and thenhad to bribea pass compound mandarin forhisrelease.32 Dobell reported thatone hongmerchant washeldaccountable fora natural deathwhich occurred underhis roof.33 described tortures usedtoextract Others confessions and grisly "thevariety and ingenuity" executions, ofwhich little "arecertainly
mentioned thisfailure in a letter to Gallatin, in The Writings Aug. 15,1804, of Thomas ed. AndrewLipscomb(Washington, Jefferson, D.C., 1903-1904), XII, 134. See also letterof BenjaminHoppin to E. C. Carrington, Dec. 27, 1805,Carrington Family MSS. Papers, "For the Port-Folio on 29 China,"PortFolio (Philadelphia), s. 5, VII (1819),111.One editorwrote:"The constitution of the ChineseEmpire, insteadof being,as commonly in which the only power is the supposed,an absoluteand unmitigated despotism, one of the most popular formsof government cudgel,is evidently that has ever existed...." NorthAmerican Review,XXVII (1828),538-539. conWhile thiseditor's tention fits Danton'sthesis it was notwidely shared withAmericans in the China trade. from B. C. Wilcocks to JohnQuincyAdams,Nov. 1, 1821,in House Exec. 30 Letter Doc. 71, 26 Cong.,2 sess., 7-16.See p. 13 forabovequotation. 31Doolittle, "Recollections ofChina,"Sketches 253. bya Traveller, " The Journals ofMajor SamuelShaw,The FirstAmerican Consulat Canton.With a lifeof theauthorbyJosiah 184-185. Quincy (Boston, 1847), 33A merican IX, 56. Review, Quarterly

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to a people whichboastsofas higha degreeofcivilization, creditable and many are unequaled among the most barbarous nations."34 theencomiums whichare generally bestowed upon "Notwithstanding the excellenceof the Chinesegovernment," Shaw wrote,"it may be thereis a more oppressive one to be found in questioned whether " The American traderswho any civilized nation upon earth." answeredhis imfollowedShaw to China over the nexthalfcentury a "no." That the basis ofChineselaw with resounding plied question and that China was ruled the was retribution by cudgel,or in this case the bamboo,was axiomaticto thisgroup. Even Amasa Delano, admirerin the sampleof traders used in thisstudy, China's warmest concededthattherewas "onlyone law in China, whichwill be conwherethereis more freedom demnedby the people of countries enjoyed." 36

Other criticalthemesare also discerniblein the recordsleft by The mostpersistent ones deal withChinese "peculiarithesetraders. ties," dishonesty, xenophobia, vices, cowardice,technologicaland and the staticcondition of Chinese society. backwardness, military There are also favorable on China's crafts, comments and agriculture, on and Confucius. But were the latter not menlarge population tionedby a significant portionof the sampleto balance thosethemes on the debit side. Surprisingly, mentioned China's onlyseventraders fabled agriculturalsystem, and two of these, Wood and Dobell, criticized its lack of scientific and reliance upon "dogged principles labor." 37 Nine traderspraised the craftmanship of the Chinese, of one these that these skills were not but although argued indigenous borrowed from theJapanese. Confucius was admiredbyseventraders, Dobell, who rankedthe Sage with Solon includingthe hypercritical as "one of the greatmoral lawgivers," the Chialthoughhe thought nese people incapable of grasping his wisdom.38 Wood and Ruschenbergerstood alone in theirview that Confucianwisdomwas little morethana collectionof triteaphorisms.39 China's largepopulation was admiredby twelvetraders, and only Ruschenberger argued that thiscondition was therootofall evil in China. Excessivepopulation,
Shaw, Journals,11. " Amaso Delano, A Narrative of Voyagesand Travels (Boston, 1817), 542. American QuarterlyReview, IX, 57, 59; Wood, Sketchesof China, 150. S7 -s As cited in American QuarterlyReview, IX, 56. 31Wood, Sketches of China, 120-121, 238-239; W. S. W. Ruschenberger,A Voyage Round the World (Philadelphia, 1838),431.
4 Wood, Sketchesof China, 232.

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he argued,had made the Chinese "the mostvile, the mostcowardly and submissive of slaves"and had led to "basenessand extinction of was actuallya everymoral virtue"in thatnation.40 Ruschenberger doctorattachedto the Robertsmissionto Asia. Since Ruschenberger was veryactivein Americanintellectual his conclusionsmay circles, have been influenced Malthusian by theory. The problemof balancingthe tradewithChina was a formidable in Westerngoods at this one, as the Chineseseemedlittleinterested time.Consequently, American traders wereforced eitherto transport to or China to barterskillfully specie along the way in the hope of Oftenthis comingup witha productsuitableforthe Cantonmarket. led to bizarrepursuitssuch as gathering snails on Pacificatolls and carefully smokingthemaccordingto elaborate methodsprescribed the whimsical Chinesepalate. At othertimesthe traders searched by forsandalwoodforChinese templesor seal and otterskinsfromthe Aleutiansto theAntarctic. Not onlydid theseactivities invitenatural risks such as coral infections, and but if the typhoons, hostilenatives, snails were improperly selected and smoked,or an insufficiently had to be hastily fragrant speciesof sandalwoodcut,such botcheries Canton to avoid the added jettisonedupon reaching indignityof on duties a worthless paying cargo.41 Such conditionsenhanced the image of the Chinese as a very The records are repletewith "peculiar" people amongthesetraders. of bizarre tastes and habits from astonishment descriptions ranging thatone would make medicines of thehornofa rhinocerous, or soup of a bird's nest,to stronger of the alleged Chinese condemnations foreatingdogs,cats,and rats.One popularand humorous propensity poem depicteda helplesstraderdiscovering through pidgin English thatwhathe was eatingwas not "a Quack Quack" but "a bow-wowwow."42 ErasmusDoolittle hinteddarklythattherewas something in which"rats are fattened forepidrastically wrongwitha society cures and a pheasantsold at the same price as a cat." 43 To most
VoyageRound the World,430. See Edmund Fanning, Voyages and Discoveries in the South Seas (Salem, 41 1924), account of these adventures and trials. See Grover Clark, 322-330, for a good firsthand "Changing Markets," Empire in the East, ed. Joseph Barnes (New York, 1934), 127128, foran economic analysisof the China trade during thisperiod. 42See Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 41-42, for the full version of this poem. Hunter, however, denied that the gastronomictastes of the Chinese were so catholic. Tilden and Ruschenberger praised the Chinese cuisine, while Holbrook admitted that he tasted and liked the meat of dogs and rats. But these were exceptions to the rule in the sample. 43 Doolittle, Sketchesby a Traveller,254-255. A 4o Ruschenberger,

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membersof the sample,however,thiswas merelyfurther evidence of theenormousChinesepropensity fordoing everything backward: women in pantsand men in wearingwhiteformourning;dressing handswithoneself in greeting a friend; skirts; shaking writing up and down a page, etc. Such behavior in the eyes of the ethnocentric traderevoked laughterratherthan any sustainedindignation.Unlike thediplomator missionary, thetrader no changes soughtto effect in China's social system and came to tradein tea ratherthan souls. solutionof balancingthe tradewith opium Only when the trader's was threatened does one findany real moral indignationin his reUntil the "lamentabledisregardof fitness and proporthen, ports. Chinese in his tions"44thatcharacterized everything eyeswas amusDoolittle wrote: ing. The first whenhe sees for the first timea impulseof an American is to laugh at him.His dress, if judgedby our standards, Chinese, is riand in a Mandarin, a stately setsit off fora doubledediculous, gravity rision. His trousers are a coupleof meal bags.., his shoesare hugematurned and his head is shaven chines, up at thetoe,his cap is fantastic on thecrown, whence there downa tuft of hairas longas a except hangs spaniel'stail.45 One historianwarned that the typeof information about China was designedto thrillratherthan instruct supplied by thesetraders Americanaudiences. "We mustbe on constant guard againstexagtheknowledge ofChinesecultureacquiredbyNew Englandgerating ers. Their interest in China was, in the main, hardlymore than an interest in the exotic,a fantastic to escape the drabnessand striving routine of their round of Kuo dedry existence,"Professor daily While there is considerable truth to this,the recordsexamclared.46 ined here reveal veryseriouscommentary as well. But more important,even the "exotic" contentwas not flattering to the Chinese. It the Chinese a as of thehuman pictured ludicrously peculiarspecimen race and was not designedto evoke the admirationand respectfor China attributed to Americantraders during this period. Chinese dishonesty is anotherubiquitous themein theserecords. traders mentioned thisin one form or another. Some of Thirty-seven
" Wood, Sketches of China, 74. 45Doolittle, Sketchesby a Traveller,259-260. 4 Ping Chia Kuo, "Canton and Salem: The Impact of Chinese Culture upon New England Life during the Post-RevolutionaryEra," New England Quarterly, III (1930), 439.

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them describedunbelievable fraudssuch as wooden hams covered withreal fatand paintedso cleverly thatthe discovery of theirtrue naturehad to await thevictim's to cook it. Ebenezer Townattempt send describedhow one captain bought a beautiful tropical bird whichtheChinesecreatedbyskillfully itsfeathers. A sudden painting led to a dramaticdenouementleaving the victimwitha rainstorm There were more mundane swindles, worthless, ordinary sparrow.47 of course,such as padding the bottomof a tea chestwithordinary leaves. John Boit warned that even the great hong merchants felt bound onlyto thequantitative aspectsof a bargainand mightswitch the quality of the goods at any time. The Chinese,he swore,were "worsevillains" than the Indians at home.48 Delano conceded the but argued thatit existedonly in the Canton chargeof dishonesty region where the Chinese had picked up the art fromEuropean The usually friendly Perkinsexplained that the function traders.49 ofthelong,fullsleeveswornbyChinesegentlemen was to hide stolen thisperOnly Hunter and JohnMurrayForbes protested articles!50 sistentbeliefamong the traders."I neversaw in any country such a highaverageof fairdealing,"Forbes insisted.51 But such eddies of werelostin a sea of testimony on Chineseswindles. protest The absence of any moral indignationover this alleged Chinese trait may have been a functionof the trader'sexpectationto encountersuch cheating."The knavery of the Chinese" was already to Shaw.52 There was even a soupcon "proverbial"in 1785,according ofadmiration forthediabolicalcleverness behindsomeof thefrauds. "Barringtonmen never picked a pocket with such ingenuity," Townsendconfessed.53 It was in somewayan agreeablechallengeto theirYankee wits.One had "to be up veryearlyto get to the windward of a Chinaman,"Daniel Arnold cautioned.54 "A man should
47 Ebenezer Townsend, "Diary," New Haven Colony Historical Society, Papers, IV (1888), 93, 101. Such stories were so popularized that they appeared in the fourth edition (1810) of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (VI, 36-37) and in numerous English and American geographytextsafter 1820. 4SFrederickW. Howay, ed., "John Boit's Log of the Second Voyage of the 'Columbia,' " Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, LXXXIX (1941), 422-423. 49 Delano, Narrative,537. 0E. B. Hewes, "Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Supercargo of the Astria of Salem," Essex Institute,Historical Collections,LXXI (1935), 210. "1Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes (Boston, 1899),I, 86; Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 40. 62 Shaw, Journals,183. 5 Townsend, New Haven Colony Historical Society,Papers, IV, 86. 5 Log of the Ann and Hope, 1799-1800,MSS, Rhode Island Historical Society,Provi. dence, R. I.

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have his eye teethcut to come to Canton," Townsend counselled.55 "They will cheat you, if theycan, therefore your businessis to see thattheyshall not," Boit resolved.56 were also aware of the pejorativemeaning Thirtyof thesetraders of the term"fanqui" withwhich the Chinese addressedthem.Most of themtranslated it into "foreign"or "barbariandevil." Fanning thoughtit meant "Christian"but he also describedhow boys frequently accompanied it with a shower of stones.57 Paunkeiqua's had to be reassured thatTilden was a "good fanquie" grandchildren when theysaw him in their house.58Hunter did protestthat the termonlymeant"red hair'd" afterthe first Dutch traders.59 At any and playfully referred to rate,fewtradersfoundthe termoffensive themselves as "fanqui." It was in theireyessimplyfurther evidence of China's superciliouspretensions, on a par with the Emperor's bombasticedicts threatening to wrack the West with disease by off its of tea and If thesetraders had any cutting supply rhubarb.60 forChina theymighthave takenumbrageat such xenoreal respect phobia. The easydefeatof the Chinese at the handsof the Britishin 1840 could not have come as much of a surprise to thesetraders. Twentysix members of the sample describedthe military ineptitudeof the Chineseranging from ofobsoleteweaponsand mounted observations cannonswhichcould not be elevated, or trained, to hearty depressed, over soldiers dressed in and using gongsto scare laughter petticoats the enemyin battle.Even Hunterwas unable to suppressa chuckle over the Chinese efforts to convert a Westernvesselinto a Celestial man-of-war. were on the bow to aid in navigationand Eyes painted in sightingthe enemy. Then pennants were hoisted from every and depictingdragonsswallowing yardarm announcinginvincibility the moon. The captain of all this "destructive with paraphernalia, the peacock'sfeather in his cap, a large silk umbrellaover his head,
5 Townsend, New Haven Colony Historical Society, Papers, IV, 94. r4 Howay, ed., Essex Institute,Historical Collections,LXXXIX, 422-423. 57 226. Fanning, Voyages, 8 Jenkins, BryantParrott Tilden, 13. The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 27-8. One historian suggested that since the 68 Hunter, Chinese devil, or "qui," had red hair and blue eyes it was only natural for them to call the first Dutch traders"foreigndevils." See Journal of AmericanFolk-Lore,V (1892), 322. For of this see Sketches good examples reaction, Wood, 60 of China, 98, note; Shaw, Journals, 184; Charles Forbes, "Remarks by an Ordinary Seaman, 1815-1817," MSS, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., John Gibson, Observations on the Trade with China (Philadelphia, 1807), 38.

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in a bamboo chair, smokinghis pipe," seated himself comfortably Hunterwrotewithamusement.61 century Fanning,Delano, Appleton, Veryearlyin the nineteenth Townsend,Holbrook,and Doolittle predictedChina's defeatat the thatany single handsofa Europeancoalition.By 1830Wood insisted Westernpowercould do it alone. Seven othertraders argued,howmake in sheer numbers that China what she lacked ever, might up in military skilland individualcourage.But the ubiquitousridicule in therecords efforts leftby AmeriofChina's military thatone finds indicatesthattheymusthave been well preparedforthe can traders debacle thatactuallytookplace in 1840. If theseAmericans viewedChina's military efforts as quaint rather felt more about than contemptible, cowardice. Even they strongly China was reducedto a symbolof thefabledGreatWall in northern Chinese pusillanimity, attackbecause "a labor of cowardiceinviting Doolittledeclared.62Half of thesamplementioned it displayedfear," and widespread thisalleged flawin the Chinese character, contempt forsuch cowardiceoccasionally led to lawlessness on theirpart.Five tradersdescribedhow theydispersedarmed Chinese sentrieswith their walking sticks,although some braggadocio may have been involvedhere. Wood describedthe Chinese soldiers,whom he freand kicked to keep out of his way, as "loathsome, quentlycuffed diseaseriddenmiserablewretches" whose "sillygrunts and menaces mean nothing and are to be disregarded." 63 and scientific China's technological backwardness was mentioned by nineteen traders.However, China's reputationfor having inventedgunpowder, thecompass,inoculation, and printing presented of a to these members of the sample. Nine of something problem themsimply thesepast achievements whichmade the acknowledged natureof contemporary Chinese science something of superstitious a paradox for them.The other ten discountedthese past achievementsby pointingout thatthe Chinese never used gunpowderfor but firecrackers untilintroduced to gunsfrom theWest,and anything thatCelestialsailorswere still "coasters," terrified of losingsightof land in spite of the compass inventedby their ancestors.Indeed, thatsince the scientific Waln, Dobell, and Doolittle even suggested
"e Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 152-153.
B2Doolittle, Sketchesby a Traveller,262. "1 Wood, Sketches 118-119. China,

of

191,

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wasneverunderstood behind suchinventions rationale by theChithantruediscoveries. "The Chinese rather wereaccidents nesethey is puton forthesmallpox; thematter inoculation foragespracticed
and if thepatientlives,he a piece of cottonand thrust up thenostril, was bornundera luckystarto whichhe is as muchindebtedas to his for Doolittle Wood alonedeniedChinacredit doctor," explained.64 the from which he innovations were, insisted, imported any of these the needs of Chinese West via India and then predatedto satisfy

vanity.65 fourwith that a valuesystem equatedchange progress, Possessing Chinese with some that in the teentraders disgust sample reported area peculiar "The Chinese static. wastotally peoplein this society adhere to old "and and customs wrote, tenaciously Fanning respect," this was known as In Chinese forms." perversity pidginEnglish 66 whichone contemporary custom" guide to the China trade "01o'o for as "anexcuse defined fault." 67 It quickly every joined"cumshaw," in of lexicon trade. The Chinese were and the the "fanqui" "chop" Townsend concludall "hostile to testified, improvement," actually we shouldyethaveworn ing: "If theworldwerelike theChinese, 68 fig-leaves." of theselargely Yankeetraders, Giventhe Puritan one heritage find more real or to about wouldexpect vices, imagined, complaints earlier. mentioned of the theallegeddishonesty Four-fifths beyond a mentioned but it as natural idolatry, quitestoically accepted sample of paganism. to religion," "Withrespect Shawwrote, concomitant oftheir ittosaythat themost accounts "suffice extravagant seemingly and be Far credited." idolatry superstition... may safely greater 69 overtheprevalence of gambling was expressed indignation among to the accounts of the traders, the Chinese.According the street over purchases, vendorsgambledwith theircustomers children in the at most of sticks streets, and, all, shocking played gambling in front oftheimages were thrown of"Josh," theChinese to god, see howthey wouldland."Nothing lowered theChinese in the so much" ofthetraders forgambling, as thispropensity Goodeyes Benjamin
64 Doolittle, Sketchesby a Traveller,262. 11 Wood, Sketchesof China, 143-144. 66 22. Fanning, Voyages, 67 J. R. Morrison,A Chinese CommercialGuide (London, 1834),glossary. 68 Townsend, New Haven Colony Historical Society,Papers, IV, 91. 69 Shaw, Journals,195.

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To Dobell it was the mostconvincing evidenceof the hue testified.70 and "moral debasement" of the Chinese.7" "venality" more explosivevices of infanticide The potentially and polygamy This group could be were essentially ignoredexceptby six traders. of the sample on the identified as part of the more literatesegment basis of vocabulary,historicalknowledge,and referenceto other a wide readingexperienceon their books on China whichreflected formaleducation."It has been assertedby part,if not an extensive and possiblymay be believed by some people, that the writers, a certainportion,say Chinese womenare in the habit of drowning in the one third,of their female offspring rivers,"Delano comHis dismissal of suchcharges as absurdwas consistent with plained.72 forthe CelestialEmpire,but surprisingly his positionof admiration the other five who mentioned the practices of infanticideand were generally criticalof the Chinese and yet,exceptfor polygamy made no attemptto capitalize on them. Doolittle Ruschenberger, even attempted to mitigatethesechargesby remindinghis readers that the poor in Europe practicedinfanticide and that aristocrats she be wifeor mistress.73 tooka secondwoman,whether everywhere Almost nothingwas said about such vices as prostitution and and use of the "flower boats" the opium smoking.Occasionally but it was leftto the Protestant "perniciousdrugs"werementioned, to scold the Chinese about such vices. Of course, the missionary trader's in the opium tradewould explain his reticence involvement on thistopic,but his failureto become incensedover Chinese vices in generalwas consistent withhis lack of indignationin discussing all facets of Chinese culture. In attempting to evaluateeach traderas eitherfriendly or hostile to China, statements weresoughtwhichwould leave the readerwith littledoubt about the author'sposition.For example,Delano's statement that "China is first forgreatness, richesand grandeurof any ever known" him well inside the friendly country 74 clearlyplaces On the other to classify Edhand, it was no more difficult camp. mund Robertsas hostilewhenhe wrote:
Log of the Ship Margaret,MSS, Essex Institute,Salem, Mass. n As quoted in American QuarterlyReview, IX, 56. 7 Delano, Narrative,539-540. 78 Doolittle, Sketchesby a Traveller,274-276. '4 Delano, Narrative,542.
70

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The Chineseof the present mostdeday are grossly superstitious... is universal..; theyuse pernicious pravedand vicious:gambling drugs ... are gross horrid tortures are usedto force congluttons....The most fession and thejudgesarenotedforbeinggrossly thevariety and corrupt; in prolonging thetortures ofmiserable ingenuity displayed animals.., can in cruelty, blood thirsty and inonlybe conceived by a people refined human.75 Delano, Tilden, Ward,and Hunter,fitwithout Only fourtraders, into the friendly qualifications camp. Dorr and Nye also belong to thisgroup,although one might was closer arguethattheiradmiration to nostalgia. "The veryname of China-the distantCathay-was at that day pregnantwith the romance of history, and suggested dreamsof that vast shore washed by the farthest imaginative sea," T. H. Perkinswas an eighthbut marginalmemberof Nye wrote.76 thisgroup.In contrast, eleventraders, Randall, Doolittle,Holbrook, Wilcocks, Townsend,Bull, PeterSnow,Wood, Dobell, Roberts, and werecontemptuous oftheChinese.Five moretraders Ruschenberger, weremarginal members ofthisgroup:Fanning,Boit,CharlesForbes, and Waln. The tradersdefied Olyphant, remainingtwenty-seven classification, althougheighteenof thesewere criticalenoughof the Chinese to conclude that it would be impossibleto considerthem To put the matter amongChina's admirers. plainly,the evidencein this sample does not supportthe admiration, respect,and awe for China conceptualized discussedearlier.Indeed, the by the historians evidencepoints to the oppositedirection, and one is forcedto conclude that not Delano or Hunter, but Ruschenberger came much closerto the generalview of the Chinese on the part of the traders when he declared:
wherein the most infamouscrimesare common;. where the merchant

theirown tender a nation They are a peoplewho destroy offspring;

cozenshis fellow-citizen and the stranger; wherea knowledge of the is the remotest of science; wherea languageand a language boundary literature, of life,have rescarcely adequate to the common purposes mainedforages unimproved; where theguardians of moralsare people without honor orprobity; where is venalto an extent justice unexampled on thefaceof theearth;wherethegreatlegislator so much Confucius, is unworthy revered, we excusethepoverty unless ofhiswritings perusal,
Edmund Roberts,Embassy to the Eastern Courts (New York, 1837), 152. 75 Gideon Nye, The Morning of My Life in China, 1833-1839 76 (Canton, 1873),4.

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in consideration oftheignorance ofthetimes in which he lived;where a chainof beings, from theemperor to the lowestvassal,live by preying upon one another.77 If the hypothesis by this evidenceis a viable one, then suggested it standsto reason thatthe Americantradergroup must have supagainstthe Chinesein the Opium War. portedtheirEnglishfriends The limitednumberof statements on the war by thisgroup does indeed point to such a conclusion.E. C. Carringtonreceivedletters from six traders of whomstrongly the duringthe war,five supported and English.One of these,Isaac Bull, was no Anglophile,however, in reachingsuch a position. "I want experiencedgreat difficulty for not Chinese," he my property against Englishmen, protection Within a fewmonths, he began to however, complainedin 1839.78 as one betweenthe Chinese change his mind and saw the struggle and all "foreigners." " He was even anxious lest the Britishmight of a short and not remove"vexing" and "unmilitary victory stop reasonable" restrictions on trade "once and for all." 80 A fellow William Martin, underwentno such transAnglophobe,Captain and continued to wish that the Englishwould formation, however, at last suffer "forall theirevil deeds."81However,Martin made it clear thathis positionwas a minority one among the Americansin China's laws" along with Canton,whomhe accused of "transgressing the English. "I had no idea of becomingan outlaw when I left home," he complained to Carrington.82 The Americanconsul during the war, Peter Snow, reportedto of StateForsyth thatChina's demandswere "too monstrous Secretary fora civilizedgovernment to submit to" and acknowledged his indebtednessto the English in China for "protection."Snow hoped that the "friendly and honorable conduct" of Captain Elliott, the Britishcommander, would be "duly appreciatedby our government at home."s3If thiswas not a plea forofficial supportof the English to Congress R. B. cause,thepetition Forbes and eightotherAmeriby
A VoyageRound the World,431. Ruschenberger, 77 7 Bull to Carrington, July25, 1839,CarringtonFamily Papers, MSS. " Bull to Carrington, Jan. 11, 1840,ibid. See also his letterof Nov. 24, 1839,ibid. Bull to Carrington, Jan. 28, June 24, Aug. 21, 1840,ibid. 80 " Martin to Oct. 1, 1839,ibid. Carrington, ' Martin to Carrington,Jan. 27, 1840, ibid. See also Bull to Carrington,June 18, Dec. 27, 1840, for confirmationthat the American community in Canton was overto the Britishactions in 1840. whelmingly sympathetic 18House Exec. Doc. 119, 26 Cong., 1 sess.,8-22.

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can merchants in Canton demanded that the "robbery"of British such "high handed measures" be denounced by that subjects by and ifdeemed measures; body,and thatit "takeimmediate legislative of Great Britain,France advisable,in concertwiththe governments and Holland, or either of them, in their endeavors to establish One Americantrader, William Henry Low, did not wait for any official action fromhis government, but served the British as a soon the as as MeanwhileanotherChina messenger fighting began.85 Daniel Websterthat the trader, J. M. Forbes,was busy convincing Chinese onlyunderstood This advice was axiomaticto most force.86 ofthesetraders. "The EnglishmaytalkreasonwiththeChineseuntil the day of judgement, the latterwill not give themwhat theywant without force," Bull explained to Carrington.87 Peter Snow also that force would the Chinese to a "reduce reported only government to all to listen the and reasonable demands of the willingness just The tradergroup did not unanimouslysupport the English in 1840,of course.William Hunter denouncedthe war as "one of the mostunjusteverwaged,"but he also made it clear thathis compatriots in China did not sharethisview.89 T. H. Perkinsand a group of older China handsin Salem and Bostoncounteredthepetitionfrom in Canton withone of theirown urgingCongressnot to merchants take sides, althoughtheyfeltit necessary to send a naval forceto Chinese waters.90 The ProvidenceEvening Herald also cited five sea captainswho were in oppositionto Britishaggression in China, but it was notclear thatthey wereeven in theChina trade.9' The pro-British, or anti-Chinese on the partof Amerisentiment, can traders in China duringthe Opium War shedssome lighton a the speech by JohnQuincy Adams in 1841, in which he castigated in China which refusedto meet its "churlishand unsocial system" "moralobligation"to engagein commerce withothernationson an
Ibid., no. 40, pp. 2-3. 84 11W. H. Low to Josiah O. Low, Oct. 27, 1839, May 3, 1840, Mercantile Papers, MSS, New York Public Library. l Ping Chia Kuo, "Caleb Cushing and the Treaty of Wanghia, 1844," Journal of Modern History,V (1933), 34. 7 Bull to Carrington, June 24, 1840,CarringtonFamily Papers, MSS. 11 House Exec. Doc. 40, 26 Cong., 1 sess.,2-3. 89Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, 154, 115-116, 143-145. Dennett,Americansin Eastern Asia, 103-104. 90 ProvidenceEvening Herald, Dec. 12, 1840. 91

commercial relations.., .upon a safe and honorable footing... ."

84

foreign powers." 88

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equal footing.Far fromcondemningany aggressionon England's "this applauded her forrectifying part,thisdean of elder statesmen enormous outrage upon the rightsof human nature.... These of the Chineseempire,too long connivedat and truckled principles nationsof the civilizedworld." Adams Christian to by the mightiest his thelead" in abolishing that England,after "taking expressed hope and the slave would "extend her arm to the trade, liberating slavery bounds of Asia." 92 farthest have largely Historians it as a singuignoredthisspeechor treated lar and almost inexplicableaberrationfromthe Americanview of the war. The refusalof the North American Review to print it seemedto support thebeliefthatit flewin thefaceof an overwhelmforthe Chinese in the Opium War.93 Yet it American ing sympathy to find company for Adams. His fellow Bay is not that difficult Staterand idol of the lecturecircuit,Edward Everett, sympathized with England in the war against China.94James Gordon Bennett found the war analogous to the situationin Texas. "It is another of the Anglo-Saxon movement spiritin the remoteeast,againstthe barriers of semi barbarians and a halfcivilizedrace who have been for centuries or more,"he wroteof England's atstationary twenty William Cullen Bryantconcludedthat "foronce tack on Canton.95 England's motto,Dieu et mon droit" could be "most justlymade the cryof her sons on the shoreof the CelestialEmpire."96 To this group,opium had littleto do with the war,no more,as Adams exover-board ofthetea in Bostonharbor plained it, "thanthethrowing was the cause of the NorthAmericanRevolution."97 That is not to implythatanything more than a small minority of Americans endorsedthe Britishattackon China in 1840.98 It was, a respectable however, minority, probablyinfluenced by the Ameri9"See "Adams' Lecture on the War with China," Chinese Repository,XI (1842), 274289. This Canton paper, edited by American missionaries and financed by a trader, D. W. C. Olyphant, was the only one to publish the full speech, although a few domestic journals printed excerpts of it. See, for example, Weehly Intelligencer (Washington,D.C.), Dec. 4, 1841; New World (New York), IV (Jan. 1, 1841), 10-13. 93Dennett,Americans in Eastern Asia, 108; Bailey, Diplomatic History, 302. Edward Everett(Boston, 1925),231. 94 Paul R. Frothingham, '9 New York Herald, Nov. 24, 1840. Nov. 24, 1840. (New York) Evening Post for the Country, 96 97Chinese Repository,XI, 281, 288. 9sOf fortynewspapers and journals examined for editorial comments on the war, with England's actions in China. only nine sympathized

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and missionaries who servedin China.99 can traders More important, themajority whichopposed thewar shouldnot necessarily viewpoint withany real sympathy or admirationfor the Chinese. be confused The magazinethatrefusedto printAdams' speech had published, beforethe war,some rathervitriolic attackson the character of the In all probability, Chineseand theircivilization.'00 Americanopposition to Englishactionsin China in 1840 (and to Adams' speech)was due to Anglophobic and not the Sinophilicones conconsiderations, ceivedof bysomeAmericanhistorians. But the opinion of Americansin generalis beyond the scope of thispaper. The point made here is thatthe friendly traderconcept whichis so important to thegeneralizations made about earlyAmerican opinionsor imagesof the Chinese is not a viable conceptin the faceof available evidence.
99EveryAmerican missionaryin China in 1840 supported the war as did the missionaryjournals. See Baptist MissionaryMagazine, XX (1840), 270-275, XXI (1841), 91; XXXVI (1840) 11, XXXVII (1841), 43; Spirit of MissionaryHerald (Congregationalist), Missions (Episcopalian), VI (1841), 366; Chinese Repository,IX (1840), 615-619; American Sunday School Union, The People of China (Philadelphia, 1844),54. 10 See, for example, North American Review, XLVII (1838), 399-406, XLIII (1836), 272-273, and XLVIII (1839), 271-310.

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