Page 168 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

154.
tence of death by strangulation. Unlike Western societies'

emphasis on maintaining the uprightness of law, the Chinese

placed much greater importance on the maintenance of morality

through proper personal conduct and social responsibility.

Their system of justice only existed to punish those whose

conduct proved immoral (in opposition to standards of Confu-
10
cius and the Son of Heaven or Emperor).

Accordingly, the Chinese believed their system of law

and justice extended throughout the Celestial Empire and over

all persons therein, including foreigners. Therefore the

local authorities in demanding the surrender of Terranovia felt

they acted properly. In their minds they had no alternative

choice. The Americans did not readily agree, but neither were

they united in their response to the demand that Terranovia

be handed over to the Chinese. The official representative of

the United States, Consul Wilcocks, removed himself from any

participation in determining policy in the affair. A resident

merchant himself, Wilcocks limited his actions to taking dep­

ositions from the Americans and British who claimed to have
any pertinent information. He believed that, even though he

was consul for the United States, he had no jurisdiction in this

type of matter. He did ask for the opinions of other American

resident merchants and supercargoes, the results of which he

l
OThis is only a brief explanation of Chinese law and
justice. Its significance is the fundamental difference from
Western concepts and the failure of both Chinese and Americans in
this affair to recognize that fact. John King Fairbank, The
United States and China (3rd ed.; Cambridge, 1972), pp. 105-10,
and Morse and Macnair, Far Eastern International Relations, pp. 70-7'