Page 292 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

278.

action infuriated the Americans, who now concluded that 11the

Chinese had treacherously proposed the destruction of all

Foreigners. 11 The Chinese, furthermore, had taken into

custody two Americans on their way downriver. Joseph Coolidge

and William H. Morss remained jailed at Canton for several
98
weeks before the Chinese released them. These actions

tended to turn American residents against the Chinese.

Throughout the Opium War, American attitudes and actions

were based on self-interest. American merchants gradually

grew impatient with the Chinese and their unsuccessful tactics.

They realized that the Chinese were no match militarily for

the English. Motivated almost solely by their desire for trade,

they wanted the war to end so the trade could resume. Amer­

ican residents had been satisfied with transacting business

under the old 11Canton system, 11 but if the English could insti­

tute a more efficient mode of operation, they would welcome it

if they would not fight for it.
American residents, however, had a long time to wait

for the trade to be reopened. Capt. Elliot and the English

fleet inflicted another serious defeat on the Chinese on May

20. Elliot's victory netted the English six million dollars

98 1
Letter, W.H. Low to A.A. Low, May 27, 1841, in Canton
1
Letters of William Henry Low," pp. 314-15. Nye, The Rationale of
the Chinese Question (Macao, 1857), p. 10. Coolidge, formerly of
Russell & Co., had formed a house with another former partner of
Russell & Co., Augustine Heard. In 1841 Coolidge was the resident
partner of A. Heard & Co. Morss, a partner in Olyphant & Co.,
was wounded in the affair. Chinese Repository, X, 7 (July 1841),
419, 420. Hunter, 'Fan Kwae 11 at Canton, pp. 149-50. Whether
Vice-consul Delano protested to the Chinese cannot be determined.
(Consul Snow, who had left China in September 1840, had appointed
Delano his agent. Delano sent no despatches to Washington.)