Page 346 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

CHAPTER VII

CONGRESS, CONSULS ANTI CAPTAINS:
OFFICIAL RELATIONS WITH CHINA TO 1842

While American merchants at Canton developed their

trade and, as a corollary, their relations with the Chinese

authorities, the United States government exhibited at best

a casual interest in China and the Orient. On February 10,

1840 in the House of Representatives, Francis S. Pickens of

South Carolina proposed that the House request the President

to transmit information concerning the opium crisis in China

and its effect on American merchants and their trade at Canton.

This resolution also asked the Secretary of the Treasury for
1
all commercial ,statistics of the American China trade. Pic-

kens• resolution marked the first time the American govern­

ment manifested public interest in China in nearly twenty
1
years. In the early 1820 s the House of Representatives had

taken the initiative in governmental interest in China, at that

time in connection with American policy in the Pacific North­

west. But previous to 1820 the Executive had exhibited a very

positive attitude toward American relations with the Celestial

Empire.

From its beginning in 1784 the American China trade was

1
U.S., Congress, House, 26th Cong., 1st sess., Feb. 10,
1840u Congressional Globe, 172.

332