Page 357 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

343.

in connecting the two continents. Years later as President,

he renewed his attempts with the Lewis and Clark expedition
16
to the Northwest.

Jefferson was also interested in establishing a basis

for future relations between the United States and China.

In 1807 John Jacob Astor appealed to the President to issue

a passport for a "Chinese official" who found himself stran­

ded in New York because of the Embargo. Part of a ruse by

Astor to despatch a cargo to China during the Embargo, the

11
"official actually was a Cantonese laborer. Nevertheless,
Jefferson and his Cabinet took the matter seriously. The

President decided this case presented an excellent opportunity

to let the Chinese government "understand at length the

difference between us & the English, & separate us in its

policy. 11 Influenced by contemporary events in Europe,

Jefferson also was interested in ties with China. He con­

cluded that rendering assistance to the Chinese official was

a diplomatic measure, as a favorable image of the United

States and its citizens presented to the Chinese government by
11
one of its own members was likely to bring lasting advantage
17
to our merchants & comme.rce with that country. 11

16 1
Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years View, or a History of
the Americc:.n Government for Thirty Years from 1820 to 1850 (2 vols.;
New York, 1856), I, 14. Benton, a strong proponent in Congress
for annexation of the Oregon territory, claimed that his stand
was "nothing but to further the seed planted in my mind by the
philosophic hand of Mr. Jefferson. 11
17
Jefferson's quote is in Dennett, Americans in Eastern
Asia, p. 77.