Page 392 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

378.

"sent to sea with orders to go here & there & come home again

without going into detail of the objects to which this squadron

should devote itself --11 71 Naval commanders were more or less

free to determine their own actions to protect American per­

sons and property abroad. But they were prohibited from

entering into any diplomatic action, so they usually respected

the recommendations of American merchants and consuls. In

-
1839 40 American merchants at Canton knew that, to obtain a

change in policy, they must seek a change in attitude on the
part of the American government.

IV

On January 9, 1840 Rep. Abbot Lawrence (Mass.) requested

from the House permission to submit a memorial from a group of

American merchants at Canton. The House agreed to accept the
72
memorial and referred it to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Written during the opium crisis between Commissioner Lin and

the foreign merchants at Canton, this letter to Congress re­

flected the indignation and apprehension experienced by Amer­

icans confined to the Foreign Factories for over a month. The

signers noted their strong opposition to the opium trade and

their desire "to see the importation and consumption of opium

73
in China entirely at an end." But these Americans, outraged

71
Journal of R.B. Forbes, May 23, 1839, Forbes Family MSS.
72 U.S., Congress, House, 26th Cong., 1st sess., Jan. 9,
1840, Congressional Globe, 109.
73
u.s., Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs,
A Memorial from American Merchants at Canton, China, Jan. 9, 1840,
H. Doc. 40, 26th Cong., 1st sess., 1840-41. All quotations
regarding the letter are from this citation.