Page 399 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

385.

circumstances in China and the House's reception of relevant

documents, Congress expressed virtually no concern for Ameri­

cans or their trade at Canton. In the meantime the House had

received another memorial from American merchants in the China

trade asking for governmental assistance.
80
Introduced again by Abbot Lawrence, this second mem­

orial reflected the opinions of American merchants in the United

States. Many of the signers, representing houses in Boston,

81
Salem and New York, had previously resided at Canton. The
purpose of this memorial was two-fold. Primarily, the merchants

reiterated the request of their associates at Canton for naval

protection. These men substantiated the predictions made by
Americans in 1839 that the English would despatch a fleet to

China with orders to retaliate militarily against the Imperial

government. As evidence, the signers offered "intelligence

recently received from undoubted sources in China, part of which

The coITut1ander of the
only has appeared in the public prints. 11
English fleet, which had sailed from India, had power to block­

ade the port of Canton. This memorial concluded that, upon the
11
general ground of protection to our citizens and property from

the violence and disorder which always accompany war, American

80
Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts actually introduced this
memorial to the House in the name of Lc1wrence, who was ill.
26th Cong., 1st sess., Apr. 9, 1840, Conqressional Globe, 311.

81
Although the title of the memorial claimed the signers
to be from Boston and Salem, a perusal of the signers (thirty-six
individuals and houses) indicates merchants from New York as well.
U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, China Trade,-­
Merchants of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, Apr. 9, 1840, H. Doc.
170, 26th Cong., 1st sess., 1839-40. All quotations regarding the
letter are from this citation.