Page 437 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

423.

ment. Webster, formerly a very close friend of Cushing, affir-

med Tyler's choice before its public announcement. Other Whigs who

had risen politically with Cushing, men :ike Levi Lincoln and Rufus

Choate, also endorsed Tyler's choice. Even Adams, a colleague of

Cushing on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, breakfasted with
54
the minister shortly before he embarked for China. Adams,

like the others, recognized Cushing's intelligence and.orator-

ical ability. Always interested in foreign affairs himself,

Cushing had pressed for greater governmental concern for China

as early as 1840. He feared that England might obtain exclu-

sive commercial privileges from the Chinese to the detriment

of American merchants. In 1842 he had written Tyler that the

United States should, "by the extent of our commerce, act in

counterpoise to that of England, & thus save the Chinese from

that which would be extremely inconvenient for them, viz., the

condition of being an exclusive monopoly in the hands of England.
II 55
This concern for the state of foreign commerce in

China helped prompt the Administration to action in late 1842.

Cushing's appointment in May 1843, then, was more than a polit­

ical reward to a friend. Both Tyler and Webster believed the

mission to China an important diplomatic post that required a

talented agent.

Cushing received his commissions and official instruc-

54
Fuess, Life of Caleb Cushing, I, 413.
55
Fuess, Life of Caleb Cushing, I, 406-07. Cushing had
displayed such an attitude toward England in Congress as early as
1840, when the House first discussed the situation in China" U.S.,
Congress, House, 26th Cong., 1st sess., Mar. 16, 1840, Congres­
sional Globe, p. 275.