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Perry, as you are hopefully aware, helped the United States of America convince Japan that it should let them open up a few ports to purchase coal, wood and other sundry articles for its naval sojourns in and around Asia.
This article, and several more I have been lucky enough to view, came from the Newsbank/Readex database of Early American Newspapers (www.readex.com) and were sent to me by my cousin, Vinny. Okay, he's not really my cousin, but he's quickly becoming family.
While I am not permitted to present the actual news piece, I can retype it, as the contents are public domain. Ugh. I type 65 mistakes a minute with three fingers on my right and my index finger on my left hand.
I am going to re-present as many of these stories to give us all a better look at what the United States was thinking as it attempted to set up international relations with both China and Japan. But, since I deal only with Japan, forgive me if I ignore China when providing details about the entire trek of Commodore Perry. For a fully-detailed report, there are many excellent books out there on the whole expedition.
Meanwhile, over the next multitude of blog entries, lets look at the news of the day.
The Japan Expedition
It is rumored that the proposed expedition to Japan, under Commodore Perry, will be abandoned, at least for the present - the Government not being able to spare a sufficient number of vessels to justify the undertaking.
Last spring, the steamer Mississippi was fitted out for a cruise of eighteen months. She was in port here (New York) for about six weeks, and then in active service for a month among the fishermen.
While on her last trip, a portion of her machinery was seriously injured, so that it will require some time to fit her for a distant station.
The Princeton was to be completed early in the summer, but she cannot be in readiness before the 1st of November.
The Saranac will be fitted up to take home the Brazilian Minister leaving only the Powatan (an untried vessel) for home service, if the two xxxx are sent away.
This state of affairs, it is feared, will force the Government to relinquish the Japan project --N.Y. Times [We should think this was doubtful.]
Well, despite the U.S. need to get a treaty set up with China and Japan for international relations, it seems as though Perry's trip to the east is in jeopardy before it starts owing to a lack of vessels (ships) to make the journey.
Part of Perry's plan is to sail into Chinese and Japanese ports with as large a fleet as possible in a show of naval superiority in an attempt to kowtow the 'savages' into signing treaties with the best of the West.
I love this news piece which the Alexandria Gazette borrowed from the N.Y. Times (New York Times) newspaper, with the editor of the Gazette adding the last line [in brackets] that he doesn't believe The Japan Expedition will be halted, as it all about the U.S. flexing its might to show that it is a legitimate world power.
Of course it already was a world power, but getting a foothold into mysterious Japan and China would be a coup for any country, and Commodore Perry and the United States are determined.
I also love the fact that the Gazette and Times are sharing news.Long before the days of news bureaus like The Associated Press (AP), newspapers would exchange news and articles with each other with the understanding that it was okay to do so as long as source attribution was made. in this case, it happened.
Now... I will say that in this article, I added the bracketed (New York) so you, the reader knows exactly where the action was taking place because we don't find out about the news swapping until the end.
There is also a four-letter word I am unable to decipher, so it is revealed as 'xxxx'. And... I made a best guess re Powatan, the untried vessel.
As well, I did amend a few comma placements because I am an editor/writer in my day job. And, because it was a newspaper piece and space is always at a premium, I separated the sentences into appropriate paragraphs rather than showing it as a single block of news.
Next, a news report showing the expedition is about to start.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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