History. Old wounds.
We have forgotten so much of it, it's not even funny. We've even forgotten so much of our ability to discern what other are talking about when looking at history. Even though it exists all around us. Perhaps that's do to much of social media which says that the average human being must be grabbed immediately, choked with images of kittens or dogs doing something cute. Or stupid human tricks.
Part of that has to do with the advent of visual graphics that have become so commonplace in today's world that anyone with a digital camera or telephone can take a photograph and report the news of the world. It should be an awesome weapon in the right hands, but today in the 21st century it's little more than a tool to gain Likes or Hits on various personal media outlets.
I'm guilty of it as well. Not to the degree of some, of course, but at least I've been a journalist - even if only briefly. Oh well... let's look at another old newspaper article.
This one is from May 16, 1853 and was published by the Alta California newspaper in San Francisco, California.
It looks at the Japan Expedition, the United States effort to set up its first trade relations with Japan. Previous looks by this blog had have shown that supposed peaceful attempts by the United States involve it carrying along a mini armada of ships packed with a large compliment of men and weapons - something the newspapers of the day took great pleasure in mentioning, as might makes right, in their opinion.
Briefly, Commodore Perry has been in Japan for about one year and, while he has successfully made contact with the Japanese, no such trade treaty has yet been signed. The U.S. says it wants to use Japan as a stop over to purchase coal and wood for its ships as part of its trade route to China. As well, the U.S. wanted to declare safe passage for shipwrecked sailors and reclaim the cargo - something that Japan didn't usually do - finder's keepers, in other words. Other newspapers of the day add that this is also an excellent time for the Christian United States to evoke its will on the heathen Japanese and turn the country to God (the U.S. version - Christianity). Hey... In God We Trust, right?
Here we go:
Japan is still to remain a sealed book, after all.
The squadron is to be recalled, Commodore Perry is to be taken out of his element, and hauled up on dry dock.
We are to have no port in Japan for a steamer depot, no further knowledge of its people, no treaties of peace and good will, no protection for our wrecked seamen, no harbors for our Arctic whalers, nothing but mystery and non-intercourse, nothing but stripes and prisons, and death by starvation, bastinado and poison, for the poor sailor whom storm and tempests hurl upon those chartless and unsurveyed shores.
All our boasting about opening Japan is to prove only boast and gas, our ships are to return to rot, and the nation is to become the jeer-target for all civilization.
Since the Japan Expedition was first decided upon and known, only one opinion was has prevailed respecting its necessity.
Whether the details were satisfactory and the force sufficient has been perhaps a question. But it is impossible to know what force is necessary until a trial. That trial we are not to have.
The Government cannot be brought up to the character and progress of our people.
Our whalemen have found a summer mine in the Arctic--but they want a harbor for protection somewhere along the Japan coast during winter. They are not to have one.
Our clippers are plowing the Pacific waters everywhere and our commerce, already large, promises a glorious future, provided it be fostered and protected by the national arm and force. But this is not to be--the Atlantic only is worth attention!
Cannot our statesmen break the shell which encase their minds like the oyster, and let their souls and ideas expand a little?
Must they be like the merchants of old, who dared not follow in thought and calculation our merchants and people?
When the whaler from Nantucket and the merchant from Boston and New York, the sailor and trader from all the States, and the citizens generally in all of the States have found out and pointed out new places and sources of wealth and the aggrandizement, cannot the men who rule, keep somewhere within hail-call of the popular mind and popular movement? It seems not.
And the recent galvanic movements of our national government, first attempting to wheedle or to bully Japan, and then slinking out of it before trying either, reminds one of Elia's "poor relation," who "holdeth out his hand to you to shake, and--draweth it back again."
President PIERCE could scarcely do a more unpopular thing than to recall the Japan Expedition.
Not only here, not only through the Eastern States, but in Europe and wherever commerce and civilization have made men think and read, the attempt to open Japan to both, has been most invorably received.
The senseless failure will therefore meet with execration here, disappointment at the east, and ridicule everywhere.
The course will have the appearance of of pusillanimity and trifling, whether it be the result of weakness or not.
It;s effect upon all the nations, especially upon those of the Asiatic side of the Pacific, it is needless to say, will be entirely to our disadvantage.
The boaster who threatens destruction and death while the object is afar, but who backs down as soon as he approaches the enemy, receives only contempt, for he merits nothing more.
So it is with nations.
So it will be, it is feared, in this instance.
Whether the Pacific is to be navigated by steam or hot air power, or by clippers and other sailing vessels only, there is an absolute necessity for ports of refuge.
They are needed for our whalers to winter or refit in; they are necessary in consideration of the frequent and terrific typhoons which occur in that quarter, and which are so formidable to all kinds of shipping.
Above all, a treaty with Japan is needed, securing our poor, wrecked seamen from the cruelties which are wreaked upon them whenever they fall among the copper-colored clods who form the human soil of those islands.
There is not much doubt but the next Congress will make appropriations for laying on a lone of steamers between this coast and China.
They must have stopping places.
One, at least, of the ports must be in Japan.
And the necessity of securing such at once--either for a national or individual ine--is so apparent to all, that it need not be argued or dwelt upon.
The recall cannot be justified upon the ground that the force is necessary at present on the Atlantic.
The nation is rich--California has filled its purses and treasury with gold. The Atlantic is covered with splendid clippers, steamships and stout sailing vessels, which can speedily be converted into powerful men of war.
The great resources of the nation are on the Atlantic side--the Government is there--it takes a long while to get a force around Cape Horn, and consequently, a strong force being necessary here at all times for the protection of our commerce, territories and people--it should be kept in the Pacific, instead of keeping us dependent upon the round-about voyage which would have to be made after the danger had come.
A sufficient fleet can be prepared at once on the Atlantic, and, therefore, there exists no necessity for recalling the force ordered to Japan.
A Pacific Naval force must be sent here, if it be here at all, but all that shall be necessary for the Atlantic, can be furnished there on the very borders of the spot where needed.
We desire that the Administration shall not only be just and energetic, but that it shall also be popular, for without popularity it cannot long be energetic. The effect of the backing out from what the nation, as well as the times, Trade, Commerce, Civilization, Humanity and Religion have demanded, will tend to render it unpopular.
The recall of this Expedition is against all our ideas of progress, is against the character of our people--is against the spirit of the age.
The Nineteenth Century is like a diamond with a black speck in it, as long as the national cynic, Japan, is found isolated and unenlightened in its midst.
No nation under Heaven has the right o thus kick all other people and interest from its doors.
There are rights of humanity as well as rights of nations, and as human rights are vastly greater than merely those of a part of humanity, the world has a claim upon at least courtesy and humanity from each and every part of it.
Japan spits in our face, and we are about to act like Sir Walter Raleigh, but with a far different result undoubtedly.
Our great nation, having armed itself, put on helmet and shield, girded its sword and cocked its rifle, turn meekly round, takes out its bandana, wipes spittle from its face, and the warlike General Jonathon becomes merely a militia corporal, held up as a target for the scorn-bells of creation.
Well... I was actually liking this editorial a lot until it got to the end. Then it started getting all preachy saying that no nation on Earth has the right to not open its borders to others. My... how that has changed in 160 years.
The article ends with the editor essentially calling the US Government wimpy for not going in a taking the right of safe passage from the ignorant Japanese. How dare they? Don't they know who we are?
Now... I like how this paper isn't buying the excuse of the Government that the ships of the Japan Expedition are needed elsewhere in the Atlantic, saying the US has plenty of other ships that can easily be retrofitted into attack ships if need be. Basically, they are calling for a Pacific fleet along with one for the Atlantic.
Here, the editor talks about how the failure of the U.S. to open up trade relations could have a domino effect on the U.S.'s attempts to open up trade relations with other Asian countries -something that could greatly reduce the power in the eyes of the rest of the world.
What the heck is bastinado? Foot-whipping, apparently.
Isn't amazing what you can get out of a newspaper? A sense of the pulse of a country that surely is non-existent in a history textbook.
Of course... one shouldn't be TOO judgemental of America and her hawkish media. Afterall... for those of us who live in a large city where multiple newspapers are the norm (Toronto has four dailies), each paper will more than likely support or dislike the government in power. I can only assume the same held true in the 1850s.
More tomorrow, as look further into The Japan Expedition , featuring a letter written by a sailor who had visited China and Japan as part of Commodore Perry's trek.
And... this, and other documents I have come across were nodded in my general direction by Vinny and came from the Newsbank/Readex database of Early American Newspapers (www.readex.com).
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
We have forgotten so much of it, it's not even funny. We've even forgotten so much of our ability to discern what other are talking about when looking at history. Even though it exists all around us. Perhaps that's do to much of social media which says that the average human being must be grabbed immediately, choked with images of kittens or dogs doing something cute. Or stupid human tricks.
Part of that has to do with the advent of visual graphics that have become so commonplace in today's world that anyone with a digital camera or telephone can take a photograph and report the news of the world. It should be an awesome weapon in the right hands, but today in the 21st century it's little more than a tool to gain Likes or Hits on various personal media outlets.
I'm guilty of it as well. Not to the degree of some, of course, but at least I've been a journalist - even if only briefly. Oh well... let's look at another old newspaper article.
This one is from May 16, 1853 and was published by the Alta California newspaper in San Francisco, California.
It looks at the Japan Expedition, the United States effort to set up its first trade relations with Japan. Previous looks by this blog had have shown that supposed peaceful attempts by the United States involve it carrying along a mini armada of ships packed with a large compliment of men and weapons - something the newspapers of the day took great pleasure in mentioning, as might makes right, in their opinion.
Briefly, Commodore Perry has been in Japan for about one year and, while he has successfully made contact with the Japanese, no such trade treaty has yet been signed. The U.S. says it wants to use Japan as a stop over to purchase coal and wood for its ships as part of its trade route to China. As well, the U.S. wanted to declare safe passage for shipwrecked sailors and reclaim the cargo - something that Japan didn't usually do - finder's keepers, in other words. Other newspapers of the day add that this is also an excellent time for the Christian United States to evoke its will on the heathen Japanese and turn the country to God (the U.S. version - Christianity). Hey... In God We Trust, right?
Here we go:
Japan is still to remain a sealed book, after all.
The squadron is to be recalled, Commodore Perry is to be taken out of his element, and hauled up on dry dock.
We are to have no port in Japan for a steamer depot, no further knowledge of its people, no treaties of peace and good will, no protection for our wrecked seamen, no harbors for our Arctic whalers, nothing but mystery and non-intercourse, nothing but stripes and prisons, and death by starvation, bastinado and poison, for the poor sailor whom storm and tempests hurl upon those chartless and unsurveyed shores.
All our boasting about opening Japan is to prove only boast and gas, our ships are to return to rot, and the nation is to become the jeer-target for all civilization.
Since the Japan Expedition was first decided upon and known, only one opinion was has prevailed respecting its necessity.
Whether the details were satisfactory and the force sufficient has been perhaps a question. But it is impossible to know what force is necessary until a trial. That trial we are not to have.
The Government cannot be brought up to the character and progress of our people.
Our whalemen have found a summer mine in the Arctic--but they want a harbor for protection somewhere along the Japan coast during winter. They are not to have one.
Our clippers are plowing the Pacific waters everywhere and our commerce, already large, promises a glorious future, provided it be fostered and protected by the national arm and force. But this is not to be--the Atlantic only is worth attention!
Cannot our statesmen break the shell which encase their minds like the oyster, and let their souls and ideas expand a little?
Must they be like the merchants of old, who dared not follow in thought and calculation our merchants and people?
When the whaler from Nantucket and the merchant from Boston and New York, the sailor and trader from all the States, and the citizens generally in all of the States have found out and pointed out new places and sources of wealth and the aggrandizement, cannot the men who rule, keep somewhere within hail-call of the popular mind and popular movement? It seems not.
And the recent galvanic movements of our national government, first attempting to wheedle or to bully Japan, and then slinking out of it before trying either, reminds one of Elia's "poor relation," who "holdeth out his hand to you to shake, and--draweth it back again."
President PIERCE could scarcely do a more unpopular thing than to recall the Japan Expedition.
Not only here, not only through the Eastern States, but in Europe and wherever commerce and civilization have made men think and read, the attempt to open Japan to both, has been most invorably received.
The senseless failure will therefore meet with execration here, disappointment at the east, and ridicule everywhere.
The course will have the appearance of of pusillanimity and trifling, whether it be the result of weakness or not.
It;s effect upon all the nations, especially upon those of the Asiatic side of the Pacific, it is needless to say, will be entirely to our disadvantage.
The boaster who threatens destruction and death while the object is afar, but who backs down as soon as he approaches the enemy, receives only contempt, for he merits nothing more.
So it is with nations.
So it will be, it is feared, in this instance.
Whether the Pacific is to be navigated by steam or hot air power, or by clippers and other sailing vessels only, there is an absolute necessity for ports of refuge.
They are needed for our whalers to winter or refit in; they are necessary in consideration of the frequent and terrific typhoons which occur in that quarter, and which are so formidable to all kinds of shipping.
Above all, a treaty with Japan is needed, securing our poor, wrecked seamen from the cruelties which are wreaked upon them whenever they fall among the copper-colored clods who form the human soil of those islands.
There is not much doubt but the next Congress will make appropriations for laying on a lone of steamers between this coast and China.
They must have stopping places.
One, at least, of the ports must be in Japan.
And the necessity of securing such at once--either for a national or individual ine--is so apparent to all, that it need not be argued or dwelt upon.
The recall cannot be justified upon the ground that the force is necessary at present on the Atlantic.
The nation is rich--California has filled its purses and treasury with gold. The Atlantic is covered with splendid clippers, steamships and stout sailing vessels, which can speedily be converted into powerful men of war.
The great resources of the nation are on the Atlantic side--the Government is there--it takes a long while to get a force around Cape Horn, and consequently, a strong force being necessary here at all times for the protection of our commerce, territories and people--it should be kept in the Pacific, instead of keeping us dependent upon the round-about voyage which would have to be made after the danger had come.
A sufficient fleet can be prepared at once on the Atlantic, and, therefore, there exists no necessity for recalling the force ordered to Japan.
A Pacific Naval force must be sent here, if it be here at all, but all that shall be necessary for the Atlantic, can be furnished there on the very borders of the spot where needed.
We desire that the Administration shall not only be just and energetic, but that it shall also be popular, for without popularity it cannot long be energetic. The effect of the backing out from what the nation, as well as the times, Trade, Commerce, Civilization, Humanity and Religion have demanded, will tend to render it unpopular.
The recall of this Expedition is against all our ideas of progress, is against the character of our people--is against the spirit of the age.
The Nineteenth Century is like a diamond with a black speck in it, as long as the national cynic, Japan, is found isolated and unenlightened in its midst.
No nation under Heaven has the right o thus kick all other people and interest from its doors.
There are rights of humanity as well as rights of nations, and as human rights are vastly greater than merely those of a part of humanity, the world has a claim upon at least courtesy and humanity from each and every part of it.
Japan spits in our face, and we are about to act like Sir Walter Raleigh, but with a far different result undoubtedly.
Our great nation, having armed itself, put on helmet and shield, girded its sword and cocked its rifle, turn meekly round, takes out its bandana, wipes spittle from its face, and the warlike General Jonathon becomes merely a militia corporal, held up as a target for the scorn-bells of creation.
Well... I was actually liking this editorial a lot until it got to the end. Then it started getting all preachy saying that no nation on Earth has the right to not open its borders to others. My... how that has changed in 160 years.
The article ends with the editor essentially calling the US Government wimpy for not going in a taking the right of safe passage from the ignorant Japanese. How dare they? Don't they know who we are?
Now... I like how this paper isn't buying the excuse of the Government that the ships of the Japan Expedition are needed elsewhere in the Atlantic, saying the US has plenty of other ships that can easily be retrofitted into attack ships if need be. Basically, they are calling for a Pacific fleet along with one for the Atlantic.
Here, the editor talks about how the failure of the U.S. to open up trade relations could have a domino effect on the U.S.'s attempts to open up trade relations with other Asian countries -something that could greatly reduce the power in the eyes of the rest of the world.
What the heck is bastinado? Foot-whipping, apparently.
Isn't amazing what you can get out of a newspaper? A sense of the pulse of a country that surely is non-existent in a history textbook.
Of course... one shouldn't be TOO judgemental of America and her hawkish media. Afterall... for those of us who live in a large city where multiple newspapers are the norm (Toronto has four dailies), each paper will more than likely support or dislike the government in power. I can only assume the same held true in the 1850s.
More tomorrow, as look further into The Japan Expedition , featuring a letter written by a sailor who had visited China and Japan as part of Commodore Perry's trek.
And... this, and other documents I have come across were nodded in my general direction by Vinny and came from the Newsbank/Readex database of Early American Newspapers (www.readex.com).
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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