(Excerpt from The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells William...)
Excerpt from The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams, Missionary, Diplomatist, Sinologue Samuel wells, the Oldest Of the fourteen children Of William and Sophia Williams, was born in Utica, Septem ber 22, 1812. The ill-health Of his mother made it neces sary that his early infancy should be spent away from home, and for some years he was put in charge Of his mother's aunt, Miss Dana. That excellent woman once capsized the sleigh, while driving with him on a stormy day from New Hartford to visit his parents after picking herself and her conveyance out Of the snow-drift, she hur ried on, when with the recollection Of her errand came the discovery that her mufl and the baby stowed within it were lost. Shall I go back? She queried. Yes, for God may have something for him to do; moreover, I cannot spare the muff The nurseling lived to thank his grand-aunt for many favors besides this, and treasured to the end Of his life kindly memories alike Of her nur ture and admonition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Charles William King was born around 1809, the third of eight children of Samuel and Harriet (Vernon) King. His father, a son of Samuel King, was the senior partner of the New York firm of King & Talbot, engaged in the East India trade; his mother was a daughter of Samuel Vernon of Newport, Rhode Island.
Charles King studied at Brown University in 1823-1825.
King went to China in 1826 as an employee of Talbot, Olyphant & Company. With the exception of the years 1839-1842, when he was living in New York (New York Directories), his active life was spent in China. For many years he was a partner in the firm of Olyphant & Company, a firm which had no dealings in opium and which heartily supported Protestant missionary work.
King's broad conception of the place of trade in modern life is shown clearly in an address which he delivered before the Mercantile Library Association in New York City, in which he described commerce as the nurse and companion of freedom, the civilizer and refiner of nations, the disseminator of science and literature, and the herald of religion. His contributions to the Chinese Repository during the years 1832-1840 give evidence of wide reading and analytical thought. These papers deal with Central and Southeastern Asia, the Philippines and Japan, and analyze in a masterly manner Anglo-Chinese relations prior to the treaty of Nanking. It is doubtful whether any other American of the period visualized as clearly as did King the significance of Eastern Asia.
In the summer of 1837 he attempted to open Japan to intercourse with Americans. Seven shipwrecked Japanese at Macao gave excuse for the expedition. The Olyphant ship Morrison, unarmed, carried King and his wife, S. Wells Williams, Peter Parker, Charles Gutzlaff, and seven Japanese to Uraga in July. Refused intercourse and having been fired upon, they proceeded to Kagoshima, where they received similar treatment. They then abandoned the enterprise and retired to China. In his "Notes of the Voyage of the Morrison from China to Japan", published in New York, 1839, as volume I of The Claim of Japan and Malaysia upon Christendom, King protested against the insult to the United States flag and argued the need for vigorous but friendly action by the United States government in opening Japan to foreign intercourse.
On March 10, 1839, Imperìal Commissioner Lin Tse-su arrived in Canton for the purpose of ending the opium traffic. From March 25 to May 4, the foreign merchants were held in the factories pending the settlement of the question. On March 25, King addressed a communication to Lin assuring the latter that he had "never bought, sold, received, or delivered, one catty of opium or one tael of sycee silver, " and that he had "used his best efforts to dissuade all men from the injurious traffic". He begged that his business be allowed to proceed undisturbed. Lin replied that he had "heard that the said foreigner King never trafficked in opium; of all he is the most praiseworthy" ; but that it was impossible to change his "great plans" for the sake of one person.
At Chenkow, on June 17, King and his wife and the Reverend Dr. Elijah C. Bridgman witnessed the destruction of part of the surrendered opium. Later in the day, despite his refusal to perform the kotow, King was received in audience by Lin. Seizing the opportunity to act as a mediator, he urged on Lin a program including the opening to foreign nationals of three ports to the north of Canton, the granting by the imperial government of permission for ministers plenipotentiary to reside in Peking, and the trial of foreign criminal offenders by foreign consuls of the offender's nationality acting jointly with the local native commissioner of justice. The principles motivating King may be summarized as follows: The West has a right to trade freely with the East, but Western policy should be pacific. Consulates should be established; a show of force should be made only as a last resort. Merchants should have nothing to do with opium, missionaries should be aided, since they are the "more appropriate agency which may be relied on, to give the blessings of civil and religious liberty to the whole eastern world. " The views here expressed are traceable in the China policy of the United States through the nineteenth century. In the summer of 1845, broken in health, King left China. He died September 27, on board the Bentinck, not far from Aden, and was buried in the Red Sea.
(Excerpt from The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells William...)
King married Charlotte Elizabeth Mathews, daughter of Reverend James McFarlane Mathews, first chancellor of the University of the City of New York, and had two sons and a daughter.
