Henry Carter was an American merchant and diplomat.
Background
Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter was born on August 7, 1837 in Honolulu, Hawaii; the son of Joseph Oliver and Hannah Trufant (Lord) Carter, was descended from Thomas Carter, a graduate of Cambridge University who came from Hertfordshire, England, to Charlestown, Massachussets, in 1635. His father, a shipmaster and trader from Charlestown, settled in Honolulu about 1828. In 1840 he left Henry in Boston to be educated, but disastrous speculations forced him nine years later to recall to Hawaii the boy of twelve.
Education
He never attended high school.
Career
When twelve Carter began to work, by 1851 was clerk in the local post-office, and the next year was in California working in a Stockton grocery. In 1854 he was employed by the largest Honolulu mercantile firm, C. Brewer & Company, who soon recognized his remarkable business sagacity and took him into partnership when he was twenty-five. He was among the first to realize that whaling, the great business of the islands during the fifties, was on the decline, and accordingly developed a close connection with the growing sugar industry, furnishing the plantations with supplies and capital and marketing their product. In spite of financial difficulties accompanying the Civil War, he brought the company safely through and made large profits on private ventures of his own. Until his death he retained a large and profitable interest in the firm. Carter early took a prominent place in the civic life of Honolulu, where he enjoyed a reputation as an orator, which he gained during the Civil War by speeches made whenever a Northern victory was celebrated.
Thenceforth he took a great interest in governmental affairs, giving himself by extensive study an education in diplomacy. Competent associates allowed him to relieve the pressure of business activity by tours through the United States and Europe in 1866 and 1871. The sugar industry, now producing heavily, was in critical condition for lack of a profitable market. As a solution for this difficulty Carter supported a policy of tariff reciprocity with the United States, and as early as 1872 foresaw annexation as the final outcome. Having attracted official attention by his eloquent advocacy of reciprocity, he was appointed a privy counsellor in September 1874, and less than a month later was sent to Washington with Judge Elisha H. Allen to negotiate such a treaty as he had often advocated. Two years of labor resulted in the treaty of 1876, which put sugar on the free list of imports to the United States and led to a "boom" in the industry. But England, France, and Germany protested that their "most favored nation" treaties were violated by the privileges given America. Viewing the mollification of these governments as an unfinished part of his earlier negotiation, Carter willingly went to Europe as King Kalakaua's special envoy for that purpose. The British made little difficulty and the French left their decision dependent on that of Germany. At Berlin Carter found Bismarck in an aggressive mood, demanding all the privileges accorded the United States. By a skilful combination of straightforward honesty, daring, and urbanity the chancellor was made a friend, and a treaty was signed whereby the special interest of Hawaii in the large and convenient markets of the United States was recognized and less favorable terms were accepted by Germany. Returning to Honolulu in 1879, Carter plunged into business, only to be called again into government service the following year as minister of the interior, a post which he held for almost two years. In 1882 he went to Lisbon and negotiated a treaty which greatly facilitated the immigration of Portuguese peasants to relieve the acute labor shortage which had developed with the rapid growth of sugar production. From 1883 until his death he served as Hawaiian minister to the United States, where his remarkable knowledge of diplomacy and men was constantly used to repel the attacks of American sugar producers and other interests opposed to the reciprocity treaty. In 1887 he secured an extension of the treaty for seven years, though it cost Hawaii the grant to the United States of Pearl Harbor as a naval station. On his return from a vacation in Europe he died in a New York hotel.
Achievements
He was a diplomatic representative of the Hawaiian kingdom in the United States and Europe, where he became a familiar and much respected figure.
Personality
His standing as a popular and skilful diplomat was equaled by his reputation as an able and far-sighted financier.
He was a man of great energy, of positive views and facility in the expression of them, with a self-confident and forceful manner that sometimes antagonized those who disagreed with him.
Connections
On February 27, 1862, he married Sybil Augusta, daughter of Gerrit P. Judd, a missionary physician who was the first Hawaiian foreign minister.
