PALMER, Aaron Haight.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Letter to the Hon. John M. Clayton, Secretary of State, Enclosing a Paper, Geographical, Political, and Commercial, on the Independent Oriental Nations; First edition thus, of one of the earliest treatises suggesting how to open trading relations with Japan. Palmer campaigned for the American government to send a mission to the country and even sent a copy of his letter to John Clayton to the magistrate (bugyo) of Nagasaki.Palmer's business interests spurred his petitions for the opening of Japan, as he believed it contained "inexhaustible mines of precious metal" (p. 16) and coal. From 1842 until the Perry Expedition itself he wrote regular papers and letters on the subject, culminating in the letter he sent to John Clayton on 14 April 1849, published in this pamphlet with an appendix. In the letter he urged that the American government send an armed steamer to extract trade concessions and rescue American whalers who had been shipwrecked and captured. Notably, on page 21 he mentions that Captain Perry agreed with his recommendation. The appendix contains information on a wide variety of Asian countries, including China, Japan, and the East Indies.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.