COWDIN, Elliot C.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Tribute of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York to the Memory of Anson Burlingame, Late Ambassador from China, March 3d, 1870. First edition, commemorating the Bostonian driving force behind the Burlingame-Seward Treaty, the first time a foreign power explicitly recognized China's sovereignty. Burlingame's eulogy was given by his friend, the businessman Elliot Cowdin, who arranged a banquet to honour Burlingame in New York City during his 1868 ambassadorial tour.In 1867, the Qing court named Burlingame (1820-1870) its envoy extraordinary to the Western powers, and the following year he led China's first official embassy to the US and Europe. Burlingame was the ideal choice for such a task, possessing "a frank, noble disposition, habits of industry, a charming and persuasive manner, and promising talents as an orator" (quoted in ANB). With the Chinese ministers Zhigang and Sun Jiagu at his side, he landed on America's Pacific Coast in March 1868, before city-hopping eastwards and reaching Washington in June. There, after extended negotiations, he concluded the landmark treaty. His sudden death in Russian in 1870 left Cowdin stricken with grief.

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