Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris ( born October 3, 1804 in Sandy Hill, † February 25, 1878 in New York City ) was a successful New York merchant and politician. As First Consul of the United States in Japan, he negotiated between the two countries named after him Harris Treaty.

Life

Townsend Harris was in Sandy Hill (now Hudson Falls ), New York, born on October 3, 1804 as the son of a hatter. After completion of the local primary school, he went in 1817 to New York, where he started to work initially as a clerk in his brother's shop, which imported from China, among others, porcelain and silk. The business was successful, and Harris came to considerable prosperity, partly because he was involved early in the real estate business in New York, which experienced a significant upswing since the year 1811.

In addition to his work, Harris formed continuously, read a lot and learned several foreign languages ​​, including French, Spanish and Italian. His interest in education and his influence increased as a successful businessman eventually led in 1840 to his election to the New York Supreme School Board, of which he took over in 1846.

One of his most important acts was the founding of the Free Academy of the City of New York, a free training school for workers from the City College of New York emerged later. The establishment of the Academy, he continued despite resistors in the city management through a referendum by. After his mother's death in 1847, he retired from politics and moved to California. There he bought a ship and began trading with China, the Dutch East Indies and British East Indies.

In 1853, Harris tried to replace the consul in Hong Kong or Canton, but was instead by Ningpo ( Ningbo today ) ordered, a coastal city in eastern China. Because he was dissatisfied with this decision, he asked his old friend the Foreign Secretary William Marcy to give him the post of consul in Japan. In 1855 Harris was appointed by President Franklin Pierce appointed consul and in August 1856 he met with the task to negotiate a trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan, Shimoda one.

Harris remained until the year 1861 in Japan and then sat down to rest in New York, where he died on 25 February 1878.

Credentials

  • Consul
  • Americans
  • Born in 1804
  • Died in 1878
  • Man
Guangzhou William L. Marcy Shimoda, Shizuoka Name Authority File
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