The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

AMERICAN DIPLOMATS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 45
king" (uparaja,) a seemingly superfluous royal relative who shared
honors but not authority with the "supreme king." When the treaties
were made with the Western powers in the 1850's, the uparaja (Phra
Pin Klao, a full brother of King Mongkut) enjoyed considerable
prestige and influence, the only time in the nineteenth century when
this was true, and treaties were made in the names of both kings,
embassies went abroad from both kings, and presents were exchanged
with both kings-a situation that Washington found difficult to grasp.14
With the exception of the spectal circumstances of the early years of
Mongkut's reign the power of the uparaja had long been declining, and
when the uparaja of the next reign (whose father, an admirer of things
American, had given him the rather incongruous name of Prince George
Washington) died, the office was abolished.l 5
This paper will consist of a brief discussion of the treaty system,
and then a primarily chronological discussion of the men who were
America's official representatives in Bangkok in the nineteenth century.
(The Appendix lists all of these.) The emphasis will be on the consuls
and ministers who became at least temporary residents of Siam rather
than the several treaty missions, whose activities have been more
studied and publicized. Since one of the questions to be investigated is
who was a,ppointed and why, those who were offered appointments but
for various reasons never served in Siam will also be included. Finally,
some conclusions will be suggested about the nature of nineteenth
century American diplomats and American diplomacy, as exampled by
the case of Siam.
II. The Treaty System
In the mid-nineteenth century Siam signed a series of unequal
treaties with Western powers which resulted in infringements of national
sovereignty much like those in the better known cases of Japan and
China. This similarity was the result both of common nineteenth
14) Bang1wkDespatches, September 19, 1859.
15) At a ceremony in 1887 confirming his son as crown prince, King Chulalongkorn
outlined the history of the "second king" institution and remarked
on the difficulties Westerners had in understanding the Thai royal system.
See his Royal Edict enclosed in Siam Despatches, January 24, 18 87.