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

i\MEIHC,\'1 Dll'LmiATS IN SOFI'HEAST ASIA 49
The failure in 1850 only made the Western powers more determined
to "open" Siam.
In 1851 J.H. Chandler, a Bangkok missionary who
was subsequently to serve as American Consul, was in the United States
urging Secretary of State Webster and President Fillmore to press for
treaty revision.23
In the same year the death of the old king and the
accession of Mongkut in Bangkok seemed to offer improved prospects
for successful negotiations.
The American Government considered
sending Admiral Perry, and then an American in China, 24 but in the end
it was the British who took the initiative in concluding a new treaty.
Major provisions of the Bowring-Parkes treaty of 1855 provided for
diplomatic representation, extraterritoriality, fixed tariffs, an end to
trade restrictions, and most-favored-nation treatment.
Some of these
privileges could automatically be claimed by tbe United States under a
limited most-favored-nation clause in the 1833 treaty, but others could
be obtained only through a new agreement between the United States
and Siam. Thus in 1856 a new mission was sent to Siam, headed by
Townsend Harris who was subsequently to achieve fame for opening
America's diplomatic relations with Japan.2s
Harris was chosen
because be was a "faithful Democrat'' with friends in New York
political circles and a bachelor (Japan wanted no foreign women) with
experience in Asia.26
The treaty Harris concluded in Bangkok was
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23) Martin, "A History," p. 54.
24) Martin, "A History," pp. 54-55.
25) Harris' mission to Siam is sometimes seen only as a training session for his
more important work in Japan. Thus, for example, Tyler Dennett: "American
relations with Siam did not become important. However the negotiations had
given Harris some practice in treaty-making ... ," Americans in East A.~ia,
p. 352.
26) There is a short biography of Harrts · ' In M arttn, · "A H' Is t ory, " pp • 93 · 95 ' and
an account of his appointment by President Pierce in Mario E. Cosenza, ed.,
The Complete Journal of Townsend Hm-ris (2nd ed., Tokyo, 1959), PP· 1-16.