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

,\\!EHlCAl\ DIPLOMATS IN SOUTHEI\ST AS!A
55
my commission I directed my attention to the canvass in the
State of New York, and lent my support, humble and impotent
as it was, to the Democratic ticket; and from that day to this
r have never faltered in my support of the administration nor
has one single week passed without my defending in the press
its measures and policy, foreign and domestic.
The immediate effect of this political appeal is not clear, but ultimately
Pollard did not go to Siam. In the summer of 1860 he wrote to the
State Department resigning as Bangkok Consul and protesting the
appointment of Chandler. He enclosed two letters he had received from
Chandler, then on a visit to the United States. The first stressed the
great cost of living in Bangkok and the paltry income from consular
fees, and warned Pollard not to accept the post unless be were wealthy.
In the second letter Chandler took a different tack; he inquired as to the
truth of certain "reports"-"that you are a person of very loose morals,"
that Pollard had been reappointed in order to get him out of the country,
and "It is not uncommon to hear the remark that the states prison bas
been cheated of its due to give Siam an American Consul."45 On this
acerbic note the case of the first consular appointment to Bangkok came
to an end.
Mattoon's departure and the failure of Pollard to arrive left the
Bangkok Consulate in the hands of John Hassett Chandler. 4 6 Chandler
was a native of Connecticut who had com6\to Siam in 1843 as a Baptist .
mtsstonary. Chandler ran a printing press which bad published the
1856 treaty between the United States and Siam; be later claimed that
he bad been "urged in many ways" to be the first American Consul, but
had thought the post incompatible with his missionary status.47 In 1859
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45) Bangkoll Despatches, August 14, 18 60,
46) Biographical data on Chandler is taken from McFarland, Historical Sketch, p.
49; Martin, "A History," p. 117; Cosenza, ed., .Journql, p. 107; and Bangkoll
Despatches, December 19, 1863, and April23, 1880.
47) Bangkoh Despatches; December 16, 1862. "Strange to say," be added, the
missionary Mattoon accepted the post. Harris seems to have bad a high
opinion of Chandler ("perfectly competent," "an excellent good man," but
"not reliable as to time") but there is no evidence in Harris' journal that he
ever considered appointing Chandler consul. Cosenza, ed., .Journal, pp. 126,
141. Chandler's advocacy of , treaty revision has been mentioned above
(note 23).