Comment on "The US Founders And China" Article

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

When I read this article by David Wang I was a little surprised to find out how much our founding fathers were influenced by Confucian thought. Among others, Benjamin Franklin thought that a new nation should cultivate personal virtue from its inception, and this was fifty years before the Declaration of Independence. This personal virtue would then disseminate to political rulers and the state. Franklin used his Poor Richard's Almanac to stress the importance of Confucian virtues such as "hard work, frugality, and attention to family." Even Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, thought Confucius was a "great moral teacher" and compared him to to Christ. Dr. Benjamin Rush felt that any educational system in the new nation should be grounded in religion. I guess he didn't believe in separation of church and state. Rush felt that without virtue there was no liberty, and without liberty, there is no republican government. Rush was an avid believer in Confucian principles and perhaps thought of them in religious terms when he advocated their use in educating children.
Many of the founding fathers relied heavily upon Chinese technology to spur economic development in the new nation. Benjamin Franklin felt that heating houses with wood-burning furnaces was inefficient and wasteful. He incorporated the Chinese system of heating their houses with floor tiles to invent what eventually became the famous Franklin Stove. Franklin also advocated a defensive Great Wall of America, similar to China's Great Wall, during both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Gouverneur Morris was fascinated with China's Grand Canal, and used it as a blueprint for building the Erie Canal, which would connect New York to the Midwest.
As a young nation, America had a serious trade imbalance with European countries. Most European nations exported goods to America, but were unwilling to import American goods. This turned America's trading eyes to China. Perhaps the start of this lucrative trade came with the sailing of the Empress of China from New York in 1784. Both Robert Morris and George Washington were instrumental in securing the successful voyage of the Empress. Then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton kept detailed records of the US-China trade, which Washington described as profitable and growing. Even Thomas Jefferson had an interest in the burgeoning US-China trade. Indeed, there are some who suggest that Jefferson's Louis and Clark Expedition was motivated by an desire to find a shorter route to China. Trade with China continued to grow with a few brief interruptions, usually precipitated by a war or a desire to stay out of a particular war. Nonetheless, trade with China made the US less dependent on European trade and helped to facilitate its rise as a political power. Within the US, the economy was clearly shifting from agricultural to an industrial one. The seat of power shifted from Virginia to New York, and in the process, the federalists had shown the value and the need for a stronger financial role by the federal government in the nation's economy.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed reading about confucius and his influence on American history, especially Thomas Jefferson. Ironically, I received the Constitutional Rights bulletin the same week I read this article and they had a very similar article. I love teaching and incorporating architecture/art into my history lessons with good visuals, so using some of these articles and locating pictures of the pieces they mentioned will be very helpful to my lessons on US relations with Asia.

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