1246. CHINA, Conciliation of.—
Punqua
Winchung the Chinese Mandarin, has, I believe,
his headquarters at New York, and
therefore his case is probably known to you.
He came to Washington just as I had left it
[for Monticello], and therefore wrote to me,
praying for permission to depart to his own
country with his property, in a vessel to be
engaged by himself * * * I consider it as
a case of national comity, and coming within
the views of the first section of the first embargo
act. The departure of this individual
with good dispositions, may be the means of
making our nation known advantageously at
the source of power in China, to which it is
otherwise difficult to convey information.
It may be of sensible advantage to our
merchants in that country. I cannot, therefore,
but consider that a chance of obtaining
a permanent national good will should
overweigh the effect of a single case taken
out of the great field of the embargo. The
case, too, is so singular, that it can lead to
no embarrassment as a precedent.—
To Albert Gallatin. Washington ed. v, 325.
(M.
July. 1808)
