HARRIS
HARRIS
the Free Acaileiny, afterward the College of the
city of New York. He was also a meinher of the
volunteer Hre tleiKirtinent and of the state militia.
He was lirouKht up in the Presbyterian faith,
and later joined the communion of the Pn^testant
Episcopal church. In November, 1847. his
motlier died and as
he hail never married
his old home was
broken up and he sold
out his business.
Purchasing a half in-
terest in a vessel
bound for California,
':% he sailed around Cape
('-■;.. Horn to California,
touching at points in Soutli America. In San Francisco he pur- chased the other half of the vessel and (/ilir>t<u.t^J<^^a.,i,^yi^. projected a trading O' voyage to China and Dutch and English Indies, and in 1848 sailed as supercargo and for five years he engaged in commercial voyaging. His journal notes his Christmas as follows: 1849 at sea in the North Pacific ocean; 1800 at Manila; 1851 at Pulo- Penang; 1852 at Singapore; 1853, at Hong-Kong; 1854 at Calcutta; 1855 at Ceylon; 1856 at Japan. He wjis acting vice-consul for the United States at Ningpo, China, 1854, and on March 24, 1854, he wrote to Secretary Marcy setting forth the capabilities and importance to the United States of tiie island of Formosa as a coaling station and depot and proposed that the United States ac- quire the island by purchase. He was summoned to the United States by the secretary of state, and on his way visited India, the Red Sea, Egypt. Alexandria, Gibraltar, London and Liverjiool, and reached New York July 27, 1855. On August 4 he was appointed consul-general to Japan, to make a treaty with that government then first visited by Commodore Perry, and he was also entrusted by the President to make a commercial treaty with the kingdom of Siam. His appoint- ment as the first commissioner to Japan was made upon the joint recommendation of William H. Seward and Commodore Perry. He personally purchased the presents sent to the respective rulers. He left New York Oct. 17, 1855, arrived at Penang, Jarr. 19, 1856. where the non-arrival of the Snn Jarinto with his secretarj' and the rest of his suite kept him waiting seventy-six days, and he reached Siam April 4, where he con- cluded the treaty, and amid pageants and other evidences of his triumph he left Bangkok, May 31. and on AugxLst 25, 1856. in companj- with Commodore Perry, he was received by the gov-
ernor and vice-governor of Sliimoda. He subse-
quently visited Yedo and after two j-ears'
residence and numerous interviews, much oppo-
sition, and vexatious delays, the written promise
of the Yedo government was gained, Feb. 17, 1858,
and the treaty signed, July 29, 1858, by which
Japan was oi)eued to the world. On Jan. 7, 1859,
President Buclianan nominated and the senate
confirmed his appointment as minister resident
of the United States to Japan. On June 30 the
consulate was removed from Shimoda to Kana-
gawa and the American flag was lioisted July 1,
1859. At Yedo the American minister held his
position alone amid murders, assassinations and
incendiarism after all his colleagues had retired
to Yokohama, and on Jan. 14. 1860, his inter-
preter and private secretary, Mr. Heusken, was
murdered. At his suggestion a Ja]xinese eml)assy
of seventy-one persons headed by Sliimmi left for
the United States by way of San Francisco to ex-
change ratifications of the treaty which had been
signed by the Mikado in 1858, and to obtain a
fresh copy of the Perry treaty. On July 10, 1861.
he sent his resignation to President Lincoln,
which was reluctantly accepted, Oct. 21, 1861.
Before leaving Japan he gave $1000 for the erec-
tion of the American union church at Yokohama,
built in 1875, and standing on the old Perry treaty
ground. After welcoming his successor, Robert
H. Pruyn, he spent some time in travel in Asia
and Europe, and settled in New York city. He
received from Queen Victoria a gold watch
studded with diamonds in recognition of the as-
sistance he had given to the British minister to
Japan. He was a founder of the New York so-
ciety for the prevention of cruelty to animals,
and a member of the Union and other clubs and
of the learned societies of Europe and America.
See Townsend Harris, First Americati Envoy to
Japan, by William Elliot Griffis (1895). He died
in New York city, Feb. 25, 1878.
HARRIS, William, educator, was born in Springfield. ^Mass., April 29, 1765. He was grad- uated at Harvard. A.B., 1786; A.M., 1789; studied theology, and was licensed as a Congregational minister, but the condition of his health led him to .study medicine in Salem, Mass. After reading Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Politj' " he embraced the faith of the Protestant Ejiiscopal church and was ordained a deacon by Bishop Provoost in Trinity church. New York city. Oct. 16, 1791, and a priest the following Sunday by the same bishop. He was rector of St. Micliael's ehurcli. Marble- head, Mass., and y)rincipal of an academy there; 1791-1802; rector of St. Mark's church, New York city, and principal of a classical school, 1802-16. He was president of Columbia college, as succes- sor to Bi.shop Moore, 1811-29. He received the degree of S.T.D. from Harvard and from Colum-
