University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan HENRY SHELTON SANFORD
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This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 67 -16, 311 MEYER, Jr., Lysle Edward, 1932- HENRY SHELTON SANFORD AND THE CONGO. The Ohio State University, Ph. D., 1967 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan HENRY SHELTON SANFORD AND THE CONGO DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lysle Edward Meyer, Jr., B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University 1967 Approved by Adviser Department of History ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to record my appreciation to the Graduate School of The Ohio State University for its support of this project, especially its willingness to purchase films of the Sanford Papers. Dean Richard Armitage and Associate Dean Edward Moulton of the Graduate School were particularly helpful. To Professor Harold Grimm, Chairman of the History Department, go my thanks for opening doors which had sometimes remained closed to others. Harriet Chappel Owsley, Senior Archivist at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville and also one of the few people who has given attention to Sanford's many faceted career, was very cooperative with important details in the early phases of research. Some time ago I found myself among that vast number of researchers who can but marvel at the patience and unlimited desire to assist demonstrated by so many librarians. The staff of the Inter-library Loan Divi sion of The Ohio State University Library will always stand high in my regard. Research in Washington, D. C., is made infinitely less time-consuming by the very able and experienced professionals serving in the repositor ies there. I want to thank the experts in the Manu- ii scripts Division of the Library of Congress and the Diplomatic Section of the National Archives for facilitat ing my work there. To my adviser, Professor Lowell J. Ragatz, I am gratefully endebted for awakening my interest in Africa and for his advice, encouragement and labors in my behalf over a period of several years. Finally, but cer tainly not least, I must recognize the understanding and tolerance of my wife who was a valuable helpmate but who had to live with this project much too long. iii VITA June 29, 1932 . Born - Cleveland, Ohio 1952-1956.... Military Service, United States Navy i960 ........... B.A., Adelbert College, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 1961-1962 .... Graduate Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1962 ........... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1962-1966 .... Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966 ...........Instructor, Marion Branch of The Ohio State University, Marion, Ohio 1966-1967 .... Assistant Professor of History, Moorhead State College, Moorhead, Minnesota FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Africa, Modern Europe, and European Imperialism. Professor Lowell J. Ragatz Middle East. Professor Sydney N. Fisher Latin America. Professor John J. TePaske England. Professors Clayton Roberts and Philip P. Poirier United States. Professors Eugene Roseboom, Henry Simms, and Francis Weisenburger Ethnography of Africa. Professor John Hamer Geography of Africa. Professor John Patton iv TABLE OP CONTENTS Chapter Page I. BACKGROUND AND EARLY L I F E ............... 1 II. SANFORD’S EARLY WORK WITH LEOPOLD II .... 22 III. THE WASHINGTON MISSION OF 1885-1884 AND UNITED STATES RECOGNITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGO . 66 IV. THE BERLIN WEST AFRICAN CONFERENCE ......... Ill V. THE SANFORD EXPLORING EXPEDITION ........... 159 VI. THE BRUSSELS ANTI-SLAVERY CONFERENCE .... 207 APPENDIX I ......................................... 249 APPENDIX I I ........................... 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................... 255 v LIST OP FIGURES Figure Page 1. Map of the Lower C o n g o ...................... 62 2. The Conventional Basin of the Congo As Defined by the Berlin Conference ......... 153 vi CHAPTER I BACKGROUND AND EARLY LIFE New Englanders loom large in the annals of America’s foreign relations. Far flung shipping activi ties and a venerable mercantile tradition go far in accounting for this. Men from the northeastern states were more concerned with developments abroad than most of their countrymen because they had relatively more overseas contacts and their livelihood was more dependent upon foreign trade. They were, accordingly, more apt than other Americans to look afield for opportunities for themselves and their nation. To them the lure of the frontier, which historians have deemed a highly sig nificant aspect of the American character, was not limited to interest in the national West. New Englanders were more like Europeans in their approach to underdevel oped regions of the world. They could see in Africa and Asia what British, French, and Dutch traders appreciated: vast commercial possibilities with probable political gain. Henry Shelton Sanford was a Connecticut Yankee displaying such characteristics. Descended from an old New England line, a paternal forebear having landed in 1 Massachusetts with John Winthrop in 1630, he was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, on June 15# His father, Nehemiah Curtis Sanford, had become a prosperous indus trialist engaged in the manufacture of nails and tacks in Derby, Connecticut, in partnership with a brother-in- law, Edward N. Shelton. He also profitably speculated in land locally. Like many other wealthy and successful businessmen, Sanford’s father tried his hand at politics, O serving two terms as Senator in the State Legislature. Young Henry received his early education from private tutors and began his formal schooling at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut. Graduating from that institution at sixteen, he then attended Washington College^ in Hartford. Due to eye trouble arising from an asthmatic condition, Sanford left there in 1840 after little more than a year.2* His weak eyes •'•Carleton E. Sanford, Thomas Sanford, the Emigrant to New England: Ancestry, Life, and Descendants (2 vols., Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1911), I, 628. 2 Leo T. Malloy, Henry Shelton Sanford. 1823-1891 (Derby, Connecticut: The Bacon Printing Co., 1952), p. 10. This fifty page laudatory biographical booklet was commissioned by the subject’s granddaughter and was based partly upon materials provided by his descendants. -3No w known as Trinity College. ^Autobiographical sketch in the Henry Shelton Sanford Papers (General Sanford Memorial Library, Sanford, Florida), hereafter cited as Sanford Papers. Microfilm copies of most of these papers are housed in which gave him much pain, were destined to prove a life long affliction. For a change of scene as well as to relieve his eyes from academic strain, the young man made a European trip in l84l. He undertook a more extensive cruise the following year, visiting Asia Minor as well as Europe.^ Overseas sojourns thereafter became a regular feature of Sanford's life. While at home, he also traveled extensively. The West appealed to him for both business and pleasure. He made trips in the l840's to Michigan, where his father owned land, and to Wisconsin. Following his parent's death in l84l, Henry began to speculate in western lands, and continued doing so for many years, at the same time investing in several western railroads.^ In appearance Sanford was tall and handsome. He had a long, full, sandy-colored beard and wore a pincenez because of his poor vision.^ One observer in the l860's the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee, where the materials were processed in 19o0. See Harriet Chapell Owsley (ed.), Register of the Henry Shelton Sanford Papers (Nashville: Tennessee State Library and Archives, i960). Film copies of selected groups of the papers are owned by The Ohio State Univer sity Library in Columbus, Ohio. ^Sanford's Journals, ibid., Box 2, Folders 8-12. ^Ibid., Box 3, Folders 1-5. For Western land investments, see Box 62, Folders 7-12. ^His passports show that he was six feet one inch in height (Sanford Papers, Box 19, Folder 11). A photo- noted that he was "forward, spoke rapidly . and with an air of authority."® ^While still a relatively young man, Sanford gained valuable diplomatic experience. During a visit to Russia in 1847, he became Secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg, and a year later was Acting Secretary of the Frankfort Legation under Minister Andrew Jackson Donelson. It was at this time, also, that the novice diplomat resumed his academic studies, attending the University of Heidelberg where he was awarded an LL.D. in April, 1849.^ Sanford's contacts were increasing and he apparently utilized them to good advantage for, in 1849, he was named Secretary of the Paris Legation, then one of the most important diplomatic posts and certainly more to the liking of the ambitious and socially conscious young man from Connecticut. It was in Paris that he began to participate in more important diplomatic work7 In 1853, Sanford advanced to the rank of Charge d 1Affairs and, in that capacity, negotiated the first Franco- graph can be found in Edward Younger, John A. Kasson (Iowa City: Iowa Historical Society, 1955), facing p. 308. An 1865 portrait is reproduced in Malloy, op. cit., p. 8 . ®Sarah Agnes Wallace and Frances Elma Gillespie, eds., The Journal of Benjamin Moran (2 vols., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 194d-49), I, 803. % o spare his eyes, he made use of readers who enabled him to pass his final examinations at Heidelberg with honors. Malloy,