1889 Consular Dispatch from Baghdad Lee Ann Potter
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Social Education 71(7), pp 344–347 ©2007 National Council for the Social Studies Teaching with Documents 1889 Consular Dispatch from Baghdad Lee Ann Potter In the late summer of 1888, officials at the U.S. Department of State appointed George L. Rives, the assistant secre- John Henry Haynes of Rowe, Massachusetts, to become the first U.S. consul in tary of state. In his single-page, hand- Baghdad. At that time, Baghdad—along with all of present day Iraq—was part of written message, he announced that he the Ottoman Empire, as it had been for more than three centuries. As the twentieth had safely arrived in Baghdad after century approached, U.S. diplomatic and commercial interests in the region were well having been “unavoidably delayed established and growing. There were already American consulates in the Ottoman on the overland journey by caravan capital of Constantinople, as well as in Beirut, Cairo, Jerusalem, Sivas, and Smyrna. from Alexandretta.” The message was In addition, American consular agents worked in 23 other cities within the empire. sent via Constantinople and reached Washington in late February. Establishing a consulate at Baghdad Nippur (Niffer) in southeastern Iraq. For the next three years, Haynes wrote had been discussed as early as 1885, While working for the Fund, under the nearly two dozen additional dispatches when members of the American Oriental leadership of its director, John Punnett to officials in Washington. His succes- Society formed a committee to raise Peters, Haynes would also serve as the sor, John C. Sundberg, a Norwegian- funds to send the first American archae- American consul, fostering trade rela- born doctor who became a naturalized ological expedition to Mesopotamia. tions among companies in the United American citizen and the second U.S. Committee members, affiliated with States and Baghdad. As consul, he consul in Baghdad, wrote more than 20 the University of Pennsylvania, formed received no pay from the government. dispatches during his period of service the Babylonian Exploration Fund The other U.S. consuls appointed to between 1892 and 1895. Some were a and corresponded with authorities in work in the Ottoman Empire received single sentence, others went on for 8 Washington, including President Grover annual salaries that ranged from $1,000 to 10 pages and more. Many of their Cleveland, urging them to consider the to $5,000. letters and telegrams contained simple interests of science as well as commerce Haynes sent his first three dispatches acknowledgements of instructions, reg- as they established and filled consulates to Washington while he was still in ulations, or supplies received. Others in places of archaeological importance. Constantinople. His first and sec- included routine requests for stationary They also combined their efforts with ond messages, both dated September or forms, complaints about not getting those of American merchants interested 14, 1888, acknowledged that he had paid, and (particularly in Haynes’s case) in doing business in Baghdad. Although received his instructions and transmit- requests for leave. But many included their attempts took three years, they ted his oath of office. His third message, details and observations that revealed were ultimately successful. sent 13 days later, announced that he much about Baghdad in the first few Haynes was an archaeologist who would be leaving Constantinople for years of America’s consular presence had lived in Turkey since 1881. He Baghdad that day and stated that he in the city. was employed by the Fund and would expected to arrive in Baghdad in early Both consuls wrote about commerce serve as the photographer and business November. and economic concerns. They included manager for the expedition that would He sent his fourth dispatch, featured detailed descriptions about the exporta- excavate the ruins at the ancient city of in this article, on January 9, 1889, to tion of products such as wool, cotton, S OCIAL EDUCATION 344 N OV E MB E R /DE C E MB E R 2007 345 TEACHING SUGGEstiONS 1. Assign students to define the terms consul, consulate, explore three or four sites and write a brief description of embassy, ambassador, diplomacy, and diplomatic relations. the information available. In pairs, invite the students to hold a brief conversation in which they use each of the terms, confirming that they 7. Invite students to randomly choose an international understand their meaning. city and a year in the past. Encourage them to take on the role of U.S. consul in their selected city, conduct 2. Ask students what year they think the United States research, and write a 3–5 page dispatch to officials at the first established a consular post in Baghdad; write their Department of State in Washington, D.C., describing con- answers on the board. Next, encourage students to ditions in their city. Encourage volunteers to share their explain what economic or political circumstances they dispatches with the class, omitting the name of the city believe led to the establishment of the consulate, and and the year, and challenge their classmates to identify write these responses on the board, as well. both, based on the details provided. Students may also wish to compare their writings with actual information 3. Provide students with a copy of the featured document. reprinted in the Foreign Relations of the United States Invite one student to read it aloud while the others follow (FRUS) volumes produced by the State Department’s along. Lead a class discussion about the document using Office of the Historian and available online from the the following questions: What type of document is it? University of Wisconsin. See digicoll.library.wisc.edu/ Who created the document and for what purpose? Who FRUS. was the intended audience? When was it created? Next ask them how the information contained in the letter 8. Divide students into smaller groups and direct them to supports or refutes their suggestions in activity #2. conduct research on one of the following topics: a. The formation of diplomatic relations between the 4. Provide students with a copy of the background essay. United States and Iraq Ask them to look at a modern-day map of the Middle East b. The activities of the Babylonian Exploration Fund and locate the cities mentioned by Haynes and Sundberg in their dispatches. c. The history of the U.S. Consular Service d. Careers with the U.S. Department of State 5. Share information with students from the background e. Cholera and other diseases prevalent in the late essay. Remind them that Haynes, Sundberg, and other nineteenth century U.S. consuls abroad exchanged information with officials at the State Department through dispatches. Details from f. The Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century the dispatches were periodically shared with other agen- cies, members of Congress, and the press; but much of Encourage students to share their findings with the class it had no public audience. Ask students to consider how through the creation of a 20-slide Power Point presentation. consuls and ambassadors are able to share information today. Lead a class discussion comparing the late 1880s with the present, in terms of modes of transportation and forms of communication. Ask students to consider Note about the document: how advances in both enable consuls and diplomats to The dispatch from John Henry Haynes is preserved by the represent national interests differently today than in the National Archives among the consular dispatches in Records past. Invite them to consider both the advantages and of the U.S. Department of State, Record Group 59. All of the disadvantages. dispatches referred to in this article have been reproduced on National Archives Microfilm Publication T509, Dispatches from 6. Direct students to the section of the U.S. Department of U.S. Consuls in Baghdad, Iraq, 1888-1906. For more information, State’s website that serves as a portal to all of the web- see www.archives.gov/research/order/renting-microfilm.html. sites for the current U.S. embassies, consulates, and diplo- matic missions at usembassy.state.gov. Invite students to S OCIAL EDUCATION 346 and dates to firms in American cities, that it was absolutely necessary for a accurate statistics because “there is no primarily New York and Philadelphia. foreign consul in Baghdad, when going official source of information.” Sundberg In some cases, they mentioned compa- out on official visits, to be accompanied shared a similar frustration four years nies by name, and they commented on by an armed bodyguard, “not perhaps later that official records on death rates the impact of tariffs. Their descriptions on account of any real danger to life … and illness were not being kept by city suggested growing markets. In one spe- but because it is required by custom.” officials. cific communication, sent in December He said that the British consul had 12 Interestingly, in his resignation letter, 1889, Haynes responded to a request bodyguards and that the French, Russian, Haynes asked for instructions concerning from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Persian consuls each had 4. the disposal of the consulate’s archives. for date plants. In another, dated May Haynes’s requests for leave mentioned Though not the specific materials he 1893, Sundberg suggested that because the status of his archaeological work, and referred to, he might be pleased to know such large quantities of dates were Sundberg’s reports reflected his interest that today, nearly 120 years later, his dis- exported annually to the United States in science. For example, in late spring, patches and those of his successor, reside from Basra, perhaps a consulate should Sundberg claimed he was treating “60-80 in a leather-bound volume on a shelf in be established there.