AN AMERICAN CONSULATE ON GUAM

US flag from the period of the US Consulate on Guam

There was a brief time, in the 1850s, that enough American whalers were stopping by Guam, and enough contact was going on between Guam and Hawaii, that an unofficial American "consulate" was set up on Guam.

Hawaii was then still an independent country, but American missionaries had a powerful influence over the Hawaiian monarchy in the early 1800s. Hawaii was a major Pacific destination for American whalers and proximity to California meant commercial ties to the US West Coast. From Hawaii, Americans made contact with the Marianas and the Bonin Islands north of us, too.

In March of 1855, nineteen American whaling captains wrote a letter to be published in various newspapers encouraging other American whaling ships to make visits to Guam. They said Guam was a convenient place to visit, among other reasons, to recruit new members for the crew. The captains also said that the Spanish government on Guam was good in getting runaway crew members back on board. But, the captains said, what made Guam even more advantageous to visit was the presence of an American Consul on the island. A newspaper in 1854 stated that a US Consul had been appointed and was waiting for an opportunity to sail for Guam.

HAWAIIAN NEWSPAPER ANNOUNCES "APPOINTMENT"

The "American Consul" in Hagåtña was Samuel J. Masters, a New Yorker who had lived in Hawaii for some time.  At the time of his "appointment" as Consul, he was Police Justice (judge or magistrate) at Lahaina on Maui. One wonders if Masters was ever truly an official representative of the US government in the Spanish Marianas. A newspaper article in 1855 states that the Spaniards never allowed him to raise the US flag at his residence on Guam, because he had no official papers from the US government to show.

Masters was accompanied by Josiah Van Ingen, an American who had been operating a business in Maui in the past. Van Ingen was ostensibly Masters' secretary, but Van Ingen also tried to make money on Guam supplying whaling ships with various necessities and recruiting Chamorro crew members. He formed a partnership with Thomas Spencer, another American businessman in Maui at the same time. When things didn't work out on Guam and the whole enterprise died, Spencer ended his partnership with Van Ingen.

One cannot help but wonder what connection, if any at all, Masters may have had with his secretary's business venture on Guam. Was Masters quietly in on it, partly motivating his push to open a consulate on Guam? Or did Van Ingen's commercial activities create problems for Masters?

MASTERS' SECRETARY VAN INGEN OPENED A BUSINESS ON GUAM

Edward A. Edgerton, a traveling man tired of life on the seas, stayed on Guam to work for Masters.  Of great interest to me is the fact that Edgerton was a daguerrotypist, working with an early form of photography.  He says he took photos of Guam in the 1850s.  If they still exist, they might be the earliest photographs of Guam.  But if they exist, where are they?

Edgerton enjoyed Guam and wanted to remain.  He had control of the old priest's house; two storeys with balconies, a grand staircase, high ceilings.  Perhaps the priests had moved to a newer or smaller house and Edgerton rented the bigger, older one.  But, his permission to stay denied by the Governor-General of the Philippines, Edgerton left Guam some years later.

THE FINAL ARGUMENT

Masters was a thorn in the side of the Spaniards on Guam the whole time, lodging complaints and protest against the Spanish government's dealing with Americans on Guam. It probably irritated the Spaniards even more when an American warship came into Apra Harbor in 1855 with its captain scolding de la Corte on the same score.

The final straw came about in late 1855. In August of that year, the US whaler the Jireh Perry came into Guam with a problem on its hands.

The Captain, a Mr Lawrence, was facing a mutiny of his crew. Masters asked Governor Felipe de la Corte to arrest the ring leaders and participants, which included an American by the name of William Martin.

But Martin was suffering from some illness that required him to move from the prison to the hospital. When some time later Martin was found freely moving about Hagåtña, de la Corte threw him in prison again. Masters objected, but de la Corte said he allowed Martin to move from the prison to the hospital on the condition that he not move from the hospital. Masters said no such condition was made. Even though Martin asked for and was granted a pardon, de la Corte used Masters' intervention in Martin's situation as a justification to send Masters away in April of 1856.

When Masters left the island, some fifteen American residents left with him, including an American doctor who, it seems, treated sick whalers a lot of the time. Thus was the closing of the "American Consulate" on Guam.

American newspapers used this incident to decry the way the Spanish government treated Americans in the Spanish colonies and urged the US to put pressure on Madrid to do something about it. I can already hear the sounds of Spanish-American tension over Cuba in 1898 forty years later. In the war that resulted from that, the US didn't simply open another Consulate on Guam in 1898; they kicked out the Spaniards and took the whole island for themselves!