history

Jack Atkinson and Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party

~ Nick Fielding ~ Leave a comment

In February 1917 we published a detailed biographical study of Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson by Marianne Simpson. The article noted that Alatau – the son of famous Victorian explorers Thomas and Lucy Atkinson, had migrated to Hawai’i in 1869 with his wife and infant daughter to take up a position of Master at St Alban’s Missionary School.

Alatau later rose to become Inspector General of Schools, a position he held until being appointed Superintendent of the 1896 Census. He was also editor of the Hawaiian Gazette from 1881 and the Hawaiian Star from 1897, the latter dedicated to union with the United States.

Between February and July 1898 Alatau served as district representative in the legislature of the Republic of Hawai’i. Atkinson Drive in the Ala Moana area of Honolulu is named in his memory. Alatau and his wife Annie had seven children, of whom Alatau Leonard Charles Atkinson (1871-1927, known as Jack) was their first son.

Documents that have recently come to light about the life of Jack Atkinson reveal another chapter in the story of a remarkable family and show how, through his close friendship with Theodore Roosevelt he nearly became Governor of Hawai’i. Marianne Simpson continues the story.

A L C ‘Jack’ Atkinson

Alatau Leonard Charles (popularly known as “Jack”) Atkinson (1871-1927) was the oldest son of Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson. Between 1903 and 1907 he occupied the second top post in the government of Hawaii – Secretary (Lt. Governor) of the Territory – during which time he acted as Governor over extended periods. I provided a summary of his life at the end of the biography I wrote about his father, published on this blog in February 2017.

Since then, I have become aware of other aspects of his life which deserve much closer scrutiny. These concern, first, the significance of Jack Atkinson’s granting Sun Yat Sen, founder of the Chinese Republic, a US birth certificate and, second, his relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt, which led to the active role he played in Roosevelt’s Progressive Party. [1]

“Jack” Atkinson and Sun Yat Sen

In 2018 this blog published a paper referencing an essay by Patrick Anderson on the reasons why in 1904 Jack Atkinson, Secretary of the Territory of Hawaii, issued Sun Yat Sen, exiled from China since 1895, a certificate falsely stating that he was born in Hawaii. This document was immensely valuable to Sun because, in the wake of the US 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, he had also been barred from entry to the United States. The certificate instantly conferred on him citizenship of the United States and, with the territorial passport that went with it, he was, three weeks later, allowed into San Francisco.

Sun Yat Sen’s birth certificate, signed by Jack Atkinson

Sun Yat Sen famously declared that the overseas Chinese were the mother of the revolution which overturned the Qing dynasty in 1911 and replaced it with the Republic of China. Having seized power in 1644, by the late 19thC the Qing dynasty was collapsing from within due to official corruption, crushing famine, and public outrage over foreign imperialism. Sun had been exiled following a failed revolt. He made the claim about the overseas Chinese because, while local mutinies undoubtedly provided the spark, it was the Chinese diaspora in North America, Hawaii, southeast Asia and Japan[2] who provided the financial, logistical and ideological support that sustained the revolutionary movement’s long-term survival. By harnessing the critical support of the diaspora, Sun was able to transform a series of scattered, bankrupt insurrections into a well-funded political machine capable of effecting regime change.

Southeast Asia (Nanyang) served as Sun’s base of operations – the logistical, military and organisational hub – and the Chinese diaspora in Singapore and (British) Malaya provided large sums to directly support his many uprisings. In 1905 Sun formed the Tongmenghui (United League) by merging several anti-Qing[3] factions and the first overseas branch was established in Singapore in 1906. The League circulated uncensored, revolutionary newspapers throughout the Nanyang diaspora and smuggled propaganda and arms into China to incite uprisings. Proximity also enabled direct military assaults through today’s Vietnam.

The Americas were the essential capital provider. In the Americas, the diaspora provided the mass scale, long distance, financial capital needed to buy weapons and sustain the revolts. Sun toured North America extensively, leveraging Chinatowns, local clan associations and the Chinese Freemasons. Labourers, farmers and merchants gave generously and the result was massive, consistent funding.

Sun Yat Sen

Foreign private banks were problematic so, to ensure continuous backing, Sun utilized regional fundraising bureaus across the US. One such bureau, the American Chinese Revolutionary Army Fundraising Bureau, issuing revolutionary bonds that promised buyers a financial stake and political recognition in the post imperial government, raised $144,130 (today’s equivalent of $4 million) between June and September 1911 alone. This specific American injection of capital provided the immediate liquidity needed to sustain the Wuchang revolutionaries (see below).

America, or more specifically Hawaii (annexed by the United States in 1898), was also the place where Sun was first exposed during his teenage years to Western political theory. In his 1959 book Hawaii, author James Michener includes a scene in which Jack’s father, Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson, discusses his dynamic interpretation of the world with the young Sun Yat Sen. For four years Sun was a student at Iolani School, of which Atkinson was headmaster over various periods, so Michener’s statement, sourced from an unidentified Chinese informant, may very well be true. It is generally agreed that the four years Sun spent at the school exposed him to Western history and American political ideas that planted the early seeds for his revolutionary vision for China.

In October 1911, when the uprising in Wuchang broke out, Sun Yat Sen was actually fundraising in Denver, Colorado. Rather than rushing immediately to the battlefield, he spent critical weeks in the United States[4], London and Paris successfully lobbying Western governments and banks to block emergency loans to the Qing dynasty. This effectively starved the imperial court of the cash needed to fight back and confirmed its downfall. The Republic of China was established on 1 January 1912, with Sun Yat Sen as the first President. Sun subsequently became the leader of the Nationalist Party and went on to ally it with the then fledgling Chinese Communist Party (1921).

Today he is called “the father of the nation” in the Republic of China and “the forerunner of the revolution” in the People’s Republic of China. He is unique among 20th century Chinese leaders for being equally revered in both mainland China and Taiwan and his political philosophy, expressed in his Three Principles of the People (Nationalism, Democracy and People’s Livelihood), provides a powerful conceptual bridge in the event of Chinese reunification.

That Jack Atkinson strongly supported Sun Yat Sen and the republican aspirations he entertained for Imperial China is not surprising. As the Hawaiian monarchy slowly collapsed, the Atkinson family had formed part of a narrow circle of Honolulu-based Europeans and Americans who were actively committed to the cause of uniting Hawaii’s fortunes to the United States of America. Indeed, in 1897 Jack’s father, Alatau, had become editor of the Hawaiian Star Bulletin, an unashamedly pro-American, pro-annexation newspaper. Why did Jack issue the certificate? Quite simply, he would have recognised in Sun Yat Sen a man possessed of qualities and abilities capable of both delivering China from a failed form of government and achieving the same republican transformation as had taken place in Hawaii.

  • “Jack” Atkinson and Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), a Republican, became president of the United States in 1901 following the assassination of the incumbent, the well-liked William McKinley. Roosevelt remained in the White House until 1909 and is today considered one of the five most effective US presidents.

Jack Atkinson left his legal practice to become Secretary of the Territory of Hawaii in 1903. He served under his close friend, Governor George Carter. Carter was absent from his post on several occasions due to illness, during which time Jack served as the acting governor, wielding full executive authority over the territory during critical periods of legislative development.

Several items of correspondence have now found their way onto the Internet from the Roosevelt electronic archive which throw light on the nature of some of the communications between Jack, Carter and the President. This newly available information, together with other information derived from press reports and the record of the President’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt, is set out below in chronological order.

  • On 8 November 1904 Governor Carter wrote to the President: “Owing to information received from New York relating to unfavourable sale of our bonds, I have concluded to dispatch Mr Atkinson at once to follow the matter up through the Interior Department; secure your approval as required by the Organic Act; then take up with Secretary Shaw the necessity of his again allowing them to be used as security for National deposits; afterwards going to New York to arrange the details of engraving and sale. Mr. Atkinson, you will remember from his friendship with me and devotion to his country, gave up his law practice and accepted the position of Secretary. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and possesses my confidence to a marked degree.”
  • In 1905 Alice Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and 21 years of age, was one of a large American mission to Asia headed by the Minister for War (later President) William Howard Taft. This mission, which took in the Philippines, Japan, China and Korea, reflected America’s growing influence in Pacific affairs and generated massive media attention. On their way to Asia the party spent a day in Honolulu where they were welcomed by a committee headed by Acting Governor Jack Atkinson. Jack’s passion for outdoor sports, including surfing, is well attested[5] and he is famously known to have introduced Alice to surfing and canoeing as part of the day’s programme.
Alice Roosevelt (c) with Col. Edwards (l) and Jack Atkinson (r) in Nu’uan Valley, Hawai’i in 1905
  • On 17 May 1906 Roosevelt wrote to Acting Governor Atkinson: “I have your letter of the 11th instant. I will help you in every way in your purpose to secure a white population of actual land tillers who are small landowners…Now will you tell me how I can help in having the land laws of Hawaii changed so as to further this purpose?” The background to this was that the Acting Governor opposed the powerful sugar planters lobbying for cheap Asian labour[6] and instead partnered with labour unions who feared low wage competition. He did this because he sought to limit what he feared would be Asian domination of Hawaii. The bitter labour struggles ultimately fractured the political alliance between the planters and figures like Jack.
  • On 17 May 1906, Governor Carter wrote to the President from his hotel in San Francisco, as follows: “This is simply to inform you that Mrs Carter and I leave San Francisco for Honolulu on the 25th. The effects of typhoid have disappeared, the long rest has done me good in every way and I shall take up my official duties feeling fine…Secretary Atkinson writes that he may be obliged to resign, that is that it may be the best thing for his future. His father‘s death[7] makes it no longer advisable for him to try to keep up their home as he can also help his married sister by paying her in the case of his mother and this he can best do by accepting an offer from New York of a salary larger than that paid the Governor and just twice his salary as Secretary.”
  • In 1907 both Jack and George Carter prepared to leave office. The question arose as to whom Roosevelt should appoint as the next governor. On 25 March 1907 Carter wrote as follows: “ I think his (Atkinson’s) giving up his law practice and taking the Secretaryship is a very great sacrifice on his part and, as he refuses to consider the question of taking my place, I wonder sometimes if he could not be of service to you in some position other than in Hawaii. His home is now broken up and his mother is living with one of her daughters, so he is, in a measure, footloose and free. And after the training he has had here in executive work, and studying different political problems, his experience, particularly in committees of mixed-race, ought to be an asset of value to those in authority and it appears to me to suggest to you that if opportunity offers, he would be available for active service at any post particularly where he could increase his salary (which is now $250 a month) and thus be enabled to remit to his mother a larger sum. In this suggestion there is a motive which is in the interest of Hawaii’s future in that such a plan would enable us to give whoever you may choose to be my successor an opportunity from, say, July to November, of serving as Secretary and becoming familiar with the duties of my office. After the loyalty which Atkinson has shown to me and the service he has rendered to the Territory and in consideration of his own private affairs, it would not be right to expect him to resign prior to the end of his term. He is exceedingly interested in immigration work of all kinds…and I think has no idea as to what to do after November.In other words, don’t bother about me. I am not the kind of public man that wants you to give me another job. But I believe Mr. Atkinson would like to be promoted and go on in public service. He is exceedingly loyal to you, and I have not a doubt but that he could serve you well in many capacities, particularly in view of his legal training and the active experience he has gained here in the last three years.”
  • On 9 April 1907 the President replied: “I have your letter of the 15th instant and I’m very sorry at what you write me. Of course, if you feel that you ought to go out, that is all there is to it. Under such circumstances, don’t you think Atkinson would be willing to take your place? I haven’t an idea whom else to put in. Outside places are not common and I simply do not know whether a chance for a vacancy which would appeal to him will occur. With all good wishes, believe me, sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt.”
  • On 15 June 1907, the President wrote directly to Jack from his Oyster Bay home as follows: “My dear Mr Atkinson, The enclosed telegrams rather puzzle me. When I saw you last you told me you could not stay much longer in office and gave the impression that you could not afford it and that you were going into business. Governor Carter told us in effect the same thing. I had all along intended to appoint you governor, but in view of these facts I offered the appointment to Judge Freer. I take it for granted that Judge Freer sympathises with your policy. Otherwise, of course, he neither would nor could hold my commission. Will you trust this as confidential? With regard, sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt.” The telegrams referred to do not appear to have been uploaded onto the Internet so their content is unknown.
  • On 25 February 1909, the Honolulu Evening Bulletin ran as its front-page headline “ATKINSON GETS IT. A. L. C. Atkinson has been appointed United States District Attorney to succeed Robert W. Breckons. This is the substance of a cable message received today in Honolulu…Mr Breckons is even more astonished than anybody else – nobody appears to have even dreamed of Atkinson receiving the appointment. [Breckons said] “The last word I had on the matter from Washington came a few days ago and stated that the matter had gone over until after the new Administration should have come in. So I don’t understand how all this came about”.”
  • The newspaper commented: “Mr. Atkinson has to prove himself in this position. He has not hitherto made a leading feature of court work in his legal practice. He has not figured in the open as associated with any of the more important litigation of the Territory. Hence he has to make good along entirely new lines.”
  • On 3 March 1909, the last day of his Presidency, Theodore Roosevelt received the following telegram from Hawaii: “Roosevelt, White House, Washington DC: We are with you still, aloha. Carter and Atkinson”. The President replied on the same day as follows: “I was very greatly touched by the telegram from you and Atkinson. Will you tell him so? With hearty good will and renewed thanks, believe me, faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt.”
  • On 20 March 1909 the Pacific Commercial Advertiser ran the following article: “Breckons’ friends are fighting Atkinson and a mainland appointment is possible. The nomination of Mr A. L. C. Atkinson to be District Attorney failed of confirmation in the Senate. The cause was that President Roosevelt had singled him out in contravention of the rule he had laid down that he would make no nominations to office in the closing days of his administration but would leave such nominations to be made by his successor, President Taft. It is understood that there were no personal objections whatsoever on the part of Senators to Mr Atkinson…”.

Interestingly, Jack was appointed Deputy Attorney General in 1921.[8]

Comment:

What could speak more convincingly of the high regard in which Jack was held by the President? An AI overview contributes that, “Jack Atkinson had a close professional and personal relationship with Theodore Roosevelt… The President trusted Atkinson’s counsel, corresponding with him and territorial leadership regarding land use, the conservation of small islands to prevent deforestation, and regional geopolitical awareness.”

Apart from confirming the relationship, this comment points to an area in which the two men clearly shared a common bond. Theodore Roosevelt was passionately interested in the outdoor life and conservation and used his authority to create the United States Forestry Service, also establishing 150 national parks and 51 national bird preserves. Indeed, he is today remembered as the “conservationist president”. The Hawaiian Board of Agriculture and Forestry was established in May 1903 and Jack, also committed to the environment and outdoor life, was to hold the position of President of the Board from May 1920 to July 1925.[9]

THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY (ALSO KNOWN AS THE BULL MOOSE PARTY)[10]

On 8 November 1904, immediately after winning his first full presidential term, Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would not run for another term. He later deeply regretted this pledge but honoured it in 1908 by stepping down and endorsing William Howard Taft, who went on to win the election. During his tenure, Taft drifted to the right which, along with Roosevelt’s increasingly progressive ideas, alienated Roosevelt with the result that he decided to make another attempt at the White House.

Roosevelt came extremely close to winning the June 1912 Republican nomination, actually securing the majority of the contested primary delegates. However, the incumbent president held control over the Republican National Committee[11] which ultimately disqualified enough of Roosevelt’s delegates to hand Taft the nomination. Roosevelt’s response was to leave the Republican Party and create a new Progressive Party.

The Progressive National Convention of 1912 in Chicago

The platform of the Progressive Party aimed to reverse the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled the Republican and Democratic parties alike. The party’s platform asserted that: “to destroy the invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day”.[12] To that end, the platform called for strict limits and disclosure requirements on political campaign contributions and registration of lobbyists.

The platform backed goals years ahead of that era’s mainstream politics. In the social sphere it called for a national health service, social insurance to provide for the elderly, the unemployed and the disabled, limiting the ability of judges to order injunctions to limit labour strikes, a minimum wage for women, an eight hour work day, workers’ compensation for work related injuries and an end to child labour. The platform also called for female suffrage.

On 12 July 1912 the Honolulu Star Bulletin reported the following: “Bringing back from Chicago, the Rooseveltian slogans that were sounded there against bossism, ex-Governor Carter and A. L. C. Atkinson yesterday received cable permission to organise Hawaii on “Progressive lines.” Carter and Atkinson take the attitude that there is no longer a national Republican party.”

This was followed by the following on 22 July: “PROGRESSIVES LAUNCH NEW PARTY IN HAWAII Fourteen attend meeting – Atkinson goes to Chicago – A Declaration of Faith is adopted The Progressive Party of Hawaii was formally launched today when Honolulu men held a meeting at noon at the offices of A. L. C. Atkinson and adopted a “declaration of faith”…The meeting decided that A. L. C. Atkinson should go to Chicago to secure representation, if possible, for Hawaii in the Progressive convention in August. Atkinson leaves on the Siberia this afternoon.”

The Bull Moose convention took place in Chicago between 5-7 August 1912.

On 20 August the Star Bulletin reported the following: “BULL MOOSE BUTT INTO HAWAII…How “Our Jack” fought for and won representation for Hawaii. ‘A. L. C. Atkinson, Hawaii Progressive’s delegate to the Bull Moose convention at Chicago, waged a vigorous “campaign of education” on the subject of territories in general and Hawaii in particular. He found most of the delegates bitterly opposed to giving Hawaii representation…Atkinson says, “The charge against us… was that we were not developing that country [sic] along traditional lines because of our cheap labour, using Japanese and Filipinos for development, and that only a few men owned everything. It did seem unjust that I, of all men, should have to bear the brunt of such charges, when I have been doing so much to remedy above conditions, constantly working along lines to correct our evils. However, I showed them how much advance we have made since annexation, what we developed from working through the Board of Immigration[13]… and [the] results obtained in assisting the white immigrant to develop and settle in Hawaii to take the place of Oriental cheap labour…But what a lot of educating I had to do…The members of the committee would insist on classifying us with the insular possessions.”

Jack Atkinson and the Bull Moose Party

Jack’s argument, supported by representations direct from Hawaii, ultimately prevailed and the Territory received delegate status shortly after. After the convention, Jack became national committeeman for Hawaii and worked hard for the Party. On 20 September 1912 the Star Bulletin reported the following: ““Our Jack” Atkinson won’t return to Hawaii for at least two months, and perhaps longer…Jack Atkinson… has been placed at the head of the committee in charge of the collection of funds for the Bull Moose Party. Headquarters have been established on the eighth floor of the Manhattan Hotel, New York City, and Atkinson has generously consented to take charge of the supply of [funds] for the paltry sum of $1000 per month.”

On 5 November 1912 the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, was elected President of the United States. The strong Progressive showing, however, led to optimism that Progressives would supplant Republicans. The Hawaiian Gazette of 3 January 1913 reported the following: “TO PROGRESSIFY THIS TERRITORY. “Jack” Atkinson returns from running Bull Moose race with optimism. “The Republican Party will be absorbed by the Progressive Party” said A. L. C. Atkinson yesterday after leaving the Korea, on which he returned home after an absence of six or seven months, during which time he was one of the leaders of the office staff of the Bull Moose Party in New York, and a close friend of Colonel Roosevelt… Mr Atkinson has returned from the Chicago conference and is all enthusiasm as to the future of the organisation…”It was decided at the Chicago Convention to perfect the organisation,” said Mr. Atkinson. “I stayed back there to help them collect some money for the work. We had $50,000 pledged for this year‘s work and there are promises for more. We are not the third party anymore. It has taken the place of the Republican Party. In those states where we had no representatives on the ballots we are certain of representation now. The principal thing now is to perfect the organisation in every precinct in the country… Personally, I have never worked harder in my life than I did during the last campaign. It was a great experience, and it is a splendid thing to be able to rub elbows with men of national prominence.”[14] Atkinson states that while the work of the Bull Moose organisation was splendid during the past campaign, yet there was very little time in which to properly organise.”

Teddy Roosevelt in 1912

An item in The Star Bulletin dated 16 January 1913, which reported on an informal talk subsequently given by Jack to University Club members stated that he had been assistant treasurer of the National Progressive Party. It also stated, “from his account [it had been] a tremendous job to tackle, with no regular Party lists of Party purses to tap. Progressive literature, stamps, hymn books and certificates netted as a whole a tremendous sum of money…”.

In her 1933 book Crowded Hours, Alice Roosevelt commented as follows: “Yet if a third-party ever had reasons to succeed – or, at least, after the great vote it had pulled, to establish itself – it was the Progressive Party. It had the clear-cut issue on which the split was based. It had a program, policies, ample financial backing, and a leader who inspired his followers. But it did not have the organisation – the plodding organisation in precinct, ward and county – that is on the job in season and out, and that seems to be essential to the existence of a political party. Without organisation, no party has a survival value.”[15]

In 1916, convinced that a divided Republican party would guarantee another Woodrow Wilson victory, Roosevelt effectively dissolved the Progressive Party to unite the conservative and progressive wings of the Republican Party. Around the same time the Star Bulletin ran a satirical article about Jack’s devotion to the Progressive Party. Perhaps Jack took comfort from Roosevelt’s famous 1910 “Citizenship in a republic” speech:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

It can be seen from the above that the contribution of the American Chinese diaspora was integral, and indeed it could be argued vital, to Sun Yat Sen’s ultimate success. Jack Atkinson was part of an Hawaiian ruling elite which had supported republicanism even before annexure. If he had not signed the false birth certificate, it is possible that someone else occupying his position may have done so. Be that as it may, it was the signature of Jack Atkinson that opened America to Sun Yat Sen, whose impact on Chinese history resonates down to this day.

Theodore Roosevelt’s life and presidency were driven by vigorous action, moral accountability and an intense dedication to public service. He believed that a life of ease was not worth remembering and actively pursued physical and mental challenges. As a domestic guiding principal, he believed in a “square deal” for all citizens. His goal was to combat special interests, treat labour and capital fairly and prevent the wealthy or powerful from exploiting everyday Americans. He also believed natural resources were not for unrestricted exploitation but belonged to all the people. That he held Jack Atkinson in high regard shows that he saw in Jack someone who shared his principles. Jack emerges from their relationship as a man of thought and conviction, keen to stand squarely alongside Roosevelt for the sake of those shared ideals that both agreed could only add benefit to the lives of millions. They were ahead of their time but that those reforms did eventually occur is a tribute to their vision and, ultimately, their memory.

Note: Information about the support of the Chinese diaspora for Sun Yat Sen has been largely gathered from Google AI searches.

[1] Sun Yat Sen was brought up and educated in Hawaii and in 1911 founded the Chinese Republic.

[2] In Japan, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had ended 260 years of Tokugawa shogunate rule and established a centralised bureaucratic government and a western constitution. Following Japan’s victory in the first Sino Japanese war (1895) thousands of Chinese students flooded Japanese universities where they were exposed to western political philosophy, absorbed revolutionary ideas and provided intellectual recruitment for the revolution.

[3] Following the establishment of the Republic of China, Sun reorganised the Tongmenghui to form the nucleus of the Nationalist Party.

[4] Sun had earlier laid important groundwork with his English language pamphlet, published in New York in 1904, entitled The true solution of the Chinese problem. The pamphlet helped garner American sympathy for the republican movement by reframing the anti-Qing struggle as a modernisation effort that would ultimately benefit western commercial interests.

[5] In 1908 Jack was to head a list of charter members soliciting organisational support for a proposed Outrigger Canoe and Surfboard Club at Waikiki. Five years later he was part of a fundraising effort to support a young Duke Kahanamoku, who would go on to transform the obscure regional pastime of surfing into an internationally recognised sport.

[6] They were seeking exemptions from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

[7] Jack’s father, Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson, had died the previous month.

[8] The Maui News, 13 May 1921

[9] He left Hawaii for a new home in Chicago in May 1925.

[10] The “Bull Moose” nickname originated in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt declared he felt “strong as a bull moose”. He used the phrase after losing the Republican presidential nomination to William Howard Taft, prompting him to adopt the animal as the symbol for the new party he established.

[11] The committee favoured Taft’s defence of traditional constitutional governance and institutional stability over Roosevelt’s increasingly radical progressive reforms.

[12]At the beginning of the 20thC, America was struggling with the effects of industrialisation, corporations wielded vast economic and political power and underpaid workers toiled in hazardous work conditions.  

[13] Jack was president of the Board of Immigration from 1907 to 1913.

[14] A letter to Jack dated 9 July 1914 from New York (quoted in the Honolulu press) described the activity: “Colonel Roosevelt was here at the office all day yesterday… the office was crowded with people all day long – men of all political faiths from several parts of the state. There were a great many Democrats and some Republicans; of course, a great many Progressives… it was extremely interesting to hear the Republicans and Democrats from up the state tell him how thoroughly disgusted the voters are with both the Republican and Democratic machines in this state.”

[15] p224

The doors of the Khoja Ahmed Yassawi Mausoleum in Turkestan

~ Nick Fielding ~ 1 Comment

For several years Krim Altinbekov, perhaps Kazakhstan’s best known archaeological restorer, has been working to repair the 600-year-old doors to the Khoja Ahmed Yassawi Mausoleum in the city of Turkestan. The Mausoleum itself was built on the orders of Emir Timur – better known in the West as Tamerlane – at the end of the 14thC. It is rightly acknowledged to be one of the greatest historic buildings in Central Asia.

Having completed his restoration of the Mausoleum’s inner doors, he is now working on the main doors to this remarkable building. Made of walnut and each weighing half-a-tonne, the doors were probably made by Persian artisans in situ. Instead of hinges, the outer edges of the doors were slightly lengthened so that they could sit in a shallow hole and thus rotate open and closed. In May I visited Krim Altinbekov’s workshop in Almaty, where the two outer doors are presently undergoing the restoration work.

Carved panel from one of the two exterior doors to the Khoja Ahmed Yassawi Mausoleum in Turkestan.

The work to restore the doors will likely take several years. Krim told me that one issue that had perplexed his team was the exact patterning that had been inlaid into the doors. Most of it had disappeared over the years. However, when he removed the two huge gilded bronze door knockers, he found that the original inlay pattern had survived beneath them – see pics below. The first shows the brass door knocker in the form of a leopard. Below that is the door as revealed beneath the knocker. You can clearly see the inlays, made up of various woods and other materials.

Krim says that the black wood is ebony from Africa, whereas the brown inlays are rosewood that originated in Madagascar. The white inlays are bone. There are also thin tin wires set into the wood. All show the enormous lengths to which the skilled artisans went to obtain the finest materials.

When finished the doors will be returned to Turkestan, but will not go back to the Mausoleum. Instead they will join the original inner doors in a special museum close to the Mausoleum where their superb workmanship can be examined in detail.

The doors have always been objects of wonder. The Russian painter Vassily Vereshchagin painted a famous picture of them which forms part of his Turkestan series, now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. At the Door of the Mosque is a slightly idealised version of the doors. It shows two dervishes waiting for the doors to open. Vereshchagin, who was an official war artist during the Russian campaign to capture Samarkand in the early 1870s, clearly took a great deal of trouble to ensure that he made a good job of copying the complex patterns carved into the wood.

However, a photograph of the doors, taken in 1871 for the Turkestan Albom, gives a more accurate guide to their condition. The Turkestan Albom contains over 1,200 rare photographs and was released in 1872 by order of the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman. It was designed to acquaint Russian and western researchers with the Central Asian territories recently conquered by the Russians. At present, only three complete set of volumes and parts of the book are known. They are held by the National Library of Uzbekistan, the Russian State Library and the US Library of Congress.

As can be seen, the doors in this photograph appear to be in poor shape. There is a step to left and right that does not appear in Vershchagin’s painting and the condition of the building is clearly not good. The area above the doors appears to be in a state of collapse.

Until comparatively recently the Yassawi Mausoleum remained in poor condition. That has since changed and an enormous amount of money has been spent improving the surroundings with parks and new monumental buildings. The great cauldron known as the Taykazan, for example, with a diameter of almost three metres, was removed from the Mausoleum in 1935 and taken to St Petersburg, along with two of the six superb bronze candlesticks from the same era. The Taykazan was returned, reluctantly, in 1989, following representations over many years by the Kazakhs. Sadly, the two remarkable candlesticks that once adorned the building remain in St Petersburg. Another, only partially complete, is in the collection of the Louvre, which received it as a bequest in 1916 from industrialist Georges Marteau.Who gave permission for these priceless objects to be removed? I for one believe they should be returned to their original location (along with many others treasures looted from Central Asia in the 19thC.

One of the six original candlesticks from the Mausoleum
Krim Altinbekov

A photo portrait of General Muravyev

~ Nick Fielding ~ 2 Comments

I recently obtained a photographic Carte de Visite (CDV) for General Mikhail Nikolaevitch Muravyev (1796-1866), someone of great significance to both Thomas Atkinson and his wife Lucy (nee Finley). For it was while visiting the General’s home in St Petersburg in 1847 that Thomas first set eyes on Lucy, who was working as a governess looking after his young daughter Sofia.

General Muravyev was Vice-President of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society at the time and Thomas needed his backing to get permission to travel extensively in Siberia and Central Asia where his aim was to paint the landscapes that were, up until then, barely known in Europe.

Lucy, whose family lived in London, was 29 by the time she met Thomas, who was 18 years her senior. The couple must have been attracted to each other, but Thomas was due to leave the Russian capital on an extended tour to the east. It was not until a year later that he made a westward dash by sledge of almost 2,000 miles back to Moscow in the middle of winter in order to marry Lucy. She too had travelled, from St Petersburg, to meet him. In the intervening year the couple had written more than 60 letters to each other – now sadly lost – in which they no doubt declared their mutual love. The couple were married a few days later, on 18 February 1848, and within days set off together by sledge back to Siberia and the Great Steppe regions where they would travel for the next six years.

It seems more than likely that General Muravyev, in the absence of Lucy’s father, sanctioned the marriage. Indeed, in Moscow Lucy stayed in a grand house connected to the Muravyev family in Tverskoye Street. During their travels in Siberia the couple visited members of the Muravyev family who had been exiled for their part in the Decembrist uprising in 1825, bringing letters and gifts with them from St Petersburg. And doubtless on their return to St Petersburg in 1853 they were reacquainted with the General and his family.

After the Atkinsons returned to England we have little information about Lucy’s connections with her former employer. We know that the couple were visited by various exiles and other Russians in their London home in the four short years before Thomas died in 1861. There are hints – including a note from Sir Francis Galton – that after Thomas died Lucy may have returned to Russia to work for the Muravyevs. Most of her siblings and her mother had already emigrated to Australia, so she had little to hold her in England, except her son Alatau, who emigrated to Hawaii with his wife and baby in 1869. There is a surviving note from Lucy dated December 1869 from a grand hotel in Nice in the south of France, which strongly suggests she was working for a noble family. She cannot be found in the 1871 Census.

She could even have been working for the General’s daughter, Sofia Mikhailovna Muravyeva, who had married in 1856 and had several children, including Pelageia, born in 1865.

As for the CDV for General Muravyev, the photograph was taken in Paris by the famous French photographic company Charlet & Jacotin, which specialised in aristocrats and royals. Presumably it was taken in Paris in or before 1866, the year he died.

But it also has a small imprint in the lower right corner which reads ‘Ferd. Finsterlin, Műnchen’. Finsterlin was a well-known German landscape photographer. Why his mark appears on this CDV is a mystery, although it is known that many Russian aristocrats visited Germany at this time, particularly to visit the spas. Therme Erding near Munich is the largest spa in the world. Whatever the reason, the CDV is a brilliant memento of a man who played an important part in the dramatic love affair between Thomas and Lucy.

A visit to the Chokan Valikhanov Museum in Kazakhstan

~ Nick Fielding ~ 1 Comment

As the editor of the English language Selected Works of Chokan Valikhanov, it has long been my wish to visit the Altyn Emel Memorial Museum dedicated to this great 19th century Kazakh in the village of Shokan in the Altyn Emel region of south-east Kazakhstan .

The museum is about 2 hours outside Almaty, close to the Altyn Emel national park, and about 5kms from the actual burial place of Valikhanov, who died there in 1865.

Valikhanov’s writings in English

The museum building itself is unique and was designed by architects A. Seydalin, B. Ibraev and S. Rustambekov. All corners of the unusual building are of different sizes, with beams that descend into the centre, passing into a “knot of happiness”, woven from colored cords.

Internally, the visitor walks into a main hall, all the time ascending in a spiral until a top gallery is reached. The hall is dominated by a huge woven carpet illustrating elements of Valikhanov’s life. Mangyshlak limestone is used in the decoration of the facade of the building – a soft, pliable pink stone.

I was introduced to the director, Maral Rahatova, who kindly asked me to sign the visitors’ book and pose for a photograph with the staff. The museum itself contains a number of items that once belonged to Valikhanov, including his tiny pistol, gilded in gold, his tea bowl and various items of his clothing.

Valikhanov’s pistol

Outside the museum is a large bronze statue of Valikhanov that dominates the area. And a few kilometres away is his actual burial place, where he died – probably of TB – aged only 29, in 1865.

Statue of Valikhanov outside the Museum
The burial place of Valikhanov

All-in-all, this was a wonderful visit. Although it is a bit remote, anyone visiting will find it well worth the journey. If you want to know more about this great thinker and historian, track down a copy of my book, or you can read it online here.

Katanov – Pioneering scholar on Tuva and Khakassia

~ Nick Fielding ~ 1 Comment

Literature about the southern Siberian territory of Tuva, just to the north of Mongolia, is not easy to come by. The Austrian Otto Mänchen-Helfen, an expert on the Huns, is one of the very few authors who have written with authority on the culture of the Tuvans. He was the first non-Russian to visit the region – whilst he was teaching at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow in the late 1920s. His book Journey to Tuva,[i] first translated in 1992, remains a classic.

A horseman carrying a sheep in the Western Sayan mountains of Tuva (author’s photo).

The English traveller and author Douglas Carruthers, who travelled through north-western Mongolia, Djungaria and Tuva in the years before the First World War, and who wrote the impressive two-volume Unknown Mongolia,[ii] was another of this rare breed. Otherwise, there is little. Ralph Leighton’s Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman’s last Journey, for example, is about the famous mathematician’s desire to visit Tuva (never accomplished), rather than the country itself.

Thus it was a pleasure to come across a 2023 essay in English about the Khakassian scholar and Turkologist Nikolaj Fedorovich Katanov (1862-1922), who was the first person to study the language and culture of the Tuvans.[iii] The Russian researchers who have uncovered his story have had to search through archives in Kazan, Moscow, St Petersburg and various non-Russian institutions to gather material.[iv]

Katanov was a professor at Kazan University where his research into the languages of southern Siberia was ground-breaking. His expedition to the region in 1889-1892 to study languages and ethnography was financed by the Russian Geographical Society, the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Public Education. It resulted in his A Study of the Uriankhai Language. Sadly, a comprehensive report on the expedition was never published, although a selection of the hundreds of folk tales he collected was published in 1907.

Without a detailed final report, the best source of the author’s work is his diaries. The first of these, which covers the first stage of the journey to Tuva, was only published in (in Russian) 2011. Another diary that describes Katanov’s stay in Khakassia and his first trip to Semirechiye and Tarbagatai (now both in Kazakhstan) and Xinjiang in 1890 was only published in 2017. Other diaries, so far unresearched, lie in the state archives of the Republic of Tatarstan. The diaries for his winter expedition to Hami and Turfan in Xinjiang have not survived. There is also a question about the location of the photo archive taken by the photographers Vasiliev and Tolshin during the expeditions, which does not seem to have been found to date.

Typical yurt in the Western Sayan Mountains of Tuva (author’s photo)

In the St Petersburg archives of the Russian Geographic Society there is a “A Letter with a Brief Overview of the Trip to the Semirechensk Region in 1891-1893’ and several other documents.[v] Other documents were published later in Germany and America, including Folk Texts of East Turkestan from the Legacy of N F Katanov, published in East Germany in 1973.

Many of Katanov’s letters did survive and these now provide more details of his life and work, although they have not yet been collected and published, with a few exceptions, including those to the Russian Academician  V V Radlov, who was deeply impressed by their content. The authors of this paper say that in the coming years all Katanov’s letters to St Petersburg Orientalists will be published as part of a project to publish the lifetime work of this pioneering author, who has been largely forgotten because of the policies brought in by the Soviets that resulted in the widespread destruction of Turkic culture during the Stalin years.  

[i] Mänchen-Helfen, Otto, Journey to Tuva, Ethnographics Press, Los Angeles, 1992.

[ii] Carruthers, Douglas, Unknown Mongolia: A Record of Travel and Exploration in North-West Mongolia and Dzungaria (2 vols), Hutchinson & Co, London, 1913.

[iii] Valeev, Ramil M et al, ‘The Heritage of NF Katanov and the Prospects of its Study: Diaries and materials of his Travel to Siberia and Xinjiang (1889-1892),’ Written Monuments of the Orient, Vol 9, No 1 (17), 2023, pp36-49. DOI: 10.55512/wmo465708

[iv] The only work in English that touches on some of the same areas is Gold Khan, (trans. By Norman Cohn, Secker and Warburg, London, 1946). This is a series of heroic legends from the Koibal, Katchin and Sagai tribes of Khakassia (to the north of Tuva) collected in the mid-19th century by a group of philologists travelling in the Minusinsk District.

[v] Archive of the Russian Geographical Society, Category 87, Op 1, No 15, 2l.

Empires and the importance of horses

~ Nick Fielding ~ 2 Comments

In the most recent issue of Asian Affairs, the journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, editor Bill Hayton notes that it is unusual to receive three unsolicited book reviews for the same book. He was referring to David Chaffetz’s brilliant new book Raiders, Rulers and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires[1], which fully deserves the attention it is now receiving.

Chaffetz argues, very convincingly, that to understand the vast interconnected system of trade routes that once constituted the ‘Silk Road’ we need to understand the fundamental role played by the trade in horses in particular. “No animal has had as profound an impact on human history as the horse,” he says. Domestication provided a source of both meat and nutritious milk, as well as transport. Horses regularly needed fresh pastures and this in turn provided the basis for pastoralism as a system that came to dominate the steppe regions.

Thus it was horses, rather than silk that dominated the Silk Roads. Chaffetz shows how the demand for horses bred on the Eurasian steppes came initially from the Chinese and then later from the Mughals and other dynasties in India. Chinese traders travelled as far as Iran, Afghanistan and the Ferghana Valley in present-day Uzbekistan in search of good horses that would give the northern Chinese huge advantages in their military campaigns against their neighbours to the south. As the Chinese Han General Ma Yuan remarked in the 1stC CE, “Horses are the foundation of military power, the great resources of the state…If the power of the horse is allowed to falter, the state will totter to a fall.” With the horses came men from the steppe to develop cavalry brigades and these men too eventually became powerful in their newly adopted homelands.

Mobile horsebreeders helped to connect the world in these early days, bringing sedentary agricultural societies in contact with one another: “Arts, religious beliefs, sports and fashion spread from one end of the old world to the other in the saddlebags of the steppe horsemen,” says Chaffetz. “The horse itself became both a vehicle and a symbol: gods manifested themselves upon them, kings were buried with them, princesses rode them in polo matches and poets praised them in verses that local schoolchildren still recite.”

Although settled peoples quickly began to breed their own horses, the steppe dwellers always held an advantage in the vast open spaces they inhabited. It was hardly surprising that at a certain point a steppe-based empire was able to take on the rest of the world – and win. Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire was the high watermark for the horsebreeders, until gunpowder put an end to their advantages, but not before both the Mughals and the Manchus had also built substantial empires on the back of horse power.

The impact of horses in Western Europe was far less significant. Horses were also used in battle, but usually only by the elites of mediaeval society and later by fancy cavalry regiments. If the peasants could afford a horse, its main use was in agriculture for ploughing – something no self-respecting steppe dweller would ever consider. The typical agricultural labourer could seldom afford to keep a horse. Without the open steppe and its limitless pastures, Western Europe could not sustain large number of animals reliant on grazing.

On the steppe in contrast, everyone rode, women included. And a huge mobile army could be raised in days using the ‘arrow’ system developed by the Mongols. Each rider provided his own horses and learned from childhood how to manoeuvre and perform complex cavalry attacks.

Chaffetz remarks that until now the importance of horses in the development of society has been either overlooked or underestimated by historians. That began to change with the break-up of the Soviet Union, which allowed Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Mongols and other horse-orientated societies to reexamine their histories and to make use of advances in carbon dating and DNA analysis to provide new insights.

The Silk Roads exhibition now showing at the British Museum in London, whilst illustrating the extent of trading links in the ancient world, makes little reference to the importance of horses. It is a pity that its organisers were unable to make use of Chaffetz’s superb research. Those of you who are members of the RSAA may well already have booked a seat for his talk (in person) on 22 January in London. Either way, this book is a must.

[1] David Chaffetz, Raiders, Rulers and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires, WW Norton, New York, 2024, ISBN 978 1 3245 05146 6.

Silk Roads at the British Museum

~ Nick Fielding ~ 3 Comments
A buddha from Swat Valley found in Sweden

As you walk into the British Museum’s new Silk Roads exhibition the first thing that confronts you in in the otherwise empty entrance hall is a tiny copper alloy buddha only three inches high. The buddha dates from the 6th or 7th centuries CE and was probably made in the Swat Valley in what is now northern Pakistan. But what is remarkable about it is the fact that it was found on the small lake island of Helgö in Sweden from archaeological levels that date to around 800CE.

There in a nutshell is the intellectual proposition that lies beneath the exhibition – that the ‘Silk Roads’ were not simply about camel trains laden with precious consumer goods making their way westwards across the deserts and mountains between China and Europe. No, this is about the extraordinary level of connectedness that existed in ancient history and that trade goods travelled by both land and sea along transport links that spanned most of the known world.

Ever since the German geographer Ferdinand von Richtofen invented the term Seidenstrasse in 1877 the term has had a specific meaning – in part connected to the accounts left behind by travellers such as Marco Polo – of a number of trade routes that start in Western China and progress through the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, across the Pamirs and Hindu Kush towards Iran and then on from there to the Mediterranean coast.

The late 19th– early 20th century discovery of huge numbers of remarkable artefacts at ancient buddhist sites in Xinjiang by such luminaries as Sir Aurel Stein and Albert von Le Coq only added to the attraction of this idea as a way of explaining the importance of international commerce in world history. But as Warwick Ball has pointed out, doubts over the use of this concept have been around since at least the 1940s, when Owen Lattimore refuted the idea that Xinjiang was deliberately opened up by the Chinese to export silk.[1] Hugh Pope called the idea “a Romantic Deception”, while Susan Whitfield, currently Professor of Silk Road Studies at the University of East Anglia, opened her 2020 book Silk Roads with the words “There was no ‘Silk Road’”.[2]

So anyone arriving at the exhibition and looking for vistas of Samarkand and Bokhara or pictures of caravanserai and shaggy Bactrian camels is in for some disappointment. And please note, almost everything on show dates from between the 5th and 10th centuries CE, a period in history about which very few people have a good grasp. Who was ruling China, Central Asia and the Middle East during these turbulent years? And even though the garnets in jewels recovered from Anglo-Saxon burials such as Sutton Hoo likely came from mines that were thousands of miles to the east, little is known about the nitty-gritty that underlay the trade in these kinds of luxury goods.

However, that being said, the curators of this exhibition have been able to give an indication of the extent of international trade during this period of history. They show that trade was not simply east-west, but that north-south interactions were equally important, as was Central Asia’s connection to India. Nor was it simply trade goods such as silk and jewels that were exchanged. War tactics, social customs, diplomacy, pilgrimage, literature and other cultural artefacts were also exchanged over vast distances. Maritime routes, such as those in the Baltic, the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were also central to this interchange of goods and ideas.

Great social transformations, including the expansion of Islam from the 7th Century, the growth of the Tang Dynasty in China, the end of the Roman Empire and the growth of Byzantium and the expansion in the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne were also important factors in determining trade routes and exchange objects. This was a time when Christianity, Islam and Buddhism were all expanding.

Small glass cup from Alexandria

So it is hardly surprising that visitors to the exhibition will hear about places never before mentioned in relation to the Silk Road. Heijo-kyo in Japan, Silla in Korea and Chang’an in north-central China are placenames that are unlikely to be on the tip of one’s tongue. And yet the objects found in each of these places tell remarkable tales. Take the small blue glass cup found at Cheonmachong Tomb at Gyeongju in Korea. It dates from the early sixth century and has a honeycomb-patterned decoration produced using a mould-blowing technique. Such glasses can be found across Roman territory, but it was probably made at Alexandria in Egypt.

Items recovered from shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean also provide an insight into ancient trade. During the period in question ships sailed from northern China via the Indonesian islands to India, Persia, Arabia and the east coast of Africa. In 1998 the wreck of the Tang Dynasty ship now known as the Belitung was found near Sumatra, comprising more than 60,000 pieces of Tang ceramics and other objects that date to the 9th Century CE. It was probably on its way back to the Persian Gulf when it sank. Its cargo provides a great cross-section of commercial goods from the period.

The Miraculous Image of Liangzhou

The discovery in 1900 of the Dunhuang caves in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang provides another great source of trade goods. In Cave 17 Aurel Stein found (and bought) 70,000 manuscripts, paintings and other objects, several wonderful examples of which are in the exhibition. These objects transformed the way in which the culture and history of this region was understood. The Miraculous Image of Liangzhou, more than 2.5 metres in height and embroidered with silk thread on silk and hemp, is one such item.

The exhibition never ceases to amaze the visitor as it demonstrates the extent to which our ancestors traded with one another. Khazars, Vikings, Alans, Eritreans, Sogdians and many other societies knew of each other and sent trade goods huge distances.

So at the end of the exhibition what can we say? The Silk Road is a misnomer? Yes! It was never a single road? Yes! Trade was in both directions, not to mention north and south and often by sea? Yes! In other words, we are talking about international trade and exchange of ideas. It was a phenomenon not restricted to one part of the globe – if we exclude South America – or one culture. But are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater? There is a danger that in generalising our understanding of the Silk Road to include just about all international trade we lose the very specificity that made it a powerful idea in the first place. More than likely that is what is happening. Scholarship on the Silk Road has now outgrown the original subject and awaits a new definition and focus. But for now, go along and see the incredible exhibits. It is crowded and you cannot easily move from one glass case to another, but it’s almost worth the entry just to see that tiny little buddha.

[1] Warwick Ball, The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2021.

[2] Susan Whitfield (ed.), Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes, Thames & Hudson, London, 2021.