Edmund Roberts (diplomat)

His Excellency
Edmund Roberts
BornJune 29, 1784
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
DiedJune 12, 1836, age 51[1]
Macau
Occupation(s)Merchant; Envoy Extraordinary
Known forSiamese–American Treaty of Amity and Commerce
Omani treaty of 1834
Notable work
SpouseCatherine Whipple Langdon
Children11

Edmund Roberts (June 29, 1784 – June 12, 1836) was an American diplomat. Appointed by President Andrew Jackson, he served as the United States' first envoy to the Far East, and went on USS Peacock on non-resident diplomatic missions to the courts of Cochinchina, Thailand ("Siam") and Muscat and Oman during the years 1832–6.

Roberts concluded treaties with Thailand[3] and Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman,[4] ratified in Washington, D.C. 30 June 1834. He returned in 1836 to exchange ratifications with Oman and Thailand and to the court of Minh Mạng in Vietnam for a second attempt at negotiation.[5] He fell seriously ill with dysentery and died in Portuguese Macau, which precluded his becoming America's first envoy to Edo Japan.[6][7]

  1. ^ Ruschenberger 1838.
  2. ^ Roberts 1837.
  3. ^ United States Congress 1904, p. 10.
  4. ^ Cotheal, Alexander I. (1854). "Treaty between the United States of America and the Sultân of Masḳaṭ: The Arabic Text". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 4: 341, 343–356. JSTOR 592284.
  5. ^ Max Baucus (29 June 2006). "Baucus Floor Statement on US-Oman Free Trade Agreement". Senate Committee on Finance. That treaty with Oman was part of a bigger picture. That bigger picture included Siam — today's Thailand — and Cochin China — today's Vietnam. Edmund Roberts also traveled to those countries to initiate broader commercial ties.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Griffis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cole 1941, pp. 497–513.