At this event, Thomas H. Cox explores Warren Delano’s career and the complicated relations between early American, British and Chinese merchants which formed the basis for future U.S. foreign policy towards Asia. Warren Delano II, the maternal grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was one of the most successful early American maritime traders in China. Although he openly supported the British war effort during the First Opium War, he discreetly traded with Hong merchants and condemned British naval attacks on Chinese ports. As U.S. Vice-Counsel, Delano negotiated with the British for the return of Canton to China and helped secure the Treaty of Wangxia, the first U.S.- Chinese diplomatic agreement. Then, in the 1860's, he worked with British and Chinese partners to pursue opium profits in Hong Kong. Dr. Thomas H. Cox is associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D in history at State University of New York at Buffalo. And he is the author of Gibbons v. Ogden, Law, and Society in the Early Republic. This event is sponsored with the UAA Confucius Institute.