The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

58 MARCH 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL He launched steamship travel along the Pacific coast, introduced the telegraph, built a transcontinental railroad connecting Chile and Argentina in the 1850s, and initiated mining projects and community improvements. Wheelwright’s brother Isaac was an education adviser in Ecuador and Chile, establishing the first public schools for girls there. These techni- cal assistance and investment initia- tives began a process of translating Clay’s vision into action and were forerunners of modern cooperation programs. William Wheelwright is unique among American diplomats and entrepreneurs in being honored by a statue in Valparaíso that was erected and paid for by contributions from the Chilean people. Humanitarian Assistance & Technical Advice Building on the precedents of aiding Haitian refugees and Venezuelan earthquake victims, individuals and the private sector contributed generously to alleviate the suffering caused by humanitarian crises, famines and natural disasters in other lands. During the 1820s, “Greek Fever” seized the American public, which mobilized to aid that country’s struggle for freedom from the Ottoman Turks. Citizens’ committees in principal U.S. cities, dubbed “helleno- philes” and led by figures like Edward Everett and Mathew Carey, raised funds to send food, sup- plies, volunteers and cash to the distressed Greek population. This assistance included agricultural tools and support for rebuilding homes and schools, not unlike similar mod- ern responses for other causes. No event in the first half of the 19th century led to such widespread American giving as the Great Potato Famine in Ireland. In American Philanthropy Abroad (Rutgers University Press, 1963), Merle Curti cites this relief effort as “the first truly national organized campaign for helping the distressed in foreign lands.” Even President James Polk made a personal contribution, although he did not favor federal aid. Other prominent Americans such as Vice President George Mifflin Dallas and Senator John J. Crittenden, and busi- ness leaders like Amos Lawrence, strongly supported an “Appeal to the People of the Nation” to contribute. In 1847-1848 alone, more than a million dollars was raised, including $800 from the Cherokee and Choctaw nations, to ship emergency food and other relief to Ireland. With great fanfare vessels regularly departed from major U.S. ports, with the government providing some naval shipping support—an early example of a public-private part- nership. As noted in Kendall Birr and Merle Curti’s Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas (University of Wis- consin Press, 1954), the U.S. government began responding to a growing number of technical assistance requests from foreign A United Nations peacekeeper helps locals move American food aid in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. CREATIVECOMMONS/U.S.NAVY The first nongovernmental organizations to work overseas were incorporated in the 1810s, spurred in part by the patriotic fervor that followed the War of 1812.