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__NOTOC__[[File:Jrpoinsett.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Secretary of War Joel Poinsett]]
During the Eighteenth Century, European technological advances, nation-building agendas and philosophical debates combined to produce an era of expedition and state-sponsored social and scientific classification. Harry Liebersohn identifies the years between 1750 and 1850 as a “distinctive era” in overseas-exploration, scientific ethnography, and the development of the human sciences.<ref>Porter, Theodore, Ross, Dorothy, ed, <I>The Modern Social Sciences, Vol 7</i>, Cambridge University Press. 2003</ref> What was this “distinctive era” and the transitions within it from exploration to anthropology, as people tried to reconcile their philosophical and religious beliefs with evidence of unimagined human variety. This transition was complex, and took different forms in Europe and North America, and themes inherent to each will be addressed below. In order enrich the interpretation of this era, the career contributions of an American traveler, diplomat, and politician, Joel Poinsett, need to be explored.
During the early 1800s, Poinsett moved in the same European social circles with some of the first naturalists and travelers to explore the Pacific Islands. He explored Mexico in the early 1820s and published both popular and official descriptions of the new nation. During the 1830s and 1840s, Poinsett worked as both the US Secretary of War, and a patron of the human sciences, and was involved in the foundation of the organization that would become The Smithsonian Institute.
Poinsett’s career reflects the complexities that distinguish this era. As travel accounts became foundational to ethnographic and anthropological sciences, his career turned from exploration to scientific patronage and institution-building. As questions of human nature became fundamental to definitions of republicanism, natural rights, and national identity, Poinsett went to Mexico, as both a liberal influence, and imperial investigator. As explanations for human variation became integral to debates over race, slavery and American Exceptionalism, Poinsett published an article defining innate differences between civilized people and barbarians, and, as Secretary of War, carried out widespread Indian removal.
===Europe===
[[File:JRP-SoW, S.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Joel Poinsett by Charles Fenderich]]
Liebersohn examined several high-profile European naturalists and explorers in The Traveler’s World. He argues for the significance of networks of global travelers and European scholars who influenced state policy and informed conceptions of empire and race. He profiles the experiences of: Philbert Commerson, on the 1766-1769 voyage to Tahiti with Louis de Bougainville; George Forster, on the 1772-1775 voyage with Captain Cook, also to Tahiti; and, finally, Adelbert von Chamisso on the 1815-1818 voyage to the Hawaiian Islands aboard the Russian vessel the “Rurik”. Liebersohn discusses the accounts written by these men, integrating their stories into a well developed historical interpretation of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanual Kant and others, and the far-flung implications of the cultural exchange intrinsic to colonialism. Liebersohn paid serious attention to the networks of relationships between the naturalists, the political intentions and conditions of the states that sponsor their expeditions, the Pacific Islanders that they encounter, and the community of philosophers and scholars who used their travel accounts to construct and support their theories on human nature.
Krumpelmann, John T., <I>The South Central Bulletin</I>, “Duke Berhnhard of Save-Weimer”</ref> during a time when new ideas about government and citizenship interacted with accounts of contact with distant native populations. Although there is a lack of available material written by Poinsett during this time, his subsequent actions and interactions illustrate a practical combination of abstract and concrete aspects of travel and politics.
After returning to the United State and serving in the South Carolina state government, Poinsett traveled again. During the 1810s, Poinsett spent several years in South America, exploring, spreading republican ideology and attempting to foment revolution against Spain.<ref>Rippy, Fred, <I>Joel Poinsett: Versatile American</i>, pg 39-41.</ref> His story illustrates the transition from idealized depictions of foreign lands to official reports of imperialistic concern in 1822, as he wrote a traveler’s account of Mexico, while acting as an investigative agent of the United States government.<ref>Dyer, George B; Charlotte L Dyer, “The Beginnings of a United States Strategic Intelligence System in Latin America, 1809-1826”, <I>Military Affairs</I>, 14, 2,(1950).</ref>
===Mexico===
[[File:Poinsetta.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Named in the US after Joel Poinsetta after he brought it to DC from Mexico in 1824]]
Mexico has been the object of foreign observations since the early 1800s. Mexico Otherwise examines the content and impact of traveler’s accounts of Mexican people, culture and politics. Employing concepts of Orientalism, developed by Edward Said, and applying it to the literary and intellectual treatment of Mexico, Buchenau argues that travel accounts of Mexico have not only constructed international perceptions of Mexico and Mexican people, but also influenced memory and meaning within Mexico. Buchenau argues powerful nations saw Mexico as a “single undifferentiated other”, just as colonial powers saw India. Traveler and foreign observer accounts of Mexico helped “invent categories”, creating “an essentialist discourse that subsumed a wealth of cultural difference.”<ref>Buchenau, <I>Mexico Otherwise</I>, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2005, pg 3.</ref> Buchenau features excerpts from many foreign observer accounts of Mexican culture, environments and people. The first two traveler’s accounts of this vast land, Alexander von Humboldt and Joel Poinsett illustrate both Orientalist themes, and the implications and implementations of the human sciences in new North American republics.
===The United States of America===
[[File:JoelPoinsettStatue.jpg|thumbnail|250px|left|JoelPoinsettStatue.jpg]]
Poinsett’s expedition to Mexico was part of a larger trend in the history of the United States, during the years of the New Republic, as the U.S. applied the philosophical debate over the definition of the human species and the meaning of human diversity, to American ideas of Manifest Destiny and race. Thomas C. Patterson’s book, A Social History of Anthropology in the United States, examines the purpose and meaning in the development of anthropology in the U.S. Patterson explores the origins of anthropology in European traveler’s accounts and the philosophical debates of Rousseau, Kant and others, and identifies two different ways anthropology and other human sciences have been used by individuals and states. Supporters of social hierarchy used travel accounts to justify conquest and repression, seeing history as, “a series of progressive changes…from the original, primitive condition to more advances, diversified circumstances,” and, “the conquest of nature, material improvement, and increasing modernity as motors driving these changes.”<ref> Patterson, <I>A Social History of Anthropology in the United States</I>, pg 1.</ref>
Theories and conversations about race and manifest destiny were an important characteristic of the New Republic, argues Patterson, becoming an “increasingly prominent feature of everyday discourse during the 1830s and 1840s.”<ref>Patterson, p. 17.</ref> Polygenists, like Benjamin Rush and James Madison based their justification of African slavery and colonization, and Indian removal on racial difference arguing that Blacks and native Americans were “fixed at lower stages of development.” <ref>Patterson, p. 17.</ref> American Exceptionalism and Anglo-Saxon superiority were underpinned by men like physician and scholar, Samuel Morton, who distinguished and defined races according to cranial capacities and stages of civilization.<ref>Patterson, p. 19.</ref>
Poinsett, as both a US politician and patron of science, contributed to both the discussion and the application of the definition of the human race. After returning to Mexico as an ambassador of the US in 1825, Poinsett spent almost five years deeply involved in the politics of the country, until the Mexican President Vicente Guerrero requested his recall in 1829.[35] <ref>Flores Caballero presents a thorough description of Poinsett’s interference in Mexican politics in his book, <I>Counterrevolution</I>.</ref> Upon his return to the United States, Poinsett supported the unionist cause against the Nullification Movement, and entered the gentlemen’s debate over the definition of humanity.
In 1834, Poinsett published a paper on anthropology, An Inquiry into the Received Opinions of Philosophers and Historians on the Natural Progress of the Human Race from Barbarism to Civilization. Poinsett’s paper defended his nation’s strength and virility. Addressing Buffon directly, Poinsett claimed the natives of his country were not weak due to any environmental flaws, but because of their “habits and pursuits” and the “innate passion in the breast of the Savage,” that loves warfare and rejects agriculture.[36] <ref> Poinsett, Joel, <I>Inquiry into the Received Opinions of Philosophers and Historians, on the Natural Progress of the Human Race from Barbarism to Civilization</I>, Charleston, SC: JS Burges, 1834, pg 19.</ref> Using polygenist rhetoric of multiple human species, and “immutable conditions,” Poinsett rebutted Buffon’s attacks on US potential.[37] <ref><I>Inquiry into the Received Opinions of Philosophers and Historians</I>, pg. 13.</ref> He wrote of the “white and noble race” of Anglo-Saxons, and the racial hierarchy that supported American constructions of national identity, white superiority, and manifest destiny. The Algonquins, claimed Poinsett, did not respond adequately to missionaries and education, and he wrote, “they do not advance towards a state of civilization, but retain their ancient habits, language, and customs, and are every day more depraved, indigent, and insignificant.”[38] .<ref><I>Inquiry into the Received Opinions of Philosophers and Historians</I>, pg. 41.</ref> By denying the civilization of Indian tribespeople, Poinsett laid the philosophical groundwork for Indian removal, in much the same way as Locke’s Second Treatise of Government had in decades past.
In 1837, Poinsett became the Secretary of War and directed the Seminole War and Indian removal west of the Mississippi.[39] <ref>Bell, William Garner. <I>Secretaries of War</I> pg. 48</ref> He also supported scientific exploration, ensuring the presence of naturalists in the US Exploring Expedition. As a US Senator in 1840, Poinsett was a founding member of The National Institute for the Promotion of Science, an organization funded by the Smithson grant, and precursor of the Smithsonian Institute.[40] At the first anniversary of the organization, Poinsett urged his audience patronize science and support the Institution, asking, “Will we expose ourselves to be denied our just title of a moral, religious, intelligent, and enlightened people by refusing to inscribe the United States of America among the names of the civilized nations of the earth which will be found engraved upon the columns of this magnificent temple?”[41]<Ref>Poinsett, Joel, <I>Discourse on the Objects and Importance of The National Promotion of Science</I>, Washington: P Force Printer, 1841.</ref>
Poinsett, with his political career and his patronage of science, and his time as a philosopher, explorer, ambassador and agent, embodies themes inherent to the “distinctive era” of travel and science. His writings and official activity emphasize the relationship analyzed by Liebersohn in The Traveler’s World, between travelers and philosophers, and travelers and their patron states, particularly because he acts as each of these three members of the relationship during his life.
===Conclusion===
The debate over nature and nurture had powerful implications during this time of exploration and expansion. The search for an explanation for human difference inspired both philosophy and political policy, in Europe and North America, as nations sought the definition of the human species and justification for racial and social hierarchy. Colonial States and new republics used travel accounts and the developing discipline of anthropology to support their national identities and territorial agendas. Individual agency interacted with state-building projects, as theories of natural man and innate abilities defined the rights of humans to maintain their culture and territory. Taking different forms in Europe and North America, this debate continues to have profound implications in society today, as questions of race and human variety inform discussions of human potential.
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