At a meeting of citizens in New York, March 11, 1870, a distinguished committee was appointed, with Isaac Ferris, Chancellor of the University, as chairman, with whom as associates were William E. Dodge, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Frederick S. Winston, E. D. Morgan, E. C. Benedict, A. A. Low, John C. Green, James H. Taft, Stewart Brown, and William P. Jones, many of them having large interests in China, who adopted resolutions on this subject to be forwarded to Congress. The first resolution declares,—
“That this Committee is of opinion that the surplus of the Indemnity Fund received from the Chinese under the Convention of 1858, referred to in the Annual Message of President Buchanan to the Second Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress, and of President Lincoln to the Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, with the accumulation thereon, certainly does belong in equity to the Chinese Government, as the Presidents therein declare, and should be returned to it.”
The Committee then proceed to say, that, if such surplus shall be declined by China, it should be expended, according to the recommendation of Mr. Burlingame, in founding a literary institution for the equal benefit of Chinese and Americans.
Chicago responded to New York. At a meeting of citizens March 31st, another committee was organized, with R. B. Mason, the Mayor, as chairman,—and among the members were William Bross, Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, Thomas Drummond, Judge of the United States Circuit Court, James E. McLean, Collector of Customs, N. S. Davis, Professor of Surgery in the Medical College, Samuel M. Wiseman, President of the First National Bank, J. C. Burroughs, President of the University of Chicago, and E. D. Haven, President of the Northwestern University, with others,—and adopted resolutions, where, after approving those of New York, they declare,—
“That it seems to us eminently fitting and fortunate that this money, which distinguished representatives of the United States have asserted belongs in equity to the Chinese Government, though that government is disposed to waive its right to it, should be employed in some way to the common advantage and honor of both nations.”
The committee then proceed to resolve further,—
“That in view of the impression conveyed by Secretary Seward’s Report to the Third Session of the Fortieth Congress, that the Chinese authorities are unwilling to receive this money, this Committee respectfully memorializes Congress to cover it into the United States Treasury as a special fund, to be returned to the Chinese Treasury, or hereafter appropriated to the establishment of the proposed institution of learning at Peking, as the Chinese Government may elect.”
These two weighty committees concur in recognizing the equity of China, if not her proprietorship, in this fund. If it be true that the surplus belongs to China, or that it is hers in equity, it will be difficult to defend any proposition to return the amount indirectly, as in a college or buildings for the accommodation of the United States on Chinese soil. If returned at all, it must be directly, and in the form of money. What right have we to determine how to expend in China or for China that which is hers? To do so would not be generous, even if it were just. It would be ostentatious, and might be offensive. It would assume that we can employ the money of China, even in China, for her own benefit, better than she can herself. At all events, it would recognize an undefined title in China, to which we deferred.