The Imperial Barge at Yokohama.
From a wood-cut in Perry’s “Narrative.”
In February the commodore returned for the Emperor’s reply to the President’s message requiring a commercial treaty. He came with the steamers Powhatan, Mississippi, and Susquehanna, with the Lexington, Vandalia, and Macedonian in tow. They insisted on anchoring farther up the bay than before—at Yokohama, within nine miles of the capital. Here the commodore continued the practices of the former visit, and the business of the expedition was concluded in the signing of a treaty which granted everything that the Americans could reasonably demand—a treaty, it is worth noting, that has been of greater benefit to Japan than to the nation that insisted on making it.
The Final Page of the First Treaty with Japan.
From a facsimile of the original.
And to the very great honor of the American Navy it was made without bloodshed as well as without a single humiliating concession. In fact, the Japan expedition emphasizes the assertion that whenever matters of foreign diplomacy have been left to the discretion of the officers of the Navy both the honor of the nation and justice have been carefully guarded.
Commodore Perry Meeting the Imperial Commissioners at Yokohama.