Where the first treaty between America and China was signed. The Porta Cerco gate between Portuguese and native China. The treaty was signed by Caleb Cushing and Daniel Webster’s son, Fletcher, on July 3d, 1844, the tablets on the gate being of a later date, and commemorating a Portuguese victory.
Daniel Webster had not a little to do with America’s relations with China. He studied the subject deeply. He suggested the first mission that secured a treaty, and wrote the president’s message of December 30, 1842, to Congress suggesting the mission. Cushing’s letter of instructions was signed by Webster, and showed deep knowledge of Chinese affairs. The treaty was signed in a temple at Wanghai, outside the Porta Cerco stone gate at Macao; and I would recommend the pilgrimage to the many tourists who visit the picturesque settlement in South China.
In 1861 an American, Frederick G. Ward, formed the nucleus of the Manchu imperialist army which finally overcame the Taiping rebels. Another American took service with Li Hung Chang as secretary. His name was W. N. Pethick. He had served in the Civil War in America. Mr. Pethick had considerable influence with Li, assisting him in treaty making, reading to him reform and economical books, and taking a part in urging the crusade against opium. Mr. Pethick died from the hardships of the siege of Peking in 1900.
When John Hay and Philander Knox secured the assent of the nations to the American and British doctrine of the non-partition of China, they were repeating the “square deal” terms of the famous treaty of 1868, which the brilliant American, Anson Burlingame, on behalf of China, which nation he was then serving as commissioner, secured from America, stipulating the “territorial integrity of China, and disavowing any right to interfere with China’s eminent domain”.
In 1900 the American troops found a great store of silver at Tientsin, but gave it up, as America returned the Boxer indemnity of 1908, and the abstention of the American troops from looting in Peking in 1900 set the usual high standard of altruism and soldierly honor which Sun Yat Sen and Wu Ting Fang say China connects with the name America.
In 1901 Mrs. Conger and the other ladies of the American legation began the work which threw down the zenana bars which held Manchu and Chinese women in repressive exclusiveness.
Years ago prominent Chinese made some study of American leaders. Seu Ki Yu, governor of Amoy and member of the Tsung Li Yamen (Foreign Board at Peking) in 1866, to whom Secretary W. H. Seward sent a picture of Washington, composed the following essay:
“Washington was a very remarkable man. In advising plans he was more daring than our heroes, Chin Shing or Han Kwang. In winning a country he was braver than Tsau or Lin Pi. Wielding his four-foot falchion he enlarged the frontier myriads of miles, and yet he refused to usurp regal dignity or even to transmit it to his posterity; but, on the contrary, first proposed the plan of electing men to office. Where in the world can be found a mode more equitable? It is the same idea, in fact, that has been handed down to us from the three reigns of Yau, Shun and Yu (the immortal reigns of China). In ruling the state he honored and fostered good usages, and did not exalt military merit, a principle totally unlike what is found in other kingdoms. I have seen his portrait. His mien and countenance are grand and impressing in the highest degree. Who is there that does not call him a hero?” This essay was reissued by the republicans in 1911 and had a wide influence in their propaganda.
The American exports to China, including Hongkong, consisting chiefly of cotton, machinery, oil, flour and tobacco, were as follows: 1908, $34,000,000; 1909, $28,000,000; 1910, $23,000,000 (exports to China from all countries, $305,580,000); 1911, $25,000,000.
The American imports were, in their order, chiefly silk, tea, hides, wool, straw braid, pig iron, musk, hair, raw cotton, albumen, bristles, and amounted as follows: 1908, $24,000,000; 1909, $31,000,000; 1910, $38,000,000 (exports by China to all countries, $251,460,000); 1911, $32,000,000.