Yours most sincerely,
TOWNSEND HARRIS.
As Perry predicted, the Japanese yielded to Mr. Harris who, a few days after he had sent the letter given above, went to Yedo, and had audience of the Shō-gun Iyésada. He afterwards saw the ministers of state, and presented his demands. These were: Unrestricted trade between Japanese and American merchants in all things except bullion and grain, the closing of Shimoda and the opening of Kanagawa and Ozaka, the residence in Yedo of an American minister, the sending of an embassy to America, and a treaty to be ratified in detail by the government of Japan.
Professor Hayashi was first sent to Kiōto, to obtain the Mikado’s consent. As he had negotiated the first treaty it was thought that with his experience, scholarly ability and eminent character, he would be certain to win success, if anyone could. Despite his presence and entreaties, the imperial signature and pen-seal were not given; and Hotta, a daimiō, was then despatched on the same mission. The delay caused by the opposition of the conservative element at the imperial capital was so prolonged, that Mr. Harris threatened if an answer was not soon forthcoming, to go to Kiōto himself and arrange matters.
The American envoy was getting his eyes opened. He began to see that the throne and emperor were in Kiōto, the camp and lieutenant at Yedo. The “Tycoon”—despite all the pomp and fuss and circumlocution and lying sham—was an underling. Only the Mikado was supreme. Quietly living in Yedo, Mr. Harris bided his time. Hotta returned from his fruitless mission to Kiōto late in April 1858; but meanwhile Ii, a man of vigor and courage, though perhaps somewhat unscrupulous, was made Tairō or regent, and virtual ruler in Yedo. With him Mr. Harris renewed his advances, and before leaving Yedo, in April 1858, secured a treaty granting in substance all the American’s demands. This instrument was to be signed and executed September 1st, 1858. Ii hoped by that time to obtain the imperial consent. A sub-treaty, secret, but signed by the premier Ii and Mr. Harris, binding them to the execution of the main treaty on the day of its date, was also made, and copies were held by both parties.[[54]] This diplomacy was accomplished by Mr. Harris, when he had been for many months without news from the outside world, and knew nothing of the British campaign in China.
Meanwhile Flag-Officer Josiah Tatnall, under order of the United States Navy Department, was on his way to Japan, to bring letters and dispatches to the American Consul-general, was ignorant of Mr. Harris’ visit to Yedo, or his new projects for treaty-making. On the Powhatan he left Shanghai July 5th, joining the Mississippi at Nagasaki five days later. Here the death of Commodore Perry was announced, the Japanese receiving the news with expressions of sincere regret. The Treaty at Tientsin had been signed June 26, but Tatnall, innocent of the notions of later manufacture, so diligently ascribed to him of rushing “off to Japan to take advantage of the consternation certain to be created by the first news of recent events in the Peiho,” . . . was so far oblivious of any further intentions on the part of Mr. Harris of making another treaty with Japan, that he lingered in the lovely harbor until the 21st of July. In the Powhatan he cast anchor in Shimoda harbor, on the 25th, the Mississippi having arrived two days before. On the 27th, taking Mr. Harris on board the Powhatan, Tatnall steamed up to Kanagawa, visiting also Yokohama, where Perry’s old treaty-house was still standing. Meeting Ii on the 29th, negotiations were re-opened. In Commodore Tatnall’s presence, the main treaty was dated July 29th (instead of September 1st) and to this the premier Ii affixed his signature, and pen-seal. By this treaty Yokohama was to be opened to foreign trade and residence July 1st of the following year, 1859, and an embassy was to be sent to visit the United States. The Commodore and Consul-general returned to Shimoda August 1st. Mr. Harris then took a voyage of recreation to China.
On the 30th of June 1859, the consulate of the United States was removed from Shimoda to Kanagawa, where the American flag was raised at the consulate July 1st. The Legation of the United States was established in Yedo July 7, 1859. Amid dense crowds of people, and a party of twenty-three[[55]] Americans, Mr. Harris was escorted to his quarters in a temple.
The regent Ii carried on affairs in Yedo with a high hand, not only signing treaties without the Mikado’s assent, but by imprisoning, exiling, and ordering to decapitation at the blood-pit, his political opposers. Among those who committed hara-kiri or suffered death, were Yoshida Shoin, and Hashimoto Sanai. The daimiōs of Mito, Owari, and Echizen,[[56]] were ordered to resign in favor of their sons and go into private life. “All classes now held their breath and looked on in silent affright.” On the 13th of February 1860, the embassy, consisting of seventy-one persons left Yokohama in the Powhatan to the United States, arriving in Washington May 14, 1860. The English copy of the Perry treaty had been burned in Yedo in 1858, and one of their objects was to obtain a fresh transcript. The writer’s first sight and impression of the Japanese was obtained, when these cultivated and dignified strangers visited Philadelphia, where they received the startling news of the assassination in Yedo, March 23d, of their chief Ii, by Mito rō-nins.
The signing of treaties without the Mikado’s consent was an act of political suicide on the part of the Yedo government. Not only did “the swaggering prime minister” Ii, become at once the victim of assassin’s swords, but all over the country fanatical patriots, cutting the cord of loyalty to feudal lords, became “wave-men” or rō-nin. They raised the cry, “Honor the Mikado, and expel the barbarian.” Then began that series of acts of violence—the murder of foreigners and the burning of legations, which foreigners then found so hard to understand, but which is now seen to be a logical sequence of preceding events. These amateur assassins and incendiaries were but zealous patriots who hoped to deal a death-blow at the Yedo usurpation by embroiling it in war with foreigners. More than one officer prominent in the Meiji era has boasted[[57]] of his part in the plots and alarms which preceded the fall of the dual system and the reinstatement of the Mikado’s supremacy. To this the writer can bear witness.
Meanwhile the ministers of the Bakafu were “like men who have lost their lanterns on a dark night.” Their lives were worth less than a brass tem-pō. Amid the tottering framework of government, they yet strove manfully to keep their treaty engagements. “No men on earth could have acted more honorably.”[[58]] All the foreign ministers struck their flags, and retired to Yokohama, except Mr. Harris. He, despite the assassination, January 14, 1861, of Mr. Heusken his interpreter, maintained his ground in solitude. English and French battalions were landed at Yokohama, and kept camp there for over twelve years. On the 21st of January, 1862, another embassy was despatched to Europe and the United States. Their purpose was to obtain postponement of treaty provisions in regard to the opening of more ports. In New York, they paid their respects to the widow of Commodore Perry, meeting also his children and grandchildren.