128 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



government would be secured as a preliminary."^^^ This, said 

 he, was the only means of obtaining a tinal settlement of the 

 question. In the same year, Henshaw, who was at Canton with 

 Commodore Read, felt that the time was opportune for a diplo- 

 matic mission and large concessions,^**^ and about the same time 

 Peter Parker, whose medical services had won him favor with 

 the Chinese, memoralized Lin, the imperial commissioner, urging 

 that a treaty was the only final solution of the difficulties with 

 western powers/"'* In 1840 a number of American citizens at 

 Canton asked Congress to act with Great Britain, France, and 

 Holland in putting matters on a safe basis. They suggested as a 

 proper method a direct appeal to the emperor for permission for 

 a minister to reside at Peking, and for a fixed tariff duty, a sys- 

 tem of bonding warehouses with regulations for trans-shipment 

 of goods, the liberty of trading at additional ports in China, com- 

 pensation for losses in the legal trade during the recent troubles 

 with a guarantee against their recurrence, and punishment of 

 British and American offenders only on proved guilt and by no 

 greater penalty than in the home country. ^'^''* In the same year 

 a memorial from those merchants of Boston and Salem who were 

 interested in the trade suggested that the time for sending an 

 envoy had not yet come, but that a naval force should be sent 

 to China sufficient to protect American interests. ^^" These 

 various recommendations all agreed that the time was either 

 present or near at hand when the United States would have to 

 send out an envoy to treat directly with the imperial government 

 and arrange for trade on a more secure and a more equitable 

 basis. 



The government was naturally slow in yielding to this agita- 



"^ Nye, Peking the Goal, p. 80. 



^°' Henshaw, Around the World, 2 : 294. 



i« "What then is the cause of the present evil between China and the 

 other countries? Misapprehension of each other's designs and character 

 on the part of these nations. What is the remedy? Two words express 

 it, 'Honorable Treaty.' Such a treaty exists between all friendly nations." 

 Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 170. 



""Ex. Doc. 40, 26 Cong., i Sess. The same is in Canton Press, Tune 13, 

 1840. (Vol. 5, No. 37-) 



"" Ex. Doc. 170, 26 Cong., i Sess. Presented April 9, 1840, and referred 

 to the Committee on Foreign Afifairs. 



