258 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



Commodore Perry to the Emperor. 



United States Steam Frigate Susquehanna, 



Off the coast of Japan, July 1, 1853. 



The undersigned, commander-in-chief of all the naval forces of the United States of America 

 stationed in the East India, China and Japan seas, has been sent by his government to this 

 country, on a friendly mission, with ample powers to negotiate with the government of Japan, 

 touching certain matters which have been fully set forth in the letter of the President of the 

 United States, copies of which, together with copies of the letter of credence of the undersigned, 

 in the English, Dutch, and Chinese languages, are herewith transmitted. 



The original of the President's letter, and of the letter of credence, prepared in a manner 

 suited to the exalted station of your imperial majesty, will be presented by the undersigned in 

 person, when it may please your majesty to appoint a day for his reception. 



The undersigned has been commanded to state that the President entertains the most friendly 

 feelings toward Japan, but has been surprised and grieved to learn that when any of the people 

 of the United States go, of their own accord, or are thrown by the perils of the sea, within the 

 dominions of your imperial majesty, tliey are treated as if they were your worst enemies. 



The undersigned refers to the cases of the American ships Morrison, Lagoda, and Lawrence. 



With the Americans, as indeed with all Christian people, it is considered a sacred duty to 

 receive with kindness, and to succor and protect all, of whatever nation, who may be cast upon 

 their shores, and such has been the course of the Americans with respect to all Japanese subjects 

 who have fallen under their protection. 



The government of the United States desires to obtain from that of Japan some positive 

 assurance that persons who may hereafter be shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, or driven by 

 stress of weather into her ports, shall be treated with humanity. 



The undersigned is commanded to explain to the Japanese that the United States are connected 

 with no government in Europe, and that their laws do not interfere with the religion of their 

 own citizens, much less with that of other nations. 



That they inhabit a great country which lies directly between Japan and Europe, and which 

 was discovered by the nations of Europe about the same time that Japan herself was first visited 

 by Europeans ; that the portion of the American continent lying nearest to Europe was first 

 settled by emigrants from that part of the world ; that its population has rapidly spread through 

 the country, until it has reached the shores of the Pacific ocean ; that we have now large cities, 

 from which, with the aid of steam-vessels, we can reach Japan in eighteen or twenty days; that 

 our commerce with all this region of the globe is rapidly increasing, and the Japan seas will 

 soon be covered with our vessels. 



Therefore, as the United States and Japan are becoming every day nearer and nearer to each 

 other, the President desires to live in peace and friendship with your imperial majesty, but no 

 friendship can long exist, unless Japan ceases to act toward Americans as if they were her 

 enemies. 



However wise this policy may originally have been, it is unwise and impracticable now that 

 the intercourse between the two countries is so much more easy and rapid than it formerly was. 



The undersigned holds out all these arguments in the hope that the Japanese government 



