140 Kenneth S. Laiourette, 



condition which the other was most willing to grant, that if min 

 isters of western nations were thereafter received at the capital 

 an American envoy would also be welcomed. 15 * Gushing asked 

 and obtained, however, permission to send through the Com 

 missioner the President s letter to the Emperor. 155 Negotiations 

 proceeded without further incident, and on July 3d the treaty 

 was finished and signed. The next day Gushing issued a letter 

 to the American merchants announcing the treaty and on July 5th 

 Kiying returned to Canton. 



The document so obtained was a credit to Cushing and 

 remained the standard for settling difficulties between Chinese 

 and foreigners until the treaties of i86o. 156 In general it pro 

 vided for the things stipulated by the English treaty. 157 Ameri 

 cans could reside for the purposes of commerce in the five ports 

 of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai; a definite 

 tariff was to be promulgated and annexed to the treaty ; consuls 

 were to be allowed to reside in the open cities and communicate 

 with Chinese officials on equal terms ; the old co-hong was to be 

 abolished ; no prohibitions were to be placed on trade in these 

 ports ; and the most-favored-nation clause was inserted. The 

 British treaty contained some clauses which the American docu 

 ment did not have ; the cession of Hongkong, indemnity of debts 

 due British merchants by members of the co-hong, the release of 

 prisoners of war, and the gradual evacuation of Chinese ports. 

 On the other hand, the American treaty was a much longer and 

 more carefully drawn instrument, and was superior to it in a num 

 ber of important points. Cushing enumerated sixteen of these in a 

 letter to John Nelson, written on July 5th, i844. 158 ( J ) The 

 tariff was amended in favor of American articles, such as gin 

 seng, contraband articles, and matters of government monopoly, 

 and could be changed only by mutual agreement. (2) By the 



154 Cushing to Sec. of State, July 8, 1844, Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 

 Sess., p. 38. 



55 The official reply to this letter was sent the following December in 

 due form, approving the treaty. Niles Reg., 68 : 253. June 28, 1845. 



156 Williams, Middle Kingdom, 2 : 267. 



157 The English treaty is in Lewis Hertslet, A Complete Collection of the 

 Treaties and Reciprocal Regulations at Present Subsisting between Great 

 Britain and Foreign Powers, etc., London, 1845, 6:221-225. The Ameri 

 can Treaty is in U. S. Statutes at Large, 8 : 592-605. 



158 Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 77. 



