China and the Unitfd States 



557 



with domiciliary visits and unreasonable 

 interruptions while pursuing quietly and 

 peaceably their lawful vocations in this 

 country. True, every nation has the 

 supreme right to make its own laws, but 

 it is liable to be held accountable in some 

 future day for any wrong done thereby 

 to the subjects of foreign governments. 

 Any new settlement of the exclusion 

 question, therefore, in order to satisfy 

 the Chinese government and to be in 

 accord with the dignity and sense of 

 justice of this great American republic, 

 must have regard to the unsatisfactory 

 manner in which the laws and regula- 

 tions relating to Chinese immigration, 

 made in pursuance of treaty stipula- 

 tions, have been administered, and 

 should correct the abuses that have 

 gradually sprung up, which render the 

 present state of affairs intolerable. 



What China asks is only fair play and 

 due consideration, and she can well rely 

 on the justice of the American people 

 and on the wisdom of their law-makers, 

 headed by their illustrious President, 

 who is the champion of peace, of hu- 

 manity, of just dealing, to bring this 

 important question to a successful set- 

 tlement and remove the only serious 

 obstacle to the freer development of 

 our commercial relations. 



A lamentable event has recently taken 

 place in the murder of several American 

 missionaries in one of the remote locali- 

 ties of China, to which I think it proper 

 to refer. Repeated imperial edicts have 

 recognized that foreign missionaries are 

 lawfully in China; their beneficent work 

 in instruction, hospitals, and charity has 

 been recognized by my government, and 

 the authorities have been enjoined to 

 afford them all possible protection. The 

 cause of the recent mob violence has not 

 yet been definitely ascertained, but the 

 Foreign Office at Peking has hastened 

 to inform the American minister that 



prompt punishment will beinflicted upon 

 the murderers and full indemnity made 

 for the injuries and losses sustained by 

 the missionaries. 



Unfortunately the Chinese govern- 

 ment, though influenced by a sincere de- 

 sire to repress lawlessness, is not always 

 able to anticipate and prevent mob vio- 

 lence ; but China is not the only country 

 which is sometimes put to shame by the 

 acts of excited and bad people. It does 

 not excuse the bloody deeds of which the 

 missionaries are the sufferers to say that 

 more Chinese subjects have been cruelly 

 murdered by mobs in the United States 

 during the last twenty-five years than all 

 the Americans who have been murdered 

 in China by similar riots, but it may in 

 some degree palliate the shocking crimes 

 in China. I cannot, however, refrain 

 from saying that in every instance where 

 Americans have suffered from mobs the 

 authorities have made reparation for the 

 losses, and rarely has the punishment of 

 death failed to be inflicted upon some of 

 the guilty offenders. On the other hand , 

 I am sorry to say that I have not been 

 able to recall a single instance where the 

 penalty of death has been visited on any 

 member of the mobs in the United States 

 guilty of the death of Chinese ; and in 

 only two instances of mob violence out 

 of many has indemnity been paid by the 

 authorities for the losses sustained by the 

 Chinese. 



I am free to say that the United States 

 government has on many occasions ex- 

 erted its power and authority to secure 

 punishment of the criminals through the 

 courts, but public opinion in the locali- 

 ties has been so strongly against the Chi- 

 nese that all the murderers have escaped 

 punishment. I^et us hope that a better 

 day is coming for our respective peoples, 

 and that the civilization and humanity 

 of both nations will prevail over barba- 

 rism and savagery. 



