Mr. Williams to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to send you a careful translation which I have made of a secret memorial of Tsang Kwohfan, the highest in rank among the provincial governor-generals of the empire, and one of its most influential statesmen. It will repay perusal, not only as containing the opinions of an intelligent Chinese upon the various points on which his views were required, but from the importance of the matter and the probable influence of his decision upon the policy of his government during the coming decade.
Tsang Kwohfan is a Chinese, and regarded as one of the anti-foreign party, though he has not carried his opposition to the extent of resisting the orders of his government connected with the position and rights of foreigners. He feels, no doubt, a loyal sympathy with the danger which he thinks threatens his country through the craft and power of those who have thrice attacked it and forced the gates of Peking. This fear of untoward consequences from yielding to the new demands now made upon his country tinges this paper, and prevents him from candidly discussing their merits with his partial knowledge of their real bearings. He has been connected with the operations against the Taiping rebels during the last 20 years, and his capture of Nanking in 1864 gave him a commanding prestige that increased his influence in the empire. He is now over 70 years of age, and his long official life during four reigns adds weight to his opinion.
The standpoint from which he opposes the building of railroads and entry of steamers throughout the interior—that they will take the bread out of the mouths of the natives—has probably more weight in China than in any other country, and deserves our respectful consideration.
The occupations of the Chinese are hampered by no legal restraints of any strength. Every one is free to get his living in the best way he can. But when myriads of rustic, hard-fisted people, trained to a single line of labor, like boating or carting, are suddenly superseded by steamers or locomotives, their privations from such forced idleness may prove a serious calamity and real danger to their rulers. We have instances on record of their turbulence in other countries, one of which, cited by Josephus, showing the violence of the 40,000 workmen set adrift after Herod’s temple was finished, will suffice; and those workmen were not unlike these Chinese in culture. These laborers are altogether too ignorant to understand the question, and go about to seek a livelihood in other directions, and here they find every other line of life occupied.
The opening of the river Yangtsz’ to steamers in 1860 drove thousands of native craft off into its tributaries, and there they drove a strong competition with the boats already in those waters; and in their strife hundreds of boatmen succumbed to want and temptation. Even the native merchants, who sent their freight on the steamers, bemoaned the destitution of these boatmen, thus suddenly turned out of their old course of life, and said that many of them had to join the rebels to get food.
If the introduction of steamers has been bad for the native boatmen, and in these vessels the greater part of the crews can be safely composed of these same boatmen, how much worse would it be at first for the cartmen, muleteers, and cameleers, superseded by a railroad? They could not be employed in making the road which was to take away their daily [Page 517] bread, for their services would be required up to the day of its completion, and then they would be thrown aside—carts, wagons, mules, camels, inns, cartwrights, drivers, innkeepers, and all—never more to be needed on that route.
In Europe, the thousands who were thus superseded knew enough to turn to other occupations, or to emigrate to America, or to get work in the road itself; but no such resource is open to most of the laboring Chinese in their ignorance and misery. Between Peking and Tientsin, for instance, a distance of 80 miles, there are probably 5,000 carts engaged in carrying passengers and produce, whose owners and drivers would unite to make themselves heard by their rulers if they should be left destitute on the completion of a railroad between these two cities, even if they did not resist its construction.
The question consequently comes up in this light to men in the position of Tsang Kwohfan, who have to provide for and previse the future, and who must look at it very differently from ourselves. They may be more apprehensive of the dangers than there is ground for, but, while they have not our experience of the results to the whole country of introducing a great improvement like this, it is also true that our experience, in the United States at least, is not applicable to a densly-crowded country like China. Until more knowledge is introduced among the people, more strength infused into the government, and more tranquillity established throughout the provinces, it is a question whether it will be safe to attempt a railroad system.
The points which Governor Tsang approves in this paper are more feasible; and I am told that the central government has concluded to allow him to make an experiment of working the coal mines near Nanking or Chinkiang with foreign machinery. If once this experiment is tried, I think its success in developing a vast industry will prove a strong inducement to try other mines, as, for instance, those near Peking and north of Canton; and this source of wealth being once opened prosperously, a rail or tram road to carry the coal to the boats or a market would follow under more promising inducements than can be now expected. It is worth mentioning, in this connection, that the great stimulus to Stephenson in opening his railroad was also to get coal to a market.
The favorable view taken of granting an audience to foreign ministers, and its correlative of sending envoys to foreign countries, shows that the writer has begun to yield those antiquated notions of supremacy of the Emperor of China over all other human potentates in which he was educated, and to appreciate the benefit of an equal intercourse with other powers. In doing this, I think his position led him to be willing gracefully to accept the fait accompli as the best thing, while that change in his opinion illustrates the advantage the members of the Foreign Office have in discussing these new steps and advancing faster than their subordinates in the provinces. His ideas respecting the diffusion of Christianity are the most singular, and indicate, probably, the average opinion of the literary and official class to which he belongs. As converts to a vital faith in Christ multiply, who show in their conduct and lives the power of the new principles they profess, this indifference and ignorance of our religion will give way to greater desire to know its tenets, and a determination to oppose or favor them by various high officials.
In reading this minute of Governor Tsang’s, one is pleased to see his desire to discuss the several points in a candid spirit as he sees their bearing on the prosperity of his own country. He is evidently ignorant [Page 518] of the principles of trade, and has not carefully collected or collated facts to illustrate his arguments; but he does not find fault with the general result of foreign intercourse upon the country during the past 10 years, even while he warns his sovereign against the new schemes.
This plan of previously obtaining the opinion of the high provincial authorities upon a certain number of grave points indicates, too, the care taken by the imperial government before entering upon a new course, and assures us somewhat that when a measure is adopted it will be maintained.
While I send this paper to you as worthy of your regard, it may not be altogether irrelevant to compare the sentiments of this Chinese and pagan ruler in regard to what is best to adopt for his country’s good, and the willingness he shows to uphold the rights already conceded by treaties to the citizens of the United States, with the unjust manner in which the Chinese have been treated in our own country, especially in California.
The first article of the present treaty stipulates that “There shall be, as there has always been, peace and friendship between the United States and the Ta-Tsing empire, and their people respectively. They shall not insult or oppress each other for any trifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement between them.”
While we have been very careful in this country to see that its rulers observe this stipulation, as a nation we have not taken corresponding measures to insure equitable treatment for the natives of China resorting to various parts of our shores.
It would be out of place for me to recapitulate the harsh laws by which, in California, the evidence of a Chinese in cases of murder or robbery was not allowed to be received, so that, at the last, the unrestrained license which this gave to reckless men to misuse these emigrants rose to such a pitch that one of the members of the legislature last winter moved to repeal these disabilities, because they allowed the practice of every crime, and the effects were becoming too serious on society. Enactments imposing a discriminating taxation against the Chinese, and other minor grievances, which put them below other inhabitants of the State, I do not so much allude to, for I hope they are most of them removed; but I refer to this proviso of the treaty as a matter deserving of the attention of our own government, which desires to carry out its treaty obligations.
We have deemed the Chinese to be a nation worth making a treaty with, but the United States have taken no measures to see that its first article is fulfilled. If the Americans in China had suffered one tithe of the wrongs that the Chinese have endured within the United States since 1855, there would certainly have been a war on account of it.
This unjust treatment begins to exert an unhappy influence upon those Chinese who are going and coming between the two continents, and the present seems to me a suitable occasion to bring it before you. The first article of our treaty most distinctly acknowledges some reciprocity between the contracting parties, and every one must acknowledge a reciprocal duty with a reciprocal privilege.
Rapidly increasing intercourse and the dictates of justice and good policy will ere long show the necessity to the national and State governments of establishing some better legal status for the Chinese population of the Pacific States.
I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Page 519]Tsang, the acting governor general of the provinces of Kiangsu, Nganhwui, and Kiangsi, reports to the throne that, in obedience to the imperial will requiring previous consultations as to the points to be attended to in revising the treaties, he now reverently incloses a secret statement, upon which he humbly begs the sacred glance.
On the 20th of October last, I was honored by a secret dispatch from the general council, stating that on the 12th of that month the following decree had been received by that board:
“The Foreign Office has memorialized the throne respecting the desirableness of previous consultations upon revising the treaties, and requested that orders might be sent to the high military and civil officers, in whose jurisdiction are situated the coast and river ports open to foreign trade, requiring each of them to send in his views, [upon the points specified.]
“The period of ten years, at the end of which the treaties are to be revised, being near its close, the Foreign Office sent up a request that orders might be sent to the two superintendents of trade for the northern and southern ports, to select from among their ablest and experienced officers two persons to bring these several reports to Peking in November. We accordingly gave orders at the time to the proper officers to carry it into effect. But that memorial proposed that when these deputed messengers had brought up all the plans and careful suggestions, [of the provincial officers,] their deliberation must await our decision in view of the exigencies of the whole question.
“The month of January, 1868, being six months before the expiration of the British treaty, is the time when notice must be given of its revision; and the reports of all the civil and military provincial functionaries ought without fail to reach Peking by December, 1867. Then, when the several confidential orders from the Foreign Office respecting the articles to be discussed have reached their addresses, let the officers all examine this matter, in view of what the times require and our resources allow, so that everything be completely arranged, and a careful memorial be reported in reply. We shall thus be assisted in meeting the difficulties of the occasion, and they will fulfill the purpose of their offices. Respect this.”
From this I am led to look up to his Majesty’s far-reaching plans, by which he thus obtains the views and conclusions of the experienced and talented among his officers, and I have endeavored in the sincerest manner to carry out the design. The first dispatch and the secret letter from the Foreign Office have both been carefully considered in every point The design is to firmly maintain our own views, without hazarding the safety of the present situation, connected with the desire to wipe out our shame and redress our wrongs without giving those parties reason to suspect our plans. A scheme like this is really doing what the times require and our resources allow, and I have most painfully labored to carry out the duties committed to me.
In order to aid in the consultations respecting the revision of the treaties, as soon as I received the confidential letter from the Foreign Office, in May, I sent directions to the collectors of each custom-house to make careful inquiries, arranging their reports under various heads. I myself most carefully examined them, and added notes as needed, and then forwarded them from Shanghai on the 18th of September, by the expectant intendant, Sun Sz’tah, and another deputy, to be thoroughly sifted and collated at Peking.
In respect to the various points touched upon in the decree which I have now received, I humbly beg to suggest that in all our intercourse with foreign nations the most important things to be regarded are good faith and what is right, and perhaps even above these should be placed decision. Those things which we cannot yield should, from first to last, be firmly declared, and not retracted under any circumstances; but those privileges which we can liberally yield might be made known to them in direct and plain terms. Let our words be maintained when once spoken, and let no alternate concession and refusal be exhibited, which by its aspect of indecision and weakness will only open the door for the wily propositions and arguments of the other party.
It may be said in general that, during many centuries past, the inhabitants in western lands have been striving to encroach on each other’s kingdoms; and in every case one has tried to possess itself of the profits of the other’s trade, as a preliminary to getting hold of its territory. They have established places of business throughout China, and trafficked or become carriers in all kinds of produce, simply that they may carry out their unscrupulous schemes of injury, which will end in depriving our merchants of their means of livelihood.
Since the time when we raised troops against them, our people have long suffered every grievous calamity. If we now open three or five more ports to their trade, and the entire length of the Yangtsze river, it will daily add to the distress and indigence of our poor people, who, alas! are now nearly quite driven to the wall.
If we listen to the proposal of the foreigners to open the trade in salt, our own trade in and transportation of the article will presently be brought to naught. If we consent to their scheme of building warehouses, [in the country,] the occupation of those who now keep the inns and depots will likewise suffer. Their demand to have their small steamers allowed access to our rivers will involve the ruin of our large and small boats, and the beggary of sailors and supercargoes. So, also, if we allow them to construct rail-roads [Page 520] and set up telegraph lines, the livelihood of our cartmen, muleteers, innkeepers and porters will be taken from them.
Among all the various demands which they make, however, that of opening coal mines should be excepted; for by working mines in the foreign way, and employing, machinery, our own country would be permanently benefited, and it appears to me, therefore, worthy of a trial. The suggestions of Ying Pau-Shi (now intendant at Shanghai) upon this point, in his minutes, seem to be feasible, and I have marked some notes upon it in approval.
In regard to the two proposals of steamers going up all our rivers, and of building railroads, if foreigners are allowed to carry them on, the profits and advantages of our own country will gradually be carried off to other lands; and even if our own subjects join such enterprises, and get foreigners to conduct them, the rich and the strong will then engross the labor of the poor. Neither of them, therefore, are admissible.
In explanation of these points I have already forwarded my own observations, in the dispatches sent in care of Sun Sz’tah and his colleague, in which I have discussed each clearly in the interest of the thrift and livelihood of our own people, fortifying my positions with such arguments as cannot be gainsaid. If, however, the foreigners press for their adoption unceasingly, it will be desirable to let them know that even if they should be able to force the authorities at Peking to consent, the provincial rulers, like myself and others, would still resist their introduction with all our strength; and if, by some means, we too should be compelled to give our consent, there would still remain the myriads of common people, who, in the extremity of their poverty, would see how they could better themselves, and rise to oppose the foreigners in a manner that all the authorities in China could not curb or repress. The princes and magnates of the middle kingdom need have no lack of argument in pleading for the lives of their people; and even if our course should bring about a rupture, and we resort to force to preserve the rights and employments of our people, the struggle would not be owing to a mere empty discussion on things of no importance. On the one hand, we could appeal to Heaven, earth, and our sainted Emperors, and on the other to the inhabitants dwelling within every sea, [for the justice of our cause.] We, in fact, between these parties ought to fear nothing as to the result, as after it we would have nothing to repent of.
Upon the questions of granting an audience, sending ministers to foreign courts, and permitting the propagation of religion, I did not make any observations in the dispatch forwarded to Peking.
I have humbly ascertained, however, that in the year 1676* Our canonized sovereign, the emperor Humane (Kanghi,) admitted the Russian Nicholas and others to the presence, but the offerings given and ceremonies then practiced cannot now be fully ascertained. Though it is certain that the Russians were then discussing the frontier between our two countries, and the conditions of trade between us and them, they were still treated as an empire of equal position, and in a manner totally different from the usages practiced towards the Coreans and other outside tribes. The same treatment that Kanghi extended toward the Russians has since, during the reigns of Tau Kwang and Hien Fung, been shown towards the British, French, and Americans, i.e., regarding them all as equal nations. Our sacred dynasty, in its love of virtue and kindness to those from afar, has no desire to arrogate to itself the sway over the lands within the boundless oceans, or require that their ministers should render homage; and it will be suitable if, when your Majesty yourself takes the reins of government, they request an audience to grant it. The suitable presents and ceremonies can be settled at the time; for, as the envoys represent nations of equal rank, they need not be forced to do what is difficult. This course, on the whole, befits best the equality admitted, and exhibits our courtesy and dignity at the same time.
In regard to sending embassies abroad, the constant intercourse between us and other countries, with whom we have amicable relations, will constantly cause questions to arise. The risk of our envoys disgracing those who sent them, and the fear of involving ourselves in vast expenses, are both subjects of anxiety. It may be found best for the high officers of both our own and foreignt nations to carefully consider the condition of affairs, and when necessary recommend those whom they would send; the ability of these men being ascertained, they could await the time for employ. Their official rank, [in our service,] and the period of sending them, are not required to be fixed beforehand. If suitable men can be found, send them; but not, if none are ready, keeping the power of doing so always in our own hands; nor should other powers, if we are unwilling to send envoys, regard it as a cause for hostilities.
I have just received the dispatch from the Foreign Office respecting the appointment, by his Majesty’s order, of Chi Kang and Sun as our envoys to western countries. Henceforth there will be a perpetual interchange of civilities; the affairs of diplomacy [Page 521] will gradually increase; and though it may be found that one or two of our agents may prove unfit for their posts, who can tell whether such envoys as Su Wu, Pan Chau, Fu Pen, and Hung Hau* may not again arise?†
Seeing, therefore, that this point has for its objects the honor and prosperity of his Majesty, and the smoothing over difficulties, it seems best, on the whole, to accede to it.
In respect to affording facilities for the propagation of religion, I may be allowed to observe that the Roman Catholics began their work by tempting men to join them from mercenary motives; but latterly most foreign missionaries have been poor, and as they could not hold out so many advantages, their doctrines have not been believed. From the days of the Tsin and Han dynasties, the doctrines of Confucius and the sages have been rather obscured, so that Budhism has got gradually the ascendant; yet Budhism has been very greatly supplanted in India, its original country, by Mohammedanism. So, too, Romanism, which arose in the Roman empire, and obtained the supremacy; but subsequently Protestantism has vigorously opposed it. From these facts it is evidently plain that all these different religions fluctuate, having their rise and fall; while the doctrines of Duke Chau and of Confucius suffer no attrition during the lapse of ages, but still suffice to regulate the government of China; correct the manners of its people, and exalt the dignity and institutions of the land. If, therefore, the adherents of these other doctrines take every method to promulgate them, they will after all get but few supporters and converts. As there are many churches in the districts and prefectures in every province already erected, there can be no want for allowing them to erect any more. Should the foreigners, then, at the coming revision of the treaty, persistently press their demands on this head, it will be enough to promise them that, whenever occasion requires, protective orders will be issued in regard to this faith. It will not be necessary to add an additional article, and I think they will not ask further, or often urge it.
These latter points, whose results are not likely to be very disastrous, need not be debated so as to cause bitterness, though they ought not to be instantly granted when asked for. But the other demands for railroads, steamers going up the rivers, opening the salt trade, and building warehouses in the interior, are so disastrous to the occupations of our people that they ought to be strenuously resisted. Bitter disputes need not arise about them, nor harsh language be used, but the points can be discussed good-humoredly, and fair truthful arguments employed to convince them, at the same time, that we are decided not to grant them. Let them fully know that a regard for the welfare of the people as the means of preserving the state has been the constant principle of our ancient rulers through all ages, and also the law of all the sovereigns of our reigning family. Many affairs now demand our attention, while the foreigners are afraid of nothing; yet we cannot assent to everything they ask without any reference to its propriety, and disregard the necessities of our own people.
Should the day come when China gets the ascendant, and foreign nations decay and grow weak, we then should only seek to protect our own black-haired people, and have no wish to get military glory beyond the seas. Although they are crooked and deceitful, they yet know that reason and right cannot be gainsaid, and that the wrath of a people cannot be resisted. By employing a frank sincerity on our part we can no doubt move them to good ways, and then everything will be easily arranged to satisfaction.
These humble views are submitted, crude and unmethodical as they are, for examination, that those which are deemed proper may be carefully considered.
A respectful memorial, drawn up in accordance with the decree concerning the revision of the treaty, and now sent by courier at the rate of 400 li (125 miles) a day, [to Peking,] and upon which I humbly beg their Majesties, the Empress Regents and the Emperor, to bestow a sacred glance, and command their instructions on it.
- No embassy from Russia is recorded in Du Halde as having come to Peking this year; that of Ysbrandt Ides was in 1689, but an envoy also came into Peking the year before. Who is here referred to by Nicholas is not clear, but the date in the text is probably wrong.—Translator.↩
- These are four distinguished envoys. Su Wu was sent in the year B. C. 100, to a tribe of the Scythians; Pan Chau, in A. D. 87, attacked an army beyond the great wall, with whom he made a favorable peace; Fu Peh, in A. D. 1042. was sent to resist the Kitans, who had occupied districts south of the wall, and made them retire; and Hung Hau, in A. D. 1143, returned to Hangow from an embassy to Mongolia.↩
- This word is not found in one copy.↩