Mr. Seward to Mr. Browne
Sir: I have received Mr. Williams’s dispatch of July, No. 16. I am gratified with the consideration he has manifested in sending me a copy of a report which Tsang Kwohfan, governor-general of the province of Kiangsu Ngauhwui and Kiangsi, has submitted to the Emperor’s government upon the subject of an expected revision of treaties between China and the western powers. I am under obligations to him also for the careful and judicious commentary upon that paper which he has submitted in that dispatch. The negotiations which we have recently conducted here with the Chinese envoys have made us quite familiar with the questions which the governor-general has discussed with so much ability and candor, and with the peculiar views of the Chinese government and people concerning them.
I have given particular attention to the suggestions contained in Mr. Williams’s dispatch concerning the want of friendliness and sympathy towards the Chinese immigrants and laborers which has been manifested in our new States and Territories on the Pacific coast. Some of the injurious legislation heretofore adopted there has already been corrected by subsequent legislation and by the courts. This government, however, has not heretofore bestowed any deliberate consideration upon the evils complained of. Reasons for this oversight are apparent. China has heretofore preferred to remain without diplomatic representation in the United States, and even without representation by consular or commercial agents in the United States ports. Aggrieved Chinamen have thus had no official channel through which to convey their complaints to the government at Washington. The Chinese government at Peking might, perhaps, have invoked the aid of your legation in submitting such complaints to the government of the United States, but I am not aware that even this has ever been done. In the treaty which we have recently negotiated with the Chinese envoys we have endeavored to provide a remedy for the existing evils.
When the Emperor of China shall have ratified that treaty he will then be able to appoint consuls in the ports of the United States, and those agents will have all the powers, privileges, and facilities which will be found necessary for securing due protection to such Chinamen as shall be sojourning in, or shall have emigrated to, the United States.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. Ross Browne, Esq., &c., &c., &c.