No. 186.
Mr. Evarts to Mr. Yung
Wing.
Washington, May 25, 1880.
Sir: I am alike honored and gratified in being enabled to inform you that the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, has appointed two of our distinguished citizens, Messrs. John F. Swift, of California, and William Henry Trescot, of South Carolina, as commissioners, to act conjointly with the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to China, to negotiate and conclude a settlement by treaty of such matters of interest to the two governments, now pending, as may be confided to them.
It is expected that these commissioners, in company with the newly appointed minister to China, Mr. James B. Angell, will sail from San Francisco, en route to Peking, in the steamer of the 17th of June proximo.
I have instructed the present minister near the Government of His [Page 303] Imperial Majesty to take as early an opportunity as may be practicable and proper to acquaint the Chinese Government with the high mission of these gentlemen, and to make fitting arrangements in advance of their arrival for their appropriate reception in their elevated diplomatic character as the specially commissioned plenipotentiaries of the President and Government of the United States.
I take a singular satisfaction in expressing to you, and through you to the government you so worthily represent, the assurance of the President’s deep conviction that the sending of this high commission to China cannot fail to draw closer even than before the bonds of amity between the two governments, by opening a favorable channel for the speedy and harmonious adjustment of the questions of moment now pending between them, and that the result of its wise and conciliatory counsels, met in a like spirit of wisdom and conciliation by the enlightened statesmen who rule the destinies of the great empire of the east, will build up a lasting monument of the goodwill and kindred interests which animate the two nations.
Accept, &c.,