I have received Your Majesty’s message of the 19th of July, and am
glad to know that Your Majesty recognizes the fact that the
Government and people of the United States desire of China nothing
but what is just and equitable. The purpose for which we landed
troops in China was the rescue of our legation from grave danger and
the protection of the lives and property of Americans who were
sojourning in China in the enjoyment of rights guaranteed them by
treaty and by international law. The same purposes are publicly
declared by all the powers which have landed military forces in Your
Majesty’s Empire.
I am to infer from Your Majesty’s letter that the malefactors who
have disturbed the peace of China, who have murdered the minister of
Germany and a member of the Japanese legation, and who now hold
besieged in Pekin those foreign diplomatists who still survive, have
not only not received any favor or encouragement from Your Majesty,
but are actually in rebellion against the Imperial authority. If
this be the case, I most solemnly urge upon Your Majesty’s
Government to give public assurance whether the foreign ministers
are alive, and if so, in what condition.
If these objects are accomplished it is the belief of this Government
that no obstacles will be found to exist on the part of the powers
to an amicable settlement of all the questions arising out of the
recent troubles, and the friendly good offices of this Government
will, with the assent of the other powers, be cheerfully placed at
Your Majesty’s disposition for that purpose.
By the President:
John Hay, Secretary of State.