Latest / The Science of Being Great / Treaty with China - Mark Twain
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- 0:00Speaker 1: This is Section one of the Treaty with China. This
- 0:04Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
- 0:07Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox
- 0:11Speaker 1: dot org. The Treaty with China by Mark Twain. Section
- 0:15Speaker 1: one The Treaty with China by Mark Twain, Its provisions explained.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Every One has read the treaty which has just been
- 0:26Speaker 1: concluded between the United States and China. Every one has
- 0:30Speaker 1: read it. But in it there are expressions which not
- 0:34Speaker 1: every one understands. There are clauses which seem vague, other
- 0:39Speaker 1: clauses which seem almost unnecessary, and still others which bear
- 0:44Speaker 1: the flavor of surplicage, to speak in legal phrase. The
- 0:48Speaker 1: most careful reading of the document will leave these impressions,
- 0:53Speaker 1: that is, unless one comprehends the past and present condition
- 0:56Speaker 1: of foreign intercourse with China, in which case it will
- 0:59Speaker 1: be seen at once that there is no word in
- 1:02Speaker 1: the treaty without a meaning, and no clause in it,
- 1:06Speaker 1: but was dictated by a present need or a wise
- 1:09Speaker 1: policy looking to the future. It will interest many of
- 1:13Speaker 1: your readers to know why this, that and the other
- 1:16Speaker 1: provision was incorporated in the treaty. It will interest others
- 1:20Speaker 1: to know in what manner and to what extent the
- 1:24Speaker 1: treaty will affect our existing relations with China. Apart from
- 1:28Speaker 1: its grave importance, the subject is really as entertaining as
- 1:32Speaker 1: any I know of, and, asking pardon for the presumption,
- 1:36Speaker 1: I desire to write a few paragraphs upon it. We
- 1:40Speaker 1: made a treaty with China in eighteen fifty eight. Mister
- 1:43Speaker 1: Burlingham's new treaty is an addition to that one, and
- 1:47Speaker 1: an amplification of its powers. The first article of this
- 1:51Speaker 1: new treaty reads as follows. Article one, His Majesty, the
- 1:56Speaker 1: Emperor of China, being of the opinion that, in making
- 1:59Speaker 1: concer s sessions to the citizens or subjects of foreign
- 2:02Speaker 1: powers of the privilege of residing on certain tracts of land,
- 2:07Speaker 1: or resorting to certain waters of that Empire for the
- 2:10Speaker 1: purposes of trade, he has by no means relinquished his
- 2:15Speaker 1: right of eminent domain or dominion over the said land
- 2:18Speaker 1: and waters. Hereby agrees that no such concession or grant
- 2:23Speaker 1: shall be construed to give to any power or party
- 2:27Speaker 1: which may be at war with or hostile to the
- 2:30Speaker 1: United States, the right to attack the citizens of the
- 2:34Speaker 1: United States or their property within the said lands or waters,
- 2:39Speaker 1: And the United States for themselves hereby agree to abstain
- 2:42Speaker 1: from offensively attacking the citizens or subjects of any power
- 2:47Speaker 1: or party, or their property with which they may be
- 2:50Speaker 1: at war on any such tract of land or waters
- 2:54Speaker 1: of the said Empire. But nothing in this article shall
- 2:57Speaker 1: be construed to prevent the United States from resisting an
- 3:00Speaker 1: attack by any hostile power or party upon their citizens
- 3:05Speaker 1: or their property. It is further agreed that if any
- 3:08Speaker 1: right or interest in any tract of land in China
- 3:12Speaker 1: has been or shall hereafter be granted by the Government
- 3:15Speaker 1: of China to the United States or their citizens for
- 3:19Speaker 1: purposes of trade or commerce, that grant shall in no
- 3:23Speaker 1: event be construed to divest the Chinese authorities of their
- 3:27Speaker 1: right of jurisdiction over persons and property within said tract
- 3:31Speaker 1: of land, except so far as that right may have
- 3:34Speaker 1: been expressly relinquished by treaty in or near one or
- 3:39Speaker 1: two of the cities of China. The Emperor has set
- 3:42Speaker 1: apart certain tracts of land for occupation by foreigners. The
- 3:46Speaker 1: foreigners residing upon these tracts create courts of justice, organize
- 3:51Speaker 1: police forces, and govern themselves by laws of their own framing.
- 3:56Speaker 1: They levy and collect taxes, They pave their streets, they
- 4:00Speaker 1: light them with gas. These communities, through the liberality of China,
- 4:05Speaker 1: are so independent and so unshackled, that they have all
- 4:09Speaker 1: the seeming of colonies, insomuch that the jurisdiction of China
- 4:14Speaker 1: over them was in time lost sight of and disregarded
- 4:18Speaker 1: at least questioned. The English communities came to be looked
- 4:22Speaker 1: upon as part of England, and the American colonies as
- 4:26Speaker 1: part of America, and so after the Trent Affair, it
- 4:30Speaker 1: was seriously held by many that the Confederate ships of
- 4:33Speaker 1: war would be as justifiable in making attacks upon the
- 4:36Speaker 1: American communities in China as they would be in attacking
- 4:40Speaker 1: New York or Boston. This doctrine was really held, notwithstanding
- 4:45Speaker 1: the supremacy of China over these tracts of land was
- 4:48Speaker 1: recognized at regular intervals in the most substantial way, viz.
- 4:52Speaker 1: By way of payment to the government of a stipulated rental. Again,
- 4:57Speaker 1: these foreign communities took it upon themselves to levy taxes
- 5:01Speaker 1: upon Chinamen residing upon their so called concessions, and in
- 5:06Speaker 1: force their collection Perhaps those Chinamen were just as well
- 5:10Speaker 1: governed as they would have been anywhere in China, and
- 5:14Speaker 1: perhaps it was entirely just that they should pay for
- 5:17Speaker 1: good government. But the principle was wrong. It was an
- 5:21Speaker 1: encroachment upon the rights of the crown and caused the
- 5:24Speaker 1: government uneasiness. The boundary thus passed, there was no telling
- 5:29Speaker 1: how far the encroachment might be pushed. The municipal council
- 5:32Speaker 1: which taxed these Chinamen was composed altogether of foreigners, so
- 5:37Speaker 1: there was taxation without representation, a policy which we fought
- 5:42Speaker 1: seven long years to overthrow. The French have persistently claimed
- 5:46Speaker 1: the right to exercise untrammeled jurisdiction over both natives and
- 5:50Speaker 1: foreigners residing within their concessions, but the present Minister, Monsieur Moustier,
- 5:56Speaker 1: has yielded this position in favor of the anti concession doctrine,
- 6:00Speaker 1: and thus have ignored the eminent dominion of the Chinese government.
- 6:05Speaker 1: Under Article one of the New Treaty, the question of
- 6:08Speaker 1: whether an enemy of America can attack an American colony
- 6:12Speaker 1: in China is answered in the negative. Under it, the
- 6:16Speaker 1: right of the Chinese government to regulate the governing, taxing
- 6:19Speaker 1: and trying of its subjects resident within American concessions is
- 6:24Speaker 1: recognized in a word. Its supreme control over its own
- 6:28Speaker 1: people is recognized also in the final sentence. Its control
- 6:34Speaker 1: over scattering foreigners of nationalities not in treaty relations with
- 6:39Speaker 1: China not enrolled among the regular concessions is granted. During
- 6:44Speaker 1: a war between Russia and Denmark, a Prussian man of
- 6:48Speaker 1: war captured two Danish vessels lying at harbor in a
- 6:51Speaker 1: Chinese harbor or roadstead and carried them off. Article one
- 6:55Speaker 1: of this treaty pledges that like offenses shall not be
- 6:59Speaker 1: committed in Chinese waters by American cruisers, and looks to
- 7:03Speaker 1: Chinese protection of American ships against such outrages. Article two.
- 7:10Speaker 1: The United States of America and His Majesty the Emperor
- 7:13Speaker 1: of China, believing that the safety and prosperity of commerce
- 7:18Speaker 1: will thereby best be promoted, agree that any privilege or
- 7:22Speaker 1: immunity in respect to trade or navigation within the Chinese dominions,
- 7:27Speaker 1: which may not have been stipulated for by treaty, shall
- 7:30Speaker 1: be subject to the discretion of the Chinese government, and
- 7:33Speaker 1: may be regulated by it accordingly, but not in a
- 7:36Speaker 1: manner or spirit incompatible with the treaty stipulations of the parties.
- 7:42Speaker 1: At a first glance, this clause would seem unnecessary. Unnecessary
- 7:46Speaker 1: because the granting of any privilege not stipulated in a
- 7:50Speaker 1: treaty with China must of course be a matter entirely
- 7:54Speaker 1: subject to the pleasure of the Chinese government. Yet the
- 7:57Speaker 1: clause has its significance. There is in China a class
- 8:01Speaker 1: of foreigners who demand privileges, concessions, and immunities instead of
- 8:06Speaker 1: asking for them. A class who look upon the Chinese
- 8:09Speaker 1: as degraded barbarians and not entitled to charity, as helpless
- 8:15Speaker 1: and therefore to be trodden underfoot. A tyrannical class who
- 8:19Speaker 1: say openly that the Chinese should be forced to do thus,
- 8:23Speaker 1: and so that foreigners know what is best for them
- 8:26Speaker 1: better than they do themselves, and therefore it would be
- 8:30Speaker 1: but Christian kindness to take them by the throat and
- 8:32Speaker 1: compel them to see their real interests as the enlightened
- 8:36Speaker 1: foreigners see them. These people harass and distress the government
- 8:40Speaker 1: by constantly dictating to it and meddling with its affairs.
- 8:44Speaker 1: They beget and keep alive a distrust of foreigners among
- 8:48Speaker 1: the Chinese people. It will surprise many among us to
- 8:52Speaker 1: know that the Chinese are eminently hospitable by nature towards strangers.
- 8:58Speaker 1: It will surprise many who whose notion of Chinamen is
- 9:01Speaker 1: that they are a race who formerly manifested their interest
- 9:05Speaker 1: in shipwrecked strangers by exhibiting them in iron cages in
- 9:09Speaker 1: public in a half starved condition, as rare and curious monsters,
- 9:14Speaker 1: to know that a few hundred years ago they welcomed
- 9:18Speaker 1: venturous Jesuit priests who struggled to their shores with great cordiality,
- 9:23Speaker 1: and gave to them the fullest liberty in the dissemination
- 9:27Speaker 1: of their doctrines. I have seen at Saint Peter's in
- 9:30Speaker 1: Rome a picture of certain restive Chinamen barbecuing some eighty
- 9:36Speaker 1: Romish priests. This was an uncalled for stretch of hospitality,
- 9:41Speaker 1: if it be proposed to call it hospitality at all.
- 9:44Speaker 1: But the caging and barbecuing of strangers were disagreeable attentions
- 9:49Speaker 1: which were secured to those strangers by their predecessors. As
- 9:54Speaker 1: I have said, the Chinese were exceedingly hospitable and kind
- 9:58Speaker 1: toward the first foreigners who came among them two hundred
- 10:01Speaker 1: or three hundred years ago. They listened to their preachings,
- 10:04Speaker 1: they joined their church. They saw the doctrines of Christianity
- 10:08Speaker 1: spreading far and wide over the land. Yet nobody murmured
- 10:12Speaker 1: against these things. The Jesuit priests were elevated to high
- 10:16Speaker 1: offices in the government. China's confidence in the foreigners was
- 10:20Speaker 1: not betrayed in time. Had the Jesuits been let alone,
- 10:25Speaker 1: they would have completely christianized China, no doubt. That is,
- 10:29Speaker 1: they would have made of the Chinese Christians according to
- 10:32Speaker 1: their moral, physical and intellectual strength, and then given nature
- 10:36Speaker 1: a few generations in which to shed the pagan skin
- 10:40Speaker 1: and sap the pagan blood, and so perfect the work.
- 10:43Speaker 1: For be it known, one Jesuit missionary is equal to
- 10:47Speaker 1: an army of any other denomination, where there is actual
- 10:51Speaker 1: work to be done and solid unsentimental wisdom to be exercised. However,
- 10:57Speaker 1: to pursue my narrative, some priests of the Dominican order
- 11:01Speaker 1: arrived and very shortly began to make trouble. They began
- 11:05Speaker 1: to cramp the privileges of converts. They flouted the system
- 11:09Speaker 1: of persuasion of the Jesuits and adopted that of driving.
- 11:13Speaker 1: They meddled in politics. They became arrogant and dictatorial. They
- 11:18Speaker 1: fomented discords everywhere. In a word, they utterly destroyed Chinese
- 11:23Speaker 1: confidence in foreigners and raised up Chinese hatred and distrust
- 11:27Speaker 1: against them. For these things, they were driven out of
- 11:30Speaker 1: the country when strangers came. After that, the Chinese, with
- 11:34Speaker 1: that calm wisdom which comes only through bitter experience, caged
- 11:39Speaker 1: them or hanged them. I spoke a while ago of
- 11:42Speaker 1: a domineering, hectoring class of foreigners in China, who are
- 11:46Speaker 1: always interfering with the government's business, and thus keeping alive
- 11:50Speaker 1: the distrust and dislike engendered by their kindred spirits the
- 11:54Speaker 1: Dominicans an age ago, they clog progress. Article two of
- 11:59Speaker 1: the treaty is intended to discountenance all officious intermeddling with
- 12:03Speaker 1: the government's business by Americans, and so move a step
- 12:07Speaker 1: toward the restoration of that Chinese confidence in strangers which
- 12:11Speaker 1: was annihilated so long ago. Article three. The Emperor of
- 12:16Speaker 1: China shall have the right to appoint consuls at ports
- 12:19Speaker 1: of the United States, who shall enjoy the same privileges
- 12:23Speaker 1: and immunities as those which are enjoyed by public law
- 12:26Speaker 1: and treaty in the United States. By the consuls of
- 12:29Speaker 1: Great Britain and Russia, or either of them, And soon,
- 12:33Speaker 1: perhaps within a year or two, there will doubtless be
- 12:36Speaker 1: a Chinese envoy located permanently at Washington. The consuls referred
- 12:41Speaker 1: to above will be appointed with all convenient dispatch. They
- 12:45Speaker 1: will be Americans, but will in all cases be men
- 12:48Speaker 1: who are capable of feeling pity for persecuted chinamen, and
- 12:52Speaker 1: will call to a strict account all who wrong them.
- 12:56Speaker 1: It affords me infinite satisfaction to call particular attention to
- 13:00Speaker 1: this console clause. And think of the howl that will
- 13:03Speaker 1: go up from the cooks, the railroad graders, and the
- 13:06Speaker 1: cobblestone artists of California when they read it. They can
- 13:10Speaker 1: never beat and bang and set the dogs on the
- 13:12Speaker 1: chinamen any more. These pastimes are lost to them forever.
- 13:17Speaker 1: In San Francisco, a large part of the most interesting
- 13:20Speaker 1: local news in the daily papers consists of gorgeous compliments
- 13:24Speaker 1: to the able and efficient officer this and that for
- 13:28Speaker 1: arresting a fu or ching Wang or song Hi for
- 13:33Speaker 1: stealing a chicken. But when some white brute breaks an
- 13:36Speaker 1: unoffending chinaman's head with a brick, the paper does not
- 13:39Speaker 1: compliment any officer for arresting the assaulter for the simple
- 13:43Speaker 1: reason that the officer does not make the arrest. The
- 13:46Speaker 1: shedding of Chinese blood only makes him laugh. He considers
- 13:50Speaker 1: it fun of the most entertaining description. I have seen
- 13:54Speaker 1: dogs almost tear helpless chinamen to pieces in broad daylight
- 13:58Speaker 1: in San Francisco, and I have seen hod carriers who
- 14:02Speaker 1: help to make presidents stand around and enjoy the sport.
- 14:06Speaker 1: I have seen troops of boys assault a chinamen with
- 14:08Speaker 1: stones when he was walking quietly along about his business
- 14:12Speaker 1: and send him bruised and bleeding home. I have seen
- 14:16Speaker 1: chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways
- 14:21Speaker 1: possible to the invention of a degraded nature. But I
- 14:24Speaker 1: never saw a policeman interfere in the matter. And I
- 14:27Speaker 1: never saw a chinaman righted in a court of justice
- 14:30Speaker 1: for wrongs thus done him. The California laws do not
- 14:34Speaker 1: allow chinamen to testify against white men. California is one
- 14:39Speaker 1: of the most liberal and progressive states in the Union,
- 14:42Speaker 1: and the best and the worthiest of her citizens will
- 14:45Speaker 1: be glad to know that the days of persecuting chinamen
- 14:49Speaker 1: are over. In California. It will be observed by Article
- 14:53Speaker 1: three that the Chinese consuls will be placed upon the
- 14:56Speaker 1: same footing as those from Russia and Great Britain, and
- 15:00Speaker 1: that no mention is made of France. The authorities got
- 15:03Speaker 1: into trouble with a French consul in San Francisco once,
- 15:07Speaker 1: and in order to pacify Napoleon, the United States enlarged
- 15:10Speaker 1: the privileges of French consuls beyond those enjoyed by the
- 15:14Speaker 1: consuls of all other countries. Article four, the twenty ninth
- 15:20Speaker 1: article of the Treaty of the eighteenth of June eighteen
- 15:23Speaker 1: fifty eight, having stipulated for the exemption of Christian citizens
- 15:27Speaker 1: of the United States and Chinese converts from persecution in
- 15:31Speaker 1: China on account of their faith, it is further agreed
- 15:35Speaker 1: that citizens of the United States in China of every
- 15:38Speaker 1: religious persuasion, and Chinese subjects in the United States shall
- 15:43Speaker 1: enjoy entire liberty of conscience, and shall be exempt from
- 15:47Speaker 1: all disability or persecution on account of their religious faith
- 15:51Speaker 1: or worship in either country. Cemeteries for a sepulture of
- 15:55Speaker 1: the dead of whatever nativity or nationality, shall be held
- 15:59Speaker 1: in respect and free from disturbance or profanation. The old
- 16:03Speaker 1: treaty protected Christian citizens of the United States from persecution.
- 16:08Speaker 1: The new one is broader. It protects our citizens of
- 16:11Speaker 1: every religious persuasion, Jews, Mormons, and all. It also protects
- 16:17Speaker 1: Chinamen in this country in the worship of their own
- 16:19Speaker 1: gods after their own fashions, and also relieves them of
- 16:23Speaker 1: all disabilities suffered by them. Heretofore on account of their religion.
- 16:28Speaker 1: This protection of Christians in China is hardly necessary nowadays,
- 16:33Speaker 1: for the Chinamen have about fallen back to their ancient
- 16:36Speaker 1: ample spirit of toleration. Again, as regards religion, anybody can
- 16:41Speaker 1: preach in China who chooses to do it, he will
- 16:44Speaker 1: not be disturbed. The former persecution of Christians in China,
- 16:48Speaker 1: which was brought about by the Dominicans, seldom extended to
- 16:52Speaker 1: the maiming or killing of converts. Anyhow, they generally invited
- 16:56Speaker 1: the convert to trample upon a cross. If he refused,
- 16:59Speaker 1: he was proven a Christian, and so was shunned and disgraced.
- 17:04Speaker 1: This diminished the list of Chinese Christians very much, but
- 17:07Speaker 1: did not root out that religion by any means. Religious
- 17:11Speaker 1: books have been written and translations made by Chinese Christians
- 17:15Speaker 1: and there are as many as a million converts in
- 17:18Speaker 1: China at the present time. There are many families who
- 17:21Speaker 1: have inherited their Christianity by direct descent through six generations.
- 17:26Speaker 1: In fact, it is believed that Christianity existed in China
- 17:30Speaker 1: one thousand, one hundred years ago. For many years, the
- 17:34Speaker 1: missionaries heard vaguely from time to time of a monument
- 17:38Speaker 1: of the seventh century, which was reported to be still
- 17:41Speaker 1: standing over the grave of some forgotten Christian far out
- 17:45Speaker 1: in the interior of China. Two of these missionaries, the
- 17:49Speaker 1: reverends Mesters Lies and Williams, traveled west one thousand miles
- 17:54Speaker 1: and found it. This brings me back to the fact
- 17:57Speaker 1: before stated that the religious tall and protection guaranteed by
- 18:02Speaker 1: Article four are needed more by Chinamen here than by
- 18:06Speaker 1: Americans in China. Those two missionaries traveled away out into
- 18:10Speaker 1: the heart of China, preaching the Gospel of Christ every day,
- 18:14Speaker 1: always being listened to attentively by large assemblages, and all
- 18:18Speaker 1: was kindly and hospitably treated. Moreover, these missionaries sold, mind
- 18:23Speaker 1: you sold for cash to these assemblages twenty thousand copies
- 18:27Speaker 1: of religious books, thus wisely and pleasantly combining salvation with business.
- 18:33Speaker 1: If a Chinese missionary were to come disseminating his eternal
- 18:37Speaker 1: truths among us, we would laugh at him first and
- 18:40Speaker 1: bombard him with cabbages afterward. We would do this because
- 18:44Speaker 1: we are civilized and enlightened. We would make him understand
- 18:47Speaker 1: that he couldn't peddle his eternal truths in this market.
- 18:51Speaker 1: China is one of the few countries where perfect religious
- 18:54Speaker 1: freedom prevails. It is one of the few countries where
- 18:58Speaker 1: no disabilities are inflicted on a man for his religion's sake.
- 19:01Speaker 1: In the matter of holding office and embezzling the public funds.
- 19:06Speaker 1: A Jesuit priest was formerly the vice president of the
- 19:09Speaker 1: Board of Public Works, an exceedingly high position, and the
- 19:13Speaker 1: present viceroy of two important provinces is a Mohammedan. There
- 19:18Speaker 1: are a great many Mohammedans in China. The last clause
- 19:22Speaker 1: of Article four was not absolutely necessary. Perhaps still it
- 19:26Speaker 1: was well enough to have it in. When the lower
- 19:29Speaker 1: classes in California learn that they are forever debarred from
- 19:32Speaker 1: mutilating living chinamen, their first impulse will naturally be to
- 19:37Speaker 1: take it out of the dead ones. But disappointment shall
- 19:41Speaker 1: be their portion. A chinaman's tale is protected by law
- 19:44Speaker 1: in California, for if he lost his cue, he would
- 19:48Speaker 1: be a dishonored Chinaman forever, and would forever be in exile.
- 19:52Speaker 1: He could not think of returning to his native land
- 19:54Speaker 1: to offer his countrymen the absurd spectacle of a man
- 19:57Speaker 1: without a tale to his head. The Chinainese regard their
- 20:00Speaker 1: dead with a reverence which amounts to worship. All Chinamen
- 20:04Speaker 1: who die in foreign lands are shipped home to China
- 20:08Speaker 1: for permanent burial. Even the contracts which consign the wretched
- 20:12Speaker 1: coolies to slavery at five dollars a month's salary and
- 20:16Speaker 1: two suits of clothes a year, stipulate that if he
- 20:19Speaker 1: dies in Cuba, the Sandwich Islands, or any other foreign land,
- 20:24Speaker 1: his body must be sent home. There are vast vaults
- 20:27Speaker 1: in San Francisco where hundreds of dead Chinamen have been
- 20:31Speaker 1: salted away by gentle hands for shipment. The heads of
- 20:35Speaker 1: the great Chinese companies keep a record of the names
- 20:37Speaker 1: of their thousands of members, and every individual is strictly
- 20:41Speaker 1: accounted for to the Home Office. Every now and then
- 20:44Speaker 1: a vessel is chartered and sent to China, freighted with corpses.
- 20:49Speaker 1: Article five. The United States of America and the Emperor
- 20:53Speaker 1: of China cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of
- 20:58Speaker 1: man to change his home and his allegiance, and also
- 21:01Speaker 1: the mutual advantages of the free migration and immigration of
- 21:05Speaker 1: their citizens and subjects, respectively, from the one country to
- 21:09Speaker 1: the other, for purposes of curiosity, trade, or as permanent residents.
- 21:14Speaker 1: The high contracting parties therefore join in reprobating any other
- 21:18Speaker 1: than an entirely voluntary immigration for these purposes. They consequently
- 21:23Speaker 1: agree to pass laws making it a penal offense for
- 21:27Speaker 1: a citizen of the United States or a Chinese subject
- 21:30Speaker 1: to take Chinese subjects either to the United States or
- 21:33Speaker 1: to any other foreign country, or for a Chinese subject
- 21:37Speaker 1: or a citizen of the United States to take citizens
- 21:40Speaker 1: of the United States to China or any other foreign
- 21:43Speaker 1: country without their free and voluntary consent, respectively. Article five
- 21:49Speaker 1: aims at two objects, viz. The spreading of the naturalization
- 21:53Speaker 1: doctrine mister Seward could not give his assent to a
- 21:57Speaker 1: treaty which did not have that in it, and breaking
- 22:00Speaker 1: up of the infamous Coolie trade. It is popularly believed
- 22:04Speaker 1: that the Emperor of China sells coolies himself, by the
- 22:07Speaker 1: shipload and even at retail. But such is not the case.
- 22:12Speaker 1: He is known to be exceedingly anxious to destroy the
- 22:15Speaker 1: COOLi trade. The voluntary emigration of Chinamen to California already
- 22:20Speaker 1: amounts to one thousand a month, and this treaty will
- 22:24Speaker 1: greatly increase it. It will not only increase it, but
- 22:27Speaker 1: will bring over a better class of Chinamen, men of means,
- 22:31Speaker 1: character and standing in their own country. The present Chinese immigration, however,
- 22:36Speaker 1: is the best class of people in some respects, though
- 22:39Speaker 1: not at all that comes to us from foreign lands.
- 22:42Speaker 1: They are the best railroad hands we have by far.
- 22:46Speaker 1: They are the most faithful, the most temperate, the most peaceable,
- 22:49Speaker 1: the most industrious. The Pacific Railroad Company employs them almost
- 22:54Speaker 1: exclusively and by thousands. When a chicken roost or a
- 22:58Speaker 1: sluice box is robbed in California, some Chinamen is almost
- 23:02Speaker 1: sure to suffer for it. Yet these dreadful people are
- 23:05Speaker 1: trusted in the most reckless manner by the railroad people.
- 23:09Speaker 1: The Chinese railroad hands go down in numbers to Sacramento
- 23:12Speaker 1: and often spend their last cent. Then they simply go
- 23:15Speaker 1: to the superintendent state their case write their names on
- 23:19Speaker 1: a card, together with a promise to refund out of
- 23:22Speaker 1: the first wages coming to them, and with no other
- 23:25Speaker 1: security than this, railroad tickets are sold to them on credit.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Mister Crocker and his subordinates have done this time and
- 23:32Speaker 1: again and have yet to lose the first cent by it.
- 23:36Speaker 1: In the towns and cities, the Chinamen are cooks, chambermaids, washerwomen, nurses, merchants, butchers, gardeners,
- 23:44Speaker 1: interpreters in banks and business houses, et cetera. They are
- 23:48Speaker 1: willing to do anything that will afford them a living
- 23:52Speaker 1: end of Section one. This is Section two of the
- 24:00Speaker 1: Treaty with China by Mark Twain. This LibriVox recording is
- 24:04Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Treaty with China by Mark
- 24:07Speaker 1: Twain's Section two, Article six. Citizens of the United States
- 24:13Speaker 1: visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities,
- 24:18Speaker 1: or exemptions in respect to travel or residents as may
- 24:22Speaker 1: there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the
- 24:25Speaker 1: most favored nation, And reciprocally, Chinese subjects visiting or residing
- 24:31Speaker 1: in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities,
- 24:35Speaker 1: and exemptions in respect to travel or residents, as may
- 24:39Speaker 1: be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most
- 24:42Speaker 1: favored nation. But nothing herein contained shall be held to
- 24:46Speaker 1: confer naturalization upon the citizens of the United States in China,
- 24:50Speaker 1: nor upon the subjects of China in the United States.
- 24:54Speaker 1: There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth
- 24:57Speaker 1: on the Pacific coast when Articles sit is read, for
- 25:01Speaker 1: at one sweep all the crippling, intolerant, and unconstitutional laws
- 25:06Speaker 1: framed by California against Chinamen pass away, and discover in
- 25:13Speaker 1: stage parlance twenty thousand prospective Hong Kong and Sujo voters
- 25:18Speaker 1: and office holders tableaux. I am not fond of Chinamen,
- 25:24Speaker 1: but I am still less fond of seeing them wronged
- 25:26Speaker 1: and abused. If the reader has not lived in San Francisco,
- 25:31Speaker 1: he can have only a very faint conception of the
- 25:33Speaker 1: tremendous significance of this mild looking, unpretentious Article six. It
- 25:39Speaker 1: lifts a degraded, snubbed, vilified, and hated race of men
- 25:44Speaker 1: out of the mud and invests them with the purple
- 25:47Speaker 1: of American sovereignty. It makes men out of beasts of burden.
- 25:52Speaker 1: The first iniquity it strikes at is that same revolutionary
- 25:55Speaker 1: one of taxation without representation. In California, the law imposes
- 26:01Speaker 1: a burdensome mining tax upon Chinamen, a tax which is
- 26:04Speaker 1: peculiar in its nature and is not imposed upon any
- 26:08Speaker 1: other miners, either native or foreign. And the legislature that
- 26:12Speaker 1: created this rascality knew the law was in flagrant violation
- 26:15Speaker 1: of the Constitution when they passed it. Mister Cushing, a
- 26:19Speaker 1: great lawyer and formerly ministered to China, says that nearly
- 26:23Speaker 1: all the Pacific Coast laws relating to Chinamen are unconstitutional
- 26:28Speaker 1: and could not stand in court at all. The Chinese
- 26:31Speaker 1: mining tax has been collected with merciless faithfulness for many years,
- 26:36Speaker 1: often two or three times instead of once, but its
- 26:40Speaker 1: collection will have to be discontinued now. Treaties of the
- 26:44Speaker 1: United States override the handiwork of even the most gifted
- 26:47Speaker 1: of state legislatures. In San Francisco, if a Chinaman enters
- 26:52Speaker 1: a street car to ride with the Negroes and the
- 26:54Speaker 1: Indians and the other gentlemen and ladies, the magnificent conductor
- 26:59Speaker 1: instantly a conjects him with all the insolence that seventy
- 27:03Speaker 1: five dollars a month and official importance of microscopic dimensions
- 27:07Speaker 1: confer upon small people. The Chinaman may ride on the
- 27:11Speaker 1: front platform, but not elsewhere. Hereafter, under the ample shadow
- 27:16Speaker 1: of Article six, he may ride where he pleases. Chinamen.
- 27:20Speaker 1: The best gardeners in America own no gardens. The laws
- 27:25Speaker 1: of California do not allow them to acquire property in
- 27:27Speaker 1: real estate. Article six does. Though formerly in the police
- 27:32Speaker 1: court they swore chinamen according to the usual form, and
- 27:36Speaker 1: sometimes where the magistrate was particularly anxious to come at
- 27:39Speaker 1: the truth, a chicken was beheaded in open court, and
- 27:42Speaker 1: some yellow paper burned with awful solemnity, while the oath
- 27:46Speaker 1: was administered. But the Chinaman testified only against his own countrymen.
- 27:51Speaker 1: Things are changed now, however, and he may testify against
- 27:55Speaker 1: whom he pleases. No one ever saw a Chinaman on
- 27:58Speaker 1: a jury on the Pacific. Come hereafter, they will be
- 28:02Speaker 1: seen on juries, sitting in judgment upon the crimes of
- 28:05Speaker 1: men of all nationalities. Chinamen have taken no part in elections.
- 28:10Speaker 1: Heretofore further than to sweep out the balloting stations. But
- 28:15Speaker 1: the time is near at hand when they will vote themselves,
- 28:18Speaker 1: when they will be clerks and judges of election and
- 28:21Speaker 1: receive an account for the votes of white men when
- 28:24Speaker 1: they will be eligible to office and may run for Congress,
- 28:28Speaker 1: if such be the will of God. We have seen
- 28:30Speaker 1: caricatures in San Francisco representing a white man asking a
- 28:34Speaker 1: Chinaman for his vote. It was fine irony then, But
- 28:38Speaker 1: in a very little while the same old lithograph resurrected
- 28:42Speaker 1: will have as much point as it ever had, only
- 28:45Speaker 1: the subject of it will have become a solemn reality
- 28:48Speaker 1: instead of an ingenious flight of fancy. In that day,
- 28:51Speaker 1: candidates will have to possess other accomplishments. Besides being able
- 28:55Speaker 1: to drink loger beer and twirl a shalely, they will
- 28:59Speaker 1: have to smoke opium and eat with chopsticks. Influential additions
- 29:04Speaker 1: will have to be made to election tickets and transparencies.
- 29:08Speaker 1: Thus the country's hope, the people's choice donnerwetter O'Shaughnessy and
- 29:14Speaker 1: ching Fu. The children of Chinese citizens will have the
- 29:17Speaker 1: entry of the public schools on the same footing as
- 29:20Speaker 1: white children. Anyone who is not blind can see that
- 29:24Speaker 1: the very nighty words of Article six work a miracle
- 29:27Speaker 1: which shames the most dazzling achievements of him of the
- 29:30Speaker 1: wonderful lamp. I am speaking as if I believed the
- 29:34Speaker 1: Chinamen would hasten to take out naturalization papers under this
- 29:37Speaker 1: treaty and become citizens. I do believe it. They are
- 29:41Speaker 1: shrewd and smart and quick to see an advantage. That
- 29:45Speaker 1: is one argument. If they have any scruples about becoming citizens,
- 29:49Speaker 1: the politicians who need their votes will soon change their opinions.
- 29:54Speaker 1: Article six does not confer citizenship upon Chinamen. We have
- 29:58Speaker 1: other laws which regulate them. It simply gives them the
- 30:02Speaker 1: privileges and immunities pertaining to residents in the same degree
- 30:06Speaker 1: as they are enjoyed by the subjects of the most
- 30:09Speaker 1: favored nation. One of the chief privileges pertaining to residence
- 30:13Speaker 1: among us is that of taking the oath and becoming
- 30:17Speaker 1: full citizens after that residence has been extended to the
- 30:20Speaker 1: legal and customary period. Mister Cushing says the Chinamen had
- 30:25Speaker 1: a right to become citizens before Article six was framed.
- 30:29Speaker 1: They certainly have it now. Prominent senators refuse to touch
- 30:33Speaker 1: the treaty or have anything to do with it unless
- 30:35Speaker 1: it through the doors of citizenship open as freely to
- 30:38Speaker 1: Chinamen as to other foreigners. The entire Senate knew the
- 30:42Speaker 1: broadest meaning of Article six and voted for it. The
- 30:46Speaker 1: closing sentence of it was added to please a certain senator,
- 30:50Speaker 1: and then he was satisfied and supported the treaty with
- 30:53Speaker 1: all his might. It was a gratification to him to
- 30:56Speaker 1: have that sentence added. And inasmuch as the sentence could
- 31:00Speaker 1: do no harm, since it don't mean anything whatever under
- 31:03Speaker 1: the sun, it was gratefully and cheerfully added. It could
- 31:07Speaker 1: not have been added to please a worthier man. It
- 31:10Speaker 1: sets off the treaty too, because it is so gracefully worded,
- 31:14Speaker 1: and is so essentially and particularly ornamental. It embellishes and
- 31:18Speaker 1: supports the grand edifice of the Chinese treaty, even as
- 31:21Speaker 1: a wealth of stucco embellishes and supports a stately temple.
- 31:25Speaker 1: It would hardly be worth while for a treaty to
- 31:28Speaker 1: confer naturalization in the last clause of an article, wherein
- 31:32Speaker 1: it had already provided for the acquirement of naturalization by
- 31:35Speaker 1: the proper and usual course. The idea of making negroes
- 31:39Speaker 1: citizens of the United States was startling and disagreeable to me,
- 31:43Speaker 1: but I have become reconciled to it, And being reconciled
- 31:46Speaker 1: to it, and the ice being broken and the principle established,
- 31:50Speaker 1: I am now ready for all comers. The idea of
- 31:53Speaker 1: seeing a Chinaman a citizen of the United States would
- 31:56Speaker 1: have been almost appalling to me a few years ago,
- 31:59Speaker 1: But I suppose I can live through it now. Maybe
- 32:02Speaker 1: it will be well to say what sort of people
- 32:05Speaker 1: these prospective voters are. There are fifty thousand of them
- 32:09Speaker 1: on the Pacific Coast at large, and fifteen thousand or
- 32:12Speaker 1: twenty thousand in San Francisco. They occupy a quarter just
- 32:16Speaker 1: out of the business center of the city. They worship
- 32:19Speaker 1: a hideous idol in a gorgeous temple. They have a
- 32:22Speaker 1: theater where the orchestra sit on the stage, drinking tea
- 32:26Speaker 1: occasionally and deafening the public with a ceaseless din of gongs, cymbals,
- 32:31Speaker 1: and fiddles with two strings, whose harmonies are capable of
- 32:34Speaker 1: inflicting exquisite torture. Their theatrical dresses are much finer and
- 32:39Speaker 1: more costly than those in the Black Crook, and the
- 32:42Speaker 1: immortality of their plays is fully up to the Black
- 32:45Speaker 1: Crook standard. Consequently, they are ruined people, their prominent instinct
- 32:50Speaker 1: being just like ours. Let us extend the right hand
- 32:54Speaker 1: of fellowship to them across the sea. Some of the
- 32:57Speaker 1: men gamble, and the standing of women is not good.
- 33:01Speaker 1: The Chinese streets of San Francisco are crowded with shops
- 33:04Speaker 1: and stalls mostly, but there are many Chinese merchant princes
- 33:08Speaker 1: who do business on a large scale. The remittances of
- 33:11Speaker 1: coin to China amount to half a million a month.
- 33:14Speaker 1: Chinamen work hard and with tireless perseverance. Other foreigners get
- 33:19Speaker 1: out of work and labor exchanges must look out for them.
- 33:23Speaker 1: Chinamen look out for themselves and are never idle a
- 33:26Speaker 1: week at a time. They make excellent cooks, washers, ironers,
- 33:30Speaker 1: and house servants. They are never seen drunk. They are quiet, orderly,
- 33:35Speaker 1: and peaceable by nature. They possess the rare and probably
- 33:39Speaker 1: peculiarly barbarous faculty of minding their own business. They are
- 33:44Speaker 1: as thrifty as Holland Dutch. They permit nothing to go
- 33:47Speaker 1: to waste. When they kill an animal for food, they
- 33:50Speaker 1: find use for its hoofs, hide bones, entrails everything. When
- 33:55Speaker 1: other people throw away fruit cans, they pick them up,
- 33:58Speaker 1: heat them, and secure the melted tin and sawder. They
- 34:01Speaker 1: do not scorn, refuse rags, paper, and broken glass. They
- 34:05Speaker 1: can make a blooming garden out of a sand pile,
- 34:08Speaker 1: for they seem to know how to make manure out
- 34:10Speaker 1: of everything which other people waste. As I have said before,
- 34:14Speaker 1: they are remarkably quick and intelligent, and they can all read, write,
- 34:19Speaker 1: and cipher. They are of an exceedingly observant and inquiring disposition.
- 34:24Speaker 1: I have been describing the lowest class of Chinamen. Do
- 34:28Speaker 1: not they compare favorably with the mass of other immigrants?
- 34:32Speaker 1: Will they not make good citizens? Are they not able
- 34:35Speaker 1: to confer a sound and solid prosperity upon a state?
- 34:39Speaker 1: What makes a sounder prosperity or invites and unshackles capital
- 34:43Speaker 1: more surely than good, cheap, reliable labor. California and Oregon
- 34:49Speaker 1: are vast uncultivated grain fields. I am enabled to state
- 34:53Speaker 1: this in the face of the fact that California yields
- 34:56Speaker 1: twenty million bushels of wheat this year. California in Oregon
- 35:00Speaker 1: will fill up with chinamen, and these grain fields will
- 35:03Speaker 1: be cultivated up to their highest capacity in time. Some
- 35:07Speaker 1: of them will be owned by chinamen, inasmuch as the
- 35:10Speaker 1: treaty gives them the right to own real estate. The
- 35:14Speaker 1: very men on the Pacific coast, who will be loudest
- 35:16Speaker 1: in their abuse of the treaty will be among those
- 35:19Speaker 1: most benefited by it. The day laborers, the Chinamen, able
- 35:24Speaker 1: to work for half wages, will take their rough manual
- 35:27Speaker 1: labor off the hands of these white men. And then
- 35:29Speaker 1: the whites will rise to the worthier and more lucrative
- 35:33Speaker 1: employment of superintending the Chinamen and doing various other kinds
- 35:37Speaker 1: of brain work demanded of them by the new order
- 35:39Speaker 1: of things. Through the operation of this notable Article six,
- 35:43Speaker 1: America becomes at once as liberal and as free a
- 35:46Speaker 1: country as England. Therefore, let me rejoice. Singapore is a
- 35:51Speaker 1: British colony. There are sixteen thousand Chinese there, and they
- 35:55Speaker 1: are all British subjects British citizens in the widest meaning
- 35:59Speaker 1: of the two. They have all the rights and privileges
- 36:02Speaker 1: enjoyed by Englishmen. They hold office one Chinaman there is
- 36:07Speaker 1: a magistrate and administers British law for British subjects. A
- 36:11Speaker 1: Chinaman resident for three or four years in England and
- 36:14Speaker 1: possessing a certain amount of property can become naturalized and vote,
- 36:19Speaker 1: hold office, and exercise all the functions, and enjoy all
- 36:23Speaker 1: the privileges of citizens by birth. Article seven. Citizens of
- 36:28Speaker 1: the United States shall enjoy all the privileges of the
- 36:32Speaker 1: public educational institutions under the control of the Government of China,
- 36:36Speaker 1: and reciprocally, Chinese subjects shall enjoy all the privileges of
- 36:40Speaker 1: the public educational institutions under the control of the Government
- 36:44Speaker 1: of the United States, which are enjoyed in the respective
- 36:48Speaker 1: countries by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nations.
- 36:53Speaker 1: The citizens of the United States may freely establish and
- 36:56Speaker 1: maintain schools within the Empire of China at those places
- 37:00Speaker 1: where foreigners are, by treaty permitted to reside, and reciprocally,
- 37:04Speaker 1: Chinese subjects may enjoy the same privileges and immunities in
- 37:08Speaker 1: the United States. Article seven explains itself. Article eight. The
- 37:14Speaker 1: United States, always disclaiming and discouraging all practices of unnecessary
- 37:20Speaker 1: dictation and intervention by one nation in the affairs or
- 37:23Speaker 1: domestic administration of another, do hereby freely disclaim any intention
- 37:28Speaker 1: or right to intervene in the domestic administration of China
- 37:32Speaker 1: in regard to the construction of railroads, telegraphs, or other
- 37:36Speaker 1: material internal improvements. On the other hand, his Majesty, and
- 37:40Speaker 1: the Emperor of China reserves to himself the right to
- 37:43Speaker 1: decide the time and manner and circumstances of introducing such
- 37:48Speaker 1: improvements within his dominions. With this mutual understanding, it is
- 37:52Speaker 1: agreed by the contracting parties that if at any time hereafter,
- 37:56Speaker 1: his Imperial Majesty shall determine to construct or cause to
- 38:00Speaker 1: be constructed works of the character mentioned within the Empire,
- 38:04Speaker 1: and shall make application to the United States or any
- 38:07Speaker 1: other Western power for facilities to carry out that policy.
- 38:11Speaker 1: The United States will, in that case designate and authorize
- 38:15Speaker 1: suitable engineers to be employed by the Chinese government, and
- 38:18Speaker 1: will recommend to other nations an equal compliance with such application.
- 38:23Speaker 1: The Chinese government, in that case protecting such engineers in
- 38:26Speaker 1: their persons and property, and paying them a reasonable compensation
- 38:31Speaker 1: for their service. Article eight looks entirely unnecessary at first glance,
- 38:36Speaker 1: yet to China and afterward to the world at large,
- 38:40Speaker 1: it is perhaps the most important article in the whole treaty.
- 38:43Speaker 1: It aims at restoring Chinese confidence in foreigners, and will
- 38:47Speaker 1: go far toward accomplishing it. Until that is done. Only
- 38:51Speaker 1: the drippings they amount to millions annually of the vast
- 38:55Speaker 1: fountains of Eastern wealth can be caught by the Western nations.
- 39:00Speaker 1: I have before spoken of an arrogant class of foreigners
- 39:03Speaker 1: in China who demand of the government the building of
- 39:06Speaker 1: railways and telegraphs, and who assume to regulate and give
- 39:10Speaker 1: law to the customs of trade, almost in open defiance
- 39:13Speaker 1: of the constituted authorities. Their menacing attitude and their threatening
- 39:18Speaker 1: language frighten the Chinese, who know so well the resistless
- 39:23Speaker 1: power of the Western nations. They look upon these things
- 39:26Speaker 1: with suspicion. They want railways and telegraphs, but they fear
- 39:31Speaker 1: to put these engines of power into the hands of
- 39:33Speaker 1: strangers without a guarantee that they will not be used
- 39:36Speaker 1: for their own oppression, possibly their destruction. Even as it
- 39:40Speaker 1: is now, foreigners can go into the interior and commit
- 39:44Speaker 1: wrongs upon the people with impunity, for their extra territorial
- 39:48Speaker 1: privileges leave them answerable only to their own laws administered
- 39:53Speaker 1: upon their own domain or concessions. These concessions being far
- 39:58Speaker 1: from the scene of the crime, it does not pay
- 40:01Speaker 1: to send witnesses such distances, and so the wrong goes
- 40:04Speaker 1: untried and unpunished. There are other obstacles to the immediate
- 40:08Speaker 1: construction of the demanded internal improvements, among them the inherent
- 40:13Speaker 1: prejudice of the untaught mass of the common people against innovation.
- 40:17Speaker 1: It is sad to reflect that in this respect the
- 40:20Speaker 1: ignorant Chinese are strangely like ourselves and other civilized peoples. Unfortunately,
- 40:26Speaker 1: the very day that the first message passed over the
- 40:28Speaker 1: first telegraph erected in China, a man died of cholera.
- 40:32Speaker 1: At one end of the line. The superstitious people cried
- 40:36Speaker 1: out that the white man's mysterious machine had destroyed the
- 40:39Speaker 1: good luck of the district. The telegraph had to be
- 40:42Speaker 1: taken down, otherwise the exasperated people would have done it themselves.
- 40:46Speaker 1: How precisely like our civilized, christianized, enlightened selves, these Chinese
- 40:52Speaker 1: men and brethren are the farmers of Great Massachusetts turned
- 40:56Speaker 1: out en masse, armed with axes, and resisted the laying
- 40:59Speaker 1: of the first railroad track in that state. Thirty years ago,
- 41:03Speaker 1: the concentrated wisdom of France in National Assembly convened gravely
- 41:07Speaker 1: pronounced railroads a foolish, unrealizable toy. In Tuscany, the people
- 41:14Speaker 1: rose in their might and swore there should be bloodshed
- 41:16Speaker 1: before a railroad track should be laid on their soil.
- 41:20Speaker 1: Their reason was exactly the same as that offered by
- 41:22Speaker 1: the Chinese. They said it would destroy the good luck
- 41:26Speaker 1: of the country. Let us be lenient with the little
- 41:29Speaker 1: absurd peculiarities of the Chinese, for manifestly these people are
- 41:34Speaker 1: our own blood relations. Let us look charitably now upon
- 41:38Speaker 1: a certain, very serious obstacle which lies in the way
- 41:42Speaker 1: of their sudden acceptance of a great railroad system. Let
- 41:45Speaker 1: us remember that China is one colossal graveyard, a mighty
- 41:50Speaker 1: empire so knobbed all over with graves that the level
- 41:54Speaker 1: spaces left are hardly more than alleys and avenues among
- 41:58Speaker 1: the clustering death mounds. Animals grays upon the grass clad graves.
- 42:03Speaker 1: For all things are made useful in China, and the
- 42:05Speaker 1: spaces between are carefully and industriously cultivated. These graves are
- 42:11Speaker 1: as precious as their own blood to the Chinese, for
- 42:14Speaker 1: they worship their dead as ancestors. The first railroad that
- 42:18Speaker 1: plows its pitiless way through these myriads of sacred hillocks
- 42:22Speaker 1: will carry dismay and distress into countless households. The railways
- 42:26Speaker 1: must be built, though we respect the griefs of the
- 42:29Speaker 1: poor country people. But still the railways must be built.
- 42:34Speaker 1: They will tear heartstrings out by the roots, but they
- 42:37Speaker 1: lead to the sources of unimaginable wealth, and they must
- 42:40Speaker 1: be built. These old prejudices must and can be eradicated,
- 42:46Speaker 1: just as they were in Massachusetts, with such encouragement from
- 42:49Speaker 1: foreigners and such guarantees of good will and just intent,
- 42:54Speaker 1: as Article eight offers. By simply agreeing that China may
- 42:57Speaker 1: transact her own private business un blested by meddlesome interference,
- 43:02Speaker 1: the Emperor will cheerfully begin to open up his country
- 43:05Speaker 1: with roads and telegraphs. It seems a simple thing, and
- 43:09Speaker 1: an easy one to accord a man such manifest and
- 43:12Speaker 1: indisputable rights. But beyond all doubt, this assurance is what
- 43:16Speaker 1: China craves most. Article eight, endorsed by all the Western powers,
- 43:21Speaker 1: would unlock the riches of four hundred million of Chinese
- 43:25Speaker 1: subjects to the world, hence to all parties concerned. It
- 43:28Speaker 1: is perhaps the important clause of the treaty that China
- 43:33Speaker 1: is anxious to build railways is shown in the fact
- 43:35Speaker 1: that by the latest news from there, just officially enunciated
- 43:39Speaker 1: to our State Department, it appears that the Viceroy of
- 43:42Speaker 1: the three chief provinces of the Empire is about to
- 43:45Speaker 1: begin a railroad from Sucho to Shanghai eighty miles, or
- 43:50Speaker 1: at least has the project under serious consideration. The new
- 43:54Speaker 1: treaty with America will tend to strengthen and encourage him
- 43:57Speaker 1: in his design. This is the broadest, most unselfish, and
- 44:03Speaker 1: most Catholic treaty yet framed by man. Perhaps there is
- 44:07Speaker 1: nothing mean, or exacting or unworthy in any of its provisions.
- 44:12Speaker 1: It freely offers every privilege, every benefit, and every concession
- 44:16Speaker 1: the most grasping suitor could demand to a nation unaccustomed
- 44:20Speaker 1: for generations to understand a treaty as being at contrivance,
- 44:24Speaker 1: whose province was to extort as many advantages as possible
- 44:27Speaker 1: and give as few as possible in return. The only
- 44:31Speaker 1: advantage to the United States perceptible on the face of
- 44:34Speaker 1: the document, perhaps is the advantage of having dealt justly
- 44:38Speaker 1: and generously by a neighbor, and done it in a
- 44:41Speaker 1: cordial spirit. It is something to have done right, a
- 44:44Speaker 1: species of sentiment seldom considered entreaties. In ratifying this treaty,
- 44:49Speaker 1: the Senate of the United States did themselves high credit,
- 44:52Speaker 1: and all the more so that they did it with
- 44:55Speaker 1: such alacrity and such heartiness. This is a treaty with
- 44:59Speaker 1: no specific advantages noted in it. It is simply the
- 45:02Speaker 1: first great step towards throwing all China open to the world,
- 45:06Speaker 1: by showing toward her a spirit which invites her esteem
- 45:10Speaker 1: and her confidence instead of her customary curses. There is
- 45:15Speaker 1: nothing in it about China ceding to us the navigation
- 45:18Speaker 1: of an ocean in return for the navigation of a creek,
- 45:21Speaker 1: nor the monopoly of silk for a monopoly of beeswax,
- 45:25Speaker 1: nor a whaling ground in return for a sardine fishery.
- 45:29Speaker 1: Yet it is a treaty which is full of advantages.
- 45:33Speaker 1: It is more full of them than is any other treaty.
- 45:36Speaker 1: But they are meeted out with an even hand to all,
- 45:39Speaker 1: to China upon the one hand, and to the world
- 45:42Speaker 1: upon the other. It looks to the opening up in
- 45:45Speaker 1: China of a vast and lucrative commerce with the world,
- 45:49Speaker 1: and of which America will have only her just share.
- 45:52Speaker 1: Nothing more. It looks to the lifting up of a
- 45:55Speaker 1: mighty nation and conferring upon it the boon of a
- 45:58Speaker 1: purer religion and of a higher and better civilization than
- 46:02Speaker 1: it has known before. It is a treaty made in
- 46:05Speaker 1: the broad interests of justice, enlightenment, and progress, and therefore
- 46:10Speaker 1: it must stand. It bridges the Pacific, it breaks down
- 46:14Speaker 1: the tartar wall. It inspires, with fresh young blood, the
- 46:18Speaker 1: energies of the most venerable of the nations. It acquires
- 46:22Speaker 1: a grand field for capital, labor, research, enterprise. It confers science, mechanics,
- 46:29Speaker 1: social and political advancement. Christianity. Is it not enough? Mark Twain,
- 46:37Speaker 1: end of Section two and end of the Treaty with
- 46:40Speaker 1: China read by John Greenman,