America has performed great service for the Orient and especially for China.
If, however, the people of the latter country were asked to express their
candid opinion on the matter, the verdict would not be altogether pleasant,
but would be given with mixed feelings of gratitude and regret.
Since the formal opening of China to foreign trade and commerce,
people of all nationalities have come here, some to trade, some for pleasure,
some to preach Christianity, and others for other purposes.
Considering that the Chinese have a civilization of their own,
and that their modes of thoughts, ideas, and habits are, in many respects,
different from those of the western people, it is not surprising
that frictions and disputes have occasionally occurred
and that even foreign wars have been waged between China and the Occident,
but it is gratifying to observe that no force has ever been resorted to
against China by the United States of America. Now and then
troublesome questions have arisen, but they have always been settled amicably.
Indeed the just and friendly attitude taken by the American officials in China
had so won the esteem and confidence of the Chinese Government that in 1867,
on the termination of Mr. Anson Burlingame's term as American
Minister to Peking, he was appointed by the Manchu Government
as Chief of a special mission to America and Europe. In that capacity
he performed valuable services for China, although his work was unfortunately
cut short by his untimely death. The liberal and generous treatment
accorded to the Chinese students in America is another source of satisfaction.
They have been admitted freely to all educational institutions,
and welcomed into American families. In whatever school or college they enter
they are taught in the same way as the American boys and girls, and enjoy
equal opportunities of learning all that the American students learn.*
That America has no desire for territorial acquisition in China is well known.
During the Boxer movement the American Government took the lead