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original appeal that called it forth. The Emperor's appeal was dated July 19, 1900. It follows:

"The Emperor of China to His Excellency the President of the United States. Greeting:

"China has long maintained friendly relations with the United States, and is deeply conscious that the object of the United States is international commerce. Neither country entertains the least suspicion or distrust toward the other. Recent outbreaks of mutual antipathy between the people and Christian missions caused the foreign powers to view with suspicion the position of the Imperial Government as favorable to the people and prejudicial to the missions, with the result that the Taku forts were attacked and captured. Consequently there has been clashing of the forces, with calamitous consequences. The situation has become more and more serious and critical.

"We have just received a telegraphic memorial from our envoy, Wu Ting Fang, and it is highly gratifying to us to learn that the United States Government, having in view the friendly relations between the two countries, has taken a deep interest in the present situation. Now, China, driven by the irresistible course of events, has unfortunately incurred well-nigh universal indignation. For settling the present difficulty China places special reliance in the United States. We address this message to your excellency in all sincerity and candor, with the hope that your excellency will devise measures and take the initiative in bringing about a concert of the powers for the restoration of order and peace. The favor of a kind reply is earnestly requested and awaited with the greatest anxiety."

And this is the President's response:

"The President of the United States to the Emperor of China. Greeting:

"I have received your majesty's message of July 19, 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 lives and property of Americans, who were sojourning in China in the en

joyment 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 the 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 your majesty's government to give public assurance whether the foreign Ministers are alive, and, if so, in what condition.

"2. To put the diplomatic representatives of the powers in immediate and free communication with their respective governments and to remove all danger to their lives and liberty.

"3. To place the Imperial authorities of China in communication with the relief expedition, so that coöperation may be secured between them for the liberation of the legations, the protection of foreigners and the restoration of order.

"If those 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. WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

"July 23, 1900

"By the President:

"JOHN HAY, Secretary of State."

Finally came the time when, assurance of the survival of the Ministers having been received, it was proposed to move on Pekin with an international column composed of troops of all the powers in order to afford adequate protection to the legations and establish order. This above all things was what China wished to avoid, and approaches were made to the United States through the venerable Li Hung Chang, to see whether it could be prevented by the delivery at Tien Tsin under safe escort of the imprisoned Ministers. To this the reply of the Secretary of State was so clear cut and emphatic that it might be regarded

as an ultimatum. The history of this last note is told in the following telegraphic instruction sent by Secretary Hay on August 1, 1900, to the United States embassies in Berlin, London, Paris, Rome and St. Petersburg and to the United States Minister at Tokio:

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

"Washington, August 1, 1900.

"In reply to a suggestion of Li Hung Chang that the Ministers might be sent under safe escort to Tien Tsin, provided the powers would engage not to march on Pekin, the Secretary of State replied on the 30th of July:

""This Government will not enter into any arrangement regarding disposition or treatment of legations without first having free communication with Minister Conger. Responsibility for their protection rests upon the Chinese government. Power to deliver at Tien Tsin presupposes power to protect and to open communications. This is insisted on.'

"This message was delivered by Mr. Goodnow on the 31st to Viceroy Li, who then inquired whether, 'if free communication were established between Ministers and their governments, it could be arranged that the powers should not advance on Pekin, pending negotiations.'

"To this inquiry the following reply was sent on the 1st of August: ""Goodnow, Consul General, Shanghai:

"I do not think it expedient to submit the proposition of Earl Li to the other powers. Free communication with our representatives in Pekin is demanded as a matter of absolute right, and not as a favor. Since the Chinese government admits that it possesses the power to give communication, it puts itself in an unfriendly attitude by denying it. No negotiations seem advisable until the Chinese government shall have put the diplomatic representatives of the powers in full and free communication with their respective governments and removed all danger to their lives and liberty. We would urge Earl Li earnestly to advise the Imperial authorities of China to place themselves in friendly communication and coöperation with the relief expedition. They are assuming a heavy responsibility in acting otherwise.

""(Signed)

HAY

"You will communicate this information to the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

The language of this communication was so direct and forceful as to be almost undiplomatic. It placed upon China the responsibility which belonged to that government, and in such a way that the meaning could not be misunderstood even by the Oriental mind. It recognized the fact that in the official person of Minister Conger was embodied all the national honor and dignity of the United States and that China in endeavoring to dawdle, procrastinate and make terms was doing an indignity not to Minister Conger alone but to the entire American people. It completed a cycle of diplomatic papers which will hold a high place in American history.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE OUTLOOK

"You do not have to guess what the Republican party will do. The whole world knows its purposes. It has embodied them in law and executed them in administration."-William McKinley.

This quotation from a speech made by President McKinley six years ago is a good text for a short chapter on the outlook. It suggests the scope of the outlook which should be for country rather than party. Four years ago, at the close of a Democratic administration, the outlook was as dark as any that had confronted the country for a quarter of a century. When the Democratic party went out of power in 1861 it left the country on the brink of civil war, which broke out within a month after the inauguration of President Lincoln and became the greatest war of history. When the Democratic party went out of power in 1897 it left the country on the brink of national and individual and general bankruptcy. The Republican party took firm hold of both these desperate situations. Through its patriotic administration of the gov ernment it saved the Union in the sixties, and it saved the business of the country in the nineties. McKinley said: "The Republican party never lowered the flag or the credit of the government, but has exalted both." In the last four years his administration has given new demonstration of the truth he uttered. The outlook for the whole country, North and South, East and West, was never brighter than now. The mills are all running, the farms are producing wealth, labor is employed, and the American market is expanding in every direction, to every country on the face of the globe. It is an outlook for even greater prosperity than we have, and that has never been surpassed. The outlook of the business man, the wage earner and the farmer includes the Orient and the Southern hemisphere. Its promise is brighter than at any other time in American history. It is the promise of new markets for the manufacturer and the farmer, steady work and increased wages for the wage earner, protection for American industries, increased credit for business enterprise, cheaper money for the borrower, better security for the lender, greater opportunity for every one, and a higher standing of

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