Reply of the President to Mr. Burlingame
Your Excellency: States, like individual men, have two distinct characters and fields of activity; the one domestic, the other social. If it be true, as I trust it is, that the several political communities of the earth are now more actively engaged than at any previous period in meliorating their respective constitutions and laws, it certainly is not less manifest that they are zealously engaged in meliorating and perfecting their systems of international intercourse and commerce.
The appearance here of this, the first mission from China to the western nations, is in this respect not more singular than it is suggestive. During the first 80 years of our independence, foreign nations generally evinced hesitation, caution, and reserve, not to say jealousy, in regard to advances of the United States. Of late these features have seemed to disappear. There remains scarcely one civilized and regularly constituted state with which we have not formed relations of cordial friendship. So far from seeking to impose fetters upon our commerce, as heretofore, nearly all nations now invite us to establish free trade. Our national thought—that the American continent and islands are rightfully reserved for the ultimate establishment of independent American states— is no longer anywhere contested. Vigorous and well-established European powers now freely cede to us for fair equivalents such of their colonial possessions in this hemisphere as we find desirable for strength and commerce. The inherent right of man to choose and change domicile and allegiance—a principle essential to human progress—is conceded in our recent treaties. These changes, although not less important, are less striking than the extension of our friendly intercourse with the Oriental nations. We have recently opened reciprocal and equal intercourse with Greece, with the Ottoman Porte, and with Japan. China, having accepted the laws of nations as they are explained in our own approved compilation, now avails herself, through your mission, of our friendly introduction to the Christian states of Europe and America. These events reveal the pleasing fact of a rapid growth of mutual trust and confidence among the nations, resulting from a general suspension of the policy of war and conquest, and the substitution of a fraternal and benevolent policy in its place.
Your excellencies, we have not failed to appreciate the sagacity with which the Chinese empire has responded to this change of policy by the Christian nations. We acknowledge with pleasure the cordial and enlightened adoption of that policy by the western nations, acting in concert with the United States, especially by Great Britain, France, Russia, North Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Belgium.
I deem it not unworthy of this occasion to bear witness to the merit of the representative agents whose common labors at Peking have culminated in bringing the empire of China so early and so directly into the family circle of civilized nations, viz., Prince Kung and Wenshian, on the part of China; yourself, Mr. Burlingame, on the part of the United States; the lamented Sir Frederick Bruce, on the British part; Mr. Berthemy, on behalf of France; and Messieurs Balluzeck and Vlangally, on the part of Russia.
Reasoning from the harmony which has thus prevailed hitherto, I feel myself justified on this occasion not only in giving you a cordial reception here, but also in assuring you of a welcome equally cordial by the several other powers to which you are accredited. In conclusion, I trust that the intelligent and enlightened Chinese government and people will allow me to build upon this day’s transaction an expectation that their great empire, instead of remaining, as heretofore, merely passive, will henceforth be induced to take an active part in the general progress of civilization. There are several lines of navigation between Europe and China. Citizens of the United States have already constructed a road across the Isthmus of Panama, with a line of steam service across the Pacific ocean. In two or three years more there will be added to these facilities of intercourse the Pacific railroad across our own continent, and a ship canal, constructed under French patronage, across the Isthmus of Suez. But there will yet remain, besides all these, and more important than all of them, the great work of connecting the two oceans by a ship canal to be constructed across the Isthmus of Darien. To doubt the feasibility of such a work would imply an ignorance of the science and the wealth of the age in which we live. Your important mission will enable you to contribute largely to the achievement of that great enterprise. I respectfully invite you, therefore, to commend it to the favor of the United States of Colombia, as well as to the government of China and the several European states to which you are accredited.