File No. 893.00/1146a.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, March 2, 1912.
The following is the text of a joint resolution passed by the House of Representatives February 29:
Whereas the Chinese Nation has successfully asserted the fact that sovereignty is vested in the people, and has recognized the principle that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, thereby terminating a condition of internal strife; and
Whereas the American people are inherently and by tradition sympathetic with all efforts to adopt the ideals and institutions of representative government: Therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the United States of America congratulates the people of China on their assumption of the powers, duties and responsibilities of self-government, and expresses the confident hope that, in the adoption and maintenance of a republican form of government, the rights, liberties, and happiness of the Chinese people will be secure and the progress of the country insured.
The text should be circulated among the American consulates in China to be discreetly given such publicity as will be conducive to the interests of the United States. It may be regarded as an expression of the sympathy of the American people, through their representatives, with the new order of things in China. Due care should be taken, however, particularly with the leaders now assembled at Peking, that this action be not confused with recognition, which is a prerogative of the Executive and as to which it is the present intention of the President and the Department to proceed in harmony with the other powers by entering automatically into effective informal relations with the de facto provisional government, pending the establishment of such ultimate government as may merit formal recognition.