The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-03-25
ASsON BURLINGAME.
A Personal "Reminiscences. His First Re-
ceptiOn Of the Chinese Mission.

A Personal "Reminiscences. His First Re-
ceptiOn Of the Chinese Mission.
A correspondent of the Providence
Journal, S. L. B., who met Minister
on an American war vessel
in China, just after his appointment as |
from this country, gives
the following personal reminiscence.
The vessel had been ordered by Admit /
raj Bell to meet Mr.. Burlingame, who |
had retired with his family from Pekin, |
and on his trip to the coast had just es-
capped from great peril in the town of
Peiko, which was besieged by the Chi |
nese rebels and robbers. The writer says:
1t was in early evening, of a charm
ing moonlight night, when the Dove |
came down and anchored near us. The |
Burlingame party came Immediately on
board our vessel, and a happier compa-
ny never saw. A warm supper await
ed them, and every accommodation
that limited means could afford so large
a company was extended, and very
gratefully received. A long evening
was filled with variations of the late
experience but chiefest of all was the
account of this new mission of which
we were the first Americans out
side of Pekin to learn, and the great
importance and marvellous character of
which staggered our comprehension.
Mr.. Burlingame, himself, seemed quite
unable TO realize its actuality, and fire.
quently expressed as finding it most
difficult to do so.
The following noon we came away,
bound again to Shanghae. Mr.. Burlin-
game seemed continually in state of
unrest. He would talk with one and
another for awhile /; then read an hour:
but spent most of his time walking the
deck. 1t is my habit to injoy the later
hours of the night in reading or writ
ing, and toward midnight / could hear
Mr.. Burlingame go quietly up on deck,
and after walking few moments, say
to the officer of the deck, won't you
please send down and ask Mr.. Brown
to come Oh deck awhile?" So the mes
senger boy would come down, and slip
ping on my cap and oVcrcoat-for those
beautiful, bright January nights crossing
Petchele and the Yellow Sea were cold
Il would go upon deck, and we would
walk for hours, and talk of this new
post and duty which he had taken upon
himself He would say, "If you went
to bed like the others l don't know
what should do, for l find it almost
impossible to sleep, and ] must have
some one to talk with, and if | walk
the deck l can get little tired and
catch a little rest" He said the tender
ing of the mission and earnestly solicit
ing his acceptance was so totally uneX-
pected that even the interval he asked
to consider the matter was entirely in
sufficient to enable him to comprehend
the strangeness and magnitude of the
change; that it was dclegating an au-
thority and discretion to a foreigner
especially remembering the restriction
of the Chinese-that was even beyond
marvel, and that the magnitude of the
matter oppressed him. Then he would
go off upon some American experience,
his college days, his Congressional ca
reer-and L remember how, at my re-
quest, he gave me a most exciting and
interesting account of the matter be-
tween him and Brooks. Recurring
again to the theme that was uppermost,
he would dwell upon the great compH-
ment to America-he did not say TO
himself-in the bestowal of the mis-
sion the benefit America might derive
from it, and the important part this
thought had in constraining his accept
ance; his greater freedom to act, and in
f1uence to exert upon the authorities at
Pekin, as Minister from China, than he
could do as a Minister to China; the
immense universal good that ought to
be accomplished by it; and the hope
that he might be able, notwithstanding
opposition, to accomplish all that the
mission sought, and then to settle down
upon his California rancho.
Always cheerful, full of pointed an
ecdote, the few days passed away, and
we reached Shanghae. There he be-
came the guest of the house of Russell
81 Co., and the Chinese authorities who
had learned in their own way of the
new embassy, called upon him, and he
was unable to restrain them from pros
trating themselves at his feet. Here,
too, he first met opposition from narrow
minds, circumscribed by their ideas and
desires of trade and gain, and such OPP
position he did not cease to encounter
in his whole official career; and yet,
Notwithstanding influence of power and
place, Notwithstanding prophecies, when
the wish was father to the prediction,
he has in the face of a prejudice against
the people he represented, and the poll
cy he offered, effected the entire accom-
plishment of his purpose, until the
Queen OF England herself tells him he
has not only raised her estimation of
the character of the strangers in the far
East, but that he has inspired her with
a greater respect and deeper interest for
America itself.
No common talent was in the keep
ing of this man, whose deeds have spo-
ken more than volumes, and who, just
at the accomplishment of his magnifi-
cent labors, and in the fullness of rich
maturity of life, is cut off by this quick
and mysterious Providence. He was
intensely and earnestly an American.
Jealous of the past and future of his
native land jealous in the present for
the establishment of national justice
toward all men; the first to dissipate
that arrogant lie so often contemptu-
ously spit from Southern lips, of person.
al or national cOwardice at the North !;
winning in distant lands and among an
alien people a good name, not to him
self only, but more, for America; hu-
manufacturing, charmingly genial, I'M
ostentatious, accessible to all, with a
wonderful facility for winning conf
dence, it is hardly surprising that he
became the chosen instrument even of
exclusive China, to establish amicable
relations with the outside world.
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