Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1900-12-13
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

tives:
At the outgoing of the old and the IN
roming of the new century you beglh the
last session of the Fifty-siXth congress
with evidences on every hama OF ihui-
vidual and national prosperity and win
proof of the growing strength and IN
creasing power for good of Republican
Institutions. Your countrymen will JOIN
with YOU in felicitation that American
liberty is more firmly established thah
ever before and that love for 1t ana the
determination to preserve it are more
universal than at any former period Oh
our history.
In our foreign intercourse the dominant
question has been the treatment OF the
Chinese problem. Apart from TINS our
relations with the powers have been
happy.
The recent troubles in China spring
from the antiforeign agitation whlch ior
the past three years has gained strength
in the northern provinces. Their origin
lies deep in the character of the Chinese
races and in the traditions of their gov
eminent The telegraph and the railway
spreading over their land, the steamers
plying on their waterways, the merchant
and the missionary penetrating year by
the Chinese mind types of an alien in
yasion. changing the course of their ma
tional life and fraught with vague fore
bodings of disaster to their beliefs and
their self control.
Posting of antiftreign placards became
daily occurrence, which the repeated
reprobation of the imperial power failed
to check or punish. These inflammatory
appeals to the ignorance and superstition
of the masses, mendacious and absurd in
their accusations and deeply hostile in
their spirit, could not but work cumula-
! tive harm. They aimed at no particular
Gloss of foreigners; they were impartial
in attacking everything foreign
An outbreak in Shangtung in which
German missionaries were slain was the
too natural result of these malevolent
| teachings. The posting of seditious pla-
cards, eXhorting to the utter destruction
of foreigners and of every foreign thing
continued unrebuked. Hostile demonstra-
tons toward the stranger gained strength
by organization.
The Boxers.
The sect commonly styled the Boxers
developed greatly in the provinces north
of the Yang-tse and with the collision of
many notable officials, including some in
the immediate councils of the throne it
self, became alarmingly aggressive. No
foreigners life, outside Of the protected
treaty ports, was safe. No foreign inter
est was secure from spoliation.
The diplomatic representatives of the
powers iii Picking StIoye i'll vain to check
this movement Protest was followed by
demand and demand by renewed protest,
to be met with pHrfunctOry edicts from
the palace and eyAsye and futile assur-
ances from the tsung-li-yamen.
The increasing gravity of the condi-
tons in China and the imminence of peril
to our own diversified interests in the en-
pre- as well as to those of all the other
treaty governments. were soon appreci-
ated by this government, causing it pro-
found solicitude. The United States
| from the earliest days of foreign inter-
course with China had followed policy
| of peace, emitting no occasions to testify
| good will, to further the extension of law
full trade, to respect the sovereignty of its
| government and to insure by all legiti
mate and kindly but earnest means the
| fullest measure of protection for the lives
and property Of law abiding citizens and
| for the exercise of their beneficent call.
| ings among the Chinese people.
Mindful of this, it was felt to be appro.
| pirate that our purposes should be pro.
| nounced in favor of such course as would
hasten united action of the powers at Pc.
| king to promote the administrative re-
J forms so greatly needed for strengthen.
| ing the imperial government and main,
| tanning the integrity of China, in which
we believed the whole western world to
be alike concerned To these ends ]
| 70 10
powers occupying territory and maintain.
ing spheres of influence in China the cir
cuar proposals of 1885, inviting from
them declarations of their intentions and
| views as to the desira bility of the adop
ton of measures insuring the benefits OF
| equality of treatment of all foreign trade
throughout China.
| With gratifying unanimity the re
sponses conceded in this common policy
J enabling me to see in the successful ter
| mination of these negotiations proof OF
the friendly spirit which animates the
| various powers interested in the untram
| meled development of commerce and in
| dustry in the Chinese empire as source
of vast benefit to the whole commercial
world.
III this conclusion, which I had tn,
qualification to announce as a completed
engagement to the interested powers OF
March 20, 1900, l hopefully discerned
potential factor for the abatement of tn,
distrust of foreign purposes which for .
year past had appeared to inspire tn,
policy of the imperial government ant
for the effective exertion by it of powel
and authority to quell the critical anti
foreign movement in the northern prov
inces most Immediately influenced by tn,
Mantchoo sentiment.
Marine Guard Withdrawn.
Seeking to testify confidence in the will
ingness and ability of the imperial ad
mnistration to redress the wrongs ant
prevent the evils we suffered and feared
the marine guard, which had been sen
to Picking in the autumn of 1899 for TIL
protection of the legation, was with
drawn at the earliest practicable mo
ment, and all pending questions were re
mitted, as far as we were concerned, t
the ordinary resorts of Diplomatic inter
course.
The president continues by narratin,
the growth of the Boxer movement, tn
fighting at Taku and the siege of the lie