The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-12-07


the PnbIic.
To the Senate and House Of Represen-
tatives:
At the outgoing of the old and the in
coming of the new century you begin
the last session of the Fifty-SiXth con-
gresS with evidences on every hand OF
individual ana national prosperity and
with proof of the growing strength and
Increasing power for good of republican
institutions. Your cOuntrymen will
join with you in felicitation that Ameri-
can liberty is more firmly established
than ever before, and that love for it
and the determination to preserve it
are more universal than at any former
period of our history.
The republic was never so strong, be-
cause never so strongly intrenched in
the hearts of the people as now. The
constitution, with few amendments, eX-
lists as it left the hands of it's authors.
The additions which have been made
TO it proclaim larger freedom and more
extended citizenship. Popular govern
ment has demonstrated in it's one hun
dred and twenty years of trial
here it's stability and security, and it's
efficiency as the best instrument of
national development and the best
safeguard to human rights.
When the Sixth congress assembled in
November, 1900, the population OF the
United States was 5.30S. 403. 1t is now
76,304, ,799. Then we had sixteen states.
Now We have forty-five. Then our ter
ritory consisted of 909.O50 square miles.
1t is now 3,S46, ,595 square miles. Edu-
cation, religion, and morality have
kept pace with our advancement in
.other directions, and while extending
it's power the government has adhered
No it's foundation principles and abated
u bne of them in dealing with our new
8eoples and possessions. y nation so
preserved and blessed gives reverent
-tthanks to God and invokes His guild
ance and the continuance of His care
and favor.
The Troubles In China.
In our foreign intercourse the domi-
Rant question has been the treatment
of the Chinese problem Apart from
this our relations with the powers
have been happy.
- The recent troubles in China spring
from the anti-foreign agitation which
for the past three years has gained
strength in the northern provinces.
Their origin lies deep in the character
of the Chinese race and in the tradi-
tfonS of their government. The Tai
ping rebellion and the opening of Chi
nese ports to foreign trade and settle
ment disturbed alike the homogeneity
and the seclusion of China
Meanwhile foreign activity made it
self felt in all quarters, not alone on
the coast, but along the great river
arteries and in the remoter districts,
carrying new ideas and introducing
new associations among a primitive
people which had pursued for centu
ries a national policy of isolation.
The telegraph and the railway
spreading over their land, the steamers
plying on their waterways the mer-
ha rpiS I'M,
year by year farther to the interior.
became to the Chinese mind types of
an alien invasion, changing the course
of their national life and fraught with
vague forebodings of disaster to their
beliefs and their sef-control.
For several years before the present
troubles all the resources Of foreign di-
plomacy, backed by moral demonstra
tfons Of the physical force Of fleets and
arms, have been needed to secure due
respect for the treaty rights of for
y eigners and to obtain satisfaction from
kssae responsible authorities for the spo-
2radic outrageS upon the persons and
: property of unoffending sojourners.
which from time to time occurred at
widely separated points in the north
ern provinces, as in the case of the out
D breaks in Sze-chuen and Shan-tung.
Posting of anti-foreign placards be-
came daily occurrence which the re-
peated reprobation Of the imperial pow
er failed to check or punish These in
flammatory appeals TO the ignorance
and superstition of the masses menda-
cious and absurd in their accusations
and deeply hostile in their spirit could
not but work cumulative harm. They
- aimed at no particular class Of foreign
ers; they we1e impartial in attacking
everything 1feign-
An outbreak in Shan-tung, in which
German missionaries were slain, was
the too natural result of these malevo-
lent teachings. The posting of sedi-
tiouS p1acards. exhorting to the utter
distinctions of foreigners and of every
foreign thing, continued unrebuked.
Hostile demonstrations toward the
stranger gained strength by organiza-
tion.
The Boxer Movement.
The sect, commonly styled the Box
ers, developed greatly in the provinces
north of the Yang-Tse. and with the
collusion of many notable officials, in
= cluding some in the immediate coun-
ellis of the throne itself. became alarm
ingly aggressive. No foreigners life,
outside of the protected treaty ports,
WcS safe. No foreign interest was Sc
~ ". .from spoliation.
The diplomatic representatives of the
1JoWers in Pekin Strove in vain to check
this movement Protest was followed
by demand and demand by renewed
rotest, to be met with perfunctory