The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1900-12-07
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
To tn. Senate and House of Representa-

AT the outgoing of the old and the in
coming of the new century you begin the
last session of the Fifty-siXth congress
with evidences on every hand of indi-
Vldual and national prosperity and with
proof of the growing strength and in
creasing power for good of Republican
institutions. Your countrymen will join
with you in felcitation that American
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.
In our foreign intercourse the dominant
question has been the treatment of the
Chinese problem Apart from this our
relations with fhe powers have been
happy.
The recent troubles in China spring
from th~ antiforeign agitation which for
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
year farther to the interior, became to
the Chinese mind types of an alien in
vasion, 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 antiforeign placards became
daily occurrence, which the repeated
reprobation of the imperial power failed
to check or punish. These inflammatory
appeals 10 the ignorance and superstition
of the misses, mendaciousf and absurd in
their accusations and deeply hostile in
their spirit, could not but work cumua-
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 We're 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-
lions toward the stranger gained strength
by organization.
The Boxers.
The sect commonly styled the Boxers
developed greatly in the provinces north
of the 1ang-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 in Peking strove in vain to check
this movement. Protest was followed by
demand and demand by renewed protest,
to be met with perfunctory edicts from
the palace and evasive and futile assur-
ances from the tsung-li-yamen.
The increasing gravity of the condi-
lions in China and the imminence of peril
to our own diversified interests in the en-
pire, 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 a policy
of peace, emitting no occasions to testify
good will, to further the extension of law
full trade, TO respect the sovereignty of it's
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-
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 I
caused to be addressed to the several
powers occupying territory and maintain
ing spheres of influence in China the cir
cular proposals of 1899, inviting from
them declarations of their intentions and
views as to the desirability 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,
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 a source
of vast benefit to the whole commercial
world
III this conclusion, which I had the
qualification to announce as a completed
engagement to the interested powers on
March 20, 1900, hopefully discerned
potential factor for the abatement, of the
distrust of foreign purposes which for a
year past had appeared to inspire the
policy of the imperial government and
for the effective exertion5 by it of power
and authority to quell the critical anti I
foreign movement in the northern prov I
inces most Immediately influenced by the I
Mantchoo sentiment.
Marine Guard withdraw.
Seeking to testify confidence in the will
ingness and ability of the imperial adj =
ministration to redress the wrongs and \
prevent the evils we suffered and feared, ]
the marine guard, which had been sent q
to Picking in the autumn of 1899 for the .
protection of the legation, was with 6
drawn at the earliest practicable mo- n
ment, and all pending questions were re- A
mitted, as far as we were concerned, to o
the ordinary resorts Of diplomatic inter
course. h
The president continues by narrating n
the growth of the Boxer movement, the q
fighting at Taku and the siege of the le- 4
cations in Picking and continues:
On July Ia the besieged had their first n
h. IL