Our Foreign Relations: Pekin and Chinese
On the 28th of May Rear-Admiral Louis Kempff arrived at Taku, his vessel - the United States cruiser Newark - carrying sailors and marines; on the 29th he landed 100 men under Captain McCalla; on the 30th he proceeded with this force thirty-five miles up the Peiho River, to Tien-Tsin, and the next day he started McCalla and fifty men to Pekin, with other foreign troops. The first relief column was composed of about 350 men, - American, British, French, Italian, Russian, and Japanese. The consent of the Chinese government had been asked, but refused; and in view of the extreme danger of foreign legations, missionaries, and refugees at Pekin, it was determined to organize and start this column, which would endeavor to force its way. The Chinese fired on the ships as they landed their men. "The forts were thereupon shelled by the foreign vessels, the American admiral taking no part in the attack, on the ground that we were not at war with China, and that a hostile demonstration might consolidate the anti-foreign elements and strengthen the Boxers to oppose the relieving column." Two days later the Taku forts were captured. The English force had gone to Pekin. After fighting continually for fifteen days, Admiral Seymour's expedition was relieved by a force sent from Taku, and the remnants of it were brought back to the coast. June 18 Baron von Ketteler, the German minister, was murdered in the streets of Pekin, and rumors affirmed that all the legationers had shared the same fate.
Admiral Kempff asked for additional American troops, and orders were promptly sent to Manila to forward the Ninth Infantry to Taku. This regiment reached Taku in July, and was shortly afterwards sent by detachments to Tien-Tsin. On the 26th of June the Fourteenth United States Infantry and Reilly's Battery reached that city, having been ordered from Manila.
In the mean time the allied troops had stormed and taken the forts about Tien-Tsin, after heavy fighting and some loss. In this Admiral Kempff did not participate, deeming that his orders from Washington forbade it; but he was subsequently informed that his powers were ample for seizing forts, fighting battles, or acting in any other manner necessary for the promotion of the prime object in view,-the protection of Americans and American interests.
Murders of missionaries at various stations occurred early in June, and pillage and destruction were fast becoming general; so that there was a sense of insecurity and dread even in provinces remote from the capital, and particularly in the region of the treaty ports, where the citizens of other countries were more numerous, and yet not sufficiently numerous to offer effectual resistance to a frenzied populace.
Early in August the allied forces began their advance upon Pekin, and forced an entrance into the city, relieving the legations after one of the most remarkable sieges in history. The allied forces remained in China, occupying Pekin, though the greater part of the American and Russian forces were withdrawn from the capital. Negotiations between China and the powers are always slow, and the final settlement of the Chinese trouble is yet undecided. December 22 the powers agreed upon twelve demands to be submitted to the Chinese envoys. The terms demand fullest apology to Germany for the killing of its minister, the erection of a monument to him, and full indemnity to the powers for the losses they have sustained. The amount of the indemnities is not stated, the language of the terms insisting only that they shall be "equitable," the powers themselves presumably being the judges.
"The policy of the United States," says the message, "through all this trying period, was clearly announced and scrupulously carried out. A circular note to the powers, dated July 3, proclaimed our attitude. Treating the condition in the North as one of virtual anarchy, in which the great provinces of the South and Southeast had no share, we regarded the local authorities in the latter quarters as representing the Chinese people, with whom we sought to remain in peace and friendship. Our declared aims involved no war against the Chinese nation. We adhered to the legitimate office of rescuing the imperilled legation, obtaining redress for wrongs already suffered, securing, wherever possible, the safety of American life and property in China, and preventing a spread of the disorders or their recurrence. As was then said: `The policy of the government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire.'"
Thus the Chinese problem stands as the century opens, so far as it touches American policy.
The following from the pen of the Hon. Charles Denby, formerly United States Minister to China, in Munsey's Magazine, has value as indicating the lines on which American diplomacy may move:
"At the point of the bayonet the foreign powers in 1858 forced China to sign, seal, and conclude certain treaties. There had been treaties made before, but they were not satisfactory to England and France. The new treaties were repudiated by China, and in 1861 French and English soldiers marched to Pekin to force their ratification.