The increasing gravity of the conditions in China and the imminence of
peril to our own diversified interests in the Empire, as well as to
those of all the other treaty governments, were soon appreciated by this
Government, causing it profound solicitude. The United States from the
earliest days of foreign intercourse with China had followed a policy of
peace, omitting no occasions to testify good will, to further the
extension of lawful trade, to respect the sovereignty of its Government,
and to insure by all legitimate and kindly but earnest means the fullest
measure of protection for the lives and property of our law-abiding
citizens and for the exercise of their beneficent callings among the
Chinese people.
Mindful of this, it was felt to be appropriate that our purposes should
be pronounced in favor of such course as would hasten united action of
the powers at Peking to promote the administrative reforms so greatly
needed for strengthening the Imperial Government and maintaining the
integrity of China, in which we believed the whole western world to be
alike concerned.
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