[Page 249] “If I should go on to say that government officials, high and low, look with satisfaction on this assertion of something like national feeling, you might reply, ’National feeling!  Yes, it is a duty to cultivate that.’  But do we not know how it has been fostered in China?  Has not hatred of the foreigner been mistaken for patriotism, and been secretly instigated as a safeguard against foreign aggression?  In this instance, however, there is no room to suspect such a motive.  The movement is purely a result of provocation on our part; and it is fostered with a view to coercing our government into modifying or repealing our offensive exclusion laws.  The Viceroy of Central China, with whom I have spent the last three years, is known as a pioneer of reform—­a man who has done more than any other to instruct his people in their duties as well as their rights.  When, on the expiration of my engagement, I was about to leave for home, the prefect of Wuchang, a Canton man, addressed me a letter begging me to plead the cause of his people with the President of the United States.  That letter was referred to in an interview by the viceroy, and the request which it contained reiterated by him.  He gave me a parting banquet, attended by many of his mandarins, and on that occasion the subject came up again and the same request was renewed and pressed on me from all sides.  While I promised to exert myself on their behalf, let me give you a specimen of the kind of oil which I poured on their wounded feelings.

“Said I, ’Under the exasperating effect of these petty grievances your people forget what they owe to the United States.  They lose sight of the danger of alienating their best friend.  In the Boxer War, when Peking was captured by a combined force of eight foreign powers, who but America was the first to introduce a self-denying ordinance forbidding any power to take any portion of the Chinese territory?  In this she was backed up by Great Britain; the other powers fell into line and the integrity of the Empire was assured.  Again, when China was in danger of being drawn into the vortex of the Russo-Japanese war, who but America secured for her the privileges of neutrality—­thus a second time protecting her national life?  And now you turn [Page 250] against us!  Is not such conduct condemned by your ancient poet who says: 

  “’Ki wo siao yuen, wang wo ta teh’, etc.

  (How many acts of kindness done
     One small offence wipes out,
   As motes obscure the shining sun
     And shut his lustre out.’)

“If the cause of offence be taken away there is reason to hope that the beneficent action of our country, on those two occasions so big with destiny, will be remembered, and will lead China to look to our flag as an aegis under which she may find protection in time of need.  Not till then will our influence, now reduced to the vanishing-point, be integrated to its full value.