lick's instructions are dated, he refers to a previous conversation with the President on the project of opening an intercourse between the United States and Japan, and the importance of having the use of a port in Japan for the accommodation of a line of steamers then expected to be established between California and China. "These arrangements," said Glynn, "must be effected soon or late, and if not peaceably, then by force." S. Ex. Doc. 59, 32 Cong. 1 sess. 74; H. Ex. Doc. 84, 31 Cong. 1 sess. June 10, 1851, Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, instructed Commodore Aulick to proceed with a letter from the President to the Emperor of Japan to Yeddo in his flagship, accompanied by as many vessels of his squadron as might be conveniently employed, and to deliver the letter to such high officers of the Emperor as might be appointed to receive it. The instructions referred to the probable establishment of a line of steamers between California and China and the need of obtaining supplies of coal from Japan. Commodore Aulick was to impress it upon the Japanese that the United States possessed no power over the religion of its citizens, and would not interfere with the religion of other countries. In his letter to the Emperor, President Fillmore said: "I send you this letter by an envoy of my own appointment, an officer of high rank in his country, who is no missionary of religion. He goes by my command to bear to you my greeting and good wishes, and to promote friendship and commerce between the two countries." Commodore Aulick was furnished with a full power to negotiate. His instructions declared that it was important to secure the opening of one or more ports which vessels might enter to dispose of their cargoes by sale or by barter, but that it was even more important to provide for the protection of American sailors and property wrecked on the Japanese shores. S. Ex. Doc. 59, 32 Cong. 1 sess. 80. 2. PERRY'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION. § 846. Commodore Aulick was unable to carry out his instructions. Soon after he was ordered to Japan his health became impaired, and the mission was entrusted to Commodore M. C. Perry. In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, November 5, 1852, Mr. Conrad, Acting Secretary of State, explained the objects of the expedition. The United States desired, he said, specifically (1) a permanent arrangement for stress of weather upon the Japanese coast; (2) permission for American vessels to obtain supplies and refit in one or more Japanese ports; (3) permission for American ships to enter one or more Japanese ports to dispose of their cargoes by sale or barter. As persuasion had failed to attain these objects, Perry was to take an imposing force-his whole force and he was to refer particularly to the subject of the ill treatment of wrecked ships and crews. And, as it was understood that the deep-seated aversion of the Japanese to intercourse with Christian nations was due chiefly to the indiscreet zeal with which the early missionaries, particularly those of Portugal, endeavored to propagate their religion, he was to say that the government of the United States, "unlike those of every other Christian country, does not interfere with the religion. of its own people, much less with that of other nations." If argument and persuasion should fail to obtain "any relaxation of their system of exclusion, or even any assurance of humane treatment of our shipwrecked seamen," Perry was to change his tone, and say that the United States would insist upon kind treatment of American citizens and vessels wrecked or driven upon the Japanese coasts, and that for any cruelty in such cases in the future the Japanese would be "severely chastised." The instructions of Mr. Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy, to Commodore Perry, bear date November 13, 1852. The instructions and orders given to Commodore Aulick were transferred to him, and he was informed that to the force of the United States in the East India and China seas, which had consisted of a steam frigate, two sloops, and a store ship, there were to be added a ship of the line, a steam frigate, a corvette, two steamers, a sloop, and a store ship. He was furnished with a letter from the President to the Emperor of Japan, in which he was described as "an officer of the highest rank in the Navy of the United States and commander of the squadron now visiting your Imperial Majesty's dominions." It was stated that the object in sending him out was to propose that the United States and Japan "should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other." "The Constitution and laws of the United States," declared the latter," forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations." S. Ex. Doc. 34, 33 Cong. 2 sess. Mr. Conrad, in the letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Nov. 5, 1852, above mentioned, said: "He [Perry] will bear in mind that, as the President has no power to declare war, his mission is necessarily of a pacific character, and will not resort to force unless in selfdefense in the protection of the vessels and crews under his command, or to resent an act of personal violence offered to himself, or to one of his officers." Mr. Conrad also said that Perry would be furnished with powers authorizing him to negotiate treaties of amity and navigation with any and all established and independent sovereignties in the regions to be visited by him. H. Doc. 551-vol 5- -47 Perry, on his way out, suggested the temporary occupation of certain Perry arrived in the Mississippi at Hongkong April 7, 1853. On the afternoon of Friday, July 8, 1853, with the steamers Susquehanna (flagship) and Mississippi and the sloops Plymouth and Saratoga he anchored in the Bay of Yeddo, off the city of Uraga, 27 miles from Yeddo. In reporting his proceedings he had, he said, decided on a course different from that of others who had visited Japan, viz, "to demand as a right, and not to solicit as a favor, those acts of courtesy which are due from one civilized nation to another; to allow of none of those petty annoyances which have been unsparingly visited upon those who had preceded me, and to disregard the acts as well as the threats of the authorities, if they in the least conflicted with my own sense of what was due to the dignity of the American flag. The question of landing by force was left to be decided by the development of succeeding events." Perry refused to meet, or deliver the President's letter to, any but an officer of the highest rank. He declined to go to Nagasaki. July 14, 1853, he was received by the Prince of Idzu, first counselor of the Emperor, and his coadjutor, the Prince of Iwami. To the former he delivered the President's letter, his letter of credence, and other documents. They gave a receipt, saying that they violated the law in receiving the papers there instead of at Nagasaki, but did it because the admiral, in his quality of ambassador of the President, had declared that he would be insulted by a refusal. They ordered Perry, in conclusion, to leave. Instead, he went higher up the bay, ten miles above where any foreign vessel had previously ascended and twenty above the usual anchorage. Perry said that the nearer he approached the imperial city" the more polite and friendly they became." July 14 he wrote the Emperor that he would return in the next spring for a reply to the propositions of the United States. Mr. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, in acknowledging the receipt of Perry's reports of these transactions, said: These communications have all been submitted to the President, who, while he would be happy to see your interesting mission crowned with success, and would aid you as far as he can legitimately, desires to impress you with his conviction that the great end should be attained, not only with credit to the United States, but without wrong to Japan. I need not remind you that your mission is one of peaceful negotiation, and that, although in consideration of the peculiar character of the Japanese much importance may well be attached to the exhibition of impressive evidences of the greatness and power of our country, no violence should be resorted to except for defense. It is very desirable to make our Navy an efficient branch of the government, both in extending and protecting commerce and trade; but as Congress alone has power to declare war, too much prudence can not be exercised, even in the great work in which you are engaged. S. Ex. Doc. 34, 33 Cong. 2 sess. 45, 50, 54. The letter of Mr. Dobbins is at p. 57 of this document. February 13, 1854, Perry returned to Uraga with the Susquehanna, Powhatan, and Mississippi, towing, respectively, the Lexington, Vandalia, and Macedonian. The Southampton had arrived in advance. He then moved up nearer to Yeddo. The Emperor, as Perry supposed, but in reality the Shogun, had appointed commissioners to treat with him. They desired him to return to Uraga and treat there. He declined to do so, and moved up to within 8 miles of Yeddo. They then consented to treat at a place opposite the ships. Here the Japanese erected a pavilion, as they had previously done at Uraga. Of the five commissioners, four were princes of the empire. On March 8, 1854, Commodore Perry landed and met the commissioners, his escort consisting of 500 officers, seamen, and marines, fully armed, embarked in 27 barges. "With people of forms," said Perry, “it is necessary either to set all ceremony aside, or to outHerod Herod in assumed personal consequence and ostentation. I have adopted the two extremes." On meeting the commissioners, Perry submitted a draft of a treaty. The commissioners later presented counterproprositions. Pending the negotiations, Perry established a telegraph line a mile long on shore, and laid down a railway and put into operation upon it a locomotive and cars, "carrying around the circle many of the astonished natives." A treaty was concluded March 31, 1854. It was signed at the pavilion on shore by Perry and by the four commissioners specially delegated by the Shogun. The commissioners gave Perry three copies of the treaty, signed by them, in Japanese, and he gave them in return three copies, signed by himself, in English, with translations into Dutch and Chinese, certified by the Dutch and Chinese interpreters, Messrs. Portman and Williams, for the United States. The usual course of both sides signing the same instrument was departed from, on the assurance of the Japanese that their laws forbade subjects of the Emperor to put their names to a document written in a foreign language. Additional regulations were entered into by Perry at Simoda June 17, 1854. S. Ex. Doc. 34, 33 Cong. 2 sess. 118, 120, 128, 133, 161. An account of Commodore Perry's expedition, from his journals and those of the officers under his command, was compiled by the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., and printed in quarto form by order of the House of Representatives. Similar treaties to that of Perry were made with Japan by Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Russia. After the treaty with the United States was concluded, Lieut. Rodgers, commanding the United States surveying ship Vincennes, visited Simoda and Hakodate. He ascribed the success attending the negotiation of the treaties, "and especially that of Commodore Perry, to the imposing naval force which accompanied that officer." (Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Harris, No. 6, Oct. 4, 1855, MS. Inst. Japan I. 9.) By Article VII. of the Perry treaty as published by the United States, it was agreed that American vessels resorting to Simoda and Hakodate should be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin and articles of goods for other articles of goods, under such regulations" as the Japanese government should establish. Lieut. Rodgers stated that the Japanese version of the article read, for other articles of goods, such as may be necessary for them, under such regulations," etc. (Ibid.) July 17, 1901, there was unveiled at Kurihama, Japan, a monument erected by the Japanese "American Association of Japan," in commemoration of the advent of Commodore Perry, in July 1853. (For. Rel. 1901, 378-384.) As to the judicial powers of consuls in Japan, see S. Ex. Doc. 20, 40 Cong. 3 sess.; and, for consular-court regulations, S. Ex. Doc. 25, 41 Cong. 3 sess. See, also, as to consular jurisdiction in Japan, as it once existed, Mr. Eli T. Sheppard's pamphlet on " Extraterritoriality; and Mr. F. E. Hinckley's American Consular Jurisdiction in the Orient." A memorial of American residents in Japan, asking for legislation, March 22, 1882, is printed in S. Mis. Doc. 70, 47 Cong. 1 sess. Perry, whose negotiations were conducted with the Shogunate, supposed that he was holding relations with the Emperor of Japan, and died without knowing his error. See Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, 190–197. The government of the United States had, in 1852, the right to insist upon Japan entering upon such treaty relations as would protect travellers and sailors from the United States visiting or cast ashore on that island from spoliation or maltreatment, and also to procure entrance of United States vessels into Japanese ports. Mr. Conrad, Asst. Sec. of State, to Mr. Kennedy, Nov. 5, 1852, MS. Notes, |