to the American Minister to China, dated October 19, 1871, the Department of State said: 2

The President will see with deep regret any attempt to place a foreign ecclesiastic, as such, on a different footing from other foreigners residing in China. It is a fundamental principle in the United States that all persons, of every sect, faith, or race, are equal before the law. They make no distinction in favor of any ecclesiastical organization. Prelates, priests, and ministers can claim equal protection here, and enjoy equal rank in the eye of the civil law. The United States ask no more in China than they confer at home. Should the peace of the empire be disturbed by efforts from any quarter to induce or compel the government to confer unusual civil rights on foreign ecclesiastics, you will make it plain that the United States have no sympathy with such a movement, and regard it as outside of the treaty rights which have been conferred upon the western nations. Should these demands, however, be complied with, this Government will then consider whether, under the thirtieth article of the treaty of 1858, a similar right will not at once inure to the benefit of all the public officers, merchants, and citizens of the United States. * * *

Except so far as the guarantee of that treaty extends, the President cannot permit the officials of the United States to participate in any attempt to disturb the natural relations between the Emperor and his Christian subjects. He particularly desires it to be understood that the profession of the Christian faith is not regarded by the officers of the United States as a protection against punishment for crime. Ecclesiastical asylums for criminals have never existed in this country, nor will they be planted elsewhere through its agency.

The policy of the United States, to be deduced from this passage, is that missionaries and merchants stand upon an equality in the eye of the law; that every man, whether he be preacher or man of affairs, is first of all a citizen of the United States and, as such, entitled to protection to his person and property so far as international law permits, and the right, whether he be tradesman or churchman, to follow his calling. Just as the United States has entered into innumerable commercial treaties in order to secure for American industry and commerce in foreign parts equal rights and privileges with the native, so the United States has entered into treaties with various countries by the terms of which American mis

2 Foreign Relations, 1871, pp. 154-155.

sionaries are specifically granted the right to reside within the territory, to acquire property necessary for their mission, and to preach the gospel to natives, provided that this be done without seeking to disturb the political organization of the country in which they reside. Out of the many treaties concluded by the United States for the protection of its citizens in foreign parts, and, more especially, for the protection of American missionaries, the treaties with China alone will be briefly examined in order to deduce from them the policy of the United States in so far as missionaries are concerned.

In 1844 the Honorable Caleb Cushing negotiated the first treaty between the United States and China, and while the privileges to be enjoyed by American merchants are carefully enumerated, missionaries are not specifically mentioned. By the year 1858, however, the importance and advantages of the presence of missionaries for the development of China were so fully recognized that Article 29 of the treaty of June 18, 1858, refers to them specifically in the following

terms:

The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Hereafter, those who quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the United States or Chinese convert, who according to these tenets peaceably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity, shall in no case be interfered with or molested.

It will be noted that Protestant and Catholic are treated upon a plane of absolute equality, and the nature and scope of missionary enterprise are summed up in a single happy phrase "as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they would have others do to them." The article, however, does not stop here, for it proceeds to say that the Christian may not merely reside in China without interference but that the missionary may profess and teach the Christian doctrine without persecution. So far the missionary is assimilated to the merchant, but the philanthropic nature of the missionary's efforts and the benefits likely to accrue to the native from the propagation of the Christian faith are recognized by the express stipula

tion that the Chinese convert who peacefully teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall not be interfered with or molested. This is a distinct discrimination in favor of the missionary, because the Chinese merchant with whom the American trades is not protected by treaty. Ten years later the subject was re-examined and in the treaty of July 28, 1868, the privileged situation of Christian citizens of the United States and of Chinese converts was continued and strengthened by Article 4, the material portion of which provides that:

it is further agreed that citizens of the United States in China on account of their faith, religious persuasion, and Chinese subjects in the United States, shall enjoy entire liberty of conscience, and shall be exempt from all disability or persecution on account of their religious faith or worship. in either country.

At the same time " privileges, immunities or exemptions in respect to travel or residence" are conferred upon citizens or subjects of both nations (id. Art. VI).

The continued intercourse between China and the United States and the benefits resulting from the self-sacrificing devotion of American missionaries in China, led to the negotiation of the treaty of 1903, in which the privileges and immunities of American citizens, including missionaries, were carefully considered and set forth at length, and, as Article 14 of this treaty not only states in detail the rights of missionaries but at one and the same time indicates the policy of the United States in regard to missionaries in foreign parts, it is quoted in full:

The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Those who quietly confess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the United States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, peaceably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall in no case be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall be placed on Chinese joining Christian churches. Converts and non-converts, being Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China; and shall pay due respect to those in authority, living together in peace and amity,

and the fact of being converts shall not protect them from the consequences of any offense they may have committed before or may commit after their admission into the church, or exempt them from paying legal taxes levied on Chinese subjects generally, except taxes levied and contributions for the support of religious customs and practices contrary to their faith. Missionaries shall not interfere with the exercise by the native authorities of their jurisdiction over Chinese subjects; nor shall the native authorities make any distinction between converts and nonconverts, but shall administer the laws without partiality, so that both classes can live together in peace.

Missionary societies of the United States shall be permitted to rent and to lease in perpetuity, as the property of such societies, buildings or lands in all parts of the Empire for missionary purposes, and, after the title deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local authorities, to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for carrying on their good work.

It will be noted that the first part of this important article is a re-statement of the provisions of previous treaties, but the concluding sentences are indicative of the policy of the United States towards missionaries and their converts. International law recognizes the right of a government to protect its citizens or subjects in a foreign country in order to prevent discrimination between natives and foreign residents. In countries not admitted to full membership in the family of nations by reason of an imperfect organization or a system of government at variance with Western ideals, greater rights are enjoyed either by virtue of custom or treaty or both, so that, contrary to the principle of equality upon which international law is founded, the Western nations claim and exercise rights inconsistent with full sovereignty, so that, in certain respects, the foreigner is treated as subject to the jurisdiction of the home country instead of being remitted to the laws and customs of the country in which he resides. The status of extra-territoriality is thus created, so far as China is concerned, by treaty between the two countries, by virtue of which the American citizen is withdrawn from the jurisdiction of China in criminal matters and in controversies of a civil nature in which American interests only are involved. Infractions, however, of treaty rights are international and their adjustment is attained through diplomatic channels. It, therefore, follows that the rights

granted by treaty are under the peculiar protection of the United States, and that the violation of their letter and spirit leads inevitably to diplomatic representations. But however great and extensive these rights are, it is of the utmost importance to missionary enterprises that the missionaries conform in the exercise of their rights to the local customs and regulations, so far as they are applicable and not inconsistent with the rights specifically granted by treaty. Otherwise, friction arises and there is great danger either that the treaty be abrogated, or that its provisions be violated indirectly in such a way as to render the continued presence of the missionaries impossible or to interfere so seriously with their efforts as to check the progress of their work.

Without attempting to examine in detail the status of the missionary in China, it is at once evident that an American mission in China can not advance the cause it has at heart without a right to rent or lease property or to acquire property upon which to erect buildings necessary for the prosecution of its work. As the result of friction or ill-feeling, however, the Chinese authorities may be unwilling to permit the acquisition of property, and it may become necessary for the United States to extend its good offices, or, through diplomatic channels and by diplomatic pressure, to secure for the missionaries the property necessary for the mission, the right to acquire which is specifically granted by the treaty. Without going into detail, it may be said that the Government of the United States has frequently been called upon to aid missionaries to secure title to real estate, not only in China but in other countries where American missionaries reside, for the purpose of extending their religion; otherwise, it would be possible for the unfriendly government to place restrictions upon the transfer or acquisition of property, which would in fact, if not in theory, prevent the transfer of title and thus violate an express provision of a carefully considered and beneficial treaty.

As is well known, the missionaries have not confined themselves solely to the conversion of the native, but have endeavored to raise the standard of living and comfort, and, by the establishment of