of its provisions. It freely offers every privilege, every benefit,

and every concession the most grasping suitor could demand, to a

nation accustomed for generations to understand a "treaty" as being

a contrivance whose province was to extort as many "advantages" as

possible and give as few as possible in return. The only "advantage" to

the United States perceptible on the face of the document, perhaps, is

the advantage of having dealt justly and generously by a neighbor and

done it in a cordial spirit. It is something to have done right--a

species of sentiment seldom considered in treaties. In ratifying this

treaty the Senate of the United States did themselves high credit, and

all the more so that they did it with such alacrity and such heartiness.

This is a treaty with no specific advantages noted in it; it is simply

the first great step toward throwing all China open to the world, by

showing toward her a spirit which invites her esteem and her confidence

instead of her customary curses. There is nothing in it about China

ceding to us the navigation of an ocean in return for the navigation

of a creek; nor the monopoly of silk for a monopoly of beeswax; nor a

whaling-ground in return for a sardine-fishery. Yet it is a treaty

which is full of "advantages." It is more full of them than is any other

treaty, but they are meted out with an even hand to all--to China upon

the one hand, and to the world upon the other. It looks to the opening

up, in China, of a vast and lucrative commerce with the world, and of

which America will have only her just share, nothing more. It looks to

the lifting up of a mighty nation and conferring upon it the boon of a

purer religion and of a higher and better civilization than it has

known before. It is a treaty made in the broad interests of justice,

The Treaty With China