back to China, "in order" (in the words
of the communication) "that the Chinese laborers may gradually be
reduced in number and causes of danger averted and lives preserved."

This view of the Chinese Government, so completely in harmony with that
of the United States, was by my direction speedily formulated in a
treaty draft between the two nations, embodying the propositions so
presented by the Chinese foreign office.

The deliberations, frequent oral discussions, and correspondence on the
general questions that ensued have been fully communicated by me to the
Senate at the present session, and, as contained in Senate Executive
Document O, parts 1 and 2, and in Senate Executive Document No. 272,
may be properly referred to as containing a complete history of the
transaction.

It is thus easy to learn how the joint desires and unequivocal mutual
understanding of the two Governments were brought into articulated
form in the treaty, which, after a mutual exhibition of plenary powers
from the respective Governments, was signed and concluded by the
plenipotentiaries of the United States and China at this capital on
March 12 last.

Being submitted for the advice and consent of the Senate, its
confirmation, on the 7th day of May last, was accompanied by two
amendments which that body ingrafted upon it.

On the 12th day of the same month the Chinese minister, who was the
plenipotentiary of his Government in the negotiation and the conclusion
of the treaty, in a note to the Secretary of State gave his approval to
these amendments, "as they did not alter the terms of the treaty," and
the amendments were at once telegraphed to China, whither the original
treaty had previously been sent immediately after its signature on March
12.

On the 13th day of last month I approved Senate bill No. 3304, "to
prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States." This bill
was intended to supplement the treaty, and was approved in the confident
anticipation of an early exchange of ratifications of the treaty and its
amendments and the proclamation of the same, upon which event the
legislation so approved was by its terms to take effect.

No information of any definite action upon the treaty by the Chinese
Government was received until the 21st ultimo--the day the bill which
I have just approved was presented to me--when a telegram from our
minister at Peking to the Secretary of State announced the refusal of
the Chinese Gove