Anson Burlingame to William H. Seward, December 12, 1866

Mr. Burlingame to Mr. Seward

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that, on the 20th of November last, I had an interview with Prince Kung, at the Tsung li Yamen, of more than ordinary interest.

After the usual formalities and felicitations, the Prince dismissed, with the exception of his official suite, his attendants, and proceeded in a disturbed manner to speak of his relations with foreigners. He said they were excellent with all but the French, but that with these, in spite of all he could do, they were not such as he desired. The causes of irritation were their claims on account of their missionaries, and the nature of a correspondence touching affairs in Corea; that the missionaries, not content to spread their faith, to which there was no objection, were political agents, and undertook to absolve their Chinese converts from obligations to their own government, and that they were supported in their pretensions by their diplomatic representatives at Peking; that when he sought, on behalf of a kindred and once tributary people, (the Coreans,) to secure, in the interests of peace, an investigation into facts, before proceeding to extremities, he had been charged with complicity with them, and his own people menaced with attack.

I replied, as I had often done before, that I could not interfere between them and others, more than to proffer my good offices when they might serve to restore friendly relations. I urged the Prince strongly to instruct his officials in the provinces to treat the missionaries with the utmost kindness, so as to avoid all occasion for armed intervention. I said to him that my colleague, M. Berthemy, the French minister, now absent on leave, had said to Sir Frederick Bruce and myself that he did not, nor did his Emperor, sustain any such pretensions as those mentioned by the Prince on the part of the missionaries; that he had informed them that he, and the officials under him, alone represented the political and diplomatic power of France in China, and that I thought, with patience and caution, an amicable solution of their difficulties might be reached.

With regard to Corea I said that, if the Prince had done no more than to proffer his friendly offices, I did not see that he had done more than his duty; and that, if such action called forth menaces, he could rest strong in the consciousness of good intentions, and submit, with confidence, the correspondence to the impartial judgment of the civilized world.

That very evening the despatch marked A, covering a long correspondence with M. de Bellonet, French charge d’affaires, was sent to each one of the foreign legations, and I submit it (with the subsequent despatches marked B) without one word of comment.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,