Benj. P. Avery to By the chief executive committee: H. R. W. Johnson, June 1, 1875

Mr. Avery to Mr. Johnson.

My Dear Mr. Johnson: I have your note of the 17th ultimo, and thank you for the copies of correspondence inclosed. It appears from Mr. Low’s letter of January 15, 1873, that he was careful to cover the point about protection beyond the ports which he left untouched in his officials of 1870, to which reference is made in my dispatch to you and Mr. De Lano.

You will see from the latter that I agree with Mr. Low on the legal question at issue; indeed, there is room for but one opinion on that subject.

The difficulty is that our missionaries have advanced their stakes, and cannot be left in the lurch; yet it would be wrong to encourage them to make any new ventures beyond treaty-limits in the present unsettled and somewhat threatening aspect of the question. Knowing the policy of their Government, they ought to abstain from forcing on it embarrassments, by pursuing a course that would not be tolerated on the part , of traders for a moment, and it must be remembered that the Government can make no distinctions, if its attention is ever formally called to the matter by the Chinese. Our position is already compromised by missionary zeal, and it is certain that sooner or later the Chinese government will make complaints on the subject. I have forwarded to the Department copy of my dispatch to Mr. De Lano, with full explanation of the situation, and have asked for instructions. Meanwhile I leave it to the sense of prudence and patriotism of the missionaries if they should not learn to wait and labor where they are? Have they so well tilled the field already lawfully occupied that they can afford to enter a wider one clandestinely?

If they will be patient, it is not unlikely circumstances may occur to enable our Government, by treaty-revision with other powers, for instance, to legalize what is now done without a warrant of treaty. But whether they like it or not, the policy and wishes of the Government ought to control in an international question like this, and not the views and desires of private individuals, bent on a special object, of a nature beyond the purposes of a government entirely secular and political.

You are at liberty to show this note and my dispatch to the missionaries, in confidence, if you think it advisable. I am anxious to give them every facility and protection which I am likely to be sustained in affording. They must see on what delicate ground they stand when they quit the treaty-limits.

Yours, truly,