OCR Text |
Show PtIRRY'8 MISSION TO JAPAN. Presidents Letter In 1i?3 Courted Japan's Friendship. The letter which Commodore Perry bore Horn our government to the mikado mi-kado asked for a mutual treaty. The original Instrument was drafted In' May, 1851. by Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, and vvas slgnod by President Fillmore. There It rested. In November, 1852, Mr. Webster's successor, suc-cessor, Edward Kvcrott, fished It out of tho department pigeon holes, took It to pieces and refashioned It, snyn Century. Three copies were prepared nnd were splendidly engrossed In Kng-Huh, Kng-Huh, Dutch nnd Chinese Theso were Inclosed together In n sumptuous gold case and, to make the whole presentment present-ment still more Impressive to the Japanese Jap-anese mind, tho gold case was enshrined en-shrined In n coffer of rosewood. The document Intrusted to Commo-dole Commo-dole Perry asked of the .lapaneso court two things, friendship and trm.c first nnd foremost, frl-ndahlp. for the safety of our seamen Mnny n hoples crow had been driven Into their ports by storm or wrecked on tlulr rocky coast, (ampins: tho peril of the dteji only to bo welcomed h those truculent lelnnders to n dungeon or a cage on shore This wrong must" he stopped nt all hazards. And If, In addition, we could pcisttatfo Japan to enter friendly relations of trade, the two countries by muttt.il Interchange of productions, might each promote Its own prosperity and the welfare of the other It W38 thought that orientals orien-tals might sec that ns well tut Yankees. In the en I lliey did. Hut It eamlbt'bo said that Japan, any more than an oyster, every reall) 0'tnicd to bo "opened." |