mate audacity and skill, made a bold stroke for empire upon the shores of the Pacific. She had always kept a large squadron in those seas, and exercised a high-handed influence over the wretched republics into which the American dominions of Spain had dwindled. England, thanks to having handed her magnificent provinces of Oregon and Vancouver, as well as that noble stream the Columbia to the entire monopoly of the Hudson Bay Company, knew nothing of their value, or resources; and the good-natured public appreciated about as much the geographical, commercial, or political importance of our position in the Pacific, as Englishmen usually do of anything off the map of Europe. Suffice it, that in one and the self-same year, we were cheated out of Oregon, and the Mexicans were robbed of the Californias, and by May, 1846, the United States stood with both feet upon the shores of the Pacific, the real mistress of the situation, over-awing the puny states of South America upon the one hand, and on the other stretching out her right arm towards the rich and densely peopled countries lying on the Asiatic coasts of the same sea. With a political foresight which rebounds in no small degree to the credit of the United States lawyer, who then ruled the destinies of his country, President Polk did not sit down, and bemoan, as our British statesmen now do, the extension of dominion, as a sign of weakness in the empire; but leaving California to become the great state it now is, he at once laid down the theory which is yet being developed, that the Pacific is the natural route of North America to China and the Indies!
At the same time, that a powerful American fleet was concentrated in California to over-awe and, if needs be, fight the petty British squadron, should they interfere with his plans, Mr. President Polk contrived to have the line of battle ship Columbus of ninety guns, and the Vincennes of twenty-four guns in the Gulf of Yeddo. Had the American commodore possessed an equal share of Mr. Polk’s zeal or energy, Japan would have been opened to American commerce on the self-same day that the stars and stripes were hoisted at Montery. The commodore did not succeed in Japan, but the genius of the man who directed that double movement was not the less great, and yet that was not all, for it was mainly through American influence that England then repudiated the sovereignty of the Sandwich group, the stepping-stone to Japan, across the North Pacific Ocean; and entered with America and France into a convention guaranteeing the independence of those islands, that independence consisting in a thorough Americanising of the Sandwich Islanders by swarms of Yankee missionaries, one of whom is Prime Minister and actually ruler. Thus with one foot on the eastern sea-board of the Pacific, and the other on Cooke’s famous discovery, the Sandwich group, America was ready to make another great stride for the commerce of the East, and Japan was her nearest point.[1] It was closed to her citizens and missionaries; it must be opened; and mark how steadily and consistently she worked to the point, and eventually succeeded. We do not blame her, but what we do find fault with is that spirit of cant which tries to persuade us that Commodore Biddle and his huge two-decker, or that Commodore Perry with a powerful squadron, breaking all Japanese laws which interdicted communication with foreigners, were representatives of mere Christian arguments; or, indeed, of moral and not material force. England has been called a bully for going to Tientsin and looking ugly at Pekin, in spite of the Emperor of China. Allow us to call attention to the course by which America insisted upon visiting Japan in her equally secluded capital. In 1853, President Fillmore, having beaten a very big drum, and talked a wonderful talk, of philanthropy, science, trade, and revolvers, dispatched from pious America a strong squadron under Commodore Perry, with a letter to the Taikoon of Yedo, assuring him of his unalterable friendship and adding, with a keen eye to business, that “the great state of California produced sixty million dollars in gold every year, besides silver and precious stones,” and guesses Japan and the United States might do a good stroke in trade, if the Taikoon would have no objection. In another paragraph, with that regard to the future which so distinguishes the policy of an American statesman, Mr. Fillmore requests that a port may be opened in a convenient part of Japan, for American steamships to touch at for coals and stores, in their voyages across the North Pacific! and winds up with a little oil for the troubled conscience of pious Philadelphia, by hoping that “the Almighty might have his Imperial Majesty, the Taikoon, in His great and holy keeping.” The commodore delivered this letter, backed by a semi-threatening one, in which he advised the Taikoon to enter into a treaty and friendship with the United States, tells him that “the Japan seas will soon be covered with American vessels,” and mildly insinuates that he designs “should it be necessary, to return to Yedo in the ensuing spring with a much larger force.”
The presence of the commodore’s vessel in the lower part of the Gulf of Yedo caused, no doubt, considerable anxiety to the Taikoon and his council. They contrived after two seasons of procrastination, and the usual amount of diplomatic delay, to get rid of Commodore Perry, having yielded a treaty it is true, for there was no other way of getting rid of him, but as little more as they possibly could. The Americans were to be allowed to visit the port of Simoda, near Cape Idsu, about eighty miles south of Yedo; but on the other hand, by Art. 10, the commodore bound his countrymen to visit no other ports but Hakodadi in Yesso and the said port of Simoda, except through stress of weather. The Americans were to procure by barter or purchase such stores and provisions as might be necessary; but, to guard against the opening of trade, we find the following article cleverly introduced by the Japanese in Art. 6.:—“If there be any other sort of goods wanted, or any business which shall require to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties, in order to settle such matters.” In fact, so far from the treaty being a commercial one, we see nothing in it to lead one- ↑ The Bonin Islands, lying between the Sandwich group and Japan, have likewise been claimed in support of these same views by the United States.
