Severe criticism has been passed upon Mr. Cushing for not executing the instructions of his government to go to Peking, and, upon his arrival at Canton, for permitting himself to be diverted from his announced intention to proceed to Tientsin with his naval squadron. He evidently felt the force of this criticism, as he made his action in this regard the subject of several dispatches to the Secretary of State. It is apparent from the correspondence that he could not have persisted in his purpose to go to Tientsin without awakening the suspicion, if not hostility, of the Chinese; neither would he have been permitted to hold audience with the emperor at Peking, without submitting to indignities in conflict with his instructions and his own sense of independence and honor. The main purpose of his mission was to secure a treaty to protect Americans in their commerce. This he successfully accomplished. He would possibly have failed in this object had he gone to Tientsin. A British writer says, that upon the arrival of the French embassy, with a large naval force, the French envoy proposed to Mr. Cushing to go jointly to Tientsin, and insist upon an audience of the emperor.[1] Mr. Cushing makes no mention of this in his correspondence, but if such a proposition was made he acted wisely in declining it. His treaty had already been signed with a cordial exchange of congratulations, and a hostile demonstration so near the capital would have been justly interpreted by the Chinese as a breach of good faith.
- ↑ S. Ex. Doc. 67, pp. 32, 34, 39, 58; 1 Montgomery Martin's China, 424.
