although the United States has serious cause of complaint against China, it has not been thought wise to seek redress by a resort to arms. This alternative may yet be forced upon us, he says; but when the exigency comes, the President will have to ask Congress for authority, and he was not then prepared to make such request.
In accordance with their agreement the foreign envoys met at Shanghai in April, 1858, and there received the answer from Peking, denying their right to have direct communication with the court and referring them to the commissioner at Canton who had been appointed to succeed Yeh. Mr. Reed characterized this reply as similar to those given by Yeh; "the same unmeaning profession, the same dexterous sophistry; and, what is more material, the same passive resistance; the same stolid refusal to yield any point of substance." The envoys, therefore, lost no time in carrying out their resolution to proceed to the Peiho, in order to reach there early in the season.
The British and French envoys were accompanied by the fleets and forces which had participated in the warlike operations against Canton, but the American and Russian ministers went, each in a single vessel. Mr. Reed advised the Secretary that "if hostilities recommence, obeying the spirit and letter of my instructions, I shall continue a passive spectator," waiting instructions from home. He reported that the Russian minister, also, had "positive instructions to abstain strictly from any measures of hostility, except in case of extremity."
