Name: The Treaty With China, its Provisions Explained; New York Tribune, Tuesday, August 28, 1868
Author: Mark Twain
ISBN: 978-1542484923

The Treaty With China, its Provisions Explained; New York Tribune, Tuesday, August 28, 1868

By Mark Twain 27 Aug, 2019

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Excerpt......Everyone has read the treaty which has just been concluded between the United States and China. Everyone has read it, but in it there are expressions that not everyone understands. There are clauses which seem vague, other clauses which seem almost unnecessary, and still others which bear the flavor of “surplusage,” to speak in legal phrase. The most careful reading of the document will leave these impressions—that is, unless one comprehends the past and present condition of foreign intercourse with China—in which case it will be seen at once that there is no word in the treaty without a meaning, and no clause in it but was dictated by a present need or a wise policy looking to the future. It will interest many of your readers to know why this, that, and the other provision was incorporated in the treaty; it will interest others to know in what manner and to what extent the treaty will affect our existing relations with China. Apart from its grave importance, the subject is really as entertaining as any I know of and—asking pardon for the presumption—I desire to write a few paragraphs upon it. We made a treaty with China in 1858; Mr. Burlingame's new treaty is an addition to that one, and an amplification of its powers. The first article of this new treaty reads as follows: Less

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