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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Of all the Western diplomatic personalities who served in Peking during the nineteenth century, Anson Burlingame was perhaps the most celebrated figure. He acted as the first American resident minister in Peking from 1861 to 1867. He also acted as the first ‘Chinese’ envoy to the Western courts from 1867 to 1870, when his untimely death at St Petersburg cut short his colourful diplomatic career. Viewed against this unusual background, it is not surprising that his diplomacy in and out of China became something of a cause célèbre among his contemporaries. With the passing of the events and men associated with his name, however, a new and deatched appraisal of the man and his diplomacy is in order. It is outside the scope of the present paper to treat his spectacular diplomatic mission on behalf of China in the Western capitals, better known as the burlingame Mission. This paper focuses instead on his role in the inauguration of the Co-operative Policy. In doing this, the apper attempts to shed some light on the origins of one of the most significant Western policies toward China.
1 Dennett, Tyler, Americans in Eastern Asia (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1922), p. 372. Dennett also claims Burlingame as ‘author’ of the Co-operative Policy.Google Scholar See ibid., p. 373.
2 von Gumpach, Johannes, The Burlingame Mission (Shanghai: n.p., 1872), pp. 31, 57.Google Scholar
3 Williams, Frederick Wells, The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1889), p. 371.Google Scholar
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5 Wright, Stanley F., Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast: Published for the Queen's University by Mullan, W., 1950), p. 367.Google Scholar
6 Hansard, Vol. CXLIV, 1515, 1742 (02–03 1857).Google Scholar
7 The North China Herald, 10 May 1862.Google Scholar
8 Italics in the original. Burlingame, Jane to Livermore, Peking, 15 June 1864, Manuscript Division, the Library of Congress, The Burlingame Family Papers, Box 4. [Hereafter cited as Burlingame Papers, Box 4.]Google Scholar
9 Even Secretary of State Seward was less enthusiastic about co-operation with Britain than with China. See Seward, to Burlingame, No. 40, Washington, D.C., 9 09 1863, U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs [hereafter cited as Dipl. Corr.], 1863, II, 882.Google Scholar
10 Cady, John, The Roots of French Imperialism in Eastern Asia (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1954), p. 295.Google Scholar
11 Walrond, Theodore (ed.), Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin (London: J. Murray, 1872), p. 336.Google Scholar
12 Cited in Cady, , op. cit., p. 265.Google Scholar
13 For further discussion on French policy in China, see Cordier, Henri, L'expédition de Chine de 1860: histoire diplomatique, notes et documents (Paris: F. Alcan, 1906), pp. 124–31;Google ScholarCohen, Paul, China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Anti-foreignism, 1860–1870 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 64–71;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Ministère des Affaires Étrangeres, Documents diplomatiques [The French Yellow Books], 1867, Ser. A, Vol. VIII, p. 457;Google ScholarIbid., Vol. X, p. 19; ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 16; ibid., Janvier 1869, Ser. A, Vol. XI, p. 13; ibid., November 1889, Ser. A, Vol. XIII, pp. 14–15.
14 The skilful, if not ingenuous, diplomacy of Nikolai Ignatiev, the Russian envoy, in the fall of 1860 aptly illustrates this point. For a more detailed account of Russian policy in general and Ignative's diplomacy in particular, see Mancall, Mark, ‘MajorGeneral Ignatiev's Mission to Peking, 1859–1860’, Papers on China, X (10 1956), 55–96.Google Scholar
15 Seward, to Burlingame, , No. 1, Washington, D.C., 30 July, 1861 National Archives, Records of the Department of State, Diplomatic Instructions, China, I, 234.Google Scholar
16 Italics added. Seward, to Burlingame, ,Washington, D.C., 6 March 1862,Google ScholarDipl. Corr., 1862, II, 839.Google Scholar
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18 Ibid.
19 See Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 18, Shanghai, 17 June 1862, National Archives, Records of the Department of State, Diplomatic Despatches, China, XXI. [Hereafter cited as Dipl. Despatches, China.]Google Scholar
20 Dennett, , op. cit., p. 410.Google Scholar
21 wrote, Jane Burlingame to her father on 24 May 1863: ‘He [her husband] continues to receive from the home government approval of all that he has done in China, and almost “carte blanche” for the future.’ Italics added. Burlingame Papers, Box 4.Google Scholar For a further elaboration see Kim, Samuel S., ‘Anson Burlingame: A Study in Personal Diplomacy’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1966), pp. 277–81.Google Scholar
22 See Burlingame, Jane to Livermore, , Peking, 12 February 1863, Burlingame Papers, Box 4; Williams, op. cit., p. 340. Following the death of Burlingame in the spring of 1870, Williams himself confessed that he and Burlingame had ‘accord on every important point’ during their long association in Peking.Google Scholar See ibid., p. 383.
23 For Burlingame's trust in, and reliance on, Williams, see Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 92, Peking, 10 September 1864;Google ScholarBurlingame, to Seward, (private), Peking, 11 September 1864, in Dipl. Despatches, China, XXI.Google Scholar
24 The gradual process in inaugurating the Co-operative Policy was inescapable since the foreign representatives arrived in Peking at different times: arrived, Bruce in March 1861, Balluzeck in July 1861, Burlingame in July 1862, and Berthemy in April 1863. The first use of the term ‘Co-operative Policy’ is found in Burlingame's dispatch to Seward dated 20 June 1863, in which Burlingame gives a synopsis of the evolution of the Co-operative Policy.Google ScholarSee Dipl. Corr., 1863, II, 862.Google Scholar
25 The North China Herald, 24 December 1867.Google Scholar
26 Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 18, Shanghai, 17 June 1862, Dipl. Despatches, China, XX.Google Scholar
27 ibid.
28 ibid.
29 ibid.
30 Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 42, Peking, 20 June 1863,Google ScholarDipl. Corr., 1863, II, 860Google Scholar. This dispatch is dated 20 June 1863 but provides a comprehensive report on Burlingame's proceedings on the Co-operative Policy since his arrival in Peking in July 1862.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid, p. 861.
35 Ibid.
36 See Bruce, to Russell, , Peking, 15 January 1863 [hereafter cited as Bruce's Memorandum on the Co-operative Policy], Inclosure A in Burlingame's dispatch of 20 June 1863. In enclosing this memorandum, Burlingame stated: ‘He [Bruce] accordingly wrote the powerful despatch marked A, which he communicated to me for my private use, and which, with his permission, I send to you confidentially, with the most positive request that it is not to appear until it is first published in England’.Google ScholarIbid., p. 861. Bruce's memorandum is therefore deleted from the published diplomatic correspondence of 1863 but is found in the State Department archives, Dipl. Despatches, China, XX.
37 Bruce's Memorandum on the Co-operative Policy, ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 42, Peking, 2 06 1863, Dipl. Corr., 1863, II, 860.Google Scholar
41 Bruce's Memorandum on the Co-operative Policy, Dipl. Despatches, China, XX.
42 Italics added. Ibid.
43 Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 42, Peking, 20 06 1863, Dipl. Corr., 1863, II, 861.Google Scholar
44 Ibid., p. 860.
45 Ibid., p. 861.
46 Ibid.
47 Burlingame, Jane to Livermore, , Peking, 25 April 1863, Burlingame Papers, Box 4.Google Scholar
48 Burlingame, to Seward, , loc. cit., p. 862. Italics added.Google Scholar
49 ibid., pp. 859–60. See also Bruce, to Russell, , Peking, , 12 June 1863, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (Blue Books), 1864, Vol. LXIII [3345], (China, No. 6), p. 1.Google Scholar
50 Burlingame, to Seward, , loc. cit., p. 862.Google Scholar
51 Williams, Samuel Wells, The Middle Kingdom (Rev. ed.: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883), II, 699.Google Scholar
52 See Bruce, to Russell, , No. 22, 7 April 1860, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1861, Vol. LXVI [2754];Google Scholaribid., Nos, 23, 25.
53 Bruce, to Forrest, Consul, Peking, 2 July 1863,Google Scholar cited in Pelcovits, Nathan A., Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New York: King's Crown Press, 1948), p. 30.Google Scholar
54 This theme is repeatedly stressed by Bruce in his memorandum of 15 January 1863 to Lord Russell. See Bruce's Memorandum on the Co-operative Policy.
55 Ibid.
56 The North China Herald, 9 July 1864.Google Scholar
57 Ibid., 24 December 1867.
58 de Méritens, Baron, A Sketch of Our Relations with China, 1517–1869 (Foochow: Rozario, Marcal & Co., 1871), p. 66.Google Scholar
59 Morse, Hosea B., The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1910), II, 50.Google Scholar
60 Dennett, , op. cit., p. 373.Google Scholar
61 See Kim, , op. cit., pp. 143–6.Google Scholar
62 Lay, Horatio N., the first inspector-general of the Maritime Customs, recalled his days at Peking in the early 1860s: ‘The foreign ministers met frequently at the house of Mr Burlingame as upon neutral territory, and there we discussed over our cigars Chinese policy past and present, and in our stroll, which usually closed the afternoon's confab the policy that should be pursued in the future was the constant theme.’Google ScholarLay, Horatio N., Our Interests in China (London: Privately printed, 1864), p. 40.Google Scholar See also Kim, , op. cit., pp. 138–9.Google Scholar
63 Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 83, Peking, 18 June 1864,Google ScholarDipl. Corr., 1864, III, 426.Google Scholar The North China Herald published the entire text of Burlingame's circular on the Co-operative Policy in its 9 July 1864 issue.Google Scholar
64 Italics added. Burlingame, to Seward, Consul G., Peking, , 15 06 1864, Dipl. Corr., 1864, III, 429–30.Google Scholar
65 See Burlingame, to Seward, , No. 18, Shanghai, 17 June 1862, Dipl. Despatches, China, XX.Google Scholar
66 Burlingame, to Seward, Consul G., Peking, , 15 June 1864, Dipl. Corr., 1864, III, 426.Google Scholar
67 The initial support given to the Co-operative Policy by the Old China Hands in the treaty ports can be attributed to their misunderstanding or misinterpretation of it. No sooner had they understood the meaning of the Co-operative Policy than their attack upon it began. For a review of the evolution of their attitudes toward the Co-operative Policy in the 1860s, see The North China Herald, 9 July 1864; 12 May 1866; December 1867; 31 October 1868; and 5 April1870.
