[Speech of Charles Sumner at the banquet given by the City of
Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his
associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to
the United States and the powers of Europe.]
MR. MAYOR:--I cannot speak on this interesting occasion without
first declaring the happiness I enjoy at meeting my friend of many years
in the exalted position which he now holds. Besides being my personal
friend, he was also an honored associate in representing the good people
of this community, and in advancing a great cause, which he championed
with memorable eloquence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit
me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the municipal
authorities of Boston, is only a natural expression of the sentiments
which must prevail in this community. Here his labors and triumphs
began. Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he first
tasted of that honor which is now his in such ample measure. He is one
of us, who, going forth into a strange country, has come back with its
highest trusts and dignities. Once the representative of a single
Congressional district, he now represents the most populous nation of
the globe. Once the representative of little more than a third of
Boston, he is now the representative of more than a third part of the
human race. The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hundred
millions; that of China at more than four hundred millions, and
sometimes even at five hundred millions.
If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder, there is still
more for gratitude in the unparalleled opportunity which it affords.
What we all ask is opportunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing
scale--to be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best interests of
the Human Family; and, if these are advanced, no nation can suffer. Each
is contained in all. With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule,
and nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there can be no
limits to the immeasurable consequences. For myself, I am less
solicitous with regard to concessions or privileges, than with regard to
that spirit of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces alike
the distant and the near, and, when once established, renders all else
easy.
The necessary result of the present experiment in diplomacy will be to
make the countries which it visits better known to the Chinese, and also
to make the Chinese better known to them. Each will know the other
better and will better comprehend that condition of mutual dependence
which is the law of humanity. In the relations among nations, as in
common life, this is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the
Chinese are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure that we are
poorly informed with regard to them. We know them through the porcelain
on our tables with its lawless perspective, and the tea-chest with its
unintelligible hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the
literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an impression.
The first is in "Paradise Lost," where Milton, always learned even in
his poetry, represents Satan as descending in his flight,
... on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where _Chineses_ drive,
With sails and wind their cany wagons light.
The other is that admirable address on the study of the law of nature
and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh, in words of singular felicity,
alludes to "the tame but ancient and immovable civilization of China."
It will be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the canvas
with life.
I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest, that he is not
the first stranger who, after sojourning in this distant unknown land,
has come back loaded with its honors, and with messages to the
Christian powers. He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There
is another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the Venetian,
Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as the fables of a
traveller, are now recognized among the sources of history, and
especially of geographical knowledge. Nobody can read them without
feeling their verity. It was in the latter part of the far-away
thirteenth century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company with his
father and uncle, all of them merchants, journeyed from Venice, by the
way of Constantinople, Trebizond, on the Black Sea, and Central Asia,
until they reached first the land of Prester John, and then that golden
country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler, Kubla Khan, treated
them with gracious consideration, and employed young Polo as his
ambassador. This was none other than China, and the great ruler, called
the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its Mongolian dynasty,
having his imperial residence in the immense city of Kambalu, or Peking.
After many years of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his
companions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged with letters
for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian is charged with similar
letters now. There were letters for the Pope, the King of France, the
King of Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear that
England was expressly designated. Her name, so great now, was not at
that time on the visiting list of the distant Emperor. Such are the
contrasts in national life. Marco Polo, with his companions, reached
Venice on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante, in Florence,
was meditating his divine poem, and when Roger Bacon, in England, was
astonishing the age with his knowledge. These were two of his greatest
contemporaries.
The return of the Venetian to his native city was attended by incidents
which have not occurred among us. Bronzed by long residence under the
sun of the East--wearing the dress of a Tartar--and speaking his native
language with difficulty, it was some time before he could persuade his
friends of his identity. Happily there is no question on the identity of
our returned fellow-citizen; and surely it cannot be said that he speaks
his native language with difficulty. There was a dinner given at Venice,
as now at Boston, and the Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly
five hundred years, still lives in glowing description. On this occasion
Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in long robes of crimson
satin reaching to the floor, which, after the guests had washed their
hands, were changed for other robes of crimson damask, and then again,
after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of crimson velvet,
and at the conclusion of the banquet, for the ordinary dress worn by the
rest of the company. Meanwhile the other costly garments were
distributed in succession among the attendants at the table. In all your
magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no such largess. Then was
brought forward the coarse threadbare clothes in which they had
travelled, when, on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly
jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the eyes of the
company, who for a time were motionless with wonder. Then at last, says
the Italian chronicler, every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied
that these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the house of
Polo. I do not relate this history in order to suggest any such
operation on the dress of our returned fellow-citizen. No such evidence
is needed to assure us of his identity.
The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From his habit of speaking
of millions of people and millions of money, he was known as _millioni_,
or the millionnaire, being the earliest instance in history of a
designation so common in our prosperous age. But better than "millions"
was the knowledge he imparted, and the impulse that he gave to that
science, which teaches the configuration of the globe, and the place of
nations on its surface. His travels, as dictated by him, were reproduced
in various languages, and, after the invention of printing, the book was
multiplied in more than fifty editions. Unquestionably it prepared the
way for the two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times, that
of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama, and the New World, by
Christopher Columbus. One of his admirers, a learned German, does not
hesitate to say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the
three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries, have most
contributed to the progress of geography and the knowledge of the globe,
the modest name of the Venetian finds a place in the same line with
Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known that the
imagination of the Genoese navigator was fired by the revelations of the
Venetian, and that, in his mind, all the countries embraced by his
transcendent discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with its
various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish Sovereigns, Cuba was
nothing else than Xipangu, or Japan, as described by the Venetian, and
he thought himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king of
kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not reached Cathay or the Grand
Khan; but he had discovered a new world, destined in the history of
civilization to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to
welcome the ambassador of the grand Khan.
The Venetian on his return home, journeyed out of the East, westward.
Our Marco Polo on his return home, journeyed out of the west, eastward;
and yet they both came from the same region. Their common starting-point
was Peking. This change is typical of that transcendent revolution under
whose influence the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying
westward, the first welcome is from the nations of Europe. Journeying
eastward, the first welcome is from our Republic. It only remains that
this welcome should be extended until it opens a pathway for the
mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces within the sphere of
American activity that ancient ancestral empire, where population,
industry and education, on an unprecedented scale, create resources and
necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See to it, merchants of the
United States, and you, merchants of Boston, that this opportunity is
not lost.
And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the treaty, which you invited me to
discuss. But I will not now enter upon this topic. If you did not call
me to order for speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in
another place for undertaking to speak of a treaty which has not yet
been proclaimed by the President. One remark I will make and take the
consequences. The treaty does not propose much; but it is an excellent
beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of our fellow-citizen,
the honored plenipotentiary, will unlock those great Chinese gates which
have been bolted and barred for long centuries. The embassy is more
than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for further intercourse
and will help that new order of things which is among the promises of
the future.
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