WASHINGTON, _January 22, 1845_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate herewith an abstract of the treaty between the United
States of America and the Chinese Empire concluded at Wang-Hiya on the
3d of July last, and ratified by the Senate on the 16th instant, and
which, having also been ratified by the Emperor of China, now awaits
only the exchange of the ratifications in China, from which it will be
seen that the special mission authorized by Congress for this purpose
has fully succeeded in the accomplishment so far of the great objects
for which it was appointed, and in placing our relations with China on a
new footing eminently favorable to the commerce and other interests of
the United States.
In view of the magnitude and importance of our national concerns, actual
and prospective, in China, I submit to the consideration of Congress
the expediency of providing for the preservation and cultivation of the
subsisting relations of amity between the United States and the Chinese
Government, either by means of a permanent minister or commissioner
with diplomatic functions, as in the case of certain of the Mohammedan
States. It appears by one of the extracts annexed that the establishment
of the British Government in China consists both of a plenipotentiary
and also of paid consuls for all the five ports, one of whom has the
title and exercises the functions of consul-general; and France has also
a salaried consul-general, and the interests of the United States seem
in like manner to call for some representative in China of a higher
class than an ordinary commercial consulate.
I also submit to the consideration of Congress the expediency of making
some special provision by law for the security of the independent and
honorable position which the treaty of Wang-Hiya confers on citizens
of the United States residing or doing business in China. By the
twenty-first and twenty-fifth articles of the treaty (copies of which
are subjoined _in extenso_) citizens of the United States in China are
wholly exempted, as well in criminal as in civil matters, from the local
jurisdiction of the Chinese Government and made amenable to the laws and
subject to the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities of the United
States alone. Some action on the part of Congress seems desirable in
order to give full effect to these important concessions of the Chinese
Government.