Endnotes

Note 1: The "Claims of China" refers to the Chinese Indemnity Fund, negotiated by William B. Reed in 1858 for claims of American merchants for property destroyed in January, 1857 in Whampoa (Canton).

Note 2: 48th Congress, 2nd Session), which accompanied S. 678, December 24, 1884 (Google Books).  The full text reads:

On the night of December 14, 1856, the foreign factories at Canton were burned and foreigners were compelled to flee the city; and on the 13th of the next month [January 13, 1857] all foreigners were forced to abandon Whampoa, the port of Canton. These incidents were the result of the hostilities between China and Great Britain growing out of the controversy concerning the lorcha Arrow -- a controversy which served to inflame the feelings of the Chinese against all foreign residents. "The destruction of the foreign settlements at Canton, although apparently the act of incendiaries," was "known to have been arranged by the authorities of Canton, who made no distinction between enemies and neutrals; and the subsequent proceedings of the Canton government in offering rewards for the heads of all foreigners indiscriminately," were, together with the preceding acts of injury, considered as making the "provincial government and consequently the imperial government responsible to the fullest extent." American citizens having thus been "obliged to leave Canton and Whampoa to save their lives from the indiscriminate fury of the populace, supported by the authorities," claims for their losses in consequence of the destruction of their property and the interruption of their business were preferred by the United States against China. These claims were made the subject of negotiation by Mr. William B. Reed in 1858. In the negotiation of his treaty of amity and commerce with China in that year he endeavored to secure the insertion of an article in relation to claims. The Chinese plenipotentiaries refused to admit it, and he subsequently proposed an arrangement whereby the claims might be gradually liquidated without any open acknowledgment of imperial liability. This end was to be accomplished by devoting a certain proportion of the duties collected on American goods and bottoms at three treaty ports to the payment of the American claims. To this proposal the Chinese plenipotentiaries assented, and it was agreed by means of an exchange of notes that a fund of 600,000 taels, or about $840,000, should be raised in the manner described. In this agreement, however, there were certain elements of inconvenience and uncertainty. It was provided that in the adjudication of claims, and especially of those at Canton, the Chinese Government should be represented by an officer appointed to act for it. This provision was thought to involve delay, if nothing more. Besides, no apportionment was made between the three treaty ports of the proportions of duties to be reserved in them, nor was any specification made of the time at which the agreement was to take effect, except the contingent one of the restoration of business at Canton. These features of the agreement caused Mr. Reed to desire its modification. He wished to make it more precise in its terms, as well as to give it the solemnity of a conventional form. On November 8, 1858, therefore, he signed at Shanghai a convention by which, though he accepted 500,000 taels, or $735,238.97, instead of 600,000 taels, in settlement of the claims, he obtained an exact apportionment of the fund among the ports of Canton, Shanghai, and Fuh-chau [Foochow, Fuzhou], together with a provision for the issuance of debentures by the collectors of customs on the first day of the next Chinese year.

The distribution of the fund was committed to a board of two commissioners, from whose decision and appeal was allowed to the minister of the United States in China. As commissioners the President appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, Mr. Charles W. Bradley, United States consul at Ningpo, and Mr. Oliver K. Roberts, "late vice-consul at Hongkong." According to the designation of time made by Mr. John E. Ward, then minister of the United States in China, the commissioners met at Macao November 18, 1859. They caused a notice of their meeting to be published in the China Mail, of Hongkong, and ordered all claims to be filed before December 15, 1859. They concluded their labors January 13, 1860. In most cases they came to a decision, and in every case in which they made a joint report it was approved by Mr. Ward. The total amount of the claims presented was $1,535,111.35. The claims allowed in full amounted to $75,506.83; those allowed in part amounted, so far as allowed, to $414,187.95. The whole amount allowed was, therefore, $489,187.95. The claims that were wholly disallowed amounted to $278,783.43. As the fund amounted to $735,238.97, there was a surplus left, after paying the awards, of nearly $250,000.

Some of the claims as at first presented to the board were afterward reduced "to a considerable extent by the recovery of property supposed to be lost, or by its honorable restitution by some of the principal Chinese merchants who had taken charge of it during the emergency." The board made it a rule to allow only "claims for actual losses, understanding by these words losses of actual property existing at and before the conflagration at Canton." "Besides these losses there have been," said the commissioners, "losses arising from the interruption of business by reason of the circumstance of hostilities, which may be called real losses in one sense; but these have been in every case disallowed, as well as all constructive and speculative losses of every kind. In disallowing all claims except those for destruction of actual property, we have followed the rule laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States and the usages of governments in similar cases."

The commissioners allowed interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum on the claims from the time of their origination to December 15, 1859, in most cases a period of three years. They were induced to give this liberal rate by consideration of the fact that some time must elapse before the complete collection of the indemnity through the Chinese custom-houses could be effected; and they intended to make their awards a final settlement of the question of interest.

"The Chinese Indemnity: Convention of November 8, 1858," in "History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to Which the United States Has Been a Party," Volume 5, Appendix I, Chapter J., House of Representatives, 53rd Congress, 2nd Session, Mis. Doc. No. 212, by John Bassett Moore (GPO, 1898), pages 4627-4629 (footnotes omitted) (Google Books).

More Political Cartoons from the era are on Hobnob Blog.

Forbidden Citizens
Chinese Exclusion and the U.S. Congress
A Legislative History
By Martin B. Gold

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