American merchants, it is true, had been of all classes, but at any rate there had always been a sufficient leaven of those of the highest type to insure a reasonable reputation.
The conduct of the American Government in the Far East had been most honorable and friendly.

The treaty with Japan in 1858 contained the clause: "The President of the United States, at the request of the Japanese Government, will act as a friendly mediator in such matters of difference as may arise between the Government of Japan and any European power." Under Seward the United States did, indeed, work in concert with European powers to force the opening of the Shimonoseki Straits in 1864, and a revision of the tariff in 1866.

Subsequently, however, the United States cooperated with Japan in her effort to free herself from certain disadvantageous features of early treaties.

In 1883 the United States returned the indemnity received at the time of the Shimonoseki affair--an example of international equity almost unique at the time but subsequently paralleled in American relations with China.

The one serious difficulty existing in the relationships of the United States with both China and Japan resulted from an unwillingness to receive their natives as immigrants when people of nearly every other country were admitted.