The undersigned has been commanded to state that the President entertains the most friendly feelings toward Japan, but has been surprised and grieved to learn that when any of the people of the United States go of their own accord, or are thrown by the perils of the sea, within the dominions of your Imperial Majesty, they are treated as if they were your worst enemies. The undersigned refers to the cases of the American ships ‘Morrison,’‘Ladoga,’ and ‘Lawrence.’ With the Americans, as indeed with all Christian people, it is considered a sacred duty to receive with kindness, and to succor and protect all, of whatever nation, who may be cast upon their shores; and such has been the course of the Americans, with respect to all Japanese subjects who have fallen under their protection. The government of the United States desires to obtain from that of Japan, some positive assurance that persons who may be hereafter shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, or driven by stress of weather into her ports, shall be treated with humanity. The undersigned is commanded to explain to the Japanese that the United States are connected with no government in Europe, and that their laws do not interfere with the religion of their own citizens, much less with that of other nations. That they inhabit a great country which lies directly between Japan and Europe, and which was discovered by the nations of Europe about the same time that Japan herself was first visited by Europeans; that the portion of the American continent lying nearest to Europe, was first settled by emigrants from that part of the world; that its population has rapidly spread through the country until it has reached the shores of the Pacific ocean; that we have now large cities, from which, with the aid of steam-vessels, we can reach Japan in eighteen or twenty days; that our commerce with all this region of the globe is rapidly increasing, and the Japanese seas will soon be covered with our vessels. Therefore as the United States and Japan are becoming every day nearer and nearer to each other, the President desires to live in peace and friendship with your Imperial Majesty; but no friendship can long exist unless Japan ceases to act toward Americans as if they were her enemies. However wise this policy may originally have been, it is unwise and impracticable, now that the intercourse between the two countries is so much more easy and rapid than it formerly was. The undersigned holds out all these arguments, in the hope that the Japanese government will see the necessity of averting unfriendly collision between the two nations, by responding favorably to the propositions of amity, which are now made in all sincerity.