Press Kit: Discovering the Civil War
Discovering the Civil War
"The so-called Confederacy… has no right to bring its strife into your waters…."
In this letter dated March 8, 1864, U.S. ambassador Anson Burlingame informed Chinese Foreign Minister Prince Kung that the Confederate ship Alabama had been attacking U.S. merchant ships. He asked Kung to consider China’s treaty obligations and the interest of international commerce and to deny the Alabama or any ship of the "so-called confederacy" entrance to Chinese waters. Kung agreed. Burlingame maintained this Chinese-language copy of the letter in his files. National Archives, General Records of the Department of State
 Chinese Record |