15 March 1881 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: OhKeUSC, UCCL 01927)
This letter is not to burden you—it requires no answer. If you respond to all letters that do require answers, your hands will be plenty full enough.
No, this note is only to tell you (in case you do not already know it,) that your letter to Li Hung Chang has done its work, & the Chinese Educational Mission in Hartford is saved. The order to take the students home to China was revoked by the Viceroy three days ago—by cable. This cablegram mentions the receipt of your letter; & at the same time it commands the Minister Chin to take Yung Wing into his consultations. ThisⒶemendation was not permitted before. It is an addition to the strength to the cause which cannot be overestimatedⒶemendation. (I take these facts from a jubilant letter of Yung Wing to Mr. Twichell—a letter marked “strictly confidential,” but Mr. T. & I considered that that prohibition could not rightfully apply to you.)
So we three wish to thank you again, very sincerely, for what you have done.
This achievement of yours is a most strange thing to contemplate. Without exaggeration of phrase or fact, it can be said that from No. 81 in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, you, an unofficial citizen of this republic, have changed the procedure of an empire on the other side of the globe. The Viceroy of China was in a minority in his Government, as concerns this matter; but it is plain that you & he together constitute a majority.
To
General U. S. Grant.
MS, OhKeUSC.
Published in facsimile in an edition of 200 copies by Kent State University Libraries, 29 January–23 February 1973; MicroPUL, reel 2.
The MS, offered for sale in February 1927 by Henry Goldsmith, was in the collection of English and American literature that B. George Ulizio (1889–1969) sold to Kent State University shortly before his death.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.