Treaty with China
Treaty with China
In 1868, a young Mark Twain, barely three years into his career as a writer, published a scathing critique of American imperialism in the New York Tribune. The piece argues against the "Treaty with China" that would give the U.S. unwarranted privileges and power in Chinese territory. Twain's argument is not merely diplomatic but deeply moral: he sees the proposed treaty as a betrayal of the principles of equality and fair dealing between nations. The essay reveals a Twain rarely seen in his famous humor and adventure novels: a principled polemicist willing to take an unpopular stand on foreign policy at a moment when American expansionism was at its zenith. This forgotten essay, not reprinted for over 140 years until 2010, shows that the moral conscience behind Huckleberry Finn was already awake and angry decades before. For readers who know Twain only as America's humorist, this piece offers a necessary correction: he was also a writer who understood that power without principle is just another form of theft.
X-Ray
