American relations with Turkey, 1776-1880

The Lausanne Treaty between the United States and Turkey, negotiated in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1923, is now before the United States Senate for consideration. That instrument, which has been the object of such bitter dispute both within the Senate and in the press, cannot be evaluated without a proper understanding of the relations that have existed between the two countries since the inception of this country as an independent nation. Until the present no comprehensive study of these relations has existed. This study, while not a complete history of these relations, attempts to set forth the salient features of the subject from the period 1776-1880, and in some manner, it is hoped, will serve to furnish a background against which the later affairs may be set and judged. If this study possesses any other merit, it will lie, in the writer's estimation, in the unbiased conclusion which is drawn, that the Turkish Government has in its contact with the United States displayed a temper and spirit of justice which is remarkable, not only among nations, but particularly in that quarter of the world. Turkey has too often been the tool and plaything of the more powerful nations of Europe, and while the misgovernment which has existed for centuries in that land may not be blinked at, or the characteristic venality of Oriental officials denied, the unconscious impression cannot fail to be registered that we have been accorded by the Ottoman Porte, a consideration towards this Government and its nationals which has not always been appreciated, or - may it be suggested - reciprocated.