[1][2] During his service, Seward played a key role in early treaty negotiations that would eventually become known as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

[3] His successor at Shanghai, John C. Myers of Reading, Pennsylvania, had reported to State Department superiors that Seward and his vice-counsul Oliver Bradford had been engaging in private land and capital speculation in China that seemed to violate the noninterference provisions of the Burlingame Treaty of 1868.

Wells and Myers then sought redress from Congress, and a committee considered impeaching George Seward.

Mosby's predecessor, David H. Bailey, had been nominated as Seward's successor in Shanghai and had traveled to Washington to defend his cronies.

Upon arriving at his post, Mosby heard many reports about a network of embezzlement and shady speculation masterminded by Seward, and which also included Bailey and Loring in Hong Kong, missionary Chester Holcombe, David Sickels and Torrey in Bangkok and Adolph Studer in Singapore.

By October 1879, Frederick Seward had resigned under fire, and before the 1880 elections (which Republican James Garfield won), Secretary of State William M. Evarts cleaned house in the far East.