克林顿总统1998年6月29日北京大学的演讲中，赞美感谢中国赠送美国华盛顿纪念塔、镌刻着徐继畬《瀛环志略》中两段按语的花岗岩石碑，直探美国赖以立国的核心理念。这一中美友好新篇章，是半个多世纪以来美中学者共同致力于徐继畬与中美早期关系的学术研究和交流促成的。克氏引用的华盛顿纪念塔上徐继畬碑文汉译英，则是采用1997年中美在华府举行的纪念徐继畬仪式上，任复兴提供给美中官方民间人士的文本。
克林顿这篇演讲5700字，47自然段，大体有四部分。第四部分摘要如下：
从我在华盛顿特区所住的白宫往窗外眺望,我们首任总统乔治·华盛顿的纪念碑高耸入云。这是一座很高的方尖碑，但就在这个大碑邻近有块小石碑，上面刻着：米利坚不设王侯之号，不循世及之规，公器付之公论，创古今未有之局，一何奇也。这些话并非出自美国人，而是由福建巡抚徐继畬所写，1853年中国政府将它勒石为碑作为礼物赠送给我国。
我十分感谢这份来自中国的礼物。它直探我们作为人的内心愿望：拥有生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利，也有不受国家干预的言论、异议、结社和信仰等自由。这些就是我们美国220年前赖以立国的核心理念。这些就是引导我们横跨美洲大陆登上世界舞台的理念。这些就是美国人今天仍然珍惜的理念。
正如我在同江主席的记者会上所说，我们自己为了达到这些理念也还在不断追求。美国的立宪先贤了解我们永远达不到完美境界。他们说，美国的任务就是不断的“组成更完美的结合”，换句话说，我们永远不会完美，但我们总得不断努力改善。……
From the windows of the White House, where I live inWashington,D.C., the monument to our first President, George Washington, dominates the skyline. It is a very tall obelisk. But very near this large monument there is a small stone which contains these words: TheUnited Statesneither established titles of nobility and royalty, nor created a hereditary system. State affairs are put to the vote of public opinion. This created a new political situation, unprecedented from ancient times to the present. How wonderful it is. Those words were not written by an American. They were written by Xu Jiyu, governor ofFujianProvince, inscribed as a gift from the government ofChinato our nation in 1853.
I am very grateful for that gift fromChina. It goes to the heart of who we are as a people -- the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to debate, to dissent, to associate, to worship without interference from the state. These are the ideals that were at the core of our founding over 220 years ago. These are the ideas that led us across our continent and onto the world stage. These are the ideals that Americans cherish today.
As I said in my press conference with President Jiang, we have an ongoing quest ourselves to live up to those ideals. The people who framed our Constitution understood that we would never achieve perfection. They said that the mission ofAmericawould always be "to form a more perfect union" – in other words, that we would never be perfect, but we had to keep trying to do better.
[说明：徐继畬汉字碑铭，其实在华盛顿纪念塔内。克林顿总统无暇现场考察，向克林顿提供徐继畬碑铭任复兴汉译英资料的美国国务院官员，虽然参加了1997年的华盛顿纪念徐继畬仪式，也未到塔内考察，形成这个演讲的白璧微瑕。]