CALIFORNIA. 



of the country. Their sole object is to make 

 money. When they have accomplished that, 

 they do not invest their earnings in land nor 

 homesteads, but return with their wealth to 

 their native China. They come with no de- 

 sire or purpose to make this their permanent 

 home. So strong is their feeling in this re- 

 spect, that the poorest laborers stipulate, as a 

 part of the contract by which they sell their 

 services, that their dead bodies shall be car- 

 ried back to China, and thousands have been 

 thus exported. They have no conception of 

 the American judicial or legislative system. 

 They can not be relied upon to perform mili- 

 tary duty. They are incompetent as jurymen. 

 Indeed, the only purpose for which they are 

 available is to perform manual labor. They 

 bring with them neither wives nor families, 

 nor do they intermarry with the resident pop- 

 ulation. They have an inferior intelligence 

 and different civilization. Mentally, morally, 

 physically, socially, and politically, they have 

 remained a distinct and antagonistic race. 

 Nor, in view of their strong national preju- 

 dices, is there any hope that the future will 

 be different. Instances are numerous where 

 an inferior race has been absorbed and im- 

 proved by a superior one ; but the condition 

 precedent to such a result is an acknowledg- 

 ment on the part of the lower race of such 

 inferiority, nations as well as individuals, who 

 must conclude that they need help before they 

 are willing to ask or receive it. The Chinese 

 have not, and never will, come to such a con- 

 clusion. Their inordinate vanity leads them 

 to believe their country to be the center of a 

 terrestrial system, and they therefore call it 

 Midland, or Central Kingdom. They boast of a 

 civilization which antedates the birth of Christ. 

 They point with pride to a philosopher, Con- 

 fucius, whose maxims, as perfections of wis- 

 dom, had become their code of laws. They 

 obey a Government which, in their faith, is 

 heaven - descended an absolute despotism, 

 vast, awful, and impressive, whose terrible and 

 mysterious power regulates their lives or de- 

 crees their death, and under which liberty is 

 an unknown idea. Thus intrenched behind 

 national prejudices, they are impregnable 

 against all influences, and remain a great, 

 united class, distinct from Americans in color, 

 in size, in features, in dress, in language, in 

 customs, in habits, and in social peculiarities. 



The result of the investigation was the rec- 

 ommendation that Congress adopt a resolu- 

 tion requesting the President to open a corre- 

 spondence with the Governments of China and 

 Great Britain, with a view of securing a change 

 or "abrogation of all stipulations in existing 

 treaties which permit unlimited emigration 

 of Chinese to the United States. Other mea- 

 sures, such as a capitation tax and restriction 

 of the number of Mongolians admissible on any 

 one vessel, have been suggested. Meantime 

 the question whether Chinese are admissible 

 to naturalization has been decided in the nega- 



tive by the United States Circuit Court in Cali- 

 fornia. The decision is written by Judge Lo- 

 renzo Sawyer, and proceeds upon the ground 

 that a Chinaman is not a " free white person " 

 within the meaning of the United States 

 statutes. The latest revision of the naturaliza- 

 tion laws provides that they shall apply "to 

 aliens, being free white persons, and to aliens 

 of African nativity, and to persons of African 

 descent." Judge Sawyer interprets this pro- 

 vision in accordance with the presumptive 

 meaning of Congress when the law was 

 amended. He shows that the question of the 

 admission of the Chinese to citizenship then 

 occupied the attention of Congress, and that 

 there was clearly no idea or intention of open- 

 ing the door to that race. He holds that the 

 purpose of Congress was to include only mem- 

 bers of the Caucasian race in the term "free 

 white persons." A similar case has been de- 

 cided in New York, where there are some 

 Chinese who have received naturalization pa- 

 pers. There is, however, no ground for sup- 

 posing that the Chinese as a body have enter- 

 tained any idea of seeking naturalization. 



The election of members of the State Con- 

 stitutional Convention was held on June 19th. 

 It did not excite a lively general interest in the 

 State, but provoked a good deal of feeling in 

 San Francisco on account of the violent effort 

 made by the Kearney party to carry the city 

 and county an effort which appears to have 

 been successful through the division of its op- 

 ponents. There were six tickets in the field, 

 the two leading ones being the Citizens' Non- 

 partisan and that of the Kearneyites. The 

 latter were originally organized as a Working- 

 men's party, but their leader, Kearney, soon 

 developed into a violent revolutionist. Never- 

 theless, the thirty-three candidates on the 

 Kearney ticket were elected in San Francisco, 

 being in a majority over either of the other 

 tickets. The result of the entire election was : 

 Non-partisan, 85 ; Workingmen, 49 ; Republi- 

 cans, 9 ; Democrats, 5 ; Independents, 2 ; un- 

 classified, 2. Total, 152. 



The session of the Convention commenced 

 on September 28th. It was limited by the 

 law to one hundred days. It was permanent- 

 ly organized by the election of Joseph P. Hoge 

 as President. The vote on the fifth ballot was : 

 Hoge, 74; W. J. Tinnin, 73. Mr. J. A. John- 

 son, of Alameda, was chosen Secretary. It was 

 still in session at the close of the year, and its 

 hundred days expired only on January 6th. 

 The work of the Convention and its final re- 

 port will form a portion of the history of 1879. 

 Its action on the Chinese question, the most 

 interesting subject before the State, it may not 

 be out of place to mention at this time. 



The Committee of the Convention to whom 

 was referred the subject of the Chinese immi- 

 gration were unable to agree on a definite plan 

 to remedy the so-called evil. On the first sec- 

 tion of their report all agreed. It was as fol- 

 lows: 



