CALIFORNIA. 



79 



by our Senators and Representatives in Congress, 

 sought the appropriate remedies against this great 

 wrong, and patiently awaited with confidence the ac- 

 tion of the General Government. Meanwhile this 

 giantevil has grown, and strengthened, and expand- 

 ed its baneful effect upon the material interests of 

 tlie people, upon public morals and our civilization, 

 becoming more and more apparent, until patience 

 is almost exhausted and the spirit of discontent per- 

 vades the State. It would be disingenuous in us to 

 attempt to conceal our amazement at the long delay 

 of appropriate action by the National Government 

 toward tlie prohibition of an immigration which is 

 rapidly approaching the character of an Oriental in- 

 vasion, and which threatens to supplant Anglo-Sax- 

 on civilization on this coast. If the f&cts relating to 

 this immigration now patent to all observers, if the 

 ascertained knowledge now within the reach of every 

 intelligent man, will not serve to awaken an interest 

 upon this subject in the minds of the governing pow- 

 er of this nation, we are tempted to despair of ever 

 reaching a remedy. 



If it be supposed, as has been often said, that the 

 hostility to Chinese immigration is confined to a 

 small and ignorant class ot our people, we protest 

 against such assumption. The discontent from this 

 cause is almost universal. It is not limited to any 

 particular party, nor to any class or nationality. It 

 does not spring from race antipathies, nor alone from 

 economic considerations, nor from any religious sen- 

 timent, nor from low hatreds or mercenary motives. 

 We submit that, our people being interested to a 

 greater extent in commerce with China than any 

 other portion of the American people, the reasons 

 for this hostility to Chinese immigration must be 

 considered overwhelming, when sufficient to array 

 the whole body of our people against a treaty which 

 was intended to secure to that people, more than 

 to any other, the great benefits to be derived from 

 Asiatic commerce. Our sincerity can not therefore 

 be doubted, since we are willing to forego all the 

 benefits of commerce wiih China, if need be, rather 

 than suffer the ills which this immigration must in- 

 evitably entail upon us and our descendants. 



Among the many reasons for our opposition to Chi- 

 nese immigration, all of which can not be stated in a 

 brief memorial, we submit tlie following : 



1. The country being now stocked with a vigor- 

 ous, intelligent, progressive, and highly civilized 

 people, there is no need of immigration for the in- 

 crease of our population, certainly not of the immi- 

 gration of a non-issimilative and alien race. 



2. That, considering the character of Chinese im- 

 migrants in respect to their habits and modes of life 

 and physical peculiarities, this immigration operates 

 as a substitution of Chinese for white men of the 

 Caucasian race, and not as an addition to our popu- 

 lation ; the question being, Shall Chinese ultimately 

 occupy the country, or shall it be held for ;he homes 

 of men of the Caucasian race ? 



3. There is danger of an immense increase of Chi- 

 nese immigrants in the near future. The effect of 

 the famine now unhappily prevailing in the northern 

 provinses of China is sure to cause a migration of 

 greater proportions than any known in the history 

 of the human race. The fear of hunger will drive 

 the survivors of this calamity forth in prodigious 

 numbers, in quest of food, eastward, because there 

 is no other outlet, and California offers the most 

 fruitful field for their sustenance. The speculators 

 in Chinese labor will, if permitted, seize the oppor- 

 tunity to augment their fortunes by the importation of 

 these hunger-driven creatures into our ports. This 

 invasion is to be dreaded by us more than a hostile 

 invasion by armed men, for, upon the first note of 

 alarm from such a cause, the nation would hasten to 

 our rescue and defense. 



4. The Chinese bring with them habits and cus- 

 toms the most vicious and demoralizing. They are 

 scornful of our laws and institutions. They estab- 



lish their own tribunals for the redress of wrongs 

 and injuries among themselves, independent of our 

 courts, and subject the victims of such tribunals to 

 secret punishments the most barbarous and terrible. 

 In our cities they live crowded and herded together 

 like beasts, generating the most dangerous diseases. 

 They introduce the ancient, infectious, and incurable 

 malady called leprosy, the germs of which, when 

 once distributed, can never be eradicated, but fasten 

 themselves upon the people as an eternal consuming 

 rot. They poison our youth in both mind and body. 

 They build no homes. They are generally destitute 

 of moral principle. They are incapable of patriot- 

 ism, and utterly unfitted for American citizenship. 

 Their existence here in great numbers is a perpetual 

 menace to republican institutions, a source of con- 

 stant irritation and danger to the public peace. 



The system of labor which results from their pres- 

 ence is a system which includes all or nearly ail the 

 vices of slavery, without the conservative influences 

 incident to the domestic or paternal relation between 

 master and slave. It degrades labor to the standard 

 of mere brute energy, and this excludes the labor of 

 free white men, who will not and can not endure 

 the degradation of competition with servile labor. 

 Chinese labor is, therefore, substituted for the labor 

 of free white men, and the State is afflicted with a 

 quasi slave system, under which Chinese population 

 supplants white American citizens, and drives them 

 to other fields or to starvation. 



The necessary brevity of this memorial forbids 

 the further enlargement of facts and reasons for the 

 almost universal hostility in California to their im- 

 migration. We beg the earnest attention of the Gov- 

 ernment at Washington to this subject, fraught with 

 immense interest to us, and, as we believe, to the 

 whole people of the United States. Whatever the 

 State of California may lawfully do to abate or miti- 

 gate this evil, it has resolved to do, declaring, how- 

 ever, our settled determination to avoid all conflict 

 with the national authority, and to limit our action 

 to the exercise of the police power of the State. We 

 ask most earnestly and respectfully of the Congress 

 of the United States such prohibitory legislation as 

 will effectually prevent the further immigration of 

 Chinese coolies or laborers to the ports of the coast. 



There is another view of this subject which 

 was occasionally alluded to in the debates of 

 the Convention, and recognized by all the con- 

 siderate members. The representation of the 

 public action of the State would be imperfect 

 without some notice of this aspect of the ques- 

 tion. It is briefly set forth in the " Sacramento 

 Record," whose language aptly expresses it, 

 thus : "Every man who has ever thought upon 

 this question knows perfectly well that John 

 Chinaman is formidable, not because of his 

 bad qualities, but because of his good ones. 

 If he were really the poor, miserable creature 

 depicted by extravagant hostility, there would 

 be no need for any protective or prescriptive 

 legislation in regard to him. No race was ever 

 so hated unless it was feared ; and that is a 

 truth which ought to be recognized in this 

 case. The Chinaman is formidable because he 

 is industrious, temperate, frugal, patient, tract- 

 able, and, above all, cheap. He works for very 

 low wages, but it is none the less true that he 

 does the work he undertakes. He lias found 

 his way into every industry on the Pacific 

 coast, because those who want labor find that 

 his labor pays. That is the secret of the en- 

 mity to him. That is the reason we are all 



