CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



their lives at tho command of the Government and 

 i ..iii tin ir blood and treasure to terminate the 

 Blighting iiitlui'iicu of slavery in our midst. Yet an 

 equally iiml, if possible, a more insidious danger must 

 <- antuato by the groat mcrea.se of this servile popula- 



Thut this immigration w in no manner homogene- 

 cm-i \\ ith us as a people ; that their social wants, nab- 

 it->, iitul character diner so materially that the standard 

 <>f lulhT must bo debased to such a degree by their 

 vitiatinir iutlucnce as to repel vast bodies of our most 

 valuable opnaiivi-', and not only degrade tho social 

 j-tatu* aiul moral welfare of our producing classes, but 

 niTi-t the advancement of our ei\ ili/ati"ii. 



That tho Asiatic has displaced to a g^reat extent the 

 t/iti/.i'M operatives formerly engaged in the various 

 inamifaetmv.s of the city or San Francisco, and is rap- 

 iillv displacing othen. 



That all occupations giving profitable employment 

 to both male and female have suffered through this 

 cause. 



That the aggregate diminution of wages to Ameri- 

 can citizens can not be less than $9,000,000 annually. 



That the expenditure of such vast industrial re- 

 sources thus withdrawn from circulation has entailed 

 privation among the working classes, taxed the most 

 gem-rous benevolence^ and operated most detrimental- 

 ly against tho prosperity of the city. 



That the spread and augmentation of the number 

 throughout the State of California have seriously dis- 

 couraged the increase of the most desirable class of 

 European immigrants, such additions to our industrial 

 population seeking homes where labor is less degraded 

 or in greater demand. 



That your petitioners would urge upon your honor- 

 able consideration the necessity of an immediate revi- 

 sion of our treaty relations with China to restrain this 

 overwhelming evil. 



That all treaty stipulations should be based on the 



Erinciple of reciprocal advantages, not mutual privi- 

 jges. The right or privilege for a citizen of the United 

 States to migrate to China and for a subject of China 

 to migrate to the United States are not mutual in ad- 

 vantages, for it is an advantage to tho subject while it 

 is disadvantageous to the citizen to migrate. Hence 

 such provision in tho treaty is impolitic and un- 

 wise. 



That the inundation of incompatible races into tho 

 various avenues of labor, which are still so inadequate 

 to supply employment to our own producing classes, 

 must evidently lead to the most disastrous conse- 

 quences. 



That your petitioners are actuated by no illiberal 

 feeling inimical to the less advanced races. On the 

 contrary, it is their earnest desire that all the offices 

 of friendly intercourse should be generously fulfilled ; 

 that religious instruction and the advantages of scien- 

 tific education should be placed at their command ; 

 that instead of permitting the unchristian sordidness 

 of our own race using them to degrade the social con- 

 dition of our people and to desecrate the noblest hopes 

 of our national destiny, we should render them every 

 service to elevate their civilization. 



That a cause which projects and accelerates the con- 

 centration of wealth, and thus erects in the very bosom 

 of the nation a power destructive of republican insti- 

 tutions, as evidenced by every record of history, and 

 which draws into conflict the millions whose sole de- 

 pendence and property consist in laborj and therefore 

 sacred to the interests of their families, impeaches 

 equally the justice and wisdom of such a policy. 



That we are but in the first stages of this fatal 

 policy. 



That its destructive influence on the industrial con- 

 dition of California is the inevitable result which must 

 follow its extension into every other State of the 

 Union. 



That it now bo arrested by the foresight and sa- 

 gacity essential to the guardianship of a great nation, 

 while the delay or neglect of necessary measures will 

 leave the growing antagonism of interests to gather 



force and ultimately consolidate its power in re*utanoe 

 to the most salutary legislation. 



That your petitioners earnestly hope that your hon- 

 orable body, preeminent under Die Constitution in it* 

 deliberative functions, will not disregard their prayer 

 nor underrate the solemn importance of a subject to 

 grave. 



That large numbers of our most valuable operatives 

 have withdrawn from this degrading competition, while 

 others are preparing to abandon a State where a benefi- 

 cent Providence has spread such immeasurable bless- 

 ings over its fair villages. 



This assuredly demonstrates how limited is govern- 

 mental knowledge in the administration of Divine 

 bounty, and how much the prosperity of a nation de- 

 pends on the wisdom of its statesmen. 



Mr. Page : tl I do not suppose it will be gen- 

 erally claimed by the opponents of this measure 

 that Congress has not full power to legislate on 

 this subject. The right of Congress is unques- 

 tionable. The only question that may arise in 

 this connection is that of good faith, and of 

 that I shall speak hereafter. I shall quote only 

 one opinion on this point, which I believe to 

 be conclusive of the question. I send to the 

 Clerk's desk to be read an opinion of Justice 

 Curtis, of the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, Sanford vs. Scott, 19 Howard's Reports, 

 629: 



" By a treaty with a foreign nation the United States 

 may rightfully stipulate that the Congress will or will 

 not exercise its legislative power in some particular 

 manner on some particular subject. Such promises 

 when made should be voluntarily kept with tho most 

 scrupulous good faith. But that a treaty with a for- 

 eign nation can deprive the Congress or any part of 

 the legislative power conferred by the people, so that 

 it no longer can legislate as it was empowered by the 

 Constitution to do. I more than doubt. 



" The powers of the Government do and must re- 

 main unimpaired. The responsibility of the Govern- 

 ment to a foreign nation for the exercise of those pow- 

 ers is quite another matter. That responsibility is to 

 be met and justified to the foreign nation according to 

 the requirements of tho rules of public law, but never 

 upon tne assumption that the United States had parted 

 with or restricted any power of acting according to its 

 own free will governed by ite own appreciation of 

 duty. 



" The second section of the sixth article is, ' This 

 Constitution and the laws of the United States which 

 shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties 

 mode, or which shall be made, under the authority 

 of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 

 land.' This has made treaties part of our municipal 

 law, but it has not assigned to them any particular 

 decree of authoritv, nor declared laws so enacted shall 

 be irrepealable. &o supremacy is assigned to treaties 

 over acts of Congress. That thev are not perpetual, 

 and must be in some way repealable, all will agree. 

 If the President and the Senate alone possess the 

 power to repeal or modify a law found in a treaty, in- 

 asmuch as they can change or abrogate one treaty only 

 by making another inconsistent with the first, the 

 Government of the United States could nots act at all 

 to that effect without tho consent of some foreign gov- 

 ernment. I do not consider, I am not aware it has 

 ever been considered, that the Constitution has placed 

 our country in this helpless condition. The action of 

 Congress, in repealing the treaties with France by the 

 act of July 7 ; 1798 (7 Statutes at Large, 578), was in 

 conformity with these views. 



" In the case of Taylor v. Morton (2 Curtis's Cir- 

 cuit Court Reports, 454) I had occasion to consider this 

 subject, and I adhere to the views there expressed. 



" This is a dissenting opinion in what was 



