254 



CONGRESS. (CHINESE MATTERS.) 



SECTION . That the President be and he is hereby 

 authorized to nominate and, by and with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate, to appoint Alfred Pleason- 

 ton, late a major-general of the United States Volun- 

 teers and a brevet major-general of the United States 

 Army, to the position of colonel in the Army of the 

 United States, and to place him on the retired list of 

 the Army as of that grade, the retired list being here- 

 by increased in number to that extent; and all laws 

 and parts of laws in conflict herewith are suspended 

 for this purpose only. 



Mr. Plumb, of Kansas, offered the following 

 amendment, which was rejected : 



That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby author- 

 ized and directed to place on the pension- roll, sub- 

 ject to the provisions and limitations of the pension 

 laws, the name of Maria Hunter, widow of David 

 Hunter, late colonel of the Sixth Regiment United 

 States Cavalry, and major-general of United States 

 Volunteers, at the rate of $50 per month. 



Mr. Blair, of New Hampshire, offered the 

 following amendment, which was rejected : 



SKO. . That in all cases of applications for pen- 

 sions, under the laws of the United States, which 

 shall have been rejected on appeal from the decision 

 of the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, 

 the claimant of the pension, or his legal representa- 

 tive to the right of the pension ? may file his petition 

 in the District Court of the United States in the dis- 

 trict wherein he resides, for the pension, setting forth, 

 with other necessary averments, the rejection of his 

 claim by the Secretary of the Interior ; and thereupon 

 the court shall hear and try his cause, and such pro- 

 ceedings shall be had as in other cases, including the 

 trial by jury whenever the claimant demands it, and 

 the right of appeal to the higher courts upon ques- 

 tions of law and fact ; and upon the hearing the claim- 

 ant shall have the right to use all evidence, docu- 

 ments, and papers of every description which have 

 been filed in the proceedings before the Commissioner 

 of Pensions and Secretary of the Interior ; and all 

 record or other evidence in possession of the Govern- 

 ment, or copies thereof, shall be furnished, on appli- 

 cation by the claimant, for use in such proceedings in 

 the district court. 



Mr. Logan, of Illinois, offered the following 

 amendment, which was rejected : 



That all officers who were engaged in the battle of 

 Bull Run, on the 29th and 30th of August, 1862, who 

 were in command of Union troops during said battle 

 on either of the days above mentioned, who received 

 wounds during said engagement causing the loss of 

 arm, leg, or eye, and who were afterward honorably 

 discharged from the service of the United States, 

 shall, on application and proof of the foregoing facts, 

 be placed upon the retired list with the rank h~eld by 

 them at the time of receiving such wounds, whether 

 in the regular or volunteer service. Vacancies on the 

 retired list are hereby created for this purpose, if the 

 President shall see fit to nominate them to the Senate 

 and the Senate shall confirm the same. 



The same gent'eman offered the following 

 proviso to be added to the original bill, but it 

 was also rejected : 



Provided, That any officer of the volunteer service 

 who received an honorable discharge from the United 

 States service for services rendered^ the Union during 

 the late rebellion, and who received a wound or 

 wounds producing total disability, or which incapaci- 

 tated him from pursuing his usual avocation in pro- 

 curing a livelihood, shall, on application and proof of 

 the above facts, be placed upon the retired list with 

 the rank held by such officer at the time of receiving 

 the wound or wounds aforesaid : Provided, That the 

 President shall see fit to nominate them to the Senate. 



The President approved of the bill July 1 

 1886. 



Chinese Matters. In the Senate a bill, supple- 

 mentary to and amendatory of " An act to ex- 

 ecute certain treaty stipulations relating to the 

 Chinese," approved May 6, 1882, as amended 

 by an act to amend said act, approved July 5, 

 1884, was passed June 1, 1886, without a di- 

 vision ; but in the House no action was taken 

 beyond referring the measure to an appropriate 

 committee. June 4, the Senate passed, by a 

 vote of 30 to 10, a measure providing for the 

 payment of indemnity to certain Chinese sub- 

 jects who suffered in person and property 

 from the violence of a mob at and near Rock 

 Springs, Wyoming Territory, Sept. 2, 1885, the 

 aggregate amount awarded not to exceed 

 $150,000. In the House, the measure got no 

 further than a reference to a committee. The 

 President sent to Congress the following mes- 

 sage on the subject: 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the 



United States : 



I transmit herewith for the consideration of Con- 

 gressj with a view to appropriate legislation in the 

 premises, a report of the Secretary of State, with cer- 

 tain correspondence, touching the treaty right of 

 Chinese subjects other than laborers, "to go and 

 come of their own free will and accord." 



In my annual message of the 8th of December last 

 I said : 



" In the application of the acts lately passed to 

 execute the treaty of 1880, restrictive of the immigra- 

 tion of Chinese laborers in the United States, indi- 

 vidual cases of hardships have occurred beyond the 

 power of the Executive to remedy, and calling for ju- 

 dicial determination." 



These cases of individual hardship are due to the 

 ambiguous and defective provisions of the acts of Con- 

 gress approved respectively on May 6, 1882, and July 

 5^ 1884. The hardship has, in some cases, been reme- 

 died by the action of the courts. In other cases, 

 however, where the phraseology of the statutes has 

 appeared to be conclusive against any discretion on 

 the part of the officers charged with the execution of 

 the law, Chinese persons expressly entitled to free 

 admission under the treaty have been refused a land- 

 ing and sent back to the country whence they came, 

 without being afforded any opportunity to show in 

 the courts or otherwise their right to the privilege 

 of free ingress and egress which it was the purpose 

 of the treaty to secure. 



In the language of one of the judicial determina- 

 tions of the Supreme Court of the United States, to 

 which I have referred, "the supposition should not 

 be indulged that Congress, while professing to faith- 

 fully execute the treaty stipulations, and recognizing 

 the fact that they secure to a certain class the right to 

 go from and come to the United States, intended to 

 make its protection depend upon the performance of 

 conditions which it was physically impossible to per- 

 form. (U. S. R. 112, p. 554, Chew Heong vs. U. S.) 

 , 1884, imposes such an impossible 



The act of July 5, 



condition in not providing for the admission, under 

 proper certificate, of Chinese travelers of the exempted 

 classes in the cases most likely to arise in ordinary 

 commercial intercourse. 



The treaty provisions governing the case are as fol- 

 low : 



" ARTICLE I. ... The limitation or suspension 

 shall be reasonable, and shall apply only to Chinese 

 who may go to the United States as laborers, other 

 classes not being included in the limitations. . . . 



" ART. II. Chinese subjects, whether proceeding to 

 the United States as teachers, students, merchants, or 



