CONGRESS. (CHINESE EXCLUSION.) 



193 



go ti> tin- penitentiary for five years ! Stanley 

 ICPIIIH! nothing in darkest Africa more barba- 

 nuis. If Li-Hung-Chang. the friend of (icii. 

 (Irani. should follow < iranl '- example, and, leav- 

 ing l'"r a time tliat mighty empire of which he 

 ha- been tin- Bismarck, should set out to visit 

 other lands, and conn- here to see the widow and 

 family of Ins illustrious friend, he would receive 

 not hospitality, out a prison and a fine; and the 

 captain that brought him here, and every man 

 that aided in his coming, would be fined $1,000 

 under this inhuman bill. 



Why propose this disgrace f Why not spare 

 us this shame f You have here in the House a 

 hill which has passed the Senate continuing the 

 law us it stands, lest it may expire in May. Is 

 not that law severe enough! It excludes all 

 la 1 >orers, and is so harsh that it recently pre- 

 vented from landing arid drove from San Fran- 

 cisco two Chinese merchants belonging to a firm 

 known in every financial center of the world 

 members of a house older than this republic 

 and this at the very time that the great Amer- 

 ican China house of Russell had tottered to its 

 fall. Its fall was caused by the opposition of 

 Knglish influence and the indifference of the 

 Chinese Government and business world. The 

 coldness of China was produced by the nagging, 

 irritation, and harsh course of the United States 

 Government, which had diverted all sympathy 

 on the part of merchants, bankers, and govern- 

 ment in China ; and so the great house of Russell, 

 the Barings, the Rothschilds, of the Orient an 

 American house that had proudly stood for 

 eighty years went down in ruin. 



" This savage exclusion and extreme punish- 

 ment of all strangers is a revival of the darkest 

 features of the darkest ages in the history of 

 man. It is wholly needless. It is mischievous. 

 It increases the difficulty of making an agree- 

 ment with China to help keep out laborers. 

 It will result in nonintercourse, and break 

 up our trade with China ; bnt that is com- 

 paratively nothing, that is as dust in the 

 balance, compared with the foul blot put upon 

 the nation by placing on its rolls, on its statutes, 

 in its laws, a deliberate declaration of our false- 

 hood, coldly avowing that it will set aside a 

 treaty which the other party has carefully and 

 scrupulously observed." 



Mr. Hermann, of Oregon, said in support of 

 the bill : " Mr. Speaker, in the few minutes ac- 

 eorded to me I shall be only permitted to express 

 my hearty approval of any measure which shall 

 be presented to effectually exclude the Chinese 

 from coming to our country. None realize so 

 much as those of our people who live upon the 

 Pacific shores the necessity for such repressive 

 legislation as this. Time and time again have 

 we invoked the aid of-Congress in behalf of some 

 such measure which should accomplish the ob- 

 ject desired, and time and time again has all 

 legislation upon the subject been found ineffec- 

 tive. Now we have approached apparently the 

 laM remedy to be applied, which we believe, if it 

 be enacted into law, will effectually result in the 

 exrlusion of these people. 



" All political parties in all of the States west 

 of the Rocky mountains have declared them- 

 selves in favor of legislation looking to the ex- 

 clusion of the Chinese. Organizations of labor, 

 VOL. XXXIL 13 A 



almost universally, and indeed nearly all of the 

 industrial as-ociations of tho-e Mates, have ex- 

 pn ed themselves in favor ol -ome -uch measure 

 as this. 



These Chinese form an exception in every 

 respect to all races of people who seek our shores. 

 They are here simply for a temporary purpose, 

 having none of the ambitions and none of the as- 

 pirations and none of the great objects which 

 induce other people to coine and cast their lots 

 among us, and seek the shores cf thi.-, broad 

 land for the purpo.-e of making a luture home. 

 Under the old provisions of law which have here- 

 tofore obtained, a cordon of soldiers would be 

 nece.-sary all along our border to keep these peo- 

 ple out. 



1 'or over a thousand miles along the entire 

 northern line of our territory, and along the 

 Canadian frontier, as well as along the southern 

 borders, they have had easy means of access, and 

 we have found it absolutely impossible to ex- 

 clude them by the utmost power which the ex- 

 isting laws provided. Among the dense fort MS 

 of British Columbia they have the most conven- 

 ient means for getting off at the various little 

 stations on the railroads, and thus they are able 

 to find their way into our territory, with no ap- 

 prehension of being prevented or obstructed in 

 their well-worn pathways. 



' We believe that they are not a part and par- 

 cel of the world's people with whom it is desir- 

 able that we should intermingle; that they can 

 not assimilate themselves to our customs and 

 social existence ; and as a matter of fact they 

 come here, as I have said, for mere temporary pur- 

 poses, with no expectation of remaining, simply 

 to make money and then go home to die and be 

 buried in China. It is essential, in my judgment, 

 that they should be absolutely excluded, and 1 

 believe this measure will accomplish that end. 

 It is high time our gateways should be double 

 locked and barred against the Mongolian ; and 

 the time has also arrived for turning the key 

 against much other cheap labor which reaches 

 us from the Old World, just as dangerous to our 

 labor system and to our civilization as these 

 Chinese. If we are consistent in our declarations 

 against the admission of the products of cheap 

 labor, let us begin by excluding the degraded 

 beings who make the products. Let us now 

 practice what we preach. ' 



In favor of the measure, 179 votes were cast ; 

 against it, 43 votes; 107 Representatives failed to 

 vote. 



In the Senate, April 13, the Committee on 

 Foreign Relations reported a substitute for the 

 House bill, much milder in its provisions, and 

 designed simply to continue exi.Ming legislation. 

 The subject was debated at some length, and on 

 April ','."> the substitute for the House bill passed 

 the Senate by a vote of 43 to 14. 



A conference committee was then appointed, 

 as the House nonconcured in the Senate amend- 

 ments. The report of the committee, while 

 abandoning some of the harsh features of the 

 original measure of the House, added several 

 severe sections to the Senate substitute. It was 

 adopted by the Senate .May 15. and by the House 

 May 4. The act as finally passed is as follows : 



Be it enacted, ttc.. That all laws now in force pro- 

 hibiting and regulating the coining into this country 



