Chinese Exclusion Act

“ At the same time the Legislature of California appointed a special committee to investigate the subject and prepare a memorial to Congress. It was issued August, 1877, as an "Address to the people of the United States, upon the social, moral and political effect of Chinese immigration." This address contains evidence to prove that "the Chinaman is a factor hostile to the prosperity, the progress and the civilization of the American people." ”

“ It is far from our desire to say that the United States was not perfectly justified in adopting the measure she did to prevent the celestial octopus stretching its vicious self over her territory. Justification in the highest existed. Chinese immigration thither had assumed alarming proportions and it was characterized by all those damning features ever associated with the Chinese element. The danger is one which faces America just as it has faced the Colonies, and it is well for those of our own color that it should be opposed by the best modes of defense. ”

“ The antagonistic policy pursued by our government of late toward China, if persisted in, must in the end be injurious to American interests, both commercial and missionary. The Chinese are a long remembering as well as a long suffering people, and they understand well how to use the boycott principle when they consider it expedient. ”

“ While preserving to the subjects of China engaged in mercantile pursuits, in study, in teaching or in travel for curiosity, the right of free intercourse with this country, the Chinese government has recognised, in the government of the United States, the right to regulate, limit and suspend the introduction into its territory of Chinese labor, whenever in its discretion such introduction shall threaten the good order of any locality or endanger any interest. ”

“ The bill has passed both houses of Congress for total exclusion of Chinese, and awaits President's approval. Public feeling on the Pacific coast excited in favor of it, and situation critical. Impress on government of China necessity for instant decision in the interest of treaty relations and amity. ”

“ Before these articles were adopted a great number of Chinese had emigrated to this State [California] , and after their adoption the Immigration largely increased. But notwithstanding the favorable provisions of the treaty, it was found impossible for them to assimilate with our people. Their physical characteristics and habits kept them as distinct and separate as though still living in China. They engaged in all the industries and pursuits of the State; they came in competition with white laborers in every direction ”

“ Chinese merchants have already done so to the detriment of our commerce with China, but a further evidence of American aversion to the people of China may move the government of that country to take notice of the feeling in a way that might prove of a considerable damage to us. ”

“ It seems that without uttering a word or lifting a finger the Chinese are enabled to retaliate effectively against our commerce; so that we have not only offered them a wanton affront, but also injured ourselves la a twofold way, by excluding a tractable and cheap labor which we very much need to build up our desolate places; and by the loss of a valuable trade which we might have kept to the exclusion of our rivals. ”

“ It is my belief that the gross injustice that has been inflicted upon the Chinese people by the harsh working of the exclusion law is not known to the large majority of the American people, for I am sure they would not allow the continuation of such hardships to be suffered by those who are their sincere friends. China does not wish special treatment, she only asks that her people shall be treated in the same way as the citizens or subjects of other countries. Will the great American nation still refuse to consent to this? ”

“ One of the many methods employed by Chinese in evading the exclusion law is of particular interest because of its bearing on illegal naturalization of aliens. Naturalization of Chinese is often an incident of a successful attempt to evade the Chinese exclusion law. A Chinaman arrested in crossing the Canadian border will claim he is a native of the United States and is able to produce Chinese witnesses who will swear to his nativity. ”

“ Moreover, there is nothing to indicate that the proponents of the California law were at any time concerned with the use or ownership of farm land by ineligible aliens other than those of Japanese origin. Among those ineligible for citizenship when the law was under consideration were Chinese aliens. But the Chinese in California were generally engaged in small commercial enterprises rather than in agricultural occupations and, in addition, were not considered a menace because of the Chinese exclusion acts. ”

“ Hence, to gain votes, one party will sacrifice national policy and Christian principle, and the other will do the same rather than lose votes. Thus China must be affronted, and Christianity dishonored before the world. It is not, however, the American people as such who have done this thing—thank God for that! Whenever the national conscience has spoken at all on the subject, it has spoken against it. This anti-Chinese legislation is the adoption, in America, of the old barbaric cast-off policy of exclusion, which China herself has pursued for centuries toward other nations. ”

“ But while remarking upon and denouncing in the strongest language every form of cruelty and barbarity in the legislation or proceedings adopted for the expulsion or exclusion of Chinese from the country who do not enter by the permission of the government, in order to avoid a misconception of its authorized action in that respect, the declarations of the court with regard to the aliens named as to their entrance, and as to the time and manner of their departure, are adopted. ”

“ The exclusion question and the administration of the exclusion laws are matters which seem to have engaged very little the consideration of the American people; but they are matters of vital importance to the Chinese directly concerned. ”

“ They were not, therefore, pleasantly impressed when they found the alleged Christian nations violating that principle. Even Christian America has not been an exception. We have Chinese exclusion laws, but we will not allow China to exclude Americans. We sail our gunboats up her rivers, but we would not allow China to sail gunboats into ours. If a Chinese commits a crime in America, he is amenable to American law as interpreted by an American court. But if an American commits a crime in China, he can be tried only by his consul ”

“ If we are to assume that this or any other legislation that may be had by Congress can be made to result in effectual Chinese exclusion, the problems that present themselves for consideration are hardly less interesting and deserving of study than if this class of immigration were to be tolerated indefinitely. Already there are probably more than 200,000 Chinese upon American soil. In mode of life, costume, religion, clannishness, social vices, and language, they may be said to have evinced no perceptible change during the forty years that have elapsed since they found lodgment here. ”

“ In spite of these facts, however, it would be rash to assert that the exclusion of Chinese laborers, by whatever unfortunate means accomplished, has not been of actual benefit to the United States. The assertion that the failure of the Chinese to assimilate has been due more to race prejudice and exclusiveness on the part of Americans than to unwillingness to be Americanized on the part of the Chinese, does not do away with the fact of nonassimilation. ”

“ The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even where there is no treaty stipulation on the subject. That the exclusion of Chinese labor is demanded in other countries where like conditions prevail is strongly evidenced in the Dominion of Canada, where Chinese immigration is now regulated by laws more exclusive than our own. ”

“ The government appeals against the explicit words of the provision to the purpose of the exclusion laws, which is, it is said, to keep the country free from undesirable Chinese, or, if they fraudulently enter, to expel them, and it is insisted that it would be a perfunctory execution of the purpose to let one in who may be immediately put out again. ”

“ Any new settlement of the exclusion question, therefore, in order to satisfy the Chinese government and to be in accord with the dignity and sense of justice of this great American republic, must have regard to the unsatisfactory manner in which the laws and regula- tions relating to Chinese immigration, made in pursuance of treaty stipula- tions, have been administered, and should correct the abuses that have gradually sprung up, which render the present state of affairs intolerable. ”

“ Many thousands of Chinese laborers had come to the United States before the exclusion law was passed, and these, by registering and allowing themselves to be photographed for future identification, obtain certificates which, while not permitting them to return if they once leave the country, allow them to remain here undisturbed. Any Chinaman found without such a protection is liable to be arrested and sent back to his own land. ”

“ Many stringent regulations appear in the annals of immigration, but no radical or permanent reform. Agitation, legislation, superficial and temporary improvement, recurrence of the evil when public attention is diverted, about describes the situation.
Perhaps the exclusion of the Chinese may be instanced as one exception in the long list of failures to regulate immigration. Chinese exclusion is somewhat of a misnomer, as the constant arrivals from Mexico and British Columbia plainly bear witness. That the entrance of the Chinese has been greatly checked, however, may freely be conceded. ”

“ He has been tried in three just balances and been found of such value that the white voter is unanimous in demanding his exclusion. But even the most aggressive Chinese exclusionist can scarcely hope to exclude him from his own country, and the Chinaman who stays at home is probably a better man than the Chinaman who goes abroad. ”

“ Immediately upon the arrival of Chinese persons at any port mentioned in Rule 4 it shall be the duty of the officer in charge of the administration of the Chinese exclusion laws to adopt suitable means to prevent communication with them by any persons other than officials under his control, to have said Chinese persons examined promptly, as by law provided, touching their right to admission, and to permit those proving such right to land. ”

“ It was, however, from the subjects of non-treaty powers that China was destined to suffer most from her concession of extraterritoriality. Men of every clime and nation claimed exemption from her laws. Vagabonds, whose government had no consular authority to restrain them, boldly defied the local authorities, becoming a law unto themselves. Lawless adventurers from the gold regions of Australia and California personated those nationalities; and the bewildered Chinese often despaired of success in distinguishing even the names of the nationalities they were called to encounter. ”

“ If the Chinese would come like the people of other nations and bring their families and settle in the country, their enemies would be robbed of their strongest argument. No exclusion laws are thought of against the people of other nations, even though they supplant, in many lines, the American laboring man. ”

“ Of course, there was no denying that, under the simplest principles of international law, China has the right at any moment to shut its doors against, or to expel, any people whatever whom it may consider dangerous or injurious—this power being constantly exercised by all the other nations of the earth, and by none more than by the American Government, as so many Chinese seeking entrance to our ports have discovered ”

“ There are, to my mind, many reasons why Chinamen should be restricted from coming to the United States. The Chinese are not eligible to citizenship. It is not good policy to encourage immigrants to come here in great numbers that cannot become citizens. Every man (and let us hope every woman, in the near future) should bear his portion of responsibility to the government. Chinamen do not seem to grasp the idea of freedom as do the people of Anglo-Saxon and Latin origin, nor do they appreciate our rights and privileges for which we struggled for centuries. ”

“ And yet we are asked to decide that the law which permits the first, that is, permits the deportation of an alien simply upon the warrant or determination of an executive officer, is not an amendment or alteration of a law which prohibits it. And there can be no doubt of the result if such decision be made. The summary and direct remedy of section 21 will always be used. No Chinese person will be given the formal procedure of the Exclusion Laws with their safe guards. ”

“ We can not ask the Chinese to do to us what we are unwilling to do to them. They would have a perfect right to exclude our laboring men if our laboring men threatened to come into their country in such numbers as to jeopardize the well being of the Chinese population; and as, mutatis mutandis, these were the conditions with which Chinese immigration actually brought this people face to face, we had and have a perfect right, which the Chinese Government in no way contests, to act as we have acted in the matter of restricting coolie immigration. ”