Speech #440038418

Perhaps. Mr. President. no qbestion of graver import cotld be presented to the consideration of the American Senate than that involved in the general subject of Chinese immigration and the results it must necessarily have upon our civilization. It is a question. to my mind. that the Congress of the nation cannot evade if it would. and one that it cannot afford to ignore if. byanypossibility. it could. The evil. Mr. President. which this sudden and alarming influx of the Mongolian race is casting upon our common country is one which to my mind. which to the minds of the people of the Pacific coast. menaces today the stability and purity of our moral peace. the integrity of our social and political structure. and jeopardizes and disturbs the civilization of our age. And. sir. as the offial of the slaughterhouse and the putrescence of the cesspool will the mor- readily and the more completely impart impurity and general pollution to the small stream near the mountainside than to the deep. broad river nearer to the sea. so will communities that are new. sparse in numbers. weak comparatively by reason of their infancy. like those of the Pacific States and Territories. be more likely to be trampled down. corrupted. and defiled . this species of immigration than will be those communities that .e older and more firmly established. like those that exist on the At] atic coast. Standir -.. therefore. in their infancy. comparatively. as do the people of th. North Pacific coast. face to face with a population of over four hundred million people. in the very gateway. if you please. of the Chinese empire. of a people the dregs and the debased of whom are by the thousands upon thousands today flooding our country. is it at all strange that this people should appeal to the Congress of the nation in terms of more than ordinary earnestnessfor some me:tsuro of relief against this great evil? It would be useless for me. after the very able argument of the honorable Senator from California. in which he elaborated truthfnlly the evils of Chinese immigration upon the Pacific coast. to detain the Senate for any great length of time in any attempts on my part to add. or attempt to add. either to the verity or the loathsome character of the picture so truthfully and so vividly drawn by him. He has stripped of its bandages this festering sore which. like a plaguespot. has fastened itself upon the very vitals of our western civilization and which today threatens to destroy it. And. Mr. President. almost at the expense on his part of a violation of the conventionalities of speech in reference to delicacy in the use of terms in this presence. he has presented this sore to the gaze of the Senate. the country. and the world. in all its sickening putrefaction and contaminating touch. He has arrayed before you witnesses from the courts. from the prisons. from the almshouses. from boards of trade. from chambers of commerce. from city. county. and State authorities. and from private citizens as well. whose concurrent testimony establishes beyond the possibility of successful contradiction the alarming facts. that the effect of Chinese immigration upon the Pacific coast is to degrade tte industry of the country. to subordinate the labor of the honest. hardworking. free American citizen to that of the dishonest. servile legions of a riceeating and heathen race. to establish within our borders a system of serfdom equal to. and. I think I may say with safety. infinitely worse in some respects. than any that has ever heretofore cursed our country with its iniquity. to debauch and defile our youth. to corrapt the channels of trade. to set upon the face of our beautiful cities the degrading seal. the disgusting impress of Asiatic life amd manners. in a word. to contaminate and blast our civilization with the degrading tendencies of a people numbering nearly. if not altogether. onehalf the entire population of the globe. a people whose history. customs. habits. modes of life. and aspirations have for ages. and must of necessity continue to be for centuries yet to come. surrounded in the shades and consequent darkness of heathenism. 0. but says one. even admitting our physical power to ithibit this class of immigration to our country. yet upon the broad principles of humanitarianism. on the doctrine of the right of expatriation. our doors should not be closed. No. say they. not even against the criminal heathen of the nations. but. on the contrary. this asylum of ours. of which we arc all so proud to speak. and the more especially in this centennial year. should. like the gates of gospel grace. stand forever open night and day to all people. of all lands and creeds and tongues and customs and habits acd dispositions and aspirations. and of all virtues and vices as well. This.