Speech #440038418

Sile had on board se thousand and seventyfive Chinese. having los one threugh suicide. The Great Republic reports thoBelgie to follow with aout six hundred Chinese. She also reports leaving the Quang 8e ready for a shipment of coolies. The officers of the Great Republic say that all steamers from China for the next four months will be crowded with eolie. So we see that in a short space of three days we have two thousand one hundred and fiftyseven Chinese arriving in the port of San Francisco alone. and it is a matter of history that for the past number of months and today they are arriving in San Francisco alone at the rate of from a thousand to twelve hundred per week. from four to five thousand per month. at the rate of sixty thousand a year. The man who imagines that this flood will not increase in volume and in power so long as our gates are open. until we have an imaperisun in i nperio. an Asiatic government within our own founded upon the worst elements of human depravity. mistalces in my judgment the signs of the times. and fails to correctly trace the inevitable logic of events. Bnt. sir. what is the remedy for this evil? Is there any remedy. I ask. that can be applied with complete effect to this great. this now evil short of that of absolute prohibition of the Chinese immigration? I believe that there is not. and. until this is done. all the efforts tcat may be devised by the brains of the wisest statesmen intended to regulate this species of immigration will stand a dead letter on the statutebook. A law which cannot be enforced by reason of the peculiar circumstances surrounding its violation is as no law at all. aml in the mean time the evil intended to be interdicted goes on with giant strides. boldly and defiantly. And such. let me say to the Senate. is the present condition of our congressional legislation on the subject of prohibiting the importation of coolies and of women* for immoral practices. Why. sir. the whole of the present Chinese population of our country. with the exception of a snere fraction. is coniliosed of these two classes. and therefore. to this very large extent. is the present immigration from Chinain direct violation of law. But. notwithstanding this. on account of the unrestrained fraud. the black perjury. the subtle chicanery. the darkeyed conspiracy peculiar to this class of people. and for which those who engage in this nefarious business are notorious. conviction is simply impossible. The remedy. therefore. in my judgment. that is. the complete remedy. is in a large limitation upon. or an absolute abrogation of. tie right of the Chinese subject both to expatriation and immigration. in so far as our country is concerned. But here we are met with the objection again that this is a favored doctrine of our Government. and especially with the present Administration and the republican party. and that it was incorporated iu terms by this Administration in the Burlingame treaty. This is all very true. and. as a general rule.