Speech #450113401

Mr. President. I shall vote for this amendment. because. among other things. it develops time fact that there are some other people tim this country who are interested in this question of Chinese immigration besides the citizens who dwell on the Pacific coast. and there are some people in the country to be conciliated otherwise than sand -lot orators and hoodlums. It develops the idea in tle first place that the commerce of this nation is at stake. Now this country and Government and that of China regulate their relations simply by their treaty obligations. or else they are under the government of public law. We cannot justify the act of legislation proposed in the bill as it stands. either by the treaty which it expressly violates or by the principles of public law which is also a denial of the right. and we ought not to conceal from ourselves nor from our constituents. the wholecountry. that this act of legislation. if it passes into law. is not to he without other consequences than those which are directly involved in its enactment. We are not to disguise or conceal the fact that it is likely to be met in a spirit of retaliation by the exercise by that government of a power which. if we pass stch a law. we are estopped from denying. fhe Senator from California appeals to the law of national selfpreservation. and he constitutes each natio a judge for itself upon its own peril of what measures are essential to its safety. May not the Emperor of China. taught by the example of this law. if it be a law. well say that if the intercourse between that people and this is to be forbidden according to the terms of this act. it is none the less obligatory upai him to exercise his right as an independent sovereign to do the very thing which gentlemen on the other side now begin to deprecate. and that is that inasmuch as we alone among all civilized nations discriminate against Chinese immigrants he shall commence a series of discriminating acts against us and in favor of other nations so as that he will close his ports against our ships and banish from his country our merchants and our missionaries. And while. therefore. we assert the right to do what we propose in this bill. it is only common justice to the party with whon we are dealing to let him know in advance that the exercise of a reciprocal right on his part wiN not be regarded by us as a breach of the treaty. which we have already set aside. or a violation of a pitblie law that we no longer regard.