Speech #470040400

Speaker. twenty years ago England andFrance at the point of the bayonet extorted a treaty from China. and yet that act of war and invasion did not compromise in the least the commercial interests of those two great and enlightened powers. But other gentlemen apprehend far more serious results than the interruption of friendly commercial relations with China. They fancy that if Chinese immigration is cut off desolation will overspread the Pacific States. that civilization will stand still. that material growth will be arrested. that the locemotive will cease to scream in the Sacramento Valley. that the wheat fields will go ontilled. that the grape and peach and apricot will rot unplucked on their stems. that the grizzly bear. descending from his mountain home. will prey upon the unguarded flocks. and the people of the Pacitic States. in the course o a year or two. in general mass meetings. will be pounding at the doors of this House. headed by an exCongressman of the name of PAGE. demanding in thundertones the repeal of this iniquitous. unChristian. unAmerican. inhuman. and diabolical act. While that would be a most singular solution of this problem. 1. for one. would be perfectly willing to send the gentlemen who indulge in these sad augaries as a deputation to the Golden Gate to welcome with eloquence and song and flowers and the roar of artillery and the blaze of bonfires the returning "heathen Chinee." But to return from this digression. In my jndgment. the only question at issue is the question of expediency.