The Chinese Government assented to every proposition that you nmade in the Eurlingame treaty. Your minister came back after its ratification. receiving the honors of the country. And now. after the passage of your bill of 1880. the Chinese Governuncnt again treated with you giving you the right to interdict the immigration into this country of Chinese who wue diseased. who were lepers. who were criminals. In this way. the Burlingame treaty was amended in 1880. In 1881 China agreed to still further amend the first article of which I have read. Gentlemen talk about this people not being civilized. not being Christianized. about their not keeping good faith. But when under the very terms of the treaty which you had demanded they should make with you there had boon imported into this country from seventyfive thousand to one hundred thousand of their people. who were on the Pacific coast. you approached that government as late as 1881 and said. "We want you to agree to a treaty by which the United States shall have power by legi slation to regulate and even to suspend this immigration." What did the Chinese Government do ? It met your proposition broadly. it conceded the right to regulate and even to suspend but not absolutely to prohibit Chinese immigration. Did ever a people act more liberally toward another than China has acted toward the Government of the United States Did ever a people assent to your representations more cordially and more kindly I But now you propose to requite this treatment by saying that you will not give protection even to the Chinese who are herethat you want them to be returned.
Keywords matched
immigration