Speech #470058149

President. when I took the floor upon thie bill yesterday I had no expectation of occupying more than five or ten minutes at the outside. and I do not mean to prolong the debate now. I merely wish to state the facts to the Senate in reference to the treaty under which this bill is framed. which I think ought to have a very important bearing upon the question of the adoption of the pending amendment. I remarked. when I before addressed the Senate on this bill. that the difficulty that we were in had mainly resulted from the fact that there was no definition in the act of 1862 of the word "coolies." that that was a term which had been borrowed from India and came with an oriental signification. that ithad noAmerican signification properly so called. that there was actually no definition of the meaning of that word in the statute anywhere. altlmigh it was a highly penal law. A judge to execute it must go to India or to China to ascertain what the meaning of the term was there. He could not go to any treaty for that purpose. for this legislation commenced before the Burlingame treaty. and I believe before any reference was made in any treaty with China to the importation of coolies. The statute is.. therefore defective. and I suppose that accounts for the fact that no prosecutions have been had under it. If the same signification had been given to the word "coolies" in the Burlingame treaty or in the statute which we enacted for the purpose of preventing the immigration of that class of population which is now sought to be given by this amendment to the bill. we probably should have had a very different type of society from that which we have received from China. and there probably would have been some indictments and some convictions for a violation of the criminal laws of this country in their importation. I maintain when we are enacting a penal law of the character which is couched in this bill. a law for the guidance of judgment. for the guidance of men who control ships. for the guidance of the importers of human labor. we owe it to ourselves and to our own people. first. that the law should have such difinition. such clearness of statement .of the nature and the character of the offense as that no one can be well left in doubt about its meaning. Further than that. it is due to the Government of China. which has a duty to perform in preventing the emigration of this class of its people to the United Statos that we should inform that government what we mean by the term "laborers" in this enactment. If we give to the word "laborers"1 the same definition that was iven to it by the negotiators of this treaty we shall not disappoint hina and we shall not inflict upon that country any injury whatsoever. The commissioners who reported this treaty in the execution of which we arc now proceeding.