Speech #480119072

He stated that the Chinese bill. as it was called. was adopted upon certain principles. If the Chinese bill was a mere bill to discriinate against a man on account of color because hewis ofa copper color. oron account of his race because he was Chinese or Japanese or Indianif that was the object of the bill it was very different from what I supposed. I supposed the object of that legislation was to exclude a class of men who came to this country not the owners of themselves. but owned by others. owned by corporations. who had contracted away their liberty. their manhood. before they came here--a class who were quasi servants and serfs. and that was the objection to that kind of immigration. I voted against the Chinese bill because I thought it was dangerous to depart from the established policy of the American Government to open our doors to laboring men from all lands and from all climes. As I understand. the friends of that bill pressed it upon the ground that the men who came. here under contracts as coolies were not free men. It was not because they were Chinese. or because their color was different from ours. but because they were not* free men. because they came here as slaves to work against and to compete with free men in their labor. Still. even upon that claim Iwas opposed to the Chinese bill. and I was very sorry indeed that it passed. Although I have often been severely criticised on account of my vote. I would stand by that vote now. I was opposed to restrictions upon the immigration of men who come to our country to better their condition. and I thought it was better to submit to the evils even of cooly contract labor than to undertake to interfere with our timehonored American policy. But when I was overruled in that particular. and Congress by a large majority. I think supported by the general public opinion. thought it was best to exclude those people. not because of their race and color. but because they were not free men. because they were owned by others.