Speech #490021148

In no matters can the necessity of this be more evident than when the good faith of the United States under the solemn obligation of treaties with foreign powers is concerned. The question of the treatment of the subjects of China sojourning within the jurisdiction of the United States presents such a matter for the urgent and earI t consideration of the Executive and the Congress. in my first annual message. upon the assembling of the present Congress. I adverted to this question in the following words: "The harmony of our relations with China is fully sustained. "In the application of the acts lately passed to execute the treaty of 1880. restrictive of the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. individual cases of hardship have occurred beyond the power of the Executive to remedy. and calling for judicial determination. "The condition of the Chinese question in the Western States and Territories is. despite this restrictive legislation. far from being satisfactory. The recent outbreak in Wyoming Territory. where numbers of unoffending Chinamen. in. disputably within the protection of the treaties and the law. were murdered by a mob. and the still more recent threatened outbreak of the same character in Washington Territory. are fresh in the minds of all. and there is apprehension lest the bitterness of feelingagainst the Mongolian race on the Pacific slope may find vent in similar lawless demonstrations. All the power of this Government should be exerted to maintain the amplest good faith toward China in the treatment of these men. and the inflexible sternness of the law in bringing the wrongdoers to justice should be insisted upon. "Every effort has been made by this Government to prevent these violent outbreaks and to aid the representatives of China in their investigation of these outrages. and It is but just to say that they are traceable to the lawlessness of men not citizens of the United States. engaged in competition with Chinese laborers. "Race prejudice is the chief factor In originating these disturbances. and it exists in a large partof our domain. jeopardizing our domestic peace and the good relationship we strive to maintain with China. "The admitted right of a Government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned. even where there is no treaty stipulation on the subject.. That the exclusion of Chinese labor is demanded in other countries where like conditions prevail is strongly evidenced in the Dominion of Canada. where Chinese immigration is now regulated by laws more exclusive than our own. If existing laws are inadequate to compass the end in view. I shall be prepared to give earnest consideration to any further remedial measures. within the treaty limits. which the wisdom of Congress may devise." At the time I wrote this the shocking occurrences at Rock Springs. inWyomlng Territory. were fresh in the minds of all. and had been recently presented anew to the attention of this Government by the Chinese minister in E note which. while not unnaturally exhibiting some misconception of our Federal system of administration in the Territories while they as yet are not in the exercise of the full measure of that sovereign selfgovernment pertaining to the States of the Union. presents in truthful terms the main features of the cruel outrage there perpetrated upon inoffensive subjects of China.