Speech #490064323

In view. therefore. of the rights. privileges. and immunities which the subjects of the two nationalities may under existing policies and treaty stipulations exercise and enjoy respectively within the jurisdiction of the other. and which. it must bo confessed. will bear no comparison the one with the other in any respect whatever. when considered in the light of reciprocal obligation. bold and audacious indeed must be the representative of that government who would with earnestness in his diplomatic capacity. and by elaborate and labored argument insist that the obligations of the two governments were in virtue of these treaty stipulations. or in virtue of their international relations in any respect whatever dependent or reciprocal. Yet. such is the attitude of the Chinese Governmenttoday. Such is the demand of the Chinese minister. and while denying in emphatic terms and with extended arguments the tenability and j ustice of this claim. we. at the same time. propose by this legislation to repudiate our own arguments. deny our own position. falsify our established theories. and with uncovered heads. in the presence ofthe mandarins of the Mongolian Empire. publicly avow our complicity with the mobs of irresponsible aliens in Wyomingacknowledge our national guilt. and meekly. quietly. and graciously submit to theillegal demand. But waiving for the present the (luestion of reciprocity. whatare the actual stipulations in the Burlingame treaty or in any of our treaties with China that could by any possibility be brought to bear in any possible manner favorably upon the question of the liability of the United States to make indemnity in the case of the sufferers at Rock Springs. Article VI of the Burlingame treaty provides as follows: Chinese subjects. visiting or residing in the United States. shall enjoythe same privileges. immunities. and exemptions in respect of travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation.