Speech #490083031

While they are stretching around. and to the utmost parts of the earth. for territory on which to settle a redundant population. we are inviting and materially assisting them to come and take possession of our public domain. and thus robbing our children of their natural heritage. While there is no Pacific island too small to be beneath their notice and desire. we are endeavoring to abrogate a treaty that practically gives us the Gibraltar of the Pacific. and which under the treaty has to all intents and purposes become an American colony. While we are passingtariff laws ibr the avowed purpose of protecting the American laborer and giving him the time and means in and with which to enable him to become a fit citizen for a republican form Qf government. we permit the importation of contract labor. the meanest and the cheapest Europe can produce. to compete with. Yes. and with all the pomp and circumstance of diplomatic conventions negotiate and execute a treaty which permits any portion of four hundred and fifty millions of Asiatics to enter this country with all the material rights and privileges of our own citizens and shamefully assent to clauses that deprive the American citizen of corresponding privileges within the flowery kingdom. in which he is not permitted to travel its sacred paths. And still. consistent in our inconsistencies. while we have a law for the restriction of Chinese immigration. yet we refuse to pass a law to make its operation possible. to appropriate means to execute and carry out its provisions. In answer to my friend from Massachusetts . a gentleman for whom I need not say I have great respect. I will say that he forgets not puly the 3.000 miles of territory adjoining British Columbia and Canada but also that we have a thousand miles of territory lying contiguous to Mexico. and it is a fact known to us all beyond the Rocky Mountains. and I wish it were equally well known on this side of those mountains. that the Chinese are coming in at times and places to suit their convenience. and in such numbers as they desire.