Speech #500105523

If we go further backand we may as well trace this history backwe find that when the question was first sprung upon the Senate it was under most unfavorable circumstances for its impartial consideration. There had been a heated discussion for several years with regard to XIX474 the colored race. The people of the East did not know the character of the Chinese immigration that was overrunning the Pacific coast. They did not know the capacity of those people to supplant the people of the United States. They did not know that the Chinese could not be assimilated with our people. could not be incorporated into the bodypolitic. that they were a foreign element able tosubsist on half of what the white men could. and that where they came the white men were compelled to leave. They did not know these facts. Under that state of things the question was presented to the Senate on July 2. 1870. to strike out the word "white from our naturalization laws for the purpose of extending the right of naturalization to the colored race. which would have included Chinese as well as Africans. The Chinese were not particularly considered. and when the Republican Senators from the Pacific coast desired to make an exception against Chinese it was thought by many honest Senators to be unreasonable and unjust to mahe such distinction. This was the crisis of the Chinese question. If the naturalization laws had then been extended to them there would have been millions of naturalized Chinese now in the United States controlling the destinies of several States. and presenting one of the most embarrassing and dangerous questions which have ever arisen for solution in this country. After two days and one night of serious discussion. although there was a large majority for naturalizing Chinese in the beginning. the proposition was voted down by an overwhelming majority. 27 to 14. Of the 27 who voted against it 20 were Republicans. Of the 14 who voted for it 3 were Republicans and representing Northern States. namely.