Speech #500108620

This. although we had agreed in the treaty to an express declaration that Chinese merchants corning to this country should have the same right to enter. travel. reside. and depart as citizens of the most favored nation. and this was just as bad faith and as gross violation of international right as to pass a law declaring that no Englishman. no Frenchman. no German. no European of any nation should land in New York without undergoing all these indignities. The pressure of public interest or the necessities of national policy are a justification of the construction of an ambiguous treaty as far as possible in our own interest. but never for its violation. In truth. there was no urgent necessity at that time for the act. because there had just been a lull in the flood of Chinese immigration. The fact was brought out on this floorI remember it yetthat there had not been a Chinese laborer landed at San Francisco for a number of steamers. and that there had not been five hundred of them landed since the beginning of the year. The Chinese Government. recognizing the change of sentiment in this country. and also its own interest in avoiding as far as possible all causes of irritation with the United States. had forbidden the issue of certificates to Chinamen to come here. and generally discouraged the movement. There was also. perhaps. an apprehension of the passage of the act then in prospect. which tended to prevent the agents of that immigration from great activity. At all events the immigration itself had slackened very much. while there was evident at the same time a marked change of disposition on the part of China. That act of 1884 was passed. Then nothing could be done beyond that except by a new treaty. Public attention was called to the need of a new treaty in that debate. The press of the country emphasized the matter with great force everywhere. especially on the Pacific coast. A new administration was j ust coming in. and this was a burning question demanding the earliest action. for the Chinese immigration rose again. full and strong and troublesome as ever. In the letter of the Secretary of State transmitting the new treaty that we have before us today to provide for and anticipate by this bill. he says himself that shortly after the advent of this Administration. in view of the manifest popular discontent in the Pacific States at the presence of the Chinese and the uselessness of laws to prevent their coming. it was considered advisable that an effort be made for relief by treaty. I do not wonder that the new administration found out what everybody knew. what had been discussed so recently on this floor and in the press.