Speech #500117819

Mr. President. I am willing to vote. as I have voted time and again here. for restricting this immigration. for excluding it entirely from the people of the Pacific States. I have voted for their exclusion from all parts of the United States. although the 150.000 or 200.000 or 300.000 Chinamen here are not felt as an evil in the Southern States and are not known as an evil in the East. They make no impression upon the great body of pursuits or upon the industries of the people. They are not competitors to any great extent in threefourths of the Union with the people of the United States. But I have. in defbrence to the united and universal public opinion of the Pacific coast.voted for their exclusion from all parts of the country and for the restriction of their immigration. but I recognize the fact that they have an ancient civilization from which something is to be learned. that they have eminent examples of virtue and character in their history. that for thousands of years they have maintained government and unity of race and civilization. and that their history for the most part is unstained with the blood and human suffering which have characterized other peoples. I shall make no opposition to this proposed action. but I desire to express my opinion that there is no foundation for it. that this unseemly haste. this violation of the public faith of the country as now exhibited in the action of the Senate. has no justification in the necessities of the occasion.