Speech #500119433

He has insisted first. last. and all. the time that that was a question to be settled by diplomacy and by treaty stipulation. He referred to a measure such as the one now pending in the Senate. looking to the exclusion of Chinese laborers. when being discussed by the Senator from Colorado some time ago. as "the Colorado notion." as "the Colorado idea." He has time and again denounced bills which have been brought here and advocated by Republican Senators looking to the exclusion of Chineselaborers from this country as " the Pacificcoast idea." as "the Oregon idea." as propositions brought forward and pressed by demagogues for demagogical purposes and for party objects. That has been the line of Senatorial conduct on the part of the Sepator from Alabama in reference to this question of Chinese exclusion. But lo. and behold! when a Democratic House of Representatives introduces and in one day. without a reference to a committee. passes a Chinese exclusion bill. that. according to the admission of the Senator from Alabama. is in direct contravention of material provisions of existing treaties between this country and China. the Senator from Alabama vaults clear over the fence. turns around. and says he is in favor of that bill. and he absolutely votes for it. as he did the other day. if I am not wrong in my recollection. going back on the whole record of his life in the Senate on that question. doubling on himself. repudiating everything he had ever said and all that he had ever advocated upon the subject. turns around and takes a position here in the Senate. not only by his vote. but by his speech. in flavor of the passage at once through the Senate of a total exclusion bill. in so far as the Chinese in this country are concerned. and a bill which he himself stated in that speech was a direct repeal of the existing treaties with China. This morning he comes into the Senate and takes another turn and insists that the bill for which he voted last Friday shall be amended. He desires to go back oh what he did on Friday last.