Speech #500120145

It would be well for Senators if they did not live in the upper air. if they did not live in the higher regions. if they lived down among the people and knew something of their wants. but they know nothing. they go into abstractions. and the Senator from New York congratulated himself on having advised the President that the Government of the United States was bound to allow Chinamen to come. no matter how great an evil they were. until we should get China to agree. and that we had no natural right of selfdefense. that we were bound to let them come. contracts or no contracts. because of that indefinite language used in the Burlingame treaty which was intended to provide against the cooly trade and never was intended to take away from the United States the right to legislate. We would not have offended China at all if the bill of 1879 had been passed. That same provision still remains in the Burlingame treaty. It has not been modified. We are at liberty to legislate against the cooly trade. and the Chinamen who came into this country are nothing but coolies. We are expressly authorized to do so. We have passed a law that any person who comes from abroad to this country under a contract for labor here shall be returned. and we have made it the duty of our officers to return them.