Speech #510168110

I will talk about that directly if you want me to do so. He has no interest in our institutions. The laws of the United States do not permit him to be naturalized. The objections of the people on the Pacific coast to the Chinaman are that he does not become a citizen of the United States. that he does not desire to become a citizen. that he is not assimilated. that he comes here merely for thepurpose of working at wages upon which white laborers can not live. of hoarding his money and of returning to his native country. and also because his habits are such that they seriouslyaffect the morals of the white people. the white boys and girls. Therefore. the people of the Pacific coast have asked Congress to legislate upon thesubjectforthe restriction of Chinese immigration as a matterof public interest. in order to preserve in their integrity our free institutionsand to protect American labor. and Congress has enacted such legislation. All the outrages which have ever been perpetrated upon the Chinese have been without the connivance of the lawabiding and respectable people of the Pacific coast. Those outrages have been perpetrated by men who were not citizens of the United States. by theworst elements of society. by criminals and tramps. and the scum of the great cities. whose prejudices were incited by designing demagogues. and there has never been such an outrage perpetrated that all the power of the Government was not immediately put in force for its suppression. or. where it was threatened. for its prevention. and all the power the Governiment possessed has been exerted for the purpose of punishing the criminals.