Speech #520037152

I have but a moment of time leftnot enough to go over the bill in detail. You can find there provisions of savagery rare in legislationfines. imprisonments. and deportation. Under this bill $300.000 is to be levied immediately upon the Chinamen in this country as a special exaction under the form of a certificate fee. Then there is a provision which seems to be sarcasm. the eighth section. to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to admit Chinamen under certain conditions to come to the Columbian Expositionan Exhibition conducted by a Government that has treated their people with deliberate and scornful exclusion and cruel punishments in this proposed law. Let us keep the white history of our country unspotted. and in this vote prove ourselves faithful representatives of an enlightened. brave. Christian people. in a land where for a hundred years it has been true thatMan is loved. and God is feared. And faith is kept. and truth revered. [Loud applause.] I take the liberty of publishing with my remarks the following: To the House of Representatives: The New Jersey Conference of the MethodistEpiscopal Church. having over two hundred ministers. and representing a membership of about fifty thousand. has heard with regret that measures are proposed at the pregdnt session of congress. adding greatly to the stringency of the laws already existing against the immigration into this country of Chinese persons. We desire most earnestly to protest against the enactment of further oppressive legislation against the Chinese people. The legislation of the past. combined with the illtreatment received by the Chinese in various parts of our country. has a tendeacy to injure us in the sight of the chinese. to cripple our missionary work in that country. and to lead to retaliatory measures.