Speech #530023295

I know that China is a great and industrious nation. and I know that the Chinese officials are men of marvelous capacity and welltrained intelligence. We know it. alas! to our cost. for they have prevented our success in every effort to exclude the Chinese laborer ever since the enactment of the act of 1882. But it is my view that the problem of any specific form of immigration can be best studied in the region most affected by the incoming tide. and for that reason I think that the views of our brethren on the Pacific coast are entitled to the greatest weight and to the greatest respect. for they know the evils and the benefits resulting from the c6ming of Chinese labor. We should not be asked to give any weight to the views of the Chinese officials or mandarins. because they are invariably prompted either by national pride or by some general line of policy. nor ought we to be influenced by the sympathetic arguments of clergymen in cities of the Eqst. remote from the main scene of Chinese immigration I am opposed to any maltreatment or illtreatment of the Chinese. to any cruelty or abuse of the Chinese laborer. to any violence done to his person. or to any injury against his properts. Let the Chinese laborer while he remains upon our soil have justice. and justice. if you will. tempered with mercy. but beyond that do not go. In the limited time which now remains to me I wish to answer two observations made by the gentleman from Kentucky . one in reference to the religion of China. and the other in reference to certain historical illustrations. the expulsionof the Jews from England. and of the Huguenots from France.