Speech #570039027

But in any event. should the Proctor bill be enacted. there is nothing to prevent the Empire of China from giving the notice provided for in the sixth article of the treaty. and in that event we would have neither treaty nor exclusion law in existence. nothing whatever to prevent an unlimited influx of Chinese laborers into this country after December 8. 1904. Mr. President. the evolutionary processes which have resulted in the present policy of Chinese prohibition have been plainly marked by separate and distinct periods in the history of this XXXV230 country. wherein our country. through the evolution of public sentiment. has passed from the policy of inviting Chinese immigration to this country. first to restriction. then to exclusion. and finally to absolute inhibition. The public sentiment which in 1868 heralded with hosannas and beckoning salutations the consummation of the Burlingame treaty has. through the enlightenment brought about by the evils following in the wake of unrestricted Chinese immigration. undergone a most decided change. and the public sentiment which then unwisely. but with an emphasis worthy of a better cause. demanded unrestricted Chinese immigration. now prompted by the dictates of national conservatism and national protection. in equally emphatic terms demands absolute Chinese inhibition except as to the five exempted classes. namely. officials. teachers. students. merchants. and travelers for curiosity or pleasure. This. Mr. President. is but another grand step forward by this Republic in the majestic and progressive march of true Americanism. which looks to protection of American labor and the American laborer. and to the preservation. purity. and perpetuity of American institutions. It is a grand step in the direction of freeing our people and our institutions from the corrupting and corroding influences of pauper labor and those virulent and destructive vices so inseparably connected with the lower classes of Asiatic serfdom. and whose poisonous virus. if permitted to permeate our body politic. will inevitably lead to lamentable blight. pitiable decay. and ultimate destruction. No higher duty rests upon the National Congress than to guard with scrupulous care and untiring vigilance the doors which stand between us and foreign nations. to the end that no classes of people of any nation whatever be permitted to enter whose presence would. in the judgment of the American Congress. be a menace to the virile growth and preservation of these institutions which go to make our Republic what it is today. the most healthy and vigorous. morally. intellectually. and otherwise. of any nation that has ever lived since the beginning of time. "Every sovereignty." says Vattel. "has the right to exclude foreigners entirely. or to admit them on such terms as it shall deem proper." and so has said every intelligent writer on internatipnal law since the days of Vattel. so say the Supreme Court of the United States. so say the leading statesmen in every enlightened nation in Christendom. so has said the Congress of the United States in every act it has ever passed on the subject of Chinese restriction. and so has this Government. as well as the Empire of China. said in every treaty they have ever entered into -with each other relating to Chinese restriction. The right to do this is one of the highest attributes which attaches to American sovereignty.