Mr. President. the objection to the whole theory on which our Chinese legislation proceeds is that you strike at labor. the dignity and glory of humanity. because it is labor. and you strike at men not because of any individual degradation. but solely because of race. You say that the Chinese laborer shall be kept out though he possesses every virtue under heaven. and the Syrian laborer or the laborer from any other Asiatic country shall come in though he possesses every vice under heaven. and then you say that a man shall stay out if he is a laborer. although he may come in if he is a scholar or a gentleman or an artist. So this great Republic puts itself on record that men differ essentially in the matter of human rights because of race and not because of the quality of the individual. and that the laborer is a degraded being in comparison with the scholar or the. gentleman or the idler. Now. that is a stab at the essential principle on which this Republic rests. and for one I will not mark the close of my life. as my eyes are about to close. by joining in such an act in consequence of any alleged or fancied necessity.
Identified stereotypes
Chinese laborers are being excluded solely based on race, despite individual virtues.