Instantly I express the belief that the authors of this bill had no such design. and yet it is so interpreted by the average citizen who has had opportunity to read and understand its provisions. Before we shall adopt legislation so cruelly discriminatory let us briefly consider at least one period of shame in the earlier days of the American colonies. Even in that far day. as in these new and better days. men were sometimes urged by the spur of bigotry when building immigration statutes. Perhaps no better authority on colonial immigration laws might be cited than Emberson Edward Proper. Listen while Proper is speaking on this subject: For a period of several years. beginning with 1650. the records of the Mlassachusetts Bay Colony. and. indeed. of all the New England Colonies. except Rhode Island. are filled with legislation designed to prevent the coming of the Quakers and the spread of their " accursed tenets." Whippings. imprisonment. banishment. and in a few instances capital punishment were the order of the day. To what extent these various laws restricted the immigration of this Quaker sect it is. of course. Impossible to ascertain. That the restrictions were not prohibitive. and consequently did not meet the expectations of the authorities. is painfully evident. for in spite of the severe penalties members of that sect continued to come. and under the provisions of the laws were enacted cruelties the justification of which calls for a generous stretch of historical charity.
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