“It seems necessary in discussing the statute briefly to review the history of the treaty. First let me say that the title of this bill is deceptive. There is no stipulation of the treaty which the bill enforces. The bill where it is not inconsistent with the compact only avails itself of a privilege which that concedes. China only relaxed the Burlingame treaty so far as to permit us to ‘regulate, limit, or suspend the coming or residence’ of Chinese laborers, ‘but not absolutely to prohibit it.’ The treaty expressly declares ‘such limitation or suspension shall be reasonable.’ But here is proposed a statute which for twenty years, under the severest penalties, absolutely inhibits the coming of Chinese laborers to this country. The treaty pledges us not absolutely to prohibit it. The bill is intended absolutely to prohibit it.
“The second article of the treaty is this:
“Chinese subjects, whether proceeding to the United States as traders, students, or merchants, or from curiosity, together with their body and household servants, and Chinese laborers, who are now in the United States, shall be allowed to go and come of their own free will and accord, and shall be accorded all the rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions which are accorded to the citizens and subjects of the most favored nations.
“Yet it is difficult to believe that the complex and cumbrous passport system provided in the last twelve sections of the bill was not intended as an evasion of this agreement. Upon what other nation, favored or not, is such a burden imposed? This is the execution of a promise that they may come and go ‘of their own free will.’
“What has happened within thirteen years that the great Republic should strike its flag? What change has come over us that we should eat the bravest and the truest words we ever spoke? From 1858 to 1880 there was added to the population of the country 42,000 Chinese.
“I give a table from the census of 1880 showing the Chinese population of each State:
| Statement showing the Chinese population in each State and Territory, according to the United States censuses of 1870 and of 1880. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 4 | |
| Alaska | ||
| Arizona | 20 | 1,630 |
| Arkansas | 98 | 134 |
| California | 49,310 | 75,025 |
| Colorado | 7 | 610 |
| Connecticut | 2 | 124 |
| Dakota | 238 | |
| Delaware | 1 | |
| District of Columbia | 3 | 13 |
| Florida | 18 | |
| Georgia | 1 | 17 |
| Idaho | 4,274 | 3,378 |
| Illinois | 1 | 210 |
| Indiana | 33 | |
| Iowa | 3 | 47 |
| Kansas | 19 | |
| Kentucky | 1 | 10 |
| Louisiana | 71 | 481 |
| Maine | 1 | 9 |
| Maryland | 2 | 5 |
| Massachusetts | 97 | 237 |
| Michigan | 2 | 27 |
| Minnesota | 53 | |
| Mississippi | 16 | 52 |
| Missouri | 3 | 94 |
| Montana | 1,949 | 1,764 |
| Nebraska | 18 | |
| Nevada | 3,152 | 5,420 |
| New Hampshire | 14 | |
| New Jersey | 15 | 176 |
| New Mexico | 55 | |
| New York | 29 | 924 |
| North Carolina | ||
| Ohio | 1 | 114 |
| Oregon | 3,330 | 9,513 |
| Pennsylvania | 14 | 160 |
| Rhode Island | 27 | |
| South Carolina | 1 | 9 |
| Tennessee | 26 | |
| Texas | 25 | 141 |
| Utah | 445 | 501 |
| Vermont | ||
| Virginia | 4 | 6 |
| Washington | 234 | 3,182 |
| West Virginia | 14 | |
| Wisconsin | 16 | |
| Wyoming | 143 | 914 |
| Total | 63,254 | 105,463 |
“By the census of 1880 the number of Chinese in this country was 105,000—one five-hundredth part of the whole population. The Chinese are the most easily governed race in the world. Yet every Chinaman in America has four hundred and ninety-nine Americans to control him.
The immigration was also constantly decreasing for the last half of the decade. The Bureau of Statistics gives the numbers as follows, (for the first eight years the figures are those of the entire Asiatic immigration:)
The number of immigrants from Asia, as reported by the United States Bureau of Statistics is as follows, namely: