The Shasta courier., 1867-08-17
SH ASIA COU RTE r
Chinese Suffrage.


making great outcry about the danger that
the Chinese will he allowed to vote, which
they would fain persuade their dupes is one
of the objects of the Union party. No one
knows better than these very men that there
is no danger of anything of the kind. The
Chinese cannot become citizens they do
not wish to become citizens, and there is no
desire on the part Of any one to permit them
to become citizens.
All this outcry of the Democrats about
Chinese suffrage and cooie labor is merely
for the purpose of catching votes. If the
Chinese could be relied / pom to support the
Copperhead ticket, the Democratic leaders
would want them all naturalized to- morrow !;
if there was any possibility of IN king slaves
of them, the very men who now have SO
much to say of the evils of cheap labor,
would be the warmest advocates of coole
immigration. This is no mere partisan
statement, but is borne out by facts At this
very time the Democrats of the South are
importing coolies from Havana, and if they
were permitted would soon stock every
plantation with Mongolian slaves. Nor are
the Democrats Of this State one whit better
In 1852 that consistent Democrat Mr..
Peachy. of this city, introduced bill in the
Legislature, known as the "Coole bill. ,"
which was designed to encourage the intro.
duction and permit the holding Of Chinese
stares, by legalizing labor contracts made in
China, and providing for their enforcement
in this State. This CoJlie bill was defeated
by the opposition Of men who are now men,
bers Of the Union party, and are charged by
those who then advocated it with desiring
the introduction of coolie labor and the ad
mission of the Chinese to citizenship
james W. Cofroth, the Democratic candi-
date for Congress in the Second District,
has now n good deal to say on the coolie
question he doesn't want the Chinese to
vote he doesn't want them to come here
he doesn't want their labor to be brought
into competition with free white labor All
these things ne charges on the =" Black Re-
publicans" in true Democratic fashion. Yet
this same james w. Coffroth was one of the
Democratic members Of the Legislature who,
in 1852, voted for the Coolie bill introduced
by the Democrat Peachy aud supported as
Il Democratic measure. That bill was yir
tually to establish slavery in its worst form
in California, and if it had become law our
labor system would to day have been what
that of Cuba and the French tropical pos
sessions is at present. The coolies brought
here under the bill would be nominally
laborers bound by contract to work for years
for dollar or two month but in reality
they would be slaves, as the Chinese appren
tices in the West Indies are. They would
be bought, sold, worked and treated like
slaves. The profit which their labor would
have yielded in our rich placerS would have
induced capitalists to bring them over bv
thousands; the poor whites would have been
driven to the wall-compeiled to leave the
II g
dustrious, independent, white population,
we would have had class of rich nabobs
controlling all the capital and all the power
in the State, their poor white dependents
and their thousands of Mongolian ehattels,
working under the lash.
These Copperhead demagogues talk of
prohibiting the introduction of Chinese. but
nothing can be further from their intention.
When they had power did they do anything
of the kind? They controlled the State ard
nation for years; did they prohibit the in.
PRODUCTION of Chinese? Nor would they do
so if they were placed in power again? Let
there be Democratic majority in Congress,
and its very first act would be to provide
way for the re-establshment cf slavery in
the South, by the passage of national
= Coolie BILL" like that they tried to pass in
this State in 1852 This is what the planters
Of the South most ardenty desire; even now
they are striving to replace their negro
slaves by coolies, and we know that their will
is the law of the Democratic party.
These Democratic orators and writers
should be the last men in the world to prate
of their attachment to the interests of labor
and of their desire to preserve the white
laberer from degrading competition. Their
whole object has been to degrade labor by
preserving and extending slavery to bring
the poor bite labor er into the most degrading
possible-the competition with
slavery. in despite of their best efforts
slavery has been crushed but give them
another lease of power and. if they do not
re enslave the freedmen of the South, they
will quickly bring them to the worse condi-
tion of peonage, and re open a worse slave
trade under the guise of contract system
Democrats prevent the further introduction
OF coolies That is just what the Democrats
ct the South want; and if their party gets
into power they will have it; nor will the
rich Democrats of this State be behind 10
araliing themselves of the opportunities
national coolie bill' will give them, but
will quickly flood California with their slaves.
IS. 2. Times.