Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-08-25
Senator CasserIy on Chinese Labor

Senator CaSSerIy ON Chinese Labor
Mr. Casserly has been addressing a Demo
cratic meeting on this absorbing topic, and
after correcting what he claimed to be errors
in the report of his former speech, went on
to say:
"These people do not come here of their
W free will, prompted either by n spirit of
adventure, or, if that were conceivable, by
any interest in or attachment to our ~institu-
tons. That of course is entirely out of the
question. The Chinese know as much about
our institutions as the great bulk of our
people know of the Chinese language, and
that is just as near to nothing as it is posi-
BILE. When an emigrant from Ireland
from England, from France, or from Ger
mary, turns his face to the west, and, follow
ing the sun, finds himself on the shores of
the great Republic, he is prompted by a pur-
pose and an intelligence which, of themselves,
form some pledge to us here of his fitness to
become a citizen of the United States. They
prove also his interest in the country. They
prove also his disposition to ally himself
with 1T, to acquaint himself with its policy
and the principles of its institutions. You
cannot say that of beings imported in the
mass like a herd of cattle, as it is all ALLEGED
that these Chinese people have been, and it
Is understood they are to be hereafter on d
gigantic scale. | say nothing at present of
the charge, doubtless not wholly unfOunded.
that many of them are brought here not only
without knowledge Of where they are going,
but even agaist their Will and in some sort
of servitude. Unde the enormous stimulus
of a great system of Importation, we shall
have results very far beyond those from any
movement of immigration. We shall see
the Chinese brought among US in a very
short time by hundreds of thousands. and
after no long period by millions, through
the country at large. We are struck by the
ease and frequency with which great mum
bers are mentioned, and men talk of 80 Law
ing down. these people in masses-iust a.
if it were Z" laying down" so many bushels
of wheat-of d" laying down 5000 China
men here, 50 laying down" 10, coo there, and
1000 at another place, and 100 900 at an
other place. And there is no impossibility
about it. Our opponents, while clamoring
for Chinese labor, tell us that there is no
possibility of bringing a very large number
here, because of the difficulty of finding the
great amount of shipping required. In this
way they would quiet your apprehensiOns
They seem to forget the history Of the move
ments of similar labor elsewhere. For years
there has been an organized system, not of
importation, but of immigration merely,
from Hindostan of a race analogous to the
coolies of China, to the Mauritius, to British
Guiana and to Trinidad-on the South
American coast-a voyage, as you will per-
eeiye, taking the three points together, as
long and as difficult, probably more so, than
the voyage from China to these shores. Yet
| discover that in 1859, the latest figures |
could find, that emigration had grown in a
few years to over 102 900 men. 80, 900 wo-
men total, 135 900 emigrant coolies trans
ported in one year to those three points
from Hindostan. Now, those three districts
and the field they offer are quite inconsider-
able, compared to California and the Pacific
coast, and very Insignificant compared to the
United States. Let the importation once be
started, with a sufficient demand to sustain
it, the American energy, effort and means
which will be freely used will easily move
the Chinese laborers to this coast, taking as
a standard the Hindoo emigration in 1859,
at the rate of 250. 900 to half a million a
year. Then, my friends, what becomes of
your State of California ? Your whole pop
ulation is 500, 900 men, women and children
and In one year you would be buried under
an Asiatic avalanche. In one year, with an
importation of 500 900 added to the Chinese
population already here of 60, 900 to sc, 900
the novelty will be, in some parts of your
State, to see a white face. From her vast
swarms of $50 to 400 millions, China could,
without feeling the loss, throw upon our
shores 10 millions of able-bodied men-two
millions more than all the able-bodied males
in the United States"
The assertion he starts with is obviously
incorrect. The testimony of travellers, the
experience of those who see most of the
Chinese in California, go to show that in their
way no more active, enterprising or adven-
turous people exist. No labor or privation
is too great for them to endure in the pur-
suit of wealth. 1t is known that there are
many restrictions, social if not legal, to their
emigration. In the face of these Cinnamon
with money and without money, men of
good education or none at all, have traversed
the broad Pacific, of their W free will. in
cited purely by adventure and the hope of
lettering their position. They perhaps care
little for our Institutions, but they under
stand our laws and our business enterprises
as well or better than the average Irish i'm
migrants. Nine-tenths of the Europeans who
find a home with us, came to better their
social and business condition, not their legal.
Active partisans may make voters of them
at sight they would do the same for the
Mongolian if it were possible, and All Fun
will be as ready with his vote as Patrick,
when he sees the same prospect of making
his brother a common councilman, and will
cast that vote with equal intelligence. Two
eminent Chinese merchants came East a few
days since on business, and one of them at a
public reception made a speech which evinced
as thorough a familiarity with our people
and institutions, and as fair a command of
our language as the average American orator
possesses, and even came up nearly to the
standard of our imported speakers.
The cry of excessive importation of labor
or laborers has periodically been raised all
through our brief history, has made its little
sensation and faded away that wolf will