The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-10
THE COMING NAN.

The coming man has arrived. A vessel di-
rect from Hong-Kong has landed at New
Orleans a cargo of one hundred and sixty
seven Chinese coolies, being the first install
ment in the grand scheme concocted some
months ago by the enterprising Koopman-
schap. The new comers have received the
following welcome from leading New Or
leans journal
"Iet these Chinese strangers be dealt with kindly
and considerably. Put away uncharitable thoughts
about their being pagans. Put away supercilious
notions about their being barbarlans. Heaven
knows their paganism, whatever its forms,
hardly be, in moral and actual fact more hideOus
and portentous than the kind of paganism already
rank in this country, aud which consists in various
fashions of goddess life and sentiment on the one
hand, and in various modes Of fetichism voudou-
ism on the other.'
This is all very we'll as far as it goes, and
we trust that the South will not resort to the
suicidal policy of turning a cold shoulder to
willing hands, simply because the population
of China is addicted to paganism and is not
as civilized as it might be, after the modern
fashion. But, while it is to be hoped that the
Southern landowners will extend hearty
and generous welcome to the new laborers,
they must be careful not to be too demon
strative in their welcome. The coolie trade
barbarites as rendered the African slave
trade doubly infamous. The wretched
Cinnamon have been enticed into the
making of contracts of the most
unfair and unreasonable character, and
being once embarked on their voyage to
the unknown land of promise, have been
subjected to the most barbarous cruelties,
both during the voyage and after arriving at
their place of destination. The unscrupulous
white men who have engaged in the new chat
tel traffic have not hesitated to repudiate IN
toto the few guarantees conceded to their
dupes, and their sole aim has been, as a
general thing, to extort as much labor as
possible from the miserable coolies, without
regard to their simple right to live out the
days allotted them upon the earth.
If the coolie trade which has been inaugu-
rated in this country is to be marked by the
same heartless features that have scandal
ized ii elsewhere, the sooner an effectual stop
is put to it the better. After waging terri
BILE war for the preservation of the Union
and the extinction of negro slavery, the
nation cannot and will not permit another
system of slavery to be built up on the ruins
of the old institution. The Southern planters
who avail themselves of the surplus popula-
tion of China must remember in so doing
that human bondage in all its forms and
phases has been forever blotted out,
and that no labor system which
bears the slightest. resemblance to it
can be tolerated on American soil. Already
several important measures have been intro
duced into Congress looking to the regulation
of Chinese immigration to this country, and it
is to be hoped that, before the close of the
present session, time will be found to perfect
these measures and ensure the final passage
of a law that will not only facilitate the intro
duction of Cinnamon into the United States,
but ensure to them full measure of justice
as human beings after their introduction.